Take a behind-the-scenes have a look at Atlanta’s Contemporary Air Retreat. Three days of nice meals, significant connections, and nice manufacturers.
Final month, I had the chance to attend a Contemporary Air Retreat in Atlanta, Georgia. I am nonetheless going robust. I’ve attended many occasions and conferences over time, however there’s something about this explicit retreat that makes it really feel totally different every time.
I first attended in 2021 when it was held in Breckenridge, Colorado, and it was such an excellent expertise that I used to be actually completely happy to be invited once more this yr. In the event you observe me on Instagram, you might have seen among the tales from this journey, however right now I am sharing the complete synopsis. The folks, the meals, the manufacturers, and sure, Alan Jackson’s little singalong scene I will not quickly neglect.
What’s Contemporary Air Retreat?
The Contemporary 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, fastidiously chosen group of creators come collectively for a number of days to be taught, join, and, after all, 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 steadiness…these girls have it discovered in the easiest way attainable.
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 girls 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 in some way easy.
We additionally had Chef Trimmell Hawkins cook dinner the complete time. For individuals who aren’t accustomed to 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 a fair higher humanity.
Day 1: Arrival + Butterball Welcome Dinner
I flew into Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon and certainly one of my finest buddies from faculty 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 making ready for the night.
Issues began with completely happy hour and dinner hosted by Butterball, and what an excellent 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 wonderful forged iron potatoes.
Once I consider Butterball, I instantly consider Thanksgiving turkey, however I’ve discovered that there are such a lot of totally different turkey merchandise, together with floor turkey, which is the weeknight MVP and certainly one of 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 via Atlanta’s neighborhoods, but it surely was raining, so we settled on the Asher Yoga movement. It was a becoming selection for Atlanta, setting an excellent 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 really working” pace spherical. Each have been actually useful. There’s one thing about being in a room with skilled creators who’re prepared to speak candidly about what’s working and what’s not.
We had lunch at Zakia Fashionable Lebanese. In the event you ever go to Atlanta, please go. All the things was unbelievable. I used to be somewhat dissatisfied that I could not have the pita bread (it is not gluten free), but it surely seemed good. That being mentioned, all the things else I had, together with the hen 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 approach 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 attainable.
The Zwilling Group really consists of six manufacturers (Zwilling, Staub, Miyabi, Henckels, Demayer and Ballarini) and it was actually nice to see and use the totally different merchandise first hand.
That night time, SUNSET® Produce invited us to completely happy 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 completely happy.
Sundown is already a model that I completely adore and love, so having the ability to join straight 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 principally a miracle. As a result of the produce is grown in greenhouses with an emphasis on style, you may instantly inform the distinction. Different Sundown recipes will probably be coming to the weblog quickly.
Our final full day began with a fast morning exercise. Jess and I did a Sooner Means 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 priceless. For these outdoors of the running a blog world, Mediavine is an advert administration firm constructed particularly for content material creators. With the ability to spend time with my workforce to debate my website and get actionable suggestions is priceless.
Lunch was a build-your-own Energy Bowl bar from Amylu Meals. To be sincere, this place was proper up my alley. Amylu Kurzawski, founding father of Amylu, was there in particular person. She branched out into hen 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 hen and nitrate- and nitrite-free. I used to be already an enormous fan of Amylu, so it was nice to fulfill the founder in particular person.
I made the bowl with a mattress of veggies, numerous contemporary veggies, and pickled onions, however I could not select only one protein so I opted for hen sausage, crumble, and a few meatballs. It was precisely the type of high-protein, feel-good bowl I make myself for lunch day by day. I’ve already began stocking up on Amylu merchandise extra deliberately since I obtained 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 complete group sang collectively. It was a type of little spontaneous moments that ended up being the spotlight of the journey.
Ray’s itself is positioned proper on the Chattahoochee River and was lovely, with nice meals and lengthy dinner conversations with the Mediavine workforce overlaying all the things from the present state of the trade to work-life steadiness to motherhood. A type of dinners you by no means wish to finish.
Last ideas and takeaways
Once you take three days away out of your each day routine, encompass your self with girls who take this job significantly, eat properly, and have house to actually suppose, one thing occurs to you that’s laborious to duplicate in any other case. A giant thanks to Liz and Lauren for creating one thing really wonderful.
And thanks to Butterball, Amylu, Sundown, Mediavine, and Zwilling for making all of it attainable. Investing on this neighborhood means quite a bit.
In the event you’re a meals blogger or content material creator and want to apply for a future retreat (the following one will probably be in Austin, Texas this fall!), you may submit your software right here. Extremely, extremely really useful.
All pictures courtesy of Amanda Kampinen.
