Good Day Google+ - The Ladies Love Me!

Hey everyone, I'm Chef Dennis and welcome to Good Day Google+. I'm one lucky chef today because I am surrounded by lovely ladies from Google+. It's going to be a good day to be me. We're still waiting on Karen Chen to join in. She's one of our newbies for today, so hopefully she will be joining us shortly. For now, let's walk around and say hi to everyone. Not walk around because of course we don't have legs on Google+.

We just sit here.

Chairs. To my far left, and I always have to look at my hands when I say that, like I forget which is right and left, I have Aslan Moore. How you doing, Lynn?

I'm good. Hi, Chef. Hi, ladies. It's good to be here on what is a very cold and wet British evening, Friday evening.

That's kind of typical for this time of year though, right?

Kind of typical, full stop. Oh well.

Well, it's good to have you here. I'm glad you could make it despite the weather, and you look like you're safe and dry inside anyway, so that's what counts.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right, and then we're going to follow that with Debbie Davis, and she's in a little bit of a frigid area too. How you doing, Deb?

I'm good, and I'm watching the snow melt right now. I'm in Colorado. I did get to shovel yesterday, but it's going to be warm, and I think they're saying maybe 70 degrees by Monday, which is— that's Colorado. Shovel the snow yesterday and I'll be out working in my garden when it's 70 degrees. It's good to be here and you know what, this is my first time on Chef Dennis' Good Day Google+ Show.

I know, it's long overdue.

Red letter day.

One of those where I thought I had you on and I'm looking back through my list and says, "I never had Debbie on. I got to get her on." I'm glad we did get you. It's a reunion for a lot of us, the others. Karen is her first time so when she does come on, have another newbie on with you. Too. So good to see you and thanks for taking time out. You've got some projects that we want to talk more about later on that you're doing.

Happy to be here.

And Jenny Field, woohoo! So nice to see you.

It's good to see you too, and it's nice to see all you ladies. And it is cold and rainy here too, Lynn, if it makes you feel any better. You're not alone.

Oh, well, you know, if you have to get up and let the cat back in and out, I understand too. And I always love your cat pictures. Oh, you do put a lot of them. I'm highly allergic. I love cats, but they close my eyes and make me sneeze.

That's not good. Well, enjoy the photographs then.

I do, I enjoy them. Alright, now let's move on. Now to burst everyone's bubble, Maggie and Zouet is outside. So how you doing, Maggie?

I'm great. It's beautiful out here. Sunny San Diego, it is a little chilly. I am a little chilly. I know you guys are thinking, Maggie, come on, hush up. But it's about 60, 70-ish. I don't even know. I just know that I don't have to wear a coat.

I hear you, and I'm with you on that too because it's about 75 right now. It is a little breezy. We had a lake wind advisory, and I love when my phone goes off. Makes me think that there's all kinds of storms. At first I'd get upset. I'd hear that alarm going, I look at my phone, it's a lake wind advisory. I don't live by a lake, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Weren't planning on taking your dinghy out today, were you?

My dinghy hasn't been out in a long time, Chef. Oh no. So it's not really bad. The sun has been going in and out. They are expecting some rain, but it's Florida, and rain is like normal, except usually it's warm.

That's the only thing I don't like. Every time I'm on a show with you, Chef, I think I'm someone reading the weather forecast.

I know. I was telling that about somebody the other day. At my age, and I hate to think of it, all we talk about now is food and the weather. It's this global thing, and I think that's what excites me more than anything about Google+ is that we've got everybody spread all over the world. Just to get a little piece of where they are to know what time of day it is. For you, it's what, 6 o'clock, Aslan?

Yes, it is.

It's later in the day for the rest of us in the States. There's not as many hours apart, but it's still really cool to think that we can get together on this format and share our day and talk about what's going on. We're not meeting in that one little coffee shop where we can all look outside and see what it's like. It's nice just to say hi and let everybody know what it's doing. Karen has joined us. How you doing, Karen?

Hey, actually pretty good. Actually, weather here is 60 and supposed to be 70 this weekend.

It's cool.

Crazy. I'm actually wearing a t-shirt.

Very cool. We're glad to have you. You're a newbie for the show, we were saying, and this is the first time Debbie's been on the show too. So guys, what we're going to do, we've gone through the introductions and I'm going to say hi to a few people in the audience, then we're going to get right back into it and see what's going on in everyone's lives and what projects we're working on. So let's see who we have here. We have got Christopher Vogelman in the house, of course, and when are we going to eat next? So I must have missed the beginning part of that. Oh, here, we'll put this up. Don't take your dinghy out on air show.

Oh dear, that's not where I was going with that, Christopher.

Oh boy.

And Carmen is in the house and she's typing, but she's rebooting too. I hate when that happens. Adam is saying, "You leave his dinghy out of this." Thank you, Adam. Elena is saying hi from London as well. Good to have you, Elena. Richard Clarkson's in the house saying hi, and Dave Pipe is here as well as Michael Thomas, who says it's a super panel. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for all your support and for being here all the time. So we've got a bunch of people here. Jamal is here saying, "Look at these misses and beautiful ladies. Who could miss such a lovely show?" And then you'll have to translate that, Maggie. I don't know what it is. Random, okay, whatever. Sorry, my French is too rusty. Sonny's in the house. Phil Aston from Cornwall, so there's another Brit for you. A lot of other people are saying hi, so thank you very much for being here today and good day Google+. Let's turn it over to our guests, and if you have questions for them or comments, please leave them in the bar and we'll get to them. And ladies, feel free to engage with each other while you're talking. So Lynn, let's go back to you and start. What's new and exciting? Anything going on on your side of the pond?

On this side of the pond, specifically with me, you don't really want me to start on British politics or British football, or— you don't, do you?

No. Not unless you have some input on the deflated ball saga of the New England Patriots for American football, but that's Other than that, no.

That's not football. We play the real football. That's not football.

I know, I hear that.

A lot actually, a lot's been going on. You can see I've just released about a month ago my first cookbook. Working on my second right now. But I am also in the final stages of releasing my own spice blend.

Wow!

If everything goes well, and you know it never does, 1st of February is the launch date.

