Even before we got to the speakers part of the evening, the Palace Ballroom was a microcosm of Seattle’s food world last night. In line for “What We Talk About When We Talk About Food,” I was right behind Kim of A Mighty Appetite, followed a minute later by Bon Vivant and Lorna Yee and Jon Rowley. Then I turned around to say hi to Sheri and Barnaby from Foodista, and met Tea in person for the first time, and it went on from there.

We were all gathered for a book reading and panel discussion led by Maggie Dutton, featuring authors Matthew Amster-Burton, Shauna James Ahern, Erica Bauermeister, Kathleen Flinn, and Molly Wizenberg. The actual readings were fun — Kathleen Flinn turns out to do a mean Julia Child impression, and it was lovely to hear baby Lucy chirp from her father’s arms whenever Shauna spoke. What I enjoy most about these events, though, is learning a little more about the people behind the words. Here are some of the highlights:

On whether the authors felt too exposed through their personal blogs:

Shauna said the answer is yes — and no. When she first started writing about life after she was diagnosed with celiac disease, it was because her friends suggested she park the information in one place instead of sending out long e-mails. Three months into the site, she had 56 readers per day for “Gluten-Free Girl” — a full third from men who were googling the term “Free Girl.” The problem now is remembering that the words are going out to a wide audience, not 56 people — and yet she wants to stay authentic, and not guarded. She writes first, then decides how much she is comfortable sharing.

Molly commented that making herself public through a blog had changed her life in such tangible ways. It’s how she met her husband, a reader who felt he knew her well enough through her writing to send a flirtatious blind note. That said, she does have an internal privacy meter, and if something goes up on the site, it’s because she’s willing to share it with the world. (I recall from interviewing her a few months ago that she went through at an early point and removed posts that had felt too ephemeral, too concerned with her daily personal life.) Her sister told her once, she said, that they have a one-sided relationship: The sister can just read her blog to catch up, while Molly had to actually call her to get an update. But reading the blog does not mean knowing everything that’s going on with her.

On how their relationships with their kitchens have changed through their books:

Erica talked about moving to Italy in 1997, cannibalizing Annie’s mac ‘n cheese boxes and packing away the cheese packets in their luggage to ease their son’s transition. When they arrived, though, the kitchen was “the kitchen of my heart,” and when she returned to Seattle to her dark little Craftsman kitchen, she blew out the wall and added terra cotta tiles and made the kitchen the place “where the party is.” In the end, her book came out of those rooms.

Kathleen, whose book is about her training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, said her home kitchen now is a pleasure, but the kitchens at Le Cordon Bleu were nothing like what people might imagine. It was a former medical clinic, where sometimes even the stoves didn’t work, and it was training to cook under the most difficult circumstances. The idea was, “figure it out.”

Matthew said that feeding a child — his book’s subject — made him appreciate home cooking so much more. Part of the joy of cooking at home is introducing someone to new flavors. With a 10-month-old, that happens every day.

Molly’s feelings about her own kitchen haven’t changed much, but the transition is bigger now because of the planned opening of Delancey. She always came to cooking as a private endeavor, but the restaurant is public — and the time it takes is keeping her out of her own home kitchen.

On (to Shauna) what it felt like to be known for her celiac disease, to be a role model as “Gluten-Free Girl”: “I am totally ambivalent,” she said. On the one hand, writing for a living is a gift. On the other hand, she’s been pigeonholed with the “gluten-free” label, when much of what she writes is about food that happens to be gluten-free, not the baking mixes and restrictions that people seem to think of in a gluten-free life. It’s a quandary, but she’s OK with that. “That’s where we should be as writers.”

On (to Kathleen) what her best tips are for students starting the program at Le Cordon Bleu: Learn French. “Let me be a cautionary tale,” she said. It’s easy to think you have a command of a language when you can handle taking a cab or buying shoes, but it’s another story to get through the program. Then, her advice for any culinary school is to talk to as many people as you can who have gone through the school about what jobs they are doing — there is a huge range of jobs you can do with the degree, it’s not just for people who want to be chefs.

Best line (from Matthew, when talking about the gauzy images of breastfeeding, where newborns are immediately and blissfully nourished): “This is a terrible lie!” (I wish they’d give that chapter of his book out at childbirth classes.)

I twittered the event here, although I missed the first few minutes — which should be a lesson to me to make sure the WiFi is working before socializing. A thousand thanks to the Palace Ballroom wizard who helped me get my computer going. And I’m curious, as this was my first experience tweeting an event, whether the blow-by-blow, 140-character account was informative or overwhelming. It was the volume of information I’d want myself — except, as one of the authors noted at the event, not everyone is as happily obsessed by food as the people gathered in that room.

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