Our Evening with Kitchensurfing

Have you heard of KitchenSurfing? We hadn't either, but boy are we excited to share what we've learned about this awesome new site. Basically, you can sign up as a chef on Kitchensurfing or find a chef for hire to any local area for any kind of event you might want catered or cooked for. If you are familiar with AirBNB, the concept is similar, but specializing in chefs.


Well, this time last week we were lucky enough to be invited to a Richmond Meetup in honor of Kitchensurfing — it was an event in collaboration with Caitlin Kilcoin of YRichmond Program, Stephanie Lebow of Pizza Tonight & onioncloute, Tumblr and Max Siegal, the Director of Community Outreach for Kitchensurfing.

The event was a sort-of kickoff introduction of Kitchensurfing to the Richmond food community set up in the style of what the site's concept is capable of — hosting an event in a great space that's privately catered.

There were lots of familiar faces, but just as many new-to-us people we enjoyed meeting. We had fun chatting with Brian of Dirty Richmond — an RVA blog we've been following for ages but hadn't yet put the face to the name.

Max of Kitchensurfing & Brian of Dirty Richmond

Our friend, Stephanie, of onioncloute and Pizza Tonight held down the kitchen while preparing dinner for the Meetup.

No matter where we go, Tim always ends up in the kitchen...

One pleasant surprise we came across while there was Ardent Craft Ales, a brewery we're pretty excited about still in the planning phases, currently being run out of a garage in the Church Hill area.

We tasted both varieties on tap and were blown away at the crisp but full tastes these guys are brewing up (pun intended). In general, I'm not really a beer drinker, but will admit these craft ales were amazing. We're definitely looking forward to following their progress as they continue to get things going here in RVA.

Tim photographing Ardent for E.A.T.'s Tumblr

The event was hosted at an incredible house up in Church Hill that also happens to be on the market right now. Because it was a fully renovated historic home, it gave us lots of ideas and inspiration for things we might like to try in our own (much smaller) 100 year old home down the road.

All of those rooms look so empty because the house was so big and everybody ended up congregating in the back of the house near the kitchen (doesn't that always happen?).

Once we sat down to eat, we enjoyed chatting with Ellie of Everyday Gourmet, the folks behind Ellwood Thompson's and the chefs from Aziza's at our table.

Caitlin Kilcoin speaking at the start of the meal

Max Siegal speaking about Kitchensurfing

Stephanie Lebow talking about the meal

All in all, we really enjoyed getting to sit down for a meal with other folks interested in food, photography and blogging here in the Richmond community, discover some new local favorites and learn more about the Kitchensurfing concept at the same time.

Here's a fun little writeup of the event in Style Weekly where you can see a glimpse of Tim in the background next to me, "enjoying" a glass of Ardent Ale, ha — they caught me mid-gulp:

Image by Scott Elmquist, courtesy of Style Weekly

Kitchensurfing currently has headquarters in both Brooklyn and Berlin and seems to be expanding quickly, we're excited to keep an eye on the site and watch as more local chefs sign up in our area. Learn more on their How it Works page.

Would you try something like this in your area?