Take a behind-the-scenes have a look at Atlanta’s Recent Air Retreat. Three days of nice meals, significant connections, and nice manufacturers.
Final month, I had the chance to attend a Recent Air Retreat in Atlanta, Georgia. I am nonetheless going sturdy. I’ve attended many occasions and conferences through the years, however there’s something about this explicit retreat that makes it really feel completely different every time.
I first attended in 2021 when it was held in Breckenridge, Colorado, and it was such an amazing expertise that I used to be actually pleased to be invited once more this yr. In the event you comply with me on Instagram, you’ll have seen among the tales from this journey, however as we speak I am sharing the total synopsis. The folks, the meals, the manufacturers, and sure, Alan Jackson’s little singalong scene I will not quickly overlook.
What’s Recent Air Retreat?
The Recent Air Retreat is a meals blogger and content material creator retreat hosted twice a yr by Liz Della Croce of The Lemon Bowl and Lauren Grier of The Curious Plate. A small, rigorously chosen group of creators come collectively for a number of days to study, join, and, in fact, get pleasure from meals.
As somebody who spends most of my working hours alone within the kitchen or behind a pc display, it is actually refreshing to be in a room full of people that really perceive this profession. Rabbit-like content material methods, fixed algorithmic pivots, work-life stability…these ladies have it found out in one of the best ways doable.
individuals who attended the retreat
What I like about this retreat is that it is a small group of bloggers/creators, so I get an opportunity to attach with everybody. I could not have requested for a greater group…everyone seems to be unbelievable at what they do and so beneficiant with their information. Some ladies I’ve identified on-line for years. For some, it was the primary time we had met in particular person.
Plus our host, Liz From Lemon Bowl Lauren The members of The Curious Plate make internet hosting a gaggle of meals bloggers appear someway easy.
We additionally had Chef Trimmell Hawkins cook dinner your complete time. For individuals who aren’t conversant in him, he is a Marine veteran turned chef who appeared on Man Fieri’s Flavortown USA and simply opened his personal seven-course eating expertise in Grand Rapids known as Belief GR. An unbelievable expertise and an excellent better humanity.
Day 1: Arrival + Butterball Welcome Dinner
I flew into Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon and one among my finest mates from school picked me up on the airport so we might have lunch at Rosa (a very GF Mexican restaurant). I hadn’t seen her for years, so it was nice to see her once more after such a very long time, and the meals was scrumptious. After lunch, we stopped at Drybar for a fast snack earlier than heading house to settle in.
Greeted with welcome snacks, together with Liz’s well-known Lebanese hummus (so scrumptious), everybody started getting ready for the night.
Issues began with pleased hour and dinner hosted by Butterball, and what an amazing opener it was. The menu included turkey kofta skewers with tzatziki sauce, turkey bacon wedge salad (scrumptious), hickory smoked roasted turkey breast, grilled asparagus, and essentially the most superb forged iron potatoes.
After I consider Butterball, I instantly consider Thanksgiving turkey, however I’ve discovered that there are such a lot of completely different turkey merchandise, together with floor turkey, which is the weeknight MVP and one among my favourite proteins. See all of my turkey recipes right here.
Day 2: Usher Yoga, Labanese Lunch, Studying, Zwilling Demo + Sundown Dinner
Wednesday was a full day. We had deliberate to stroll the Atlanta Beltline, a extremely cool 32-mile loop of trails and inexperienced areas that wind by Atlanta’s neighborhoods, but it surely was raining, so we settled on the Asher Yoga stream. It was a becoming alternative for Atlanta, setting an amazing tone for the day.
Chef Trimel made a scrumptious breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, inexperienced peppers, and my favourite, shakshuka.
After breakfast we moved on to our morning studying session. A “problem-solving lightning spherical” the place everybody introduced within the challenges they have been engaged on of their enterprise was adopted by a “what’s truly working” velocity spherical. Each have been actually useful. There’s one thing about being in a room with skilled creators who’re keen to speak candidly about what’s working and what’s not.
