Today was day five. Five days of walking all around downtown Austin. Five days of hearing so many amazing people speak. Five days of the best experience I have EVER had. SXSW is something that I am so grateful to have taken part in.

As the interactive portion dies down, there are more things that are happening. Today was the first full day of the food portion of the conference. Honestly, this was one of the best days I have had yet because it was about food, and who doesn’t love food.

So, to start the day off right, because I was feeling quite rested today, I stopped at the amazing crepe restaurant just a block or two from the convention center. Best mocha, and crepe, I have ever had!

The first panel I stopped at today was good ole barbecue. I saw this on the schedule and I knew at that moment I HAD to go to this panel.

The panel was sponsored by A&M, and honestly, there is not another university I would expect to do this panel than them.

Now, this panel was not just about how great Texas BBQ is or what everything is, it was a very informational and scientific panel. Three of the panelists were professors from Texas A&M University from the agriculture department. The three of them together are actually called the “Three Brisketeers,” and it was a great name because these are the guys of BBQ.

The panel gave so many great tips to picking out what meat to buy and exactly what each piece of meat you will want. A cool thing they did was actually talk about the piece of meat they brought. They were able to show exactly what they were talking about because they brought fresh pieces of meat. They also passed around a sheet of paper that described the different types of beef ribs and pork ribs.

The panel then discussed a camp that A&M hosts that will teach people exactly the science behind the process of BBQ. It was also mentioned the techniques that make BBQ that much better. Finally, the audience as invited to walk across the hall and try some of the BBQ that was cooked for this event.

This was by far the GREATEST panel that I attended while at SXSW. To me, it seemed like the panelists were the most engaged and were so excited to be there and that just made the panel that much better.

Like I said, to day was the start of the food portions of the festival, and one of the Iron Chefs I grew up with was speaking on a panel. Cat Cora and others talked about the importance and the future of technology in the kitchen.

Right now, there are so many new technological advances in the kitchen. We have smart fridges that allow us to see inside of them from anywhere as long as you have a smartphone. There are even smart ovens that can help control the heating.

But what are some of the new technologies that may be in the kitchen and what are their importance. The main want for new technology was to make things much easier in the kitchen.

The idea of a machine that would prep your vegetable for you, so you can make sure that you are spending time with your family. The panel also talked about having an app tell you what exactly you should eat have a hard workout.

To hear these experts, talk about the potential of the advances that could come to the kitchen was pretty amazing. Besides talking about all of the positives they did talk about the negatives that may arise from technology.

Overall it was incredibly interesting to hear about the technology that may soon

be in our kitchen.

To help wind down for the day, I headed to a room of cheese. This was not just a room with some cheese, it was a room that had the world’s largest cheeseboard, around 70 feet. The cheese was from Wisconsin, of course, and features roughly 100 different types of cheese. There were also wine samples that would pair well with the cheeses.

The fifth day was full of great food panels and it was so much fun to hear all the great technological advances. Also, all the free samples for sure made it all that much better.