Stephanie Meyer is a true socialite when it comes to food and entertaining. She does writing and contributes her high quality photography to several food blogs, such as the Food & Wine blog with friend and Travel Channel star, Andrew Zimmern, to Minnesota Monthly magazine’s TC Taste blog, and to her very own food blog entitled, Fresh Tart.

In 2011 she took it upon herself to organize a group of bloggers called the MN Food Bloggers. They encourage, assist and support each other as well as spotlight local restaurants, cooking styles and various dietary focuses in eating and cooking. In Part 1 of her interview, Stephanie talks about her family, modeling and how she developed her photography skills. (Part 2 on WED and Part 3 on THU.)

In Part 2 of her interview, Stephanie shares what the focus of her blog is, how life as a person on a Gluten-Free diet has been for her and then she concludes by talking about her experience in organizing the MN Food Bloggers group.

In Part 3 of her interview, Stephanie shares what her favorite kinds of restaurants are, what inspires her blog postings, where she enjoys eating outside of her home state of Minnesota and then ends with talking about how Social Media has really changed her life.

Stephanie March is the Senior Food Editor at the Mpls/St.Paul magazine. She has a real passion for food and sharing her “finds” with others. Find out how she got her start in the food-business and what kind of training she received to get where she is today. Stephanie will also share her views on the “food scene” in the Twin Cities and what some of her food preferences are. Be sure not to miss any of Part 1 of a 3-part interview with Stephanie March.

In Part 2, Stephanie shares what some of her restaurant service pet peeves are, explains how she manages her work and family life and then shares what she feels is missing from the Twin Cities food scene. (Part 3 will be released tomorrow.)

In Part 3 of her interview, Stephanie March talks about how the local food scene is influencing other parts of the country, her thoughts on doing TV and radio work and what other interests or activities that she has beyond the food world.

Hello everyone! Welcome to a “sweet” Twitterview with the owner of @MojoDonuts, Lisa Clark. Lets get to tweeting!

So Lisa, lets get to know a little bit about you. Where did you grow up and go to school? @MojoDonuts

Lisa:    I grew up in both New Orleans and Minneapolis. I lived in N’awlins for 11 years….

That’s why Beignets are in my blood! I went to high school in New Orleans. Some college but I kept changing majors.

I see. So when you were a child and in your teen years, what did you think you wanted to be when you grew up?

Lisa:    When I was really young I wanted to be a lawyer. I believe donuts were a much better decision.

A battle of loopholes vs donut holes? :) So when did your interest in baking start for you?

Lisa:    I can remember as young as kindergarten having an interest….

The first thing I learned was how to fry an egg when I was 6 years old. From there it was onward and upwards.

Lets then move forward to today. When and how did the idea of a donut shop come to you Lisa?

Lisa:    Well, it is a culmination of things. First, my oldest daughter doesn’t like cake…

Every year on her birthday we would have donuts to celebrate instead of cake…

I never found great donuts in the Twin Cities and always thought great donuts need to be more accessible…

On my trips to Seattle I really felt inspired by their great donut culture….

That inspiration combined with my experience at Breadsmith made me think I could make this happen here in the cities.

Interesting. So how did you come to be at the location that you’re at in St.Paul? First choice?

Lisa:    I’ve always loved St. Paul. I actually had been looking for about a year and was very excited when this spot opened up…

I have a wonderful ad agency that actually did the research on the space for me…

I had a list of things that were important to me and they gave the thumbs up that this space met the criteria.

Wonderful!  What the story behind the name of your donut shop?  How did you come up with it?

Lisa:    My two youngest children actually named the shop..

It comes from their love of monkeys and a villain named Mojo JoJo from the cartoon series the Powerpuff Girls.

Great story! :) You offer a number of unique flavors of donuts. What made you go beyond the norm of choc/glazed?

Lisa:    That’s how we like to eat at home and I hoped that customers would like it too. So far, so good! :)

What are your 3 most popular donuts, and what kind of flour do you use in baking?

Lisa:    Raised ring with chocolate ganache, mango glaze and coconut ring and any of the fritters (apple or banana pecan)…

Bakers Patent, Pastry and Whole Wheat Flour…

And we have plans to start using locally sourced flour and dairy in the near future.

Awesome! Do you do curlers, eclairs, jelly filled or cream filled donuts? Do you think you’ll ever do breads?

Lisa:    Yes and yes! We do all the above except éclairs. We do have a cream filled Bismarck similar to an éclair though…

Customers can special requests. We have filled quite a few already…

We don’t ever want to say never, but breads aren’t on our current horizon

Lots of people like coffee with their donut. What brands and flavors do you offer?

Lisa:    We offer an entire organic fair trade coffee bar with all sorts of upgrades and sweet additions…

The beans are roasted locally by B&W coffee roasters.

Lots of donut talk gets me hungry! :) What are your hours of operation for when people can come for your tasty treats?

Lisa:    Tuesday-Friday 5:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 6:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

Thank you for your time today Lisa! Read more about her and other MN donut shops on @MNMOmag here – Article

Lisa:    My pleasure Joel! Stop by sometime and give us a try!

@JoelECarlson: Hello everybody, and welcome to today’s Food-Friday Twitterview with @Celebr8nGenr8n (Marie Porter). Set your timers to 1hr.

Q – #1    To start @Celebr8nGenr8n, tell us where you grew up and if that’s when you started having an interest in food, specifically baking.

Marie: Hey, thanks for having me! I grew up in Winnipeg, MB. Learned to bake when I was around 4, so yup – in Winnipeg!

Q – #2    So when did you come to Minnesota? When did you start baking & decorating cakes professionally?

