Category Archives: spain

love my life

23 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in food & drink, friends, gastronomy, sevilla, sherry, spain

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Today was a “day off”, which mostly means I had no scheduled tours or tastings (though there is always plenty of other work to do on the computer). But then I was invited to an event at a posh hotel (which shall remain nameless) so I decided to forego a cosy evening of Netflixing at home with the cats to check it out – mostly as a chance to meet up with a couple of friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. On the way to the hotel we passed by Enrique Becerra and through the window I saw Enrique sitting at the cash desk, so I waved and blew him a kiss (and got one back).

And so when the posh hotel thing turned out to be a dud, it just made sense to go back to Enrique Becerra for a snack on the way home. And wow, I’m so glad I did.

First of all, as soon as Enrique saw me he said “I’m so glad you came back!” because he wanted to invite me to his new book launch next week – as you can see, it is all about wines from Jerez and Sanlúcar. And then he ended up signing his last copy (well, until next week) and giving it to me. It says “To Shawn, Sevillana by adoption and by vocation. With much love…” Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Then, while we were having a light snack, Reyes and Juan Carlos from Casa Morales walked in and… seriously… we’re talking family-run traditional tapas bar royalty, seeing the three of them sitting together at the bar. So I got over my usual camera-shyness to get a pic taken with them.

On the way home I thought about how lucky I am to know all of these people, and to be recognised by them as a peer, and as someone they both like and respect. Because I honestly love them all, all these wonderful people I work with, interact with, every day, who are all so passionate about what they do, and who are so generous about sharing their passion and their friendship. Lucky me!

tasting sherry

14 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by in sevilla, sherry, spain, tapas bars, wine, work

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

I’m happy to report that my Sherry Tastings have become quite a success. Different from my Sherry & Tapas Tour in that, although there are snacky food pairings during the tasting (to me sherry is always better appreciated with food, especially by “novices”), it is a more concise introduction to sherry, lasting about 1.5 hours. At the moment I’m working with a few different venues, looking for the best “fit”, though it may turn out that I end up with more than one option. It’s all good!  🙂

freebies for “exposure”

09 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in sevilla, spain

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

So this came up for me again this week when I saw that a random food blogger (who had been in touch with me awhile back, suggesting they would like to write about my tapas tours – nudge, nudge, wink, wink) had actually landed a freebie tour with a corporate food tour company here, and were tweeting about them, as promised. And all of me went … ewwwwwwwwwwww.

You see, I’ve been getting requests like this for years. And while I know how most restaurants feel about such requests (they hate them with a passion) I wondered how other food tour companies felt. As in… hey, give us a free food tour for “exposure”. The “us” usually includes a friend or partner, since these people tend to be here on holiday, not for work, and think a promise of a blog post means they get to dine out for free. And to be honest, none of the bloggers who have asked for (or insinuated they wanted) a freebie has ever been anyone of consequence.

On the other hand, proper journalists always offer to pay for their tours – and rightly so – since they are here in Sevilla at the behest of their employers, and have a budget that allows for this. To wit I have been featured in some pretty top notch publications, including the Sunday Times, Washington Post, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, National Post, Telegraph Travel… to name a few.

Other times I end up “meeting” food and wine writers on social media – usually via Twitter or Instagram – and when I find out they will be visiting we will either meet up for a drink and tapa and a chat, or – if they want a full tapas tour – they offer to pay the bills if I would take them around. And you know what? This I don’t mind at all. Because I am already “connected” with these people, even if we haven’t met in person yet, and I want to spend some time with them. And they also respect that this isn’t my hobby. So if I am willing to spend an afternoon or evening taking them out, then at least they are happy to pay for the food and drink so I don’t end up out of pocket. Fair enough.

But some other food tour companies here obviously think offering food bloggers freebies is “good for business”. And who knows? Maybe it is. For them. But when I look at these random bloggers, and then I look at the people, serious food and wine writers, who actually respect my work enough to pay for it, I know which camp I’d rather be in.