Palate to Palette – Culinary Inspirations with #ExperienceBuick
This sponsored post is part of my ongoing project #ExperienceBuick. Throughout 2015, I will be experiencing Buick through a series of events and initiatives that reinforce what this American car manufacturer brand is all about.
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Inspiration comes from everywhere.
When it comes to travel food is what inspires me to choose one destination over another. One city over the next. I definitely explore the world through my stomach. Turns out the designers at Buick get their inspiration from the culinary world around them…I knew I liked them for a reason!
Take this artichoke.
I am lucky enough to get them all the time in California. I’ve seen fields and fields of them on my trips to Brittany in France. I love them. Hot, cold, you name it. That’s kind of expected, I am a foodie.
But who knew they could inspire the Crystalline exterior color of the Buick Avenir concept car?! (I got to see that baby announced in Detroit in January.)
Well, it did. True story.
The designers took the green tones inspired by the beautiful artichoke, desaturated them, added metallic flakes (hey, doesn’t this sound like a recipe…) the result being a gorgeous silvery green. In a world where eating is a 24-hour obsession, the fact that food becomes muse in the Buick studio really appeals to me!
After artichokes, for dessert, you can always snack on toasted coconut.
That’s one of the colors that the new Buick Cascada convertible is available.
Here is a great visualization of how food inspires the designers at Buick.
So how does Buick reinforce the importance of food to its #ExperienceBuick bloggers? They take them to New York for the New York City Wine & Food Festival! Buick knows that food is a vehicle [pun intended] for celebrating the people, places, and experiences that make life just that more delicious. I’ve always said food is the great uniter, that it connects people, and Buick believes the same.
And the Buick bloggers? Ditto.
We’ve been together in Detroit, in Indianapolis, in Los Angeles, and now in New York and 90% of our conversation is around food!
I have been to a few food festivals, but New York is one of the majors and I spent 36 hours just eating!
I flew in Friday late afternoon, hopped into my Buick, and headed to the Blue Moon Burger Bash on the Pier 92 rooftop. It was a charity event (Buick is one of the sponsors) featuring about 30 chefs or restaurants and it is hosted by Rachel Ray. We were let loose to sample as many of the burgers as we could sink our teeth into! Most of the servings were a quarter or a half of a burger, so once I tried bites that equated to about two burgers I had to stop!
My favorite of the night? Hometown favorite (San Francisco that is) Marlowe’s. They are one of the best hamburgers in San Francisco and they shined against the NY competition! (If you are ever in San Francisco, do get over there, they have amazing brussel sprout chips!)
I also got to meet legendary French chocolatier Jacques Torres, a francophile’s dream! He has such a fun sense of humor and when I asked to take a photo with him, he wanted to do one of him pouring chocolate sauce down my throat!
After a few more burger bites, I ended the evening with an ice cream burger from the folks at The Big Gay Ice Cream truck, something that has been on my New York bucket list for a while. The chocolate sauce they served on the side was unbelievably good, I wish they sold it in a jar!
I crawled into bed that night and I swear I dreamed about hamburgers!
The next day we hopped into these stylish babies and headed to the Grand Tasting event held at Pier 94. They call it a 130,000-square-foot culinary wonderland, I call it heaven.
We started off by visiting the Buick display. As a sponsor of the festival, it is a great opportunity for them to get out into the public and share their passions as well as educate people about the Buick brand. Of course, they had fun interactive displays and we’re giving away cookbooks and edible flowers.
I couldn’t resist taking my photo next to this sexy black number! [Also notice the display to my left. I was there for the 24 Hours of Happiness event where Buick announced that you can take one of their cars home for 24-hours to do a test drive!]
After meeting with my friends at Buick (and a surprise visit from my new friends at Sahale Snacks!) we headed off to eat, drink and be very merry! Rinse and repeat.
My favorite bite was an out-of-this-world chicharrón from Chef Mario Hernandez with a scallop ceviche on top, I wanted a dozen!
My favorite sip was actually not wine but rather a crisp Jim Beam Apple and soda water drink.
Drinking three of these doesn’t make me a lush, right? Look how little they were!
Way too quickly it was time to get back on a plane and head home. My 36-hours with the Buick team, the #ExperienceBuick bloggers, and a whole lot of food was one for the books. I continue to have a deep appreciation for the Buick brand. I have learned so much about them over the past 10 months! Seeing the inspiration they take from culinary world makes me love them even more!
Thank you Buick for inviting me to the New York City Wine & Food Festival and for sponsoring my trip to New York. Despite the compensation, all opinions – as always, are my own.
