Virtual Cooking in the News: An Article in the Ventura County Star!

This was my friend, Sarene's (@fringefood) tweet Sunday evening after she and I "skype-cooked" a fish dish together for a photo shoot for an article for the Ventura County Star.

If you read my first 2013 post, then you know that I am starting a virtual cooking community, Tasting Jerusalem, with my long-time, close friend Sarene Wallace, a communications professional and food writer based in Ventura County in southern California. Her local paper, the Ventura County Star (VC Star) found the concept of the Tasting Jerusalem group and our long-time, long-distance friendship newsworthy (thanks Mark Storer!) and just published a story about us and the Tasting Jerusalem cooking group.

The headline is: Camarillo foodie, friend host virtual cooking community

For the photo shoot for the story, they asked us to simultaneously cook a recipe from the cookbook while communicating on Skype. We had so much fun cooking together in two different locations. And happily, both of us finished at nearly the same time and were also wowed by the flavors of the dish - pan-fried fish with harissa and rose. It is on our list of must-cook dishes for the group, for sure.

Here are some of the photos captured by @gregorytlee and by Sarene's husband in Camarillo. And be sure to check out the photos by the VC Star photographer who was a pleasure to work with and a great sport about the unusual cooking set-up.

We hope you too will cook together with us from near or far as we explore the flavors, techniques, and recipes in the cookbook Jerusalem. How do you use technology to stay connected with friends and family, even those in other cities, states, and countries?