Exactly one year ago this week we started Soup Club at Ai. Once a week, a different member of our staff received the high honor of walking over to Hale and Hearty Soups at 23rd & Madison. They presented a redemption form torn-up, taped remnant of a redemption form, got an employee to initial it, and walked out with a steaming hot cup of liquid lunch. They also got to choose the subsequent week's recipient. Thanks, H and H, for a memorable year.
Ten entries and a few thousand calories later, developer Sean's "Crack the Code Cheesecake" took top honors, followed by a hotly debated second-place showing by, of all things, a bacon dish and fender Ashley's "Depressive Cupcakes." True to our friendly competitive spirit, an active debate is raging as to whether the bacon (sweet but not baked) is more or less appropriate an entry than Brazilian empanadas (baked but not sweet).
The agency bake-off idea is proving popular: someone just bought agencybakeoff.com and registered the Twitter account. Ai's expert bake staff accept all challenges.
Web development is a process that takes time and depending on how you set things up from the beginning, it can have a strong effect on how things turn out in the end.
There is another process that is similar to this... Baking.
A few of us have discussed having a bake off where the participants will bring in a baked good and then have the rest of the crew judge based on appearance, taste, overall impression and creativity. Any Ai'er can bring something and those who don't can judge. All submissions to the Ai Bakeoff must be baked from scratch.
We've decided to have the bake off this Thursday at lunchtime. We're bringing in prized baked good and a healthy appetite. Photos and happy stomachaches to follow.