How about you? Does food inspire your life? Does product inspiration from food make you like a brand more? Do tell!
How fun!! Looks like a great event!! I am a total foodie and enjoy trying new and unusual cuisines!! Very smart of Buick to lock into that and bring in car buyers!!
Oh wow I want to try the Jim Bean Apple drink! Thank you for sharing.
I can’t wait to tell my husband about where Buick gets its inspiration for the car colors! 🙂
Working at the sushi restaurant makes me more into details. I now know that good food can be beautiful, too. A nice-looking meal is more likely to taste better.
OMG!!!! IT LOOKS LIKE YOU HAD A LOT OF FUN. THANKS FOR SHARING THIS GREATLY APPRECIATED. YOU HAD CAR’S FOOD AND DRINK TOTALLY AWESOME.
So awesome where Buick gets there inspiration for colors. That is such a beautiful car. Also, that scallop ceviche looks divine!
This looks like it was such a fun event! It’s fascinating to see where brands get their inspiration for something like the color of a car! I’ve been thinking that Buick cars are really looking more luxurious these days!
This looks like a wonderful event to attend – so fun! I know that Buick is putting out some incredible products out onto the market right now – such fun styles!
This looks like a great experience with a generous company. I hope you have a great year!
wow! I had no idea thatthe designers at Buick get their inspiration from the culinary world! Seems you had great time!
It’s so interesting that Buick gets some of their car colors from food. As a foodie myself, that’s amazing. All the food you described sounds so good. I would love to try out all that food.
What a great post and fun time! I really am liking these new colors for Buick.
What a fun event to get to attend. I love the changes that Buick has been making to their cars.
The event looks and sounds amazing. The cars are beautiful. I love the colors!
the food looks so delcicious
What a cool event! Who knew that the artichoke could be inspiration for a car! So cool 🙂
look how much fun you had with food and with some vehicles! I have been to car shows before – but never anything like this – glad you had a great time – hope you didn’t dream about burgers too much!
WOW! Sounds like some amazing events…especially since food was involved! I would definitely love to try the Jim Beam Apple drink. I love the part in here about how food inspired the designers at Buick. Thanks for sharing that.
Wow! Looks like you had an amazing time! I had no idea Buick used food as an inspiration – I really love the toasted coconut colour! I’d love to try that chicharrón with a scallop ceviche on top!
Looks like you had so much fun. Being a Buick Blogger must be pretty amazing! Would love to be apart of it myself.
I had no clue that is how Buick gets their car colors. How fun! I really love the color green but it is so hard to find a green vehicle (I had a green Kia but upgraded to the newest model and they discontinued the green color – how dare they!) If Buick has a green like the artichoke, I may look into their vehicles next!
This sounds like an amazing time you had indeed. I love Buicks and I one of my favorite cars because they are built to last. Anyway the apple Jim Beam drink is one I would so love to try. Thanks for sharing the great experiences.
What a fun event, looks like you had a fabulous time. What a great ambassadorship!
Omg what a fun event!!!! I wasn’t at this event but I am a Buick mom! Just love there vehicles 🙂
Looks like you guys enjoyed yourselves! Jim Beam Apple looks interesting 🙂
With all the delicious food in this post it’s very hard to pay attention to the Buick. I think my next car is going to be a Buick. Saw the commercials and I’m in love.
cool event, looks like fun, and yummy
cool
This looks like such a fun event!
I love the comparison between certain foods and Buick’s Colors. Buick is making beautiful cars once again.
I wish I could have been there…great food and beautiful cars
What a great experience – this is fantastic!
That looks like a really fun event and an awesome experience you had.Buick is making some very nice products now!
Thanks for sharing all the delicious food with us.I enjoyed the review and color comparisons very much!
Wow it looks like you had a great time. A great mix of food and fun.
I’m so jealous! I’m a bit of a foodie and it looked so delicious. Looks like a really fun event! 🙂
@Chloe, it was, all we did was eat!
Looks like it’s so much fun there. Love the foods!!
I love the way you shoot these pictures, especially the food. Love them so much !
What an amazing event! It looks like you had so much fun there. I love the foods. And also stunning photos!
Buick makes beautiful cars. I love the colors that you shared and how they came up with these colorseat . It sounds like you had a great time. Thank you for sharing
The food looks great. My father in law was worked for GM since 1978 and my husband for 14 years. Needs less to say we have an abundance of Buicks and Chevys in our family.
What a great time you had.
So much to see and eat. Looks like you had a fun time.