© Paulette Phlipot

Ketchum’s Frenchman’s Gulch Winery,  won a gold medal for its 2005 Ketchum Cuvée at the Northwest Food and Wine Summit at Mount Hood Oregon’s Timberline Lodge last spring.

The event was a professionally attended blind tasting. It is the Northwest’s largest competition with 1,400 entries. The category in which the cuvée won was best red Bordeaux blend under $30.

©Paulette Phlipot - Chuck Williams ringing the opening bell.

©Paulette Phlipot - Crescent City Farmer's Market

What is it that you look for when checking out a new town or city for the first time?  Well for me it’s the local grocery store (preferably locally owned) and if it’s the right time of year the local farmers market.  These two places can tell you so much about a place and the people that live there.  Needless to mention I love taking time to cruz the isles of a grocery store. It’s the adventure of discovering new and sometimes old and forgotten products.   My friend Pat Tanumihardja (a very talented freelance writer) and I visited the Crescent City Farmer’s market for the first time together.  It was a great introduction to some of the local people & farmers of New Orleans for me.  Regardless of where  Farmer’s Markets are I feel they always give you such a great sense of community no matter how large or small the market may be.  This morning I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Charles “Chuck” Williams, the founder of the Williams-Sonoma company and author and editor of dozens of books on the subject of cooking.  Chuck received the Lifetime Achievement Award the previous night at the same IACP awards ceremony where I was awarded the “Best of Show Award” for photography.

Paulette receiving "Best of Show Award"

“In the Kitchen”

This year’s Food Photographers & Stylists competition challenged members to capture motion and rhythm in a still photographic image by refeclecting their personal interpretation of the exciting, hot and sassy workings of the kitchen that indeed bring Rhythm to the Plate.

My interpretation ended up wining the “Best of Show” award. I took this photo at a catered event at a private home in Sun Valley, Idaho.  The dinner party was catered by the long time and well known caterer’s Barbara & Heinz of The Catering Company.   This was my first time of having the honor to capture the action of Barbara & Heinz and crew “in the kitchen” or in this case “in the garage”.  Typically for large dinner parties like this in Sun Valley the caterers have to set up their kitchens in the home’s garage.  I loved the challenge of making it look like it was not “in the garage”.