Plate to Page: A Weekend to Remember

On a recent Friday, 4 friends and 12 strangers gathered for lunch at a villa in Tuscany. Monday morning 16 fast friends hugged goodbye, promising to keep in touch. In between, there was work and laughter and photos and wine and food. Lots of food. This was Plate to Page Tuscany.

Plate to Page is a workshop that combines food writing and food photography. And food styling. All in three days. Whew! A lot to do. And we did it all.

The organizers first pushed us out of our comfort zone with some of the writing assignments: Jeanne challenged us to describe the perfect cheese and tomato sandwich in 30 words or less. "Write about an evening in a restaurant," said Jamie. 

"Very good", they said, "now do it differently."

We learned the difference between writing for a blog and for a magazine. We learned to write with voices other than our own. We learned to make our own voice stronger, better.

There were intense, thoughtful, creative exercises in photography, again pushing us gently out of our comfort zone into a bigger style. "MOOD in photos," Ilva said; "light, light, light," said Meeta. "Now try it yourself." And we did.

The final assignment brought it all together: photography and writing. Some of the work produced in this workshop took my breath away.

All five senses were at play all weekend: light, of course, and color and composition. Sounds, the main sound was the click, click, click of reflex cameras that served as the background base note for all our gatherings. Cold, it was cold. Where was that famed Tuscan sun? But it was autumn, my favorite season and the light was special.

Smells as the cooking proceeded to the tune of camera clicks and laughter. And Abba, let's not forget. Lots of Abba. The smell of autumn was everywhere—in the leaves as we walked outside, in the chestnut cake we had for dinner one night, and in the warm comforting smells of autumn food.

Nothing was eaten without being photographed first. And styled. We styled our pizza, we styled our juice, we even styled our salt! We were food paparazzi, pushing our lenses at anything edible, and several things that weren't.

We photographed food in its natural setting--on the lunch table. By the time we ate it, it was cold, but we didn't care: we were shooting.

Sunday, 16 fast friends waved goodbye, promising to keep in touch, through blogs, phone calls, twitter, facebook--all the mod cons. The time between Friday and Monday passed in a blur of work and laughter. And food!

I can't thank our wonderful organizers enough. I felt as if they opened up the circle of their friendship and included us all in it. It was an experience I'll never forget.

They are a fascinating group of women. There's Ilva, a Swede living in Italy; Jeanne, a South African living in England; Meeta, an Indian living in Germany; and Jamie, an American living in France. Restless souls, full of creative energy.

Left to right:

Ilva of Lucullian Delights

Jeanne of Cooksister!

Meeta of What's for Lunch, Honey?

Jamie of Life's a Feast 

My 11 new best friends and their posts about Plate to Page can be found here:

Judith of Aroma Cucina
Marta of Princess Misia Recipes
Valentina of A Wee Bit of Sugar
Lynn of sacatomato
Alexandra of Ombranelportico
Elizabeth of Roast Duck and a Big Gooey Cake
Hayley of The Delectable Diary of Hayley Harland
Olivia of Eatmania
Heidi who writes for Xmagazine
Robin of What About the Food?
Denise of The Little Things

We also had some wonderful sponsors, without whom it would have been a LOT more expensive, and not nearly so much fun!

ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS | Sunchowder’s Emporia | Taste of Home | Gourmelli | Smaromi | Peppadew International | Bisol Prosecco | Riso Gallo | Nielsen-Massey | TABASCO® | Matcha Factory 

You'll be seeing more of these companies as I explore the possibilities of the products they generously gave us—what better opportunity to practice my new styling/photo/writing skills?