Gastropost says farewell

I have been blogging for over 5 years and somewhere along the way when I first started I came upon something online about Gastropost and how people were posting photos from Mission Challenges that the people at Post Media/The National Post were  creating each week. I thought it would be a fun thing to do to post my photos to the online community and join others.  I thought it might be fun to see if my photos got published in the National Post once a week from a selection of the photos that were posted online by a growing food loving community.
For about 5 years I posted photos of food I made and food I ate at restaurants and events around town and shared them with the Gastropost community.

This was probably my first post that got into the newspaper.  I was told I was the only one at the time that included myself and a friend in the photo.  That's because it was so new I didn't know exactly what everyone else was doing.  Mine is the 4th image from the left in case you can tell my popsicle stuffed face.

I never imagined what it would grow into and how it would affect my life.  In about 5 years they created over 240 different weekly challenges and I probably submitted photos for over 200 for sure.

My photos were probably published in the National Post maybe over 60 times.  I lost count but the first time it was published I ran out and picked up the Newspaper because I thought it was such a cool thing.

My dentist who is also a family friend commented about seeing my photos in the paper and my cousin thought it was the coolest thing.

I have even had people come up to me at events and know who I was because of seeing my photos in the paper because they were accompanied by a sketch of my face that Gastropost would create for everyone at the beginning that would be posted under the photo along with our Twitter or Instagram handles.

The Gastropost team would organize events at restaurants in the beginning and I can remember going to Little Anthony's for the first one and meeting the team at the time and them knowing who I was and presenting me with a Gastropost pin to wear so that each of us could meet each other and know who we were in relation to what was posted in the online and in the newspaper.

There were a handful of events where we got to know fellow Gastroposters face to face and the most notable one was for the 100th Mission that was held at a now defunct huge restaurant on Jarvis Street.  Our Gastropost sketches were posted on the walls and on tables around the restaurant.  There was a screen posting live tweets and a presentation of some of our work.

There was also contests to win things like Food Movie tickets, tickets to Food events and things like a Chef apron and a smart phone which I won.

But most of all I met some really great friends because of Gastropost and at a Tea Party that I hosted in my home recently someone pointed out how many of the people were Gastroposters.  I think there was about 6 of them.  I didn't even think of that when I invited them.  They were just my food loving or blogging friends.  

That's the thing that happened.  From posting random photos online to having life long friendships in real life.  

I am truly sad that it is the last week for Gastropost because it has brought so much creativity and friendship into my life.  It has challenged me to seek out interesting food and create more interesting plates of food.

I will miss the Gastropost team and the weekly missions but at least I have some great friends to continue sharing great food with.

And it is fitting that some of the Inspiration Team's photos appear in the Final Last Bite Mission.

THANK YOU GASTROPOST for 5 Great years.

(Image from the National Post/Post Media)

Gastropost dinner with food friends

I have been a Gastroposter since it first started in 2012.  Gastropost is an online community where foodies follow weekly Missions to snap photos of their culinary adventures and a few selected photos will appear in Saturday's National Post Newspaper.  Gastropost is a division of Postmedia Lab that focuses on people's passions.  Gastropost is dedicated to food passions.

At last count I had my photos published in the National Post probably over 50 times.   I will try and get an updated count.  I am one of the few people on their Inspiration team which means we get the missions a week in advance and submit our missions by email to inspire the rest of the community to follow suit and submit their versions of the weekly mission.   Every week submissions are submitted by tagging #Gastropost on Twitter, Instagram or at the beginning we started with Tumblr.

I try and submit to every mission and have probably only missed less than a dozen at this point.

I have been to many Gastropost dinners at restaurants and have also won food related movie tickets and other prizes that Gastropost has held over the years.  They don't do contests every week but every once in a while there is some kind of food related incentive for Gastroposters that up's the challenge a bit.

I have participated in these Missions as a challenge to try and find new foods or to improve on my photography and food styling skills.  Sometimes it's helpful when I don't know what to eat and the missions will give me a direction of things I could eat and post.

After many years of participating I have never visited the place all of these missions originate from until last night.  A small group of Gastroposters were invited to the Postmedia office to have a delicious dinner catered by Dundas Park Kitchen and wines by Rosewood Estates and chat about what our participation in Gastropost has been like and to provide feedback on what we we would like to see in the future.  I can tell you that if some of those ideas come to fruition there will be a lot more group meetups that will be a lot of fun.

Hosted by our Community Manager Amanda, some people my know her as one of the bloggers from Fat Girl Food Squad.  There was also a few people from Postmedia Lab who asked us some questions and Chef Alex Tso from Dundas Park Kitchen and Krystina Roman from Rosewood Estates Winery.

Chef Tso provided a delicious summer fresh menu of platters of salads and desserts from their Sandwich and Bake Shop.  The platters included the most delicious ceviche,  guacamole, salsa and multiple salads with chickpeas, potato salads, carrots, asparagus  and fantastic grilled beef and chicken.  For dessert there was a selection of Frangiapane tarts of cherry and blueberry, pretzel chocolate chip cookies, macarons and cupcakes.

Krystina from Rosewood Estates brought 3 different wines including a Mead wine which I never heard of before but I am no wine expert to be sure but I was curious and has a small taste and I have to say that I am not a wine drinker and only cook with it but the Mead wine was mild and sweet and would be a great pairing for dessert courses when you want something lighter.

The interesting thing about the Gastropost community is that we all share the love of food.  Gastroposters get a gastrosketch when they are published in the National Post and sometimes it's hard to identify fellow gastroposters from their Gastrosketch's and their twitter handles.  Last night I met a few new Gastroposters who I will now be able to identify by their sketches and handles.
We usually have an instant connection when we meet and there has been a few times where people have come up to me at food events who have known me from my Gastropost submissions.  I guess as one of the inspiration team everyone in the community see our photos.

I have meet a lot of great people from all the Gastropost meetups and a few have become friends that I see at other food events around town.

Thank you to the Gastropost team for a delicious meal and a nice intimate get together and I hope that it brings lot's of interesting things to the Gastropost community in the future.