A collection of blends or a specific blend that's just yours?

I'm doing a mix. So I'll have a few. I'm starting really small, half a dozen to begin with. And what I'll have is on the one hand it'll be spice blend and on the other hand it'll be a complete blend. So the spice blend would be, you know, my own, say, za'atar mix, dukkah, shichimi, togarashi, that sort of stuff. And the complete blends would be— so my recipe, for example, let's take a lamb tagine. So my complete recipe in powdered form, so all the customer needs to add would be the water, the meat, and say, you know, if the recipe calls for cream or coconut milk or whatever it is. So yeah, so those are the two angles I'm approaching it with.

Very cool.

That is. Now, what are you going to do for distribution? Is it going to be right from your site, or anybody going to carry it?

It's going to be— I'm only selling it in the UK and Europe for obvious immigration reasons and stuff like that. So only UK and Europe, and really just regular mail. Because for the last couple of Christmases, friends and I in Europe—

whoa!

He's a terrible, terrible cat.

We've been, some friends and I, friends on the continent, we've been exchanging Christmas parcels and you know, we've been remarkably surprised at how inexpensive it is to send a box that big from here to Europe, about the same as local postage. So yeah, so just regular mail.

That's cool. Well, we're looking forward to seeing them then and see how they do, and then maybe we can get them on Amazon UK or something and have them shipped over and just pay the additional charge.

Ooh, who knows? Amazon—

don't start—

don't get me started on Amazon.

Okay.

For those of you who've got books published and they're on Amazon, don't get me started on Amazon. You know what I mean.

I've heard that from other people too, so we won't go there on that. I gotcha.

So that's all good, it's all good.

Very good, very good. And Debbie, I know you've been doing some real interesting stuff, so let's talk to you for a bit, say hello. You've got your project going outside of Denver for the big event. Was it a ski event?

It's the Vail 2015 World Alpine Championships, which start on February 2nd. And so I've got a project going that related to that big worldwide event— we're trying to put a little tiny town that lives right next door to that event, we're trying to put them on Google Maps and help them to understand and appreciate the importance of being found on mobile because I'll have 150,000 spectators coming to the event. That's become a project. You know what I love, Sheff, is in the green room you talked to Jenny. She's got a book and Lynn's got the Spice Blend Project. I'm imagining there's some other projects here. These projects that we're able to coordinate, that's what I'm getting out of Google Google+ is that we can run our projects on Google+ and get the support that we need. That really is what I'm excited about right now, even more so than just the project, but the fact that you can get a project done so easily.

You've gone after a whole town, which is really pretty interesting. What did you run into? What was the biggest stumbling block right away when you went after this town to convert them?

Well, kind of like the word convert is good because it's sort of like you're walking in there with a new religion and people don't trust it. They might not be aware of it. They think you might be up to something. So the biggest challenge is the level of suspicion and uncertainty that you get. So there's a lot of relationship building that has to be done face-to-face because these people don't really live the way we do online. So that's the biggest challenge. So for the purpose of the case study, we're limiting it just just to the 15 businesses because it's very hard to manage people who are resistant. But when we take this model that we're creating as a result of the case study, my advice for others who are going to do the same thing is to work with people who come to you, who already want to be on Google Maps. Don't try to persuade them because the uphill battle is just too time-consuming.

It is, and it can really beat you up trying to make that conversion. I mean, I know that firsthand just with even people It's like, all right, move on to someone else, and maybe if they see it's working, then they'll have an inclination to come back to it. I give you a lot of credit for doing that because that's got to take a lot of energy.

Yeah, it's been a learning experience, but I'm going to use this experience and what I've learned from it to move me further and faster on the next round. I don't regret doing it this way because it's been a huge learning experience.

Oh yeah, you have to look at it that way. Now, have you made any converts or are they still sitting on the fence?

Well, I think there are different degrees of conversion. Everyone's excited about being on Google Maps, they're small businesses. And Chef, you were good enough to be on our first episode of PYB Show this year to talk about some ideas. But we have people who are— all of them are very interested and they allowed me to manage their page and put them on, but then when they they realize, "Ooh, I actually have to get on the computer," then it's almost a screeching halt. Well, not almost, it is a screeching halt. The conversion for all of them has been minimal. It's a very time-framed project which will be completed on February 15th and then the case study will be published on April 15th, 2 months later. I will go back to this town and then try maybe a different approach to get them past that that fear factor.

Yeah, once you get them past that, then you'll have people to give testimonials for your next round.

That's right, Jenny, and that's a little longer-term plan that doesn't really fit within the scope of this case study I'm doing, but certainly not— that's not information that's lost on me because I will, you know, I'll maximize that just a little further down the road.

Absolutely.

Cool.

Yeah, I think if you can get a couple of them to see, they do They have to talk to each other every now and then.

Really?

If they can see that it's working, if someone else can see it, and one person can help another person, that's almost all you need to do is just get that one first, one or two people to drink a little bit of that Kool-Aid and then pass it on.

Right. And you know, when you say to see when it's working, we all know to see when this is working, it doesn't happen overnight. So you can't get a convert overnight they've got to commit to it for 6 months or 9 months before they see anything happen, and that's where the suspicion and uncertainty comes in. So that's a huge challenge in this project.

We have to remind them too that they didn't build their business overnight, that they didn't get results the first week. You know, if they did, they may not have been long-lasting. And what they developed through their business is basically the same kind of thing, only it's not costing them the kind of money, it's just costing them some time.

Right, and time is money and people do realize that and they don't think about it in advance. One of the things in the approach on the second go-around will be I will be able to give them an idea of the time that they need to invest, not just the financial investment but the time investment. You know I'm a fanatic about time and so I stress that as a very, very important element when making the decision whether or not they want to embark upon this sort of a project.

—Yeah, I know, that's the same thing with me. Once I tell someone that they have to do something, they look at you cross-eyed like, ah, you know, they just don't want to hear. And this one guy I talked to, first thing out of his mouth before I could even start anything is, we don't have time. And I see 2 employees standing around doing absolutely nothing, and he says, oh, you got time.

