Paper Palate

It seems that no matter how a mainstream food writer says he likes food blogs, and not others, and why, he is bound to irritate somebody in the food blogging community.

Peter Wells discovered this when his article on food bloggers came out in the new (March 2006)issue of Food & Wine magazine. It didn’t take long for food bloggers to rally around and voice their displeasure about his article, some of the points he made, and the ways in which he made them.

Much of his article missed the mark, starting with “listen up bloggers, nobody cares what you had for lunch today.” So not true. Using Mr. Wells’ analogy of bad food bloggers are known as “cheese sandwiches,” I can bet that if I posted about my Melted Brie and Prosciutto Panini with Herbed Butter, my readers would ask for the recipe. Either he’s not giving our readers enough credit, or not giving us enough credit for knowing what our readers want.

Perhaps it’s a little bit of both.

I absolutely agree that not all food blogs are going to interest every reader. Some are ok, some are good and some are simply smashing. Like magazines, they all have different slants and angles that will entice different readerships. For example, although my site is primarily food-related, I interweave personal anecdotes here and there, and I know some people tune in just to read about my 3-1/2 year old son’s adventures with his girlfriend, while others check in to see what hit our table for dinner.

Reviewing my stats tells me I’m on the right track. They DO care what I eat … and not only take the time to make it themselves, but write back and tell me how much they liked it.

And they keep coming back, hungry for more.

Food blog writers have a special relationship with their readers, one that is decidedly more personal than the newsstand magazines will ever have with their audience. Maybe that’s the problem. Do magazine writers just not “get it?” Why else would the general negativity be necessary?

Alicat from Something So Clever chimes in with her take on our sense of community:

“That is what keeps food blogging exciting — our inherent love for food. Food not found in glossy magazines, rather, food found in our neighbors’ kitchens, made by regular folks like you and me. I have never ‘connected’ with a cookbook or a magazine. What I have found, in this food blogging community, is support like I never imagined. I have found friends that are unwavering. I have found kindness from strangers, overwhelming generosity from people I have never met ‘in real life’ and probably never will. There is so much more to be found in food blogging than just recipes. It is a glorious thing, with its untouched photos, blurry with bad lighting. It reminds us that we are all imperfect in the kitchen — that we can’t all be Martha Stewart. I love that.”

Evidence suggests that with the quick growth of digital media, magazines’ ad revenues have gone down, and some magazines, i.e., Chow, are struggling to stay afloat. But that being said, I don’t think people will abandon magazines all together. As one who subscribes to over 70 magazines myself, I can guarantee that I’m not giving them up any time soon. And conversely, I frequently write about my new magazine finds, when the “imports” arrive, and articles I’ve read on my food blog. I have no problem sending my readers to go check out a magazine, because I know they’ll still come back. Why can’t magazine food journalists show us the same respect? We’re completely different animals, each of us bringing something unique to the table.

According to Mr. Wells, “food bloggers should have passion, a sense of purpose, timeliness, and something at stake.” Check, check, check, and check. I agree. I’ve got it all covered, and I know the food bloggers that are truly passionate about what they’re doing have those bases covered as well. Heck, let’s keep in mind that none of us are getting paid for doing this, so to continue it, it has got to be from some deep-rooted, unbridled passion.

One of the sites that he took to task was Kalyn’s Kitchen. Between her Weekend Herb Blogging event that he sneered at, and her dedication to the South Beach diet and educating her readers, I’ll bet her growing audience base thinks she has a sense of purpose and passion. Kalyn’s thoughts on the topic?

“I don’t understand why Mr. Wells felt the need to tear some blogs down to show that he thought others were unique and interesting. At first I felt personally insulted, and I do think it was incredibly unfair and just plain rude to take one partial sentence, out of context, and use it as an example of why he feels lots of blogs are boring.”

“After I re-read the article I realized that Pete Wells just does not get that blogging is about being part of a community of like-minded people and expressing yourself about something you’re passionate about. It’s not about the writer making all the judgments and sharing them with the reader. Blogging is about writing as an interactive process. I think the “making connections” part of blogging is incredibly intriguing and addicting in a way that regular print media can never compete with. Obviously Mr. Wells hasn’t experienced that part of it or he never would have approached the article in the way he did.”

“Even though I know he didn’t even catch that “herb blogging” was a reference to Weekend Herb Blogging, I felt bad because so many people have written such wonderful pieces for WHB and I’ve gotten so many comments and messages from people telling me how much they’ve learned from it. It’s not about me, it’s about all of us creating something together every weekend.”

“I find it a very strange market strategy that a magazine writer would criticize and insult a group of food-obsessed people who must be a huge part of the target audience of his magazine.”

Wells also looked down at sites that do restaurant reviews, saying “Does anyone out there believe that America desperately needs more restaurant reviews?” My bet is that he’s wrong on that count too, as evidenced by Sam’s recent award specifically for her Restaurant Reviews. As Clare from Eat Stuff pointed out, “why is it that you can only review restaurants if you have a six figure income?” I think I’d trust the opinion of a reviewer MORE when they’re not getting paid for it. You’re getting real, honest, raw thoughts from the heart, and not out of any sense of obligation. They’re not doing it because of a paycheck, they’re doing it because of their passion.

Andrea Strong from The Strong Buzz was another food blogger held up in a negative light, only to illuminate the ones that Mr. Wells deemed as “good food bloggers.” In a recent piece, Andrea let loose on Mr. Wells, and I think this says it best:

“Based on your logic, none of us — not Saute Wednesday, not The Food Section, not Gastropoda, not Curbed (all wonderful blogs) — has a claim to write anything about food. We should just leave it all to the New York Times. Let’s all power off our laptops and stop eating. I don’t think so. Sorry Pete, but I think there is room for more than one voice in the world of reviews (and news for that matter), and I think I offer one that is a lot more than ‘heavy breathing.’”

Eddie Lin of Deep End Dining was one of “the lucky ones” that Mr. Wells deemed worthy of reading. You can read Eddie’s complete take on the whole F&W article here, but I think this sums it up beautifully.

“Obviously I am very happy with the kind of reception I am getting from the mainstream media. Although I wish this didn’t have to be a sort of zero-sum game where someone is deemed the good blog while the other one sucks.”

In the end if you are doing your best work and are happy with your contribution to this funny, fractured and crazy food blog world, keep on truckin’. Pretend you are actually in that virtual high school. Be the rebellious teenager once again. Flip off the powers that be. Who cares what they think. I got your back.

Noodle Pie is another blogger that Mr. Wells liked and he wrote an interesting piece here. For what it’s worth I completely agree with the bottom line in his piece. Although we may not agree with how Mr. Wells wrote his piece, he introduced more people into the food blogging world, and that is always a good thing.

“…do read Pete’s column again. And then read it again. Make an effort to understand it. It’s really not that hard. Pete Wells = pro-blog. That’s about the size of it.”

Food Musings also chimes in with her take on the article here and her comments section elicited valid points of view from both sides of the fence, including opinions from other print media journalists.

It’s certainly a hot topic in our community right now, and all for a magazine that has barely hit the newstands! I think that many bloggers’ biggest problem with the article was that in highlighting his picks for “good food blogs,” he felt the need to draw specific, out-of-context quotes from ones he didn’t care for. He didn’t need to shine light on the food blogs he didn’t like in order to further illuminate the ones he enjoyed. It was just unnecessary.

Print media food journalists and food bloggers share at least one thing in
common: we all have passion for food and writing.

The fact is, there’s room for all of us here, because we’re all here for different reasons, we cater to different audiences and have different goals.

Take notice, Mr. Wells, and pass the cheese sandwich.