This month we have 3 Fabulous Foodies who have built great connected communities around different areas who used Social Media to build their business: The Blogger, The Restauranteur, The Experience Giver

The Panel:

CARMEL RUGGERI

Carmel Ruggeri co-owns La Casa Ristorante with her brother Tony. Her recipe for success? Tony’s skill & industry know-how, her Mother’s meatballs, traditional Italian food and service & twitter!

Initially using it to share her love and passion for great food, she started to share her intention to open an authentic Italian posto!  It wasn’t long before she was tweeting Jamie Oliver and connecting with Sydney foodies!  She shared her journey to open her restaurant with her online friends and we were hooked!!  Not only did she connect with customers, she also connected with Australian chefs, foodies and tweeters.

Once La Casa settled to a frenetic pace, as opposed to the ridiculously crazy busy of the first 12 months, Carm started to work on her true passion, a Sicilian Food Tour; a trip through her island, Sicily. Carmel’s parents were born in the small fishing village of Scoglitti, Ragusa and such a little piece of her is there too.

“It’s been a dream of mine for so long to take a group of my fellow Australian friends through my island of Sicily and experiencing it the way I do. Sharing pure culinary local food and immersing them in the true rustic charm of Sicily. The cannoli, the cheese, the tomatoes, simple items you will never ever forget.”

And that is exactly what she delivered in May this year! Carm and her team took a group to Sicily and it was a huge success and provided much eye candy for those of us back home watching on our screens.

Carm has extended this experience to Sydney with regular Sicilian Food Tours and Regional Dinners; a place where people can meet, laugh, eat and create great memories!

Twitter: @CarmR
La Casa Website
Sicilian Food Tours

SARA McCLEARY

Sara has a deep passion for both food and travel.
With previous experience in both the food and travel industry including front-of-house in various Sydney restaurants, a sales job with a large food corporation and as a manager in one of Sydney’s leading backpacker travel agencies, I have a good insight into the real work that goes on behind the scenes to make a good meal or a great trip happen.

“I started to cook at an early stage learning from my mum, aunt and grandmother. Recently I have been rediscovering some traditional Latvian recipes and building on my love of Japanese ingredients.

I am addicted to travel. Having grown up travelling and living in both Germany and Italy my feet are always itchy and I hunger for new places to explore.  I am a frequent visitor to Japan for work and have incredible memories of Manhattan. I love you NYC.

My experience in developing the blog means I am comfortable working with PR companies, brands, restaurants, hotels and the travel industry.
My blog is a full-time consuming passion.”

Sara Elsewhere
Founder and Chair of  the Sydney Food Bloggers’ Meetup Group.
Co-founder and co-organiser of the Australia wide annual blogger event The Sweet Swap.
Sara has been recognised by HotelClub.com as one of Australia’s top Food & Travel Bloggers.

About Belly Rumbles
A Sydney-based food and travel blog written by Sara McCleary.
Belly Rumbles began in November 2009 after I started reading food blogs when planning a trip to New York.  From humble beginnings as an online diary, Belly Rumbles has continued to grow and evolve into one of Sydney’s most consistent and well known single-voice food and travel blogs.
Over 300 Belly Rumble articles have been published to date with new original content posted 3-4 times a week. Articles categories include: recipes, restaurant reviews, product road tests and travel stories.
Belly Rumbles is attracting a growing number of engaged readers who enjoy following my adventures in food and travel.

Links
Belly Rumbles Blog:  www.bellyrumbles.com
Twitter:  @bellyrumbles
Instagram:  @bellyrumbles
Google + :  mccleary.sara@gmail.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/bellyrumbles
Linkedin:  http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=73465838
The Sweet Swap:  www.thesweetswap.com

CENK BABAN

Cenk is a food lover with a passion for the Internet, emerging web technologies and trends. Combine this all together and you get Social Dinner Club; monthly dinner party where you sample different restaurants and cuisines from around the world, meet amazing chefs, find out more about the cuisine and culture, not to mention meeting new and interesting dinner club foodies!

“We’re lucky to have the best of the worlds’ cuisine in Sydney. Yet most often when we try a new cuisine, we don’t learn much about the food or the culture. We believe discovering a new cuisine should be a unique experience. Social Dinner Club is here to create this experience.”

Cenk is an online marketing consultant working with SME’s.  He helps them to make the most of their online presence by providing assistance in online marketing, digital strategy and social media.  He blogs regularly on his website cenkbaban.com and for trade magazines.

•  Featured in the Top 10 Unique Dining Experiences in Asia Pacific
•  Listed among the Top 10 Trends in Australian Retail and Hospitality
•  SMH mentioned Social Dinner Club for the way Social Media is integrated to the events
•  Featured for its innovative use of Social Media
•  The first event  Google Sydney sponsored
•  Reviewed by leading industry blogs and publications

The Links:

http://www.meetup.com/socialdinnerclub/
https://www.facebook.com/socialdinnerclub
https://twitter.com/socialdinnerclb
short video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnw6O8hFAY8

WE ARE SUPPORTING A WONDERFUL CAUSE EVERY MONTH!!

This month you get to vote on which of these 3 worthy charities receive the entry money (less fees):

Kids R Christmas	www.chw.edu.au
Miracle Babies Foundation	www.miraclebabies.org.au/
MS Society	www.msaustralia.org.au

Meet amazing women and men as well as discussing the ever changing world of social media.The open discussion about social media is one of the best parts of the event. So bring your social media questions for the group to answer.

I can’t run these events without your help!  A HUGE Thank You to:

Photos: Judith Cantor

To Tania, Emanuel and the team at BAR100 – thank you so much for having us through the winter months. We wish you were more central 🙂

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