It's really a differentiating factor from old methods of marketing. Where you used to be able to hire a graphic artist to design a brochure and a printer who would print it and a mailing house who would put it out. They wrote a check and they got it done. We don't market that way anymore. Now you have to be involved because it's way more social, therefore social media. It's a different mindset.

I know mailings don't work for me and I'm still of that generation. Most of the mailings that come to my house just go in the recycle can right away. I just don't want to be bothered with them. If I want something, I know where I go for it. I mean, I'll look on Google or something.

Exactly, and I'm sure there are studies all over there that show how the effectiveness of direct mail has declined drastically in the last 10 years, but the people who used to purchase that still want their marketing to be handled that way. I'll write you a check and you get my mailing out for me. 'Come back to me in 4 months and let me know how it went.' And that's not how social media works.

Business is changing. Oh well, we just hope we can convert them a few at a time. Exactly. As Larry likes to say, flavor one pot at a time. Flavor the world one pot at a time.

We took excerpts from your appearance on the PYB Show, Chef, and I posted a timestamp post of just the excerpt parts of your interview where you provided some wonderful ideas, not all digital either. Other ideas about running campaigns within the town around the restaurants in particular because that's your area of expertise. But that clip is going to the town of Eagle, to the officials of the town of Eagle because you provided us with some great ideas that kind of meshes digital and traditional methods of marketing and you did a really great job of laying that out. So that's Peter Lund put together the excerpts of that show and he did a fabulous job on that.

Thank you, I'm happy to be any help I can, always happy. Alright, so let's move over to Jenny. So Jenny, now that the cat's out of the bag and you've let it back out—

he's very insistent.

So how you been, what you up to, anything new and exciting in your life?

Well, things are going well. Debbie said that I have a book. I want to just go on record saying I don't have a book yet. I'm working on a proposal with the hope that it will be a book at some point. So I'm excited about that. I had the idea, ran it past my agent, and she thought it was a great idea, and it doesn't seem to have been done before. So that's a good thing. That's hard because everybody keeps putting books out, and so it's harder and harder to find a niche that hasn't been filled.

So let me ask you a question before you get too further on. You have agent. How did you decide you needed an agent and where did you go to look for one?

Well, I was really very fortunate in that I had started the Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirlypan project last year, which is where we have a particular Bundt pan and I got it engraved and it's going around the country. There's also one in Australia that's going as well and there's a journal that goes with it and people write in it and then pass it along to the next person, or mail it along to the next person. And my friend David Leet had heard about the project and thought it would make an amazing book. And I think that it will at some point, but it's still pretty early, and the project takes a long time to get all the way around the country. So that is sort of in my back pocket for later. But he put me in touch with a wonderful agent, and that's how that happened.

How has it been working with an agent?

Well, at this point, just with the proposal, you write the proposal and then you send it to the agent, or pieces of the proposal you send it, and then there's editing. And so there's, there's that process. You have to work on the proposal almost as if you're working on the book. It's like a mini book, really. You have to be able to tell the entire story of the book in a condensed form and hopefully grab a publisher's interest. And so the agent knows what a publisher is looking for, so it's very helpful in that way.

Hmm, very good to know. What's the project? I don't know if I've missed something. What's the book based on? Do we know?

Well, the book now, the proposal that I'm working on right now, I don't really want to talk about because it's new and nobody else, I don't think, is doing it, so I don't wanna let that one out.

I think she was talking about your traveling bun pan.

Oh, the swirly pan?

Is that what you mean, Lynn? Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Yes, the people who did the traveling swirly pan, I started that project, um, sort of happened accidentally. I got a pan for my birthday I guess in 2013, my husband got me the beautiful swirled Bundt pan. And I showed a picture of it and everybody was like, "Oh my God, I want that pan, I want that pan." I said, "You know what I should do is just get a pan and send it around." And everybody was like, "Yes, you should." So it seems, I mean, everybody was so excited. We, um, so we started it and let people sign up and we ended up with 250 people all around the country and Canada. From almost every state in the US, which is really exciting. And then, as things sometimes go, it would get bogged down and I couldn't get the person to send it, and it was kind of a nightmare. So finally I said, alright, send it back to me, we're gonna retool. I came up with a bunch more rules and checks and balances to make sure that everybody was, you know, following the rules, and sent it back out again, I guess just maybe 2 and a half or 3 months ago. So we're on round 2. But it's swirling much more smoothly now.

I'm very pleased with the way things are going.

It's a cool project. Excellent. I'm sorry?

I was going to say I remember seeing a photo of you doing that, I don't know, perhaps 2 Christmases ago in the Sweet community. And you had it covered all in white. I can't remember if it was just icing sugar or white and it really looks like ski slopes. I remember that. Yes, yes, yes, that picture.

It was, I think it was a birthday cake that I had made for my husband actually, and I posted that. But yeah, I've baked several, well many cakes in my pan, and then the pan for the project is named Dorothy because she's sort of swirling around like a tornado. So Dorothy, and the journal is named Toto because I'm really original that way. But the most amazing thing about it is that The stories in the journal just make me cry. I mean, people seem to get the pan exactly when they need it and use baking as therapy. And it's been just wonderful to know that I'm a small part of, you know, making people happy in that way. It's very cool. That is cool.

And we had a comment from Sandra Hoops, and I was wondering about Dorothy. Oh, Sandy! So I'm glad that you addressed that. She's so excited for her turn to bake with Dorothy. So that's pretty cool.

Yeah, it's exciting.

Alright, so let's move over now to Karen. Hi Karen, how you doing?

Oh, it's been interesting. I've been having a little bit of a computer glitch today, so I apologize for coming in a little bit late. So, you know, Google technology.

Well, you know, that's the one thing we've all learned, that is the best laid plans sometimes don't work out. And you just kind of roll with it. I figured you'd be on. I knew I talked to you earlier and I knew you'd be here, so thank you so much for showing up. I'm so happy to have you on the show today as part of our panel, and it's great to have you. Why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself and what you do, what you like to do.

