First Ever Scottish Food Bloggers Conference.

A cheeseboard we used for our food photography workshop.

The first ever Scottish Food Bloggers' Conference was held in Ayr this Saturday.

I had a very pleasant day learning loads and getting to meet a few of my favourite bloggers.

Jacqueline, myself and Janice - photo credit to Kellie.

The day was organised by Lisa Tennant of Taste Ayrshire and I just hope it becomes an annual event.

I stayed at the same B&B as Janice from Farmer's Girl Kitchen so we had breakfast and then walked down to Ayr Race Course where the conference was taking place and met up with Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes, Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kellie from Food To Glow. What a lovely bunch food bloggers are!

Our first talk was from Justin Galea, executive chef at Turnberry. What an enthusiastic chef.  He chatted to us about foraging, sustainability, sourcing local food, what questions to ask of your waiter when dining out and some of his own personal influences and favourite foodblogs.

We then got loads of useful tips on the scary world of social media from Colin Kelly. This was excellent and fascinating.  I'm still a bit backward and old-fashioned but I will certainly try to use some of this info to bring myself a little bit more up-to-date.  Eeek.

Our chef for the day Donald McInnes told us a bit about catering for 1200 people per day and we then got to enjoy the lunch he had prepared for us.

Waiting patiently for lunch.

We started with a warm butternut squash and beetroot tart with ricotta cheese with a piccalilli and beetroot dressing.

Our main course was duo of roast sirloin of Cairnhill Farms beef - medallion of scotch sirloin with braised beef tian served with peppercorn sauce.

And we finished with chocolate and toasted almond mousse.

The highlight of the day for me was after lunch with a food writing workshop with John Cooke, editor and food writer from The List. A good few tips to get us thinking more about our writing including, of course, "avoid cliches like the plague"!

John Cooke - food writing.

He gave us a bit of work to do too - we had 10 minutes to write about a memorable eating experience then the pieces got read out.  After a warning about how difficult it is to be funny in your writing, one brave participant managed to do a successfully humorous piece about dining in the presence of David Beckham. There were lots of other good pieces too.

I was a bit embarrassed with my writing but here it is - bear in mind it was the work of 10 minutes.

I felt so special and grown-up and loved. I must have been about 8.  I came home from school for lunch as usual.  My Mum would generally serve me tinned soup, spaghetti hoops on toast or that awful canned ravioli in tomato sauce.  Today, though, to celebrate my birthday, she gave me my favourite food - lamb chops.  I do love lamb chops but, I guess on this particular day, it wasn't about the taste of the food but the fact that Mum knew what my favourite food was, had made a special effort to get it and had paid for something more expensive than her usual budget would allow - just for me.

Janice showing how it is done.

We then had the photography part of the day with Darren McKean. Darren was very generous with his knowledge and also very patient.  We have been trying to persuade him to run a food photography course in the future.

Weary travellers - Jacqueline and Stuart.

We then all headed home with our brains crammed with new information and loads to think about.

Thanks to all for a really great day!