May was a crazy busy month for me. I spent time in California visiting the Dole farms, and then I went to Minneapolis to visit General Mills. I have been blogging for Betty Crocker for one year now, and it was so wonderful to meet the team of people that I have been working with all this time. Not only that, but I have been dying to visit the Betty prop room, I had heard that it is crazy. It was.
We started out the trip by having a great dinner at Cafe Lurcat, and had a really fun wine tasting. The next day, we took a tour of the facility, I had no idea that it was so huge. It is like an indoor college campus. Banks, dry cleaners, Caribou Coffee, even a salon. We ended up in the Betty Crocker test kitchen. We were given a tour, and walked through the process of how a recipe is created, tested, and later photographed. I learned so much in one day.
At the end of the morning, we headed into the kitchen to have a Chopped-like competition. Each team was given a basket of ingredients, and we had to work together to make something using all of the ingredients with an additional 5 ingredients if we needed it. We decided to make a Summer Berry Basil Mini Pizza and it was incredible, if I do say so myself. Go Team Blueberry!
After we made our dishes, we had to present them to the tasting panel. These ladies do this every afternoon, and they are a tough crowd. They asked a lot of questions, but they took it easy on us. Did I mention that they filmed us the whole day too?
After lunch, we met with the food stylists and we got a hands on lesson on how they would go about styling our creations. I loved watching them, and seeing how they approach each item. I also learned that each brand has a very different way of styling. We were shooting a dish for Pillsbury, so it could be looser and messier. I have a new appreciation for crumbs.
We shot tethered, so we could see each shot as we went along. I should shoot tethered at home, it made it so much easier to see things and fix it as you were shooting it.
Head on over to Pillsbury to grab the recipe, it is perfect for summer. Thanks to everyone at Betty for hosting us, and having such a great event. I can’t wait until next year!
I am Bree. I love to cook. Even more than I love to take pictures.
It looks as though you had a fantastic time. And that prop room? That is something dreams are made of.
Cookin’ Canuck recently posted..Ten Vegetarian Recipes for the Grill
It was insane. That is only one aisle in one room of it!
How exciting! That room is a fantasy! Drool drool drool:)
It was crazy, almost hard to breathe it was so amazing.
I saw that prop room and looked at my boyfriend and told him we’re moving and I need to work there. Definitely drooling!
Julie recently posted..white out
That is only one aisle of the prop room! It was crazy.
Yum! This sounds super awesome!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar recently posted..Eggplant Marinara Flatbread
It is really fresh and fun, plus I am loving the new crust!
Love that you had a great time. Thanks for sharing with us. I bet the test kitchen was with the best appliances. The dessert looks delicious.
Chineka recently posted..Feature Fridays: Golden Delicious Sour Cream Pound Cake
Actually, the kitchens use what a home cook would use, so nothing super fancy. They test on how we would do it at home.
That looks like it was so much fun and such a great learning experience. Very cool!
Carla @ Carla’s Confections recently posted..Slow Cooker Barbeque Chicken Sandwiches
It was Carla! Eye opening.
How fabulous! And your recipe looks yummy, I am definitely going to have to try that one
Stephanie recently posted..The Memories I Want Captured
Thank you Stephanie, it was really interesting to see the process from beginning to end.
Sounds like you had just the best day. I could spend hours in the Betty Crocker prop room.
I’m sure you learned lots on the day
Just heading over to view the berry basil recipe now….
Jacqueline @howtobeagourmand recently posted..Aromatic Moroccan Salad
We went blueberry picking on Friday, so this is PERFECT!!!!!
Yes it is! I love going berry picking.
Great blog. Sounds like you had just the best day. I could spend hours in the Betty Crocker prop room. Thanks that you’ve shared.
Claire recently posted..Tip To Getting Pregnant
Thank you Claire! It was crazy how much was in there.
Check out that prop room! I love this dessert! Just perfect for summer.
Jennifer | Mother Thyme recently posted..Vegetable Pad Thai
The prop room picture is not even an accurate portrayal of the amount of props that they had. That was only one aisle of it!
Looks like so much fun… and ditto what Dara said!
Laurie {Simply Scratch} recently posted..Toasted Mediterranean Sandwich
It was a lot of fun. I learned so much about just what goes into creating a recipe. Mind blowing.
What an amazing experience!!
Melissa Vanni recently posted..Malted Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches
SO cool! I have always thought food styling would be such a fun job…I would love to go see the Betty prop room too. And shooting tethered? I’m assuming that means it shows automatically on the computer screen? That WOULD be helpful.
It is a cool job, but hard! I don’t think that I have enough attention to detail.
[...] I went to Betty Crocker a few months ago, we were lucky enough to play with the new Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust before it [...]