Okay, so I'm out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. I am a marketing consultant, and I actually came onto Google+ Debbie and Chef Dennis Littley knows my story. I've been here about 14 weeks now here on the platform and learning a lot. Debbie and I actually are part of the PLEASURE Business Academy, and we actually are on a show together as of yesterday. And I am actually taking the ideas that I've learned from the Academy and coming up with an idea that I think I think your audience would be interested in knowing about. I'm finding that because I literally came on 14 weeks ago and didn't really know how to engage or how to interact with individuals on the platform, I started taking up on challenges. You know, you see those, you know, every once in a while, 30-day photography challenge, or you see a thank you challenge. And so I have been just kind of going whole hog on these challenges and finding a lot about myself that I think others would be interested to know about themselves because what I've learned is just inner creativity that has come out and I've actually met, I think, Aslan as of last week when we were kind of talking about food. So that's kind of a cool thing that I actually get to meet you in person and be on the film strip. So this is actually a really cool concept just to be here. And so my idea for I've done a challenge on November. It was a photography challenge. I did a thank you challenge for the month of December and got really a lot of engagement, people interacting with me, and actually a lot of inspiration because I didn't know I could touch that many people globally. So January came about and I am right now in my own personal challenge of 30 Days of Inspiration and creating that with picking quotes and my own photography and That again is reaching out to more folks that for the month of February, and hopefully everyone can join me, is I'm creating a 28 Days of Love Challenge. What that means is basically taking, for either a newbie onto Google+ like I am or to someone who's not so new, to take a photo a day, which there will be a list, and to take a photo and then to talk about it. Hopefully get people to interact with you on Google.. Plus to write what you feel that you love, and hopefully you'll find some like-minded people who share that same interest and then can build that relationship and start that dialogue. So Aselin, I think for you, you would be interested in this challenge. And Jenny, I have a 1-day food— take a picture of why you love this particular item, why you love this particular food. Another one would be, I think you guys would get a great kick on because I like to cook. And show the world what your favorite kitchen appliance or tool is and talk about it. Yeah, so I think it's not difficult. I mean, you don't have to take a picture every single day. Maybe you have a lot of pictures on your iPhone or Android that you can use, but I think you can share a little bit about yourself out there, which I think will bring more engagement onto your profile because you're talking about yourself. And I think at the end of it, you'll have this really cool 28-day portfolio that you can show others, whether you want to put it on your own sites or on LinkedIn. But you'll have a nice little condensed little profile of 28 pictures and content that you can call it yourself. It's your own. You have created your own original content. But I think that's why people get kind of intimidated about with Google+ is because they don't know where to begin with. I think that's why this challenge would be so interesting for a lot of people. I'm creating a community website and busy working on that like a madwoman.

It's amazing how you're running with Google+. After 14 weeks, I still didn't even know how to turn it on.

I have actually hard times with, as Debbie knows, with Hangouts, just trying to get onto this technology. Every once in a while my computer just kind of like implodes and I have to reboot. So I think it's like I said, it's just something that I think people out there can totally enjoy and learn about. And you might not even know, like for example, what I've gone through from 3 challenges is that I like to write and I like to share my pictures. And I'm finding people have really a lot of interest in a lot of different things. Not even within my own business area, which is marketing, but outside, and then it comes back into business in terms of now that we built that relationship. And I met a lot of people around the world, so that's a cool thing too.

Now, are you going to give us— you're going to tell us what each day should be then so we'll know what to take notes on?

Yeah, so there's a list. I actually have to put it together and create all that beautiful graphic design stuff. There's going to be 28 items that you have to take each day and then describe why you love it. Use a couple hashtags. That sounds like fun.

Are you going to do this on Instagram as well? Are you on Instagram?

Oh, you know how much I love Instagram, Jeff.

I would love to do that there too. #28daysoflove, that would be great.

I did that with my first challenge with the photographer photography. I did Instagram and Google+. And then I also have that— actually, I can give you guys the link afterwards. I've kind of been putting everything together on my Pinterest account so that you can see each of the challenges and how we're progressing.

Sounds good. Count me in for that for sure. That sounds like fun.

Do I have— do I can write you down now? I mean, everyone here in the room?

Awesome, that's really cool. We weren't connected before, but now I've just circled you up so I can see what you're doing.

So yeah, if people do want to circle me, Karen B. Chin. The other thing that you might want to know about me is that I have a kind of a— I tell you on my profile exactly what I actually post and talk and curate. So if you like any of those categories, and I've got like I think 10 of them now. I'm your person.

I know we had a really good discussion about food. It was mostly about food that I don't eat, and I was getting shamed for it, but you are definitely a serious foodie. That's one thing.

Yeah, I don't want to tell that conversation to your audience because they're just going to be like, I cannot believe you don't like those things. I know, I know. Aslan would be just like shocked.

Aslan would because she probably eats all those things. We were talking about how being from the South that I always call sushi baked.

We don't say that. So you know what, you kind of started the conversation.

Put a slice of bacon in there and he'll eat it.

Actually, Chef Dennis Littley, if you actually come here, I could take you to a particular restaurant that actually makes bacon mochi. They take bacon, and you know what, mochi is basically a rice ball wrapped in seaweed, and they wrap the bacon around it and they deep fry that baby.

Well, that wouldn't suck at all. That sounds good.

You can deep fry just about anything.

So yeah, I think, you know, if you ever come to San Francisco, I could take you to, you know, the highlights in terms of the fancy places. Places, but I know a lot of different interesting ethnic dives that I think you would get a big kick out of because as you know, San Francisco is one of the culinary capitals of the world. Absolutely, absolutely.

I'll have to come back there and spend some time eating my way through that city for sure. Alright, let's go over to Maggie. She's getting all bored there sitting outside in beautiful weather.

Bored? I'm not bored.

I'm not bored, are you kidding me? If anything, Carrie, can you take me?

Can I go? Yeah, if you come to my profile, you'll see a lot of photo food shots that I take that I just somehow end up on a daily basis around food that I have to show at. And it started with Instagram, and now I'm over at Google+. I'm kind of like all over in terms of all the different communities showing my pictures of food. Very cool.

I just published and I'm circulating right now my last post which is the—

what am I calling it?

I'm calling it Baking Crack. Say yes to crack.

I'm glad you didn't call it picnic butt crack. No!

I was hoping nobody was going to go there. I was really hoping nobody was going to go there.

You just had to.

