Breakfast with Cellobella

As I mentioned recently, I was interviewed by Cellobella recently over breakfast at the Subiaco Hotel last Saturday. Over the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve met and become good mates with a few bloggers – funnily enough (you’ll probably not be at all surprised), we always met up over a meal!

Prior to the event I was a little paranoid about lighting issues and – now the daggy truth comes out – I rocked up ten minutes early to make sure our table wasn’t in a ghastly spot (ghastly for photography purposes only, of course – I’m sure there are no ghastly tables at the Subiaco Hotel!). They’d sat us outside by the door (the inside atrium section wasn’t set up yet for the day) and it seemed quite pleasant. It was a strange sort of overcast morning, but I took a couple of test shots and the lighting conditions seemed OK. I was most relieved. It would’ve been embarrassing to be interviewed about food blogging and be unable to take decent food photos!

I recognised Cellobella instantly upon her arrival. After the initial greetings and chat we ordered our breakfast. Cellobella wasted no time in setting up her recording gear, which included a big microphone. Once we got going with the interview was pretty funny to see the Subiaco Hotel staff and a number of customers nearby staring at us curiously – you could tell what they were thinking: Who is that woman? Why is she being interviewed? Is she famous? Should I recognise her? Heheh.

I didn’t find it too difficult eating while being interviewed. As I explained to Cellobella, I’ve gotten used to eating my food at a temperature most people would probably find too cold, usually because I’ve been busy taking photos of everyone else’s meals and any shared dishes before taking photos of my own food. This is not to say though, that I’d actively want to eat my hot food cold all the time – and this is also not to say that I’m happy to eat stale food. There’s definitely a difference between freshly cooked food that’s gone cold recently and food that’s cold because it’s been sitting around for a long time! One thing I realised – you cannot speak clearly with a mouth full of toasted Italian bread! Scrambled eggs, no problem. Even meaty little sausages, no worries. But the bread – you simply can’t chew it quickly enough to hold a coherent conversation! I hope my table manners weren’t too appalling!

You’ll have to wait to read the interview at the Aussie Bloggers blog, but in the meantime, here’s a short video (2:37) courtesy of Cellobella, who brought along a Flip Video, a nifty little gadget. It’s so nifty that my gadget love has perked up and I want one! It’s got an LCD screen so you can see what you’re filming, and an in-built USB key so you can plug in straight into your computer and uploading to YouTube is a snap. Anyway, in the video I speak about how I take my food photos as I’m actually taking the photos which have been featured in this post. Please note: I don’t always turn plates around – it just depends on how accessible they are at the time. If I’m standing up I’ll tend to walk around the plates to take photos from different angles.

Thank you, Cellobella for giving me the opportunity to be interviewed. I admit, I didn’t mind temporarily feeling like a celebrity (heh), but more than that, I really enjoyed 1) being able to talk about blogging to someone who was actually interested (no rolling of eyes or glassy-eyed blank looks), 2) having breakfast in delightful company and 3) meeting a new blogging buddy who is a very interesting person in person! Breakfast with Cellobella was a great start to a fantastic Saturday – more on that tomorrow.