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 ;)

[fleur]

I think this is something you see in many areas and many fields; namely that the people who spent many years and thousands of dollars to get a degree in their area cannot or do not want to accept that in some cases, learning on the job does the same exact thing and that thus maybe they wasted their time and money

[layers_of_eli]

I agree. Even with medicine, I believe there's something to be learned by democratic discussion (though I hope my doctor goes ahead and goes to school ;) and here, you're right, the skills themselves are readily available through practice. That's not to say there aren't valuable extensions available from learning with certain mentors or in certain environments for sure -- just that valuable ideas come from all different experiences.

[lovelyxbones]

I didn't have a chance to read your response about the food blogging article yet... but I just wanted to give you a thumbs up for pointing out that you've written something while at the same time being able to restrain yourself from going on a whole rant about it even though I am sure it was VERY tempting to do so. I don't know that I would have had the same self control if I felt as strongly. Very classy.

Also, mayonaise! Brilliant. It's one of those things I'd never have thought of on my own but that makes SO much sense once it's pointed out. Really creative and smart, thanks for the recipe (as usual!).

[layers_of_eli]

Thanks :)

[plushdreamer]

I just left a comment on that opinion article and it was rather scathing, but quite frankly I have been disappointed with the culinary professional community for quite some time. I feel like many of these "professionals" are out of touch with real, regular people who cook every day