You see, I had to Latinize it and give it some Mexican flair, so I added some spicy cayenne and there's cumin, and it is not gluten-free. Sorry, Chef. Sorry. What did you put in it that's glutenous? It's bread. It's, uh, it's— I got a croissant, like, you know what I'm talking about, the refrigerated kind, and I Spread it out onto a cookie sheet, and I got some bacon. I got some agave syrup, but you could have put maple or just even enough brown sugar on there. I put some agave syrup on top, got some bacon, crumbled it up, put that on top, added some cayenne, some cumin, stuck it in the oven, and it didn't last very long. This guy right here in front of me. Phenomenal. I mean, yeah. Oh, and I had these little kids like running around everywhere. They're like, "We're hungry." I'm like, "Sorry kids, this is mine." What did you just like cut it like pizza or? No, just cut it. So the bottom, I kind of, because I put it on a parchment paper or wax paper, you have to kind of tear it out from underneath. So it kind of just pulls apart. But I used, just to get the picture going, I had to cut it with an actual cuchillo. Why am I speaking Spanish? Cuchillo is a knife. Excuse me, bilingual over here. But yeah, so I cut up with a knife to make it look pretty, but most of that did not come out pretty. Most of it was like— eat, eat. Excuse me, oops, bacon fell apart. Yes, that's gluten-free. But while everybody's writing books and doing stuff, I'm getting married.

Congratulations.

Yeah, next month. I posted yesterday. It hit me at one point that the 22nd of February, I'm going to be a married woman.

We're already past the 22nd of January so the next 22nd that comes up is your day.

That is my day and I'm getting married too. Karen, I don't know if you're single but I met my fiancé, my future hubby hubby. He's in the comments stream right here, Christopher Volgeman. I met him on Google Plus. That's what I'm telling you. Beware of the magic of Google.

Yeah, yeah. I never heard of that. I've heard of other things but you are now the You're the first person that I've— this whole Match.com thing going on here. I just didn't know about Google+ that it could do that.

He actually— well, this is a long story. Just hashtag #EpicLoveStory. You're going to see all of our different posts.

Go on to my blog.

You're going to see because I just started writing. So many people were asking us, how did this happen? Google+? What do you mean? Because most people— hello, like Debbie— She was talking about Google+, huh? A lot of people started asking us and I just said, okay, wait, let's just publish this story.

Was it a particular post or picture that kind of started this whole relationship that's now leading to marriage?

Actually, it all started— can I say this? Sure. It all started with that bitch.

Okay, what does that mean?

There's a bitch wine review that I did. I'm a food and wine blogger so I reviewed a wine called Bitch and you're just going I'm going to have to find it, Maggie and Sueptha Bitch Wine. And here's about talking about another wine, I'm sorry, José, but it was another garnacha and it's a really funny spontaneous just me straight out from the shower just going, hey, bitch wine, haha. And he saw it, he loved it, he shared it, the next thing you know— but there's a lot of drama involved because he moved 2,600 miles to be here in Sunny San Diego for me. He left his girlfriend, I left my boyfriend, that kind of thing.

So that is epic. That to me, that's a, that's a, that's a, what is it, could that be a Netflix series? I mean, you know what I mean?

We, oh yeah, we've actually been told that many times. Anyways, okay, so there's me, bacon, marriage, Sunny San Diego, a couple clouds. Yeah, I see that. That's cool. Oh, and wine. I was going to tell you what I was going to pair my bacon wine with. My bacon, my bacon crack. I was going to pair it with this thing. It's a rosé. It's from Spain. It's a Garbó. Because it's a, it's 30% Syrah and it's 70% Garnacha. Which is very— if you've never had garnacha, it's a very strong—

it's got a kick to it.

It's got a "kunk." So it's got a right hook. It's got a right hook. So, and the Bitch, actually, the Bitch wine is a garnacha. It's a very strong, bold wine. So when you think of spicy, garnacha Syrah, and you know, the cayenne and the cumin from my baking crack. Delicious. And yeah, beautiful San Diego. God, it's gorgeous here today. Alright. Stop rubbing it in.

You really are. Take a deep breath, Maggie. Take a deep breath. Rub. I've got a question actually for Debbie and for Jenny, but I'll ask— oh, let's ask Jenny first. Jenny, what's this about hobnobbing with the rich and famous at the Oscars?

That was, I got a Klout perk maybe December-ish of last year, 2013, through the People Magazine. And they had, their editors had curated a box of different items to send out to people who had above a certain Klout score. And the rule was that, you know, whoever was able to promote these items and the #PeopleVIP hashtag most effectively through social media would win an all-expense-paid trip for 2 to the Oscars last year. I promoted the crap out of everything. I made a video and did all kinds of stuff. I won. My husband and I flew out and they put us up in a great hotel that part of that complex. And we got to sit in the bleachers, we were in the front row. Matthew McConaughey came over to our section and I about lost my hearing because all these people were shrieking and reaching for him like he was Jesus or something, it was crazy. But anyway, it was a really, really interesting, very cool experience and I wouldn't have had that opportunity except for social media, so it was pretty cool.

And you had some great pictures taken, I've —of you too.

Yeah, I ended up not— of course I wasn't the subject of the magazine cover, but I'm on the COVID of that People magazine from last year. You can see me and my husband, little tiny in the stands right behind somebody's shoulder. We were also sitting right across from where Robin Roberts was interviewing all of the stars, and so over her left shoulder you could see me like sitting on her shoulder because I was across down the street from her. It was cool. So yeah, a lot of people were able to grab screenshots. It was very cool, very interactive. When Wolfgang Puck walked down the carpet before the show started, I guess, I mean before the rest of the stars started showing up, they came with the big Oscar cake and everything. And of course, he's like my movie star. So he— yeah?

So I was going to ask you two questions. You have a link to a blog, I assume, of your experience that you could share with the audience. And then number 2 is, is he really short or is he tall? Wolfgang. Wolfgang Puck?

