My 2015
2015 has been a crazy and fun year for the Chef’s Wife! It’s been 12 months packed full of many highlights and lots of change! I feel like I didn’t blog as much as I did last year, but my stats do say that I posted 66 new blogs in 2015 – so that wasn’t too shabby I suppose!
In April, Chef decided to leave his Head Chef role at Flinderz and have a “lifestyle change”. After pretty much having no quality time with him for months and months, Little Chef and I were very happy to get him back! Now he is much happier in a position where he’s still making great food, though working nights is very rare and he often gets weekends off too – almost unheard of for a Chef! My sports-mad Chef is seeing A LOT of sport now, as part of his job and a couple of concerts too!
We decided to move house in June and sadly our beloved fur baby, our Golden Labrador Bailey, passed away the week before we found our new house. We moved a whole 6 streets away to our dream home (we do like our area a lot!) and we can now walk to our award winning new local – The Duke. Moving took up a great deal of my time this year and I’m still catching up from it. I lost the will to unpack the last few boxes and have a whopping 14 blog posts I haven’t written yet!
Professionally, I left my day job of 11 years (Accounts for a division of the huge AHG) just a few weeks ago to pursue a brand new career in Digital Marketing – an industry that is a passion of mine – for obvious reasons. So I am very much looking forward to 2016!!
My blog highlights of 2015
Gosh – looking back it really was a busy old year!
I was proud as punch to be ranked at number 4 in Perth’s Hottest 100 Food Blogs 2015. Fellow Perth Blogger Martine, from Chomp Chomp compiles this list every year and though I’ve been blogging a little less, I’d love to hang onto a top 10 position for 2016! The list is a fabulous way to discover new Perth food bloggers – you should check it out!
Continuing my monthly restaurant review for the Post (Perth Western Suburbs Newspaper). I’m heading into my third year of reviews for the Post and very proud to be a part of such a well written local newspaper.
I had an article printed in Rocks Magazine. In a glossy two page spread, I listed my top spots to dine in Perth and it featured a few of my favourite food pics too! The in-flight magazine is seen by people all around Australia.
Perth played host to some fantastic events this year. I didn’t make it to Taste of Perth – such a shame that it was a total wash out. The first Night Noodle Markets were excellent – I loved Hoy Panoy’s satays – all the way from Melbourne. The queues were massive though! Who can forget the visit from The Giants in February. What a wonderful experience that was for a wide-eyed Little Chef and I.
Making it to Pata Negra before it shut it’s doors. David Comer is a very highly regarded Perth Chef and I was never lucky enough to dine at his fine diner – Star Anise. Pata Negra is currently having a re-furb and will open it’s doors again in the new year as an Asian style restaurant – I can’t wait!!
It was also sad to see No 4 Blake Street close it’s doors and Hippo Creek too. Oh my Lawd! Where will I get my Hunters Assagai now?!
I even started a little business – The Chef’s Wife Social Media Management. Specialising in the hospitality and lifestyle industries. I work with cafes, restaurants, takeaways and more to boost and establish their Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Blogger catch ups are a favourite of mine – when I can get a babysitter! This year I have met so many lovely Perth bloggers at events and dinners – some have become great friends. We have a lovely food blogging community in WA and I love to put faces to names of the wonderful blogs I follow. I’m always up for a brunch date! Hopefully I meet many more of you in 2016 🙂
My Favourite Newbies in 2015
In 2015 we have eaten at many diverse cafes, bars, restaurants and food trucks. Like previous years, there’s been stacks of new openings too. Here’s my top 5 favourite new Perth dining spots for this year…
o May Street Larder – East Fremantle
And an honourable mention to the fabulous Stix Bar – Burswood
My Favourite “oldies” of 2015
With all the hype of new venues, it’s important to support existing restaurants that are doing a fantastic job too! Here are my favourite Perth dining spots I visited in 2015.
o The Flour Factory – Perth CBD
o Mary Street Bakery – Highgate
Vital Statistics
WordPress, the platform I use for my blog, gave me a look back on my highlights and stats for the year and I thought it was pretty nifty to see how my lil blog has grown from year to year. I thought I’d share my 2015 stats with you here…
o Nearly 70 new blog posts
o Over 65,000 views of my blogposts this year
o Visitors to my blog from 129 countries
o Over 8,400 social media followers – mostly on Facebook.
You can follow me at…
@Thechefswifeperth on Instagram
@perthchefswife on Twitter
On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheChefHisWifeTheirPerthFectLife
Thank you!!!
My blog started off as a secret little project that I thought up in 2012. I seriously thought 5 people would like my FB page! I’ve created a little monster that takes up a lot of my time – but I love every second and every door that it has opened for me. What a ride! It’s proven to myself that in the wise words of Mariah “you gotta make it happen”. I took a chance, put myself out there and it has far exceeded my expectations in every way. If you have an idea – you should totally go for it!!
To all my followers – Thank you very much for your support! Every Facebook like, Instagram love and blog comment makes me grin. If no one liked it, then it wouldn’t make blogging half as rewarding.
To all the restaurants, artisans and companies that have contacted me in 2015 – thank you for taking the time to discover my blog. I get an incredible amount of emails and invites on a daily basis. I recon that I only go to about 25% of events I’m invited to, if that. Sure, it’s great getting a freebie, but as the saying goes ‘nothing really comes for free” and with each kind gift and invite, a lot of my time and effort goes into creating a post to promote it. And in 2015 there hasn’t been much spare time at all! When I do collaborate with a brand, I do like to keep it local and you know I’m bringing you something I’m really excited about. So thank you to these people that have taken the time to contact me and had to bear with my sometimes slow replies.
What’s happening in 2016… MORE FOOD!! They’ll be more reviews with the Post newspaper and once I recover from the festive season – I WILL get cracking writing those 14 brunches, lunches and dinners I haven’t shared with you yet…. Is there anywhere you’d like us to review in 2016? Personally, there are 100’s of places I’d like to try. One such place I’m hoping to get to in 2016 is Lalla Rookh – a restaurant I’ve heard so many outstanding things about. I’m also excited to check out the State Buildings and the new venues at the Lizzy Quay development.
I’m hoping 2016 is the best yet for us all!
Happy New Year!!
Amanda x