Foodie Friday

I’m so excited to bring you an incredible line-up of presenters for  Foodie Friday #Megaphone17. Each of our speakers brings a special talent and expertise to our program, and you won’t want to miss a single one of them. All sessions will be held at the Fayetteville Town Center Mockingbird Room.

The Brand Within You

Amy Nelson Hannon of Springdale, Ark., is the owner of Euna Mae’s, a one-of-a-kind kitchen boutique that has become not only a special place to locals but has quickly become a destination shop for many around the country. Her hospitality message of Love Welcome Serve™ combined with her refreshing enthusiasm and approachable recipes has ignited a passion for the kitchen in both new and seasoned cooks. In addition to her kitchen store, Amy has an expansive media platform that includes a cooking show on Northwest Arkansas’ NBC station, as well as several social media platforms and a food blog.

Her first cookbook Love Welcome Serve: Food that Gathers and Gives will be available nationwide in November 2017. It is available for preorder now at https://shopeunamaes.myshopify.com/collections/exclusive-products/products/love-welcome-serve-recipes-that-gather-and-give-signed-cookbook-with-optional-exclusive-gift-sets-free-shipping.

Follow Amy on Twitter @amynelsonhannon and Euna Maes on Instagram 

Passion, Purpose…Destiny!

Liz Bray is a former kindergarten teacher, who left the classroom in 2002 to become a personal chef, fulfilling her deep passion of cooking for others. After many years, she renovated a charming old building in downtown Benton that featured a commercial kitchen offering space for catered events, cooking classes and cooking for clients. Before it even opened, people were excited about a place for lunch, which was not her plan, but because she loved to please people with food, she allowed it to turn into a restaurant for lunch, a catered event space on nights and weekends, and cooking classes as often as possible.

Realizing her vision and passion were being absorbed in running a restaurant, she chose to sell Leave It to Liz in 2013 and return to her original heart.

Liz is a wife, mother of two and grandmother of four. She shares her love of cooking with her grandchildren, especially Sophie who seems destined to become a baker.

Liz will be sharing her food journey, her learning experiences in writing her book, why she chose to self-publish, the pros and cons of that decision, and how she is marketing her book.

Her newly published cookbook, Leave It to Liz, will be available for purchase at Megaphone. It can be mail ordered by contacting Liz at 6479 Congo Road, Benton, AR 72019. For more details, feel free to message her on Facebook or Instagram.

Food As Art 

Jason Paul Roth is a chef, educator, and artist currently living in Springdale. AR. He became interested in food at a very young age while watching PBS cooking shows on television. After tinkering around at home, he found his way into a fine dining restaurant kitchen at age 14. Soon Jason began a traditional apprenticeship at Mary Elaine’s, a restaurant in Phoenix, Ariz. That foundation taught him the technical skills to began his journey. Through the years, he has worked in many different parts of the culinary field. After stints in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Maine, Jason landed in NWA and is currently the chef and owner of Heirloom, a boutique fine dining restaurant. Jason is also a chef/instructor at Brightwater, a newly- opened culinary school in Bentonville, Ark.

“I have a passion for creativity, restaurants and hospitality. All standards for someone in my field. But is there more for a chef? Where is the line between a skilled craftsmen and an artist?  I want to find out and maybe start to draw outside those lines. I’m very excited about exploring the use of food as art in our modern day society. Art effects change and with the power of social media to translate images to a wider audience there is an unpaved road ahead for chefs to use their talents for more than just a meal. I would like to travel all avenues and parts of this mostly unexplored road to see where it leads. You often hear people say, “you eat with your eyes first”, so food presentation has long been important to us as chefs, but I would like to take it further. This talk is my way of trying to bring that medium into a larger light, beyond the walls of a restaurant. With food as our palate, and a plate as our canvas, let’s have a conversation about FOOD AS ART.”

Follow Jason on Instagram and Twitter.

Say Cheese- Creating Food Photos That Create Smiles

Nancy Pruitt is a photographer based out of Little Rock, AR. About 10 years ago, she decided to take a hobby she was passionate about and turn it into a family-benefiting career. Photographing everything from families to food, it is her desire to tell a story through her photography and learn from each experience. Most recently she has helped stage and capture the images for Chef Liz Bray’s inaugural cookbook, Just Leave it to Liz. Nancy and her husband Doug have 3 grown children and are in the process of developing a small farm with the goal of creating an indoor and outdoor photography studio as well as a home for their family and wide variety of critters.

“In this session we will discuss the photography aspect of your food presentations on social media and in print . We will look at some ways to get your images looking their best with some basic and creative photography tools.”

Bring your cameras!

Follow Nancy on Instagram.

Foodie Friday Hostesses

Got a question? These ladies have all the answers!

Megaphone Summit full schedule: HERE

Thanks, y’all. See you there!

Debbie Arnold

Here are your hashtags:)

#FoodieFriday

#Megaphone17