-The End-

Alright so what was the point of all of this?

Blogging forced us to read, think and write a little on each of our topics. I feel like overall, it was a perfectly fine experience in blogging. Its not as though it were a difficult task set for us, and in the end it definitely proved to benefit our lives whether we'd like to admit it or not.

In the process, we learned a lot about the industry that we chose to dive into and why shouldn't we have been doing this already? Nit picking at the particular topic of Going Green & Sustainability in Fine Dining Settings, in my opinion was probably the best thing we could have been doing. Going Green is clearly a "happening NOW" topic, and from what we learned isn't going anywhere any time soon. Sustainability and everything related just makes sense. With enough education and awareness thrown out to those who have been living under a rock, it will all soon be common sense (we hope). Personally, I think we chose the best topic with maybe Health & Nutrition following close behind. These are things most important in not just the industry but the world right now. People are finally realizing that everything we do, and everything we eat has an effect on the Earth which we humans are hanging out on, and has a say in how long we may have to spend on it.

I can't say that there is anything I found that I hated during the process of these blogs. Maybe disagreeing with certain parts of articles and genuinely disliking the fact that going green as become somewhat of a fashion statement (where more materials are being burned to print a billion purses that sport a picture of a tree and the words "GO GREEN" underneath, or the many tee-shirts or what ahve you--most of which, if you read the labels, aren't even made using recyclable materials or anything close), but that's probably it.

I did enjoy a lot of these articles, I think we all did an awesome job at scrounging up some really interesting publications and picking them apart one at a time. Not only summarizing them and elaborating more on their topics but going as far as comparing it to other things related and adding to some ideas with our own. I can't say I haven't learned a little more on the green movement that I didn't already know, and clearly all this research aided our putting together our presentation for the class.

Blogging could definitely be related in a positive way to our future careers whether we decide to go on to become Executive Chefs, Restaurant Owners, Food Writers/Critics, Food Sceintists, Environmental Activists, even working with food purveyors, or all of the above! It's your prerogative--you are your own decision maker. How you utilize it is up to you. It can be a private blog where you jot down notes to yourself, recipes you've discovered or created, a public blog where you personally critique new restaurants or things you've tried--the possibilities are endless. For all you know, you could be thinking you're keeping a silly blog, and before you know it you could gain 100 or even 1,000 people who decide what you say is important to them, and they're going to 'follow' your blog and wait patiently for your next posting. It's all about getting your ideas down in print--whatever form. Who knows, blogging could be your outlet to riches!

Following Food & Beverage blogs are great, even if its just once in a while. Keeps you up to date with current events and up to speed with anything new. They prove to be great sources of information & maybe the foundation to some of your own twist of ideas. Here is one I stumbled upon recently. It has a name/title, a good consistency in her posts (recipes and feedback) and a lot of visuals, which definitely help for eye appeal since people are naturally drawn to visuals--especially foood.

:)