Hey! I'm Leslie! Join me in my Food meets fashion adventure!
Hey! I'm Leslie! Join me in my Food meets fashion adventure!
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If I could travel back in time I would’ve never attended graduate school. Although I’m proud to boast a Master’s Degree, I no longer foresee it benefiting my career path. If I had it to do all over again, I’d go to culinary arts school and train to be a chef. Not only do I love eating delectable cuisine, I’m also quite obsessed with the art of cooking it. Oh, and I’ve always thought about how sexy I’d look in that white coat and goofy hat…
There’s a particularly infamous event in my life that comes only once every year. Waking up on this glorious springtime morning has many participants feeling like little kids on Christmas. For it is on this day that a group of friends…aka, “Good Times Group” round up troops and partake in one festive and downright delectable day of food, friends, and fun. St. Petersburg’s official and yet, delightfully unofficial Crawfish Festival has been going strong for a solid 10 years and counting.
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false falseI am a total food geek. This little fact is hardly newsworthy given my publicly known hobby of food blogging. What you may not know, however, is that I take pictures of…well, pretty much everything I consume. It has often frustrated my dining partners, as I allow no one to touch their plate until I’ve achieved an acceptable shot. Half of these pictures will never make a blog post. So, why, you might ask, I “waste” my precious time insisting on the perfect photo of every breakfast, lunch and dinner I eat? Simply put, I “foodspot.” Foodspotting is an international foodie community created and controlled by a company in the culinary heavens of San Francisco. The primary goal is simple: Sharing pictures of excellent food with other foodies who live near…and very, very far. It is best used as an app on a smart phone but can be accessed from the website as well. Posting pictures and exchanging compliments with your “foodie friends” can be quite addicting. The coolest part of it all…I get to see shots of cuisine taken by people who live in India, Greece, Taiwan, Italy and more.
0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false Just a couple of weeks ago I scored stardom. Yes, officially a Tampa celebrity is who I am. It was only a matter of time until everyone realized just how cool Leslie Floyd is, right? Okay, all silliness and absolute ridiculousness aside, I did attain a really cool opportunity that allowed me to not only meet an awesomely comical Time magazine columnist but also offered me a position as an official judge for one deliciously indulgent food truck competition.
Just this past Saturday, Tampa’s premier foodie company, Tasting Tampa hosted an exciting event unlike any I’ve been to before. A group of privileged “party animals” came together on a mission. A mojito mission, that is. Traveling to five fabulous Tampa Bay eateries, sipping (and slurping) on the finest mojitos the bay area has to offer, there would be one…and only one mojito ranked supreme. Imagine a pub-crawl from your glory days…but restaurants replaced the grungy bars, mojitos substituted the crappy beer and the only drinking contest at hand was the ranking of a spectacular Spanish libation. Thank you Tasting Tampa for organizing and hosting this day of Siesta Key rum, muddled mint and lime; “Mojito Madness” was a real treat for everyone who came.
I never turn down a good time…so when my friend, Megan (I Run for Wine) invited me to the Pink Martini Party at the Florida Aquarium last week, I couldn’t resist! Benefiting Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, this gala was especially near and dear to my heart. Mingling with Megan as well as fellow bloggers, Isabel (Family Foodie) and Lauren (blogger for Tasting Tampa), we enjoyed a note-worthy night filled with sea life surroundings, tasty hors d'oeuvres, perfectly pink martinis, adorable penguin friends and one seriously awesome fashion show.
I am not a huge fan of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. It’s just not my cup of tea…not my glass of overpriced wine. There, I said it. Moving on. I am a fan, however, of the show’s host. A celebrity chef who is as humble as he is talented. An Aussie chef who is also as friendly as he is gorgeous. Who is this mystery man I am admittedly crushing on as I write? Curtis Stone. Curtis Stone, the chef. Curtis Stone, one of the sexiest men alive according to People Magazine. Curtis Stone, the man wonder I was so privileged to meet last week when he came to Brandon’s Rolling Pin Kitchen Emporiumto show off his new line of cookware.