Well, I was above him in the bleachers, but I'm gonna say he's probably pretty— I would say he would be below average height. That is my guess, but I wasn't like face-to-face, so I can't— I'm not sure. But he handed me actually handed me with his own hand one of his little chocolate Oscar statuettes. And so I snapped a picture of it and Instagrammed it, you know, holding this thing, Wolfgang Puck just handed this to me. And at the same time, somebody texted me a picture of me accepting it, like off of a TV screenshot at the same time. It was very, very cool. One of those instant social media things that happens. But yeah, I'll be happy to find my blog post and I'll put a link in the comments. Excellent.

Excellent. Now, Debbie, so what— NBA cheerleader?

Tell us about that. Oh, that was a long, long time ago, but you know what? A lot of things have changed since then, except for the spirit. What team was it? Chicago Bulls. Oh, wow! When Jordan was there? You know, that's the sad part of the story. It was the year before before Jordan showed up. Oh! And so I was cheering to historically low numbers of small crowds. And then I met someone, moved to Colorado, and then the rest of my squad moved on to the Jordan era. And man, I missed it by a year. Yeah, but timing is everything.

Isn't it just? Yeah.

Do you still have your pom-poms?

Excuse me? Do you still have your pom-poms?

I don't have my pom-poms. That's when we used to have huge pom-poms, and when I was packing all my stuff into one little U-Haul, the pom-poms got pitched.

I hope you saved the outfit.

I have the outfit, and I am just going to have to brag, I still fit in it. We're talking— we're talking— Wow, we are talking, holy cow, 30 years ago? 30 years ago, that was 30 years ago.

Wow, now I still fit in my wrestling singlet but it's not something you'd want to see because it stretches. It stretches the abdomen.

Anybody who wants to see Chef Dennis wrestling singlet, put your hands up.

No, I don't even want to see it, so I can't imagine. Oh, the good old days. Oh well. So we've been having some fun here, and Maggie's out in the beautiful blue sky. Where's Christopher? Is he around you? Yeah, he's over there.

Is Christopher over there pushing a shopping cart?

He's— hey, come over here.

He's too busy making irreverent comments as usual.

Hello. Hey, there he is.

He was pushing around a shopping cart just a little while ago. His new home in San Diego. Crack shopping carts, wine tastes, San Diego.

That would be more like the other parts of Los Angeles we didn't get to, I think, at ChefCon.

You know, Chef, you've got Ellie Phillips in the audience today. She's got a great cookbook coming out in May.

Really? I'm so excited for her.

Ali, we'd love to have you on the show and talk about it.

There you go, Ali. Yeah, her food is all about Boholicious food, all sorts of her own sort of take on various recipes, and that's what, yeah.

I love her style. I love Ali's style. I actually got to meet her. We went to lunch together. We met sort of in the middle and had lunch, gosh, a few months ago now, and she's just the best. I'm so excited for her and for her cookbook.

It's going to be great. Very cool. You know, all these, all these people on Google+ are coming out with these wonderful projects and books, and it's just a great place to share them. The guy I had on last week with his pan, I just— he sent me a cast iron skillet, and that is just amazing. Amazing. I can't wait to really start cooking with it. I've still got to season it. I haven't done that with my busy, busy schedule.

I noticed a knife behind Debbie. Debbie, what's with the knife behind you?

I came with props. I was a little afraid that you ladies were going to get into talking, you know, some very complex cooking techniques, and I— Karen, this is my favorite cooking tool. If I were to take a picture, and when I got a set of restaurant-quality knives as a gift, I began to cook like a maniac. And I mean, you know, I don't have the expertise that you do, but my advice for anyone who wants to get into cooking, get yourself some good knives. Yeah, absolutely.

You know what my favorite kitchen utensil or tool or whatever is? My 4 children. You do the carrots, you do the broccoli, you do the onions.

You know what, Lynn, this is the other thing is that I got turned on by Mia Voss to Blue Apron. And Blue Apron delivers to my— well, they've been delivering for a while now because every single one of these is a recipe card from Blue Apron and all of the ingredients there, but they're very, very labor-intensive. So it's really added to my social life because I'll have a friend come over or I'll go to a friend's house with my little package of Blue Apron stuff and that's exactly what I do. You chop that, you zest that, you stir that, and you keep everyone busy. But yeah, I try and do it in a group because it's a lot of— cooking's a lot of work.

Being a chef, I have to say I'm really anal about that unless you have the skill that I I don't approve of. My poor wife is not allowed to help in the kitchen because she says, oh, I'll be— I had a whole Mexican— I'm half Mexican, but I had an all-Mexican staff at the last restaurant I worked at, and that's where I met her. And she's always saying, I'll be your Joaquin. And I said, no, Joaquin had talent.

Oh, so Chef Dennis, I guess the question I have to ask of that one, if you just laid that out in line, so is that you think being also male in terms of, you know, getting into someone else's uncharted territory that you don't— you know, you're marking your territory here. Yeah, without, without—

yeah, I do think restaurant kitchen work is very much male-dominated, and I think that the women need to start coming on strong. There's some really amazing women chefs out there. They just need to have more of a voice, more of a presence, and be held up to just as high a pedestal as any dude chef out there as far as I'm concerned.

Absolutely, and the big difference was I remember seeing a special that was in Spain, and Mario Batali was going around to different— or, uh, Batali, yeah, was going around to different restaurants, and I forget the actress he was with, and they went into this Spanish restaurant. The woman's— it was a woman chef, and she's saying, oh yeah, People come in, this is my menu, but if they want this, I make it for them. And Mario goes, yeah, you know, women chefs are nurturing, they're helpful, they're loving. He goes, men chefs, you know, you come in and want to change my menu, he goes, get out of my restaurant. You know, that's just the way things go. The difference is, I think, in temperament. Women chefs are as good at what they do, but they tend to want to make things for you more than the men do. The men are like, this is what I made, you should appreciate it, now love me and leave.

That's interesting.

Yeah, have you guys watched that, I think Anthony Bourdain, and he was interviewing his idol, which was Paul Bocuse. I'm horrible at French. Paul Bocuse. Yeah, Paul Bocuse. He was saying that, Paul Bocuse was saying that his mentor was a woman. And that actually, modern French cuisine came from this woman. Oh yeah. Yeah, I mean, so back to the whole idea that it somehow got switched over from, you know, actually women were actually the chefs and then it kind of converted, I think after World War I, that when they came back and more men got into the kitchen and then the women, you know, were kind of forced out.