We had lunch at Zakia Trendy Lebanese. In the event you ever go to Atlanta, please go. Every little thing was unbelievable. I used to be a bit disenchanted that I could not have the pita bread (it is not gluten free), but it surely seemed good. That being mentioned, every part else I had, together with the rooster kebab, greater than made up for it.
When Zwilling returned house that afternoon, he led a cooking demonstration and knife expertise class. I discovered extra about correct knife method and blade care than my years of cooking expertise, and I additionally discovered about KnifeAid, Zwilling’s mail-in knife sharpening service. There’s nothing worse than a boring knife, so 100% ship it in as quickly as doable.
The Zwilling Group truly consists of six manufacturers (Zwilling, Staub, Miyabi, Henckels, Demayer and Ballarini) and it was actually nice to see and use the completely different merchandise first hand.
That evening, SUNSET® Produce invited us to pleased hour and dinner. This was undoubtedly my favourite meal of the retreat. Marinated grilled steak with pickled greens and unfold, bread, contemporary burrata, and Sundown mini peppers and chimichurri. I went to sleep feeling very full and really pleased.
Sundown is already a model that I completely adore and love, so with the ability to join immediately with their workforce felt actually particular. Isaac and I are obsessive about the flavour bomb tomatoes and the youngsters are undoubtedly into the mini cucumbers. In the event you’re a choosy eater, that is mainly a miracle. As a result of the produce is grown in greenhouses with an emphasis on style, you’ll be able to instantly inform the distinction. Different Sundown recipes might be coming to the weblog quickly.
Our final full day began with a fast morning exercise. Jess and I did a Sooner Approach Pilates exercise, adopted by breakfast the place Chef Trimmell ready oatmeal, baked egg muffins, turkey sausage, and extra.
We then acquired a one-on-one web site audit from the Mediavine workforce, which was actually invaluable. For these exterior of the running a blog world, Mediavine is an advert administration firm constructed particularly for content material creators. Having the ability to spend time with my workforce to debate my web site and get actionable suggestions is priceless.
Lunch was a build-your-own Energy Bowl bar from Amylu Meals. To be trustworthy, this place was proper up my alley. Amylu Kurzawski, founding father of Amylu, was there in particular person. She branched out into rooster sausage in 1992 after working in her household’s conventional sausage enterprise. At present, its lineup consists of greater than 50 sausages, meatballs, burgers, patties and crumbles, all made with antibiotic-free rooster and nitrate- and nitrite-free. I used to be already a giant fan of Amylu, so it was nice to satisfy the founder in particular person.
I made the bowl with a mattress of veggies, plenty of contemporary veggies, and pickled onions, however I could not select only one protein so I opted for rooster sausage, crumble, and a few meatballs. It was precisely the type of high-protein, feel-good bowl I make myself for lunch on daily basis. I’ve already began stocking up on Amylu merchandise extra deliberately since I bought house.
We wrapped up the afternoon with a second problem-solving session and group picture earlier than heading to the ultimate dinner of the retreat hosted by Mediavine at Ray’s on the River.
Whereas driving the bus, I listened to Alan Jackson’s “Chattahoochee”. clearly. And our entire group sang collectively. It was a type of little spontaneous moments that ended up being the spotlight of the journey.
Ray’s itself is situated proper on the Chattahoochee River and was lovely, with nice meals and lengthy dinner conversations with the Mediavine workforce protecting every part from the present state of the business to work-life stability to motherhood. A kind of dinners you by no means need to finish.
Ultimate ideas and takeaways
Whenever you take three days away out of your every day routine, encompass your self with ladies who take this job severely, eat effectively, and have house to actually assume, one thing occurs to you that’s arduous to copy in any other case. An enormous thanks to Liz and Lauren for creating one thing really superb.
And thanks to Butterball, Amylu, Sundown, Mediavine, and Zwilling for making all of it doable. Investing on this neighborhood means so much.
In the event you’re a meals blogger or content material creator and wish to apply for a future retreat (the following one might be in Austin, Texas this fall!), you’ll be able to submit your utility right here. Extremely, extremely advisable.
All images courtesy of Amanda Kampinen.
