Last week, Mario Batali went a hatin' on food blogs. This week, Serious Eats contributing editor Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" Roberts defends them: [Playwright Arthur] Miller's dream of an egalitarian system for criticism—a system that "would broaden the public's awareness of how fictional, rather than a matter of plain fact, all criticism really is, which is to say, how subjective"—is being realized today, at least in the food world, with food blogs. Because of our varying voices, our palpable passions, and—most important—our lack of editorial control, we are the distant drums in the distance growing closer and closer, our torches waving, our laptops poised for posting. Mario will disagree, but I think food blogs are the best thing to happen... More

Yesterday I mentioned the story in the San Francisco Chronicle about the influence foodbloggers and food forums such as Yelp are having on the restaurant biz. The crux was, Who are these amateurs and can we trust them? The article mentions the 30-day grace period professional critics often give a new place and the fact that they visit multiple times before turning in their copy. But what about professional critics who also blog?... More

Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at Bay Area foodbloggers and ratings sites such as Yelp, noting their effect on the restaurant business. In short, restaurateurs are not happy, and, for the most part, bloggers and Yelpers end up coming across as pixel-pushing bullies. The posts "nearly killed my business," said [Teo] Kridech, a native of France who has worked in the food industry for 25 years and spent $150,000 revamping the Senses space. "Everyone has become a food critic. They think they're real big shots. They probably can't even make scrambled eggs. The Chron points out that pro food writers follow accepted standards and practices while writing about restaurants—such as giving a place 30 days to get its... More