Yeah, but now this— In terms of restaurants. I'm telling you, working at the high school, teaching high school girls, it was an all-girls school, I really had a change of mindset and how brilliant they were and how good they worked. And I have some in culinary school, you know, they were just so good. And the one thing I always had to impress upon them when I sent them out, like I sent some out as interns into really good restaurants, I got lucky, some people took them. And I said, look, I don't know how to say this to you, but you cannot have any sexuality there. I said, women have such a hard time in the restaurant. You're going to get so many opportunities you're going to miss because you're not male, and you're going to have to overcome a lot of boundaries. So you have— I said, don't wear jewelry, don't wear perfume. I says, look as nondescript as you can, go in there and do your job. And it's terrible. I had to tell 15-year-old girls that going into a job.

That's really interesting, isn't it?

It is definitely an uneven playing field even now.

Well, absolutely, yeah.

Well, I think it's because, you see, like, did you see the movie Chef?

I finally just saw it. I thought it was a wonderful film. I really liked it.

It was good, but you saw the flamboyance, and we get to call it being colorful because he's a male. A lot of bravado. Yeah, but if a woman does that, you call her a bitch, you call her, you know, she's, you know, it's not connotated the same way as being colorful, and it's a shame. Yeah, you know, so times need to change, thought values need to change, and people need to accept whoever it is for what they do and their abilities.

Well, getting back to the sous chef thing though, Chef, have you heard the story of Larry Fournillier and Wayne Nix and Kim Baltman when they all came to Denver and we had a bit of a conference. I'm a sous chef. Well, a sous chef, I call myself sous chef because I know how to use a knife. It was great. When they were doing the chef role, because they were cooking meals for a bunch of us for about 4 days straight, I just set myself up with a towel and I said, "Okay, what bowls do you need? What Hey, give me that. I'll wash it. I'll get it out of your way. Larry Fournillier will take me as a sous chef anytime. He has said that on air.

Very cool.

I would take his recommendation. It was fun. It's good to have a chef who knows what they're doing, and they just tell you what they need. You can move things in and out of their way that they need. I can peel a potato like anybody. I don't have to be a chef to do that. It's fun being a sous chef.

Well, that was really the reason I got into starting the culinary program at the school I was at, was because I didn't want to hire temps all the time. I thought if I trained my own staff, then I could show them what to do, what they were supposed to do. And I was really sick for one big dinner, and the girls did everything. They set the room, they served, they made the food, they tore it down, they did everything. So I mean, it's a matter— it was a testament that I got to that point, but showed me what I had to work with. And when you teach somebody what to do, what they can do with it.

It's also cool, Chef Dennis, when you think about not just life skills, I mean, skills of cooking, and it could be a future job, but also you're teaching these girls about food and how to eat food and how to eat good food.

That was always my intent, was I wasn't concerned with making chefs. I just wanted them to be able to feed themselves and their families and learn to enjoy it. Because that's half the trouble. People don't enjoy cooking food as much as they should. They should.

Yeah, I think a lot of people find it intimidating, and you know, you got to get past that to have fun. You know, learn how to do it, learn the techniques of cooking, and then you can just get in there and cook whatever. Without worrying about it.

Yeah, but you know, some people are never going to enjoy cooking and there's not much you can do about it. You know, some people are good at this, some people are good at that. So no matter how much those of us who can cook say they ought to enjoy it, if it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen. You know how half the people in the world stress themselves out for Thanksgiving dinner, for Christmas, and that's never going to change no matter how many timetables you put in front them, so that's just the way it is, I think. But you know, you ask me to paint something, I can't for the life of me. So it's, it's, I think it's just, it's just what you enjoy and what you're good or not good at, I guess.

But even people without skill can enjoy the camaraderie of the kitchen and sit there, like my wife will sit there and drink wine and talk to me while I'm prepping something. So as long as I think one person everyone in the family enjoys it, that's a good thing.

Yeah, yeah. It's something about the kitchen and bringing people together.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Taking that, I guess the next step, Chef Dennis, is talk about— I saw that crab or lobster pasta dish post that you did. My mouth just dropped. I mean, I was eating super nachos that day, and I'm like, I want to eat that.

My taqueria is good, but your thing would be I am so fortunate to be able to shop where I shop. Somebody had made a comment, said, "I catch my lobster at Restaurant Depot." We have a place where chefs or restaurants go to shop if they don't have— a lot of them buy day-to-day because of their expenses. I still have a— I can go in there and buy. I buy lobster. I buy shrimp there. I buy gulf shrimp. That is just like lobster meat, and I had gotten some. I used to shop at a Wegmans when I lived up in Philadelphia, and that was the first place I really saw it being sold like that. And it's, it's really good for— I love it for lobster rolls too. Like, my wife loves lobster rolls, so I cook for her, you know. I'll make her try some things sometimes, but for the most part, I cook for her. I want to make her happy. She's my audience. Oh, that's so sweet.

Well, you know, sitting down to dinner shouldn't always always be a challenge. You know, it should sometimes just be welcoming and comforting and familiar.

Go on, Karen, sorry.

I was going to say, just as a comment for Chef Dennis Littley and all the men who are listening out there, happy wife, happy life. You know, that's the saying goes.

If mom ain't happy, nobody happy.

Yes. He loves cooking for his wife and likes to make her happy. Just reminds me What I do at home, I trick my husband. He doesn't eat cheese. He doesn't eat nuts. So I'll put all these things in there. He loves, I mean, quick lunchtime is pesto omelette. You know, he loves pesto omelette. And the other day, just a few days ago, sometime last week or maybe last weekend, I made this spritz— spritzelona. It's an Italian biscuit stroke cake. Italian shortbread, I call it. And you're supposed to dot the top when you're done with it with whole almonds. And I knew if I did that and my husband and my eldest would see the almonds, they're not going to eat it. So what did I do? Left the almonds out. Oh, look guys, Italian shortbread, it's really yummy. And it went. So this is what I do at home. That's how much I love my husband, I trick him.

