Bri also made appearances here at Serious Eats, where she'll be missed. Our condolences to Marc and the rest of Bri's family and friends.
If this man walks into your restaurant, grab the bottomless pitcher of Pinot. Because if he doesn't leave happy, he'll tell the entire internet on you, probably that very night. Drew and Natalie Dee behind Married to the Sea teach us an important lesson in this comic, titled "No Free Refills": the food blogger can crush you on Google.
Creator of the site What Did You Eat? Sherry Cermak died from a sudden heart attack July 20. She regaled us with her recipes for dark rye bread, chickpea patties, and ahi tuna salad—always flavored with her warm personality. Many of her readers (including A Fridge Full of Food, La Mia Cucina, and Pages, Pucks and Pantry) have rallied together to pay tribute to Sherry, a great voice in the food blogging community we will all miss.
According to some studies, 60-80% of blogs are abandoned in the first month. Blogging since 2004, Julie falls into the "old school food blogger" classification. I've been following Julie's blog since then, but it was only a couple of months ago that we finally met in person. I'm happy to introduce Serious Eaters to Julie in this week's Meet & Eat.
Name: Julie
Location: East Harlem
Occupation: Education consultant
URL: http://fingerineverypie.typepad.com
What prompted you to start your blog, A Finger In Every Pie?
During the summer of 2003, I discovered The Julie/Julia project, and proceeded to read almost all of it, from start to finish, while I was in bed convalescing from a surgery over a period of a few weeks. From there I branched out, began to read other food blogs. Finally, there came a weekend in January 2004 when I didn't travel to Boston as planned because airports were snowed in and flights were canceled, so I stayed home and started a food blog instead.
What's the most surprising thing to come out of your blogging?
The sense of feeling connected to people I've never met. It's even happened that food bloggers from faraway places have come and stayed in our home, or food bloggers whom I don't know very well arrange a dinner for me when I come to stay in their town. And of course, there's indescribable pleasure in the way that the feeling of connection is confirmed by actually meeting these remarkable people.
This week we'd like to introduce you to Kevin Smalley's LOL-inducing food blog, Acme Instant Food. But it's not just about the laughs. A lack of inspiration in the kitchen inspired Kevin to organize an ingredient exchange project called Acme Instant Ingredients. Participants sign up to exchange an unusual ingredient or food product with another blogger, incorporate the ingredient into a recipe, and then blog about the ingredient, recipe, and lessons learned. Sounds like a fun way to get to know an unfamiliar or forgotten ingredient and connect with fellow food bloggers. Without further ado, Kevin Smalley.
Name: Kevin Smalley
Location: Los Angeles
Occupation: Development director for a nonprofit charity
URL: acmeinstantfood.blogspot.com
What prompted you to start your blog, Acme Instant Food?
Motivation came in the form of a horrific kitchen accident. My partner, Ed, opened the pantry door to grab a handful of trail mix when a massive avalanche of handwritten recipes fell on him. The shelf on which they were stashed had collapsed under the ballooning piles of paper. He was alone at the time and it was three hours later when neighbors heard his panicked calls for help. The paramedics arrived with the jaws of life and found our dog trying to lick a raisin off Ed’s forehead. He suffered massive paper cuts but was otherwise fine except for the freaky aversion to mixed cashews and granola that he has today.
I’ve since fixed the broken pantry shelf and now it’s home to things like tortillas with a ninety day shelf life and home made chocolate body paint. I started the blog to exorcise the kitchen of the demons of disorganization. I pray that the server doesn’t crash like my pantry shelf. I find blogging to be a huge organizational asset — I can retrieve my recipes easily, and it doesn’t cause nearly as many paper cuts.
To supplement the foodblog this and foodblog that discussion going on recently, Eater L.A. grabs David Haskell, owner of Bin 8945, to share his thoughts on another food-crit site, Chowhound:
I banned Chowhound. It’s not that I don’t think the writers supply some decent informative reviews. It’s that most of the reviews never critique the food or actual service. I always thought my profession was to supply the best food and service for the cost. If you want to review that, then please mention the food and why you didn’t like it. Or the service. Did we not put down silver for every course? But “It sucks” is not a review. People have come to my restaurant with cards that have their 'handle' name. OK, that is funny. But it reminds me of the guy with the 'producer' card who hits on all the girls.
In the end, Haskell says he appreciates—and reacts to—bloggers who write informative, well-reasoned reviews.
Today in Meet & Eat, our subject is Sam Breach. If you're an avid, or even casual, reader of foodblogs, you've probably run across her site, Becks & Posh. Her involvement in the thriving foodblog community in San Francisco and at large and her appetite-whetting words and photos have endeared her to many, many readers. In line with her community-building nature, she's the headmistress of Food Blog S'cool, an excellent resource for anyone starting a foodblog or looking to optimize an existing one. OK, without further ado, let's meet Sam.
We've been having a great time getting to know Robyn Lee, our intern here at Serious Eats. We thought you'd get a kick out of meeting her, too, so she's getting the treatment in this week's "Meet & Eat" Q&A.
Robyn blogs about food at The Girl Who Ate Everything, a site that is ... well ... you'll just have to click over there for yourself and get a load of what goes on: TONS of desert, LOL-funny writing filled with unique verbiage such as AGRHGARGHRH!! and ZOMG!, and beautiful, hunger-inducing photos.
Apart from helping out with graphics, site design, and whatever crazy stuff we throw at her, Robyn will be blogging for us from Paris in the coming week, as she visits the City of Lights for spring break. Look for her words and photos in the Required Eating section. And so, without further ado, here's Robyn!
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