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 going to be available in when it launches early 2016.

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 educating 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 for 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!