Melissa won't eat beans, so when I would make soups, I love beans in soup, so I started pureeing them, so I'd have the flavor, and it was a nice thickener. But then she read that in my blog one time, so now she knows.

Yeah, the jig is up, Chef Dennis.

Oh, no.

I've been making these cheesecake brownies. My husband and I have known each other, what, I don't know, more than 20 years, almost 20 years, I don't know. But I've been making these cheesecake brownies forever, and he loved them. Then a few years ago, my niece comes to visit from Malaysia. Oh, Mommy makes this cheesecake brownie. That was it.

Cheese? Those are cheesecake brownies?

You told me they were brownies. That was it.

Oh wow, even after he loved eating them, he decided not so much? Wow. Never again. Behold the power of cheese, right?

That's hilarious. I love my cheese. That's one thing you never have to worry about.

Yeah, I love my cheese too, but unfortunately Christopher is lactose intolerant. Oh no!

I would have said no shit, but that would have been wrong.

So no quesadillas in my house.

Oh no! How does a Mexican live without cheese?

So he's bicoastal, so when When he leaves, it's like, yes! It's cheese time! Cheese! Cheese! Let's eat!

So today I had Gruyère for lunch. I sprinkled it over something. My husband came out of his study. Oh, God, I think I'm going to be sick.

He goes. I can't even imagine not liking cheese. Cheese is an entire food group as far as I'm concerned.

I love it. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know this. Doing some work with Cabot's, and pretty much the work part is just letting them send me cheese. They send me cheese once a month, and I'm like, okay, keep sending.

It's a rough gig, but somebody's got to do it, right? Yeah, yeah.

Well, ladies, it has been wonderful today. I've had such a good time with you, and I want to just go by through everybody and see if you have any calls to action. And it's 2 o'clock, so we're going to wind down for the day. But Lynn, is there anything you'd like us to know about?

Any calls to action, shows coming up?

I have a show every Sunday, whether it's Savor the Flavors, Simply Singapore, Fun Fabulous Food Down Under. But this Sunday we are on with Nazim, aren't we? Nazim's got a show from Milan, some antique road show. So join us for that, 3 PM European time. Very cool.

And are we doing anything for Valentine's Day?

Yes, we will have to chat about that. We are doing something for Valentine's Day, definitely. Cool.

I look forward to that. All right, Debbie, any calls to action, anything you'd like us to know about before we leave?

You know, if you're on Google+, do a search for Vail 2015, V-A-I-L 2015, or Eagle Co., Eagle, Colorado. These are socialized posts that we're trying to give some traction to. And if there's something in there that we write about using one of those hashtags, +1, comment. And what we're trying to do is show Eagle Colorado how the use of hashtags on digital can help to associate them with a worldwide event. So it's #Vail2015 and #EagleCo are the two hashtags.

Very cool, thank you. All right, Jenny, any calls to action, anything you'd like to share before we go?

I'd love for you guys to come see me on the blog, pastrychefonline.com. I'm ramping up doing more videos now, so I just finished making some coffee marshmallows before we went on air, and that'll be a video coming up soon. And I organized a small group of bloggers to do a croquembouche challenge. And if you don't know what croquembouche is, it's a big tower of cream puffs, basically, and you build it in a big like cone. And there's not a lot of people who make them because it's kind of a big deal. And so I thought, you know what, more bloggers need to make these things. So I think there's about 12 of us who will be posting for a Valentine-themed croquembouche. One person's even doing a savory version, which is really cool. All different flavor combinations, and we'll be posting on February 5th. The hashtag for that is Valentine Croque, C-R-O-Q-U-E, and so that'll be fun.

Very nice. Yeah, I love those, but again, it's work, so most people don't make them.

Yeah, I've got my form staring at me. I've already made my form for it, and I'm like, oh God, that's really tall. But I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun.

Very good, very good. And Karen, anything you'd like to leave us with? I know you've got your 28 Days of Love.

Yeah, I've got my 28 Days of Love, and so hopefully everyone in the audience can— I think the best way would be if you go to my profile and I'm in the middle of my 30 Days of Inspiration. If you like what you see and if you +1, comment, or share, I will include you in terms of getting notified when I actually launch it, which is going to be on February 1st. I'm also going to be on 3 more HOAs to talk about it. If you like to watch Zara Alter, she's the lady who does the Midweek Zap on Wednesdays. I'm going to be on February 4th. I'm going to also be on Melanie Hall's Lights! Camera! Action! Those are for folks who— maybe your audience may be interested in if you want to try and be on an HOA but you're kind of camera shy. She has been gracious enough with the Google+ community to let newbies like myself come on camera and just talk about yourself for 30 minutes in front of an audience. It's very supportive.. And you can learn a lot and hear what the audience has to say. So that's kind of what I'm hopefully be doing in the next couple of weeks, plus build a community.

I see Lynn just posted, came in late, I thought I was just starting, caught in the kitchen with my pants down. No! Oh, not Zine! I hope Dennis Littley— Oh boy.

Now I can't get it off.

TMI. TMI. Moving right on, and I was gonna say while you were talking about the 28 Days of Love, in the back of my mind I kept hearing that song, I'm just a love machine, I won't wait for nobody. And Maggie, what do you got besides your wedding coming up? I know that we're less than a month— you should start a countdown Maybe you can invent a countdown clock.

You know what, that's a great idea. I think I might do that. I don't know, I've just got so much going on with the wedding and trying to juggle all these things. It's like, you know, it's a lot right now, but it is what it is. Just check my stream, check out my website. I've got tons of things going on. Check out my baking crack, it's delicious. It's slightly addictive.

That's it for me. That's enough. Well, everyone, thank you so much for being here today. It's a great day on Google+. We had a wonderful time chatting with everyone, and I hope you did too. Have a good weekend. And oh, next week Susan and Sarah and I are back. Susan, Sarah, and I. Let me try that and say that again. Susan, Sarah, and I are back with Around the Kitchen Table. We're moving to a new day and time. It's going to be on Wednesdays at 12:00 noon. So that's going to be our new time for Around the Kitchen Table. We'll be doing some Super Bowl foods for you. So I'll see you then. Have a great weekend and be good. Thanks, Dennis Littley. Bye-bye.