Eggs à l’Oignon and a Defense of Food Bloggers

[layers_of_eli]

The International Association of Culinary Professionals' website just published an incendiary (but nothing new, actually, and nothing unexpected) opinion article by Amy Reiley that charged food bloggers with "faking it": faking the recipe development, food journalism, and cooking expertise that the culinary industry is supposedly painstakingly

Comments

[kaowolfie]

It may not be nice, but I keep giggling at the idea of that editorial author going on and on about how evil bloggers don't test their recipes "adequately", when I've had so many recipes from Big Name Food Professionals that ranged from not good to utter failure.

The whole thing also reminds me of something that happened a few years ago, when someone put up on their blog a recipe for something (potato salad, maybe?) that they said was based off one from Cook's Illustrated, but that they'd modified to suit personal taste. It was a significant variation, and the blogger wrote instructions from scratch, but ATK still tried to bully them into taking the recipe down because "the Cook's Illustrated version was already perfect". Just, well... lol, really, perfect? Who appointed them the arbiters of food?

[layers_of_eli]

I know, right! I didn't want to name names on the blog, but I've had more than one lackluster Martha Stewart recipe in particular.

I think the "who appointed them" question is so apt! Because so often the answer is: money, connections, and organizations made up of others with money and connections.

[kaowolfie]

Martha Stewart was the main person I was thinking of. Her recipes are pretty bad, especially for baking.

[layers_of_eli]

I've only tried a couple -- one-bowl chocolate cake and something else I can't remember -- but neither was outstanding. Her caramel sauce IS my go-to sauce, I'll give her that ;)

[elusis]

Paula Deen has totally screwed me before.

[kamaliitaru]

I've been burned with Martha Stewart Recipes. One time I picked both the cake and frosting recipe from her website, and neither worked. In all fairness, the cake was delicious, but should never be made into cupcakes and that was my fault, but I never thought it was something you could never get out of the pan.

[kamaliitaru]

I guess I read this entire article with a different perspective. It seems to me that a lot of paper media is being replaced with digital, so I sort of read this as an "OMG I'm losing my job I went to college 4+ years for to an amateur that doesn't understand print media" - sort of thing.

Maybe my jaded view, but that's my interpretation.

[layers_of_eli]

I don't think that's a misguided interpretation -- I think that's part of it. She just harps on the recipe testing bit as an illustration and it's frustratingly misguided for what people want from blogs.

[kamaliitaru]

I also think she missed another point. I think it's a valuable point of view to be able to share similar experiences. And, let's face it, if you have been trained at a fancy chef school, that's probably changed your experiences cooking. And, while you may be an expert in flavors and techniques, some things just don't translate to the home kitchen. Look at the history of the original Fanny Farmer (and I'm talking about Marion Cunningham here) - she was a home cook, using home recipes. Now, she got a bit bigger than that, but there is real value in recipe testing in a home kitchen rather than an industrial one. And, her baking book has been a treasured possession of mine since I bought it used when I was in college. And, yes, it sits right next to my copy of The Cake Bible.

[layers_of_eli]

I agree. I think it's valuable to have folks at all stages and from all walks discussing their experiences -- then you let the audience decide which voice(s) speaks to them the best.

[kamaliitaru]

Self appointed...although I love their recipes, I alternate on their TV show, since sometimes they are informative, and sometimes, just pompous. But, I'm a bit of a rebel, I've never liked it when someone told me there's only one way to do things, or don't change something, it's perfect...while that may be the rare case, it's often open to opinion, or in this case, taste buds.

[layers_of_eli]

I'm the same way.