Marie: Came here as an adult, when I married my husband :) Started my cake business back in 2007

I honestly hadn’t even considered a career in baking until almost 2 weeks before I got my license for the business!

Q – #3    What’s your business called, where is it located and what kinds of cakes are your specialty?

Marie: My business is Celebration Generation. I’m actually not longer taking cake orders, to focus on my cookbooks/teaching!

While I was still taking orders I specialized in intricate, crazy cakes. I had a strong preference for geeky cakes

Oh, and I specialized in intricate, unusual, and wickedly delicious cake flavors..more importantly than the appearance!

Q – #4    What kind of flavors? When did you transition to cookbooks/teaching, and how did that come about?

Marie: Oh, like these kind of flavors: http://bit.ly/mhOLO. Yum! I think Bananas Foster was my fav, but it’s tough to choose!

Started planning my 1st book, jeez.. 2 yrs ago? Succession planning, I’m very ADD & knew I’d need to move on eventually

The wedding industry – weddings are the bread and butter of cake businesses – has changed over the past 15 years

I don’t really like what it’s become. That, plus needing new challenges and just kinda being DONE with physical labor..

Kind of a “perfect storm” of reasons to evolve :) I enjoy the books. Lets me indulge my “not a people person” self :)

Q – #5    I see. So do you have a book coming out soon, or are you in the development of a new one? When do you do teaching?

Marie: I have one coming out soon – was supposed to be March 31, just found out it’ll be delayed by a month :( Super excited!

I’m also in development of a new one. I have plans for a whole series, each with a different theme.Gives me variety!

I teach private lessons, on an as-needed basis. Also available for corporate “team building” stuff, all appointment

Also getting into some business consultations, as a LOT of people get into the wedding industry “for fun”,no background

I have 15 years experience in various facets of the industry, so it’s nice to be able to help, not waste the knowledge!

Q – #6    Can you tease us a little about what your NEW cookbook will focus on? How many recipes?

Marie: The one about to come out? Evil Cake Overlord has over 100 cake/frosting/filling/fondant recipes!

It actually includes EVERY cake on my custom menu, as well as a bunch more. VERY comprehensive. Yum!

I was always getting asked for recipes when in the cake biz, but that was how I made my living! Nice to share now!

Our Chai was most popular, but there’s a lot of crazy stuff in there, including my Spumoni cake. @deardara LOVED ..

that one at the #FoodWineShow recently, gave me the best compliment on it – that I could open a bakery in Brooklyn..

based on that cake alone. Awesome!

Q – #7    Great! Available on iPad? More about you: FAVORITE – Restaurant, store, comfort food, grocer and ingredient.

Marie: No, but am currently working on getting e-books out. Having issues converting/formatting, lol! #typeA #TeachingMyself

Favorite Restaurant: I love Vietnam House on Brooklyn Blvd. Awesome food, reasonable price, and the owners are sweetest people ever!

Favorite Store.. hrm. Does @thinkgeek count? It’s online, but LOVE THEM. If brick and mortar.. probably Penzey’s & IKEA

Fav grocer.. hrm. @France44Cheese, @unitednoodles, and my new fave, @sewardcoop. Easy to go broke in each though! LOL

As for fav ingredient.. wow. That’s a hard one. Lemon zest, cheese, beer, and rum – for entirely different uses!

Q – #8    That would make an interesting combination! LOL! Are you into Gluten Free baking? Do you use locally grown as well?

Marie: I am anti-GF baking, actually.I’m allergic to gluten myself, but it’s SO necessary for baking. Can’t stand fake flours!

Prefer to bake things inherently gluten free for myself- coconut macaroons, macaron, pavlova, nut crusts for pie, etc

I’ll use locally grown as it makes sense. I’m not into the “locavore” trend, personally. If the best is local, awesome.

When the best has to get flown in from wherever, whatever. Maybe I’m a Globavore LOL (God I hate those terms, haha!)

There are plenty of jobs, trade, technology, etc in foods from away. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to not be on trend

Q – #9    I see. If you could bake a cake for any person (dead/alive) or event, who/what would you make one for?

Marie: Hrm. Dead or alive, I’d love to bake for Louis Pasteur, @RickMercer, & definitely @GeorgeTakei. #OhMyy

… Hugh Jackman too, if I can squeeze his delts. hehe!

@JoelECarlson: Thanks @Celebr8nGenr8n for your time and sharing some of your life today on #jectv. I hope that you have a great book launch! :)

Marie: Thanks for interviewing me! :) Was fun

In the former Sears building off of Lake Street and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis, there is a great market called the Midtown Global Market. They feature numerous food offerings from a wide variety of areas around the world, and also feature fresh locally grown foods. In addition to that, there is a working kitchen that is used by cooks/caterers called Kitchen in the Market which recently expanded its space inside the Global Market.

To showcase the space and the variety of offerings that they have available, the 2 owners, Molly Hermann and Tracy Morgan had a VIP celebration on Thursday February 24, 2011.

There were city officials, local media and some friends that were invited to attend this splendid occasion.

The new space is a kitchen that would put a smile on the face of any foodie or chef.  It has lots of cooking prep areas, display areas for retail options and a large area to conduct cooking classes which is a wonderful feature.

The public should really take advantage of this and can do so by checking out the schedule on the Kitchen in the Market website.

There were some wonderful displays outside the kitchen area of some of the variety of food offerings that are available by those associated with the Kitchen.

You could tell at the event that both Molly and Tracy are very happy with the results as to how the Kitchen turned out and were wonderful hosts of the event.

The staff that they had assisting with the event were very kind and helpful to everyone in attendance.  This kitchen concept is a truly great idea. May both of them and the Kitchen in the Market have continued years of success!