Chefs, Chocolate, Cheese, and Chewing the Fat

The taste of warmer weather means lots of food tastes ahead.

Two months from today is the annual Guest Chef on the Waterfront, with proceeds directly benefitting FareStart's job training and placement program. We were on the judging panel last year and can tell you it's a fun event (music and more on Pier 66) with great food from about 70 of Seattle's finest chefs. Tickets sell fast, so get 'em while you can.

Another event we help judge is the Seattle Luxury Chocolate Salon, back for its second year and also at the Bell Harbor Conference Center on Pier 66 and happening almost two months from now. The salon offers a similar sampling opportunity, but one catered to chocoholics. Tickets are also now on sale. We wonder what will be the big hit to replace the Obama chocolates that we enjoyed so much last year.

Can't wait that long for a food festival? Tomorrow marks the start of the fifth annual Seattle Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market. Stop by for seminars, sampling, and food demos - including this year's winner of the best grilled cheese sandwich. (We saw the recipe, and applaud the use of beer.) Aside from the seminars, this event is free.

And today is the start of the International Food Bloggers Conference, debuting here in Seattle. Seems like everyone is a food writer these days, and this event will bring together nearly 100 of them. Lots of interesting items in the agenda, and while the event is sold out, we'll be there, and so can you be joining the webcast at the IFBC website.