Blogger Event | Sister MAG Meets Schott Ceran

Last Friday I flew to Cologne to attend a blogger event hosted by SisterMAG and SCHOTT CERAN to celebrate their latest product glass ceramic range, MiradurTM. I heard recently from a reliable source that the team at SisterMag really know how to put on events and it’s always so great to spend some time with fellow bloggers in person, so I jumped at the chance.

Before I start, I must warn you, this was a blogger event so you’re going to see a lot of….

That’s right, bloggers and iPhones. But that’s what we do a lot of right? I tell you, if you happened to not be on Instagram for the 24 hours proceeding this event, you missed out on a lot of Instagram stories. And believe me, there were some really fun ones going around!

After dropping our bags at the hotel, we made our way to the Kochfabrik (cooking factory) venue where the theme for the evening was, “Never Stop Inventing”. This was first interpreted with delicious modern finger food prepared by Cologne based restaurant, L’Escalier.  We enjoyed salty, Austrian dumplings, modern potato salad, and fois gras with port sauce. Take a look at the presentation of these delicious creations…

After that, Christina, from SCHOTT CERAN introduced us to MiradurTM, a new innovative cooktop panel and just awarded “best of the best” winner of the Interior Innovation 2017. She demonstrated this “tough beauty” by dropping some very heavy metal balls and weights on it from a height. Not a mark. We then got scratching with sandpaper, comparing their regular ceramic glass to MiradurTM which we couldn’t scratch. You should take a look at their 90 sec video, it’s really well done and quite graphic.

From there we made our way upstairs to the most beautiful table setting. That team from SisterMAG really know the way to a blogger’s heart… You wouldn’t believe how long we were photographing that table and the beautiful floral arrangements. Well, if you are a blogger, you’d understand!

After taking like a trillion photos between us, we were seated and the chef from L’Escalier joined us to talk about innovation in his kitchen and ways in which they push the food boundaries. We enjoyed pasta, hand made on the spot in a parmesan wheel, an indoor BBQ and a nitrogen chocolate dessert.

With full bellies and a mind buzzing and open with new ideas, we all headed back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep. A lot of us were up at very early that morning to catch planes so we were exhausted. I don’t think I’d slept like that in quite some time.

We began our Saturday with a delicious brunch prepared by Cafe Bastian’s, and then we all split up in rotating groups for three fun workshops.

Matthias Ludwigs from Törtchen Törtchen took us through the steps to create little mousse cakes with mirror topping to resemble glass ceramics. We learnt a lot of techniques and each got to make our own little cakes. They were extremely good and thankfully I have the recipe to try at home for a lucky dinner party guest! It’s in German but I’m sure I’ll manage with the trusty Google translate.

UXperten then led a Design Thinking workshop. We followed a formula where we interviewed our partner and came up with a solution to their problem. We then had to sketch and model the idea. There were some amazing turn outs. My partner came up with an interesting book idea that I need to author. Thank you Dominik!

We then moved on to the photography with Berlin based photographer, Zoe Noble. She gave us tips on how to shoot a still life on a reflective surface, using SCHOTT CERAN  glass-ceramics. There were lots of handy tips here for us to take away.

We then grabbed a lunch on the run and hopped into our shuttle to discover design and kitchen innovations at the IMM Cologne’s Living Kitchens. SisterMAG kindly offered to send these goodie bags home for us. I can’t wait to show you what’s inside on Instagram Stories very soon.

The next couple of hours we toured the fair with brand representatives from V-ZUG, BOSCH and BORA, to discover how they’ve incorporated CERAN Miradur in their equipment along with each of their brand’s innovations. If I were about to renovate, Living Kitchens would be the dream destination prior. It’s a whole new world out there since I last put my kitchen in.

I found my dream set up at V-ZUG; a ceramic cooktop which included a moulded area for a wok and a teppanyaki plate. No need for fry pans! Between all of this was an extraction fan coming between cooking plates, with no need for one above. They also had a vacuum seal cooker, a new style of cooking that Michelin Star chefs have been using for years and is now available to the public.

BOSCH seemed to be specialising in fail proof cooking. There were ovens with moisture sensors to cook your cake or roast to perfection and cooktops that communicate with your pan to ensure that your food never burns.

For some fun to end the day, Carole and I got to try our hand in the BORA kitchen with quite an audience. We felt like cooking show hosts! With the chef’s instructions, we made a Kaiserschmarrn. I admit, I just really stirred while Carole did most of the work. Rightly so, if you’ve read her blog, you’ll know that this girl knows her stuff.

The verdict: I was once a gas cooktop girl all the way. My friend in France who has a restaurant told us years ago that ceramic cooktops were the way to go. Over the past few years renting, I’ve experienced them for myself and have discovered how precise they can be. Last weekend I’ve seen how SCHOTT CERAN has taken it to another level again.

Thank you to SisterMAG for putting on such a fun and informative couple of days.

Here are all of the bloggers that also attended the event and that I had such a great time with:

Foodistas | Überding | Arianna Daily | Simple Danish Living | Mademoiselle Poirot | Clo Clo | Lieblingsidee | Lady Stil & Sabine Villa Josefina | Syl Gervais | Little Big Bell | All Hunky Dory | Shareat

Mel xx

// All photos by Timo Roth.