Friday, October 26, 2012

Blue Bottle Coffee book event at SFMOMA

Yes, this has been the most interesting week of the entire year :) The hits just keep on coming!

Tonight I was at the SFMOMA downtown for the book release party for James and Caitlin Freeman's "The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee" and photographer/writer Todd Selby's new book, "Edible Selby".

They all discussed their books, and the moderator asked a bunch of great questions about the interplay between art and food. Todd Selby quoted someone, "Chefs are the rock stars in the Bay Area" and I definitely think that's true. It's cool to see so many DIY books from amazing restaurants in the city - Miette, Tartine, Blue Bottle... etc. Modern Art and Food really come together in the Blue Bottle rooftop cafe, where former Miette Bakery owner (and James's wife), Caitin Freeman is the pastry chef, specializing in temporary and hilariously fitting food-interpretations of currently on-display SFMOMA art exhibits. Very cool.

James and Caitlin signing books
Panel discussion
James signed my book and said, "You look familiar!" He's served me at the Ferry Building Blue Bottle many times, though I used to have way longer hair and be 35 lbs heavier, as you all may remember :) I told him the story about when we were all Pixar interns in Emeryville with no car, and we'd take the BART over to the city... and it would be 1:50pm and we'd be RUNNING to the Ferry Building to try to catch the Blue Bottle cart before it closed at 2pm... in the days before the permanent Blue Bottle store inside the Ferry Building that stays open later than 2pm :) He laughed and signed my book saying "Thanks for being a regular" :) What an awesome guy.

The theme of this past week and my last 3 posts (this one, Startup School and OLPC) is dedication, passion, and - as the moderator suggested tonight - a bit of obsessiveness in achieving your goal. There really are some truly awesome and amazing people here in the Bay Area, and I am so lucky to be surrounded by such innovation and magic.

Mondrian Cake!
HOLY CRAP there is a TCHO Blue Bottle chocolate flavour. Yes I bought it instantly.
What an amazing week.

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