Tortilla d'Oro
Tortilla Española, the classic Spanish potato-and-egg dish, gets a little tweak from food blogger Marc of [No Recipes]—this one calls for Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced Manchego cheese, and tomato jam.
Explore by Tags
Entries from Required Eating tagged with 'bloggers'
Party of One, Please; Preferably at a Table with Good Lighting
Sure, the rise of food blogs has been chronicled in newspaper and magazine stories ad nauseam, but you know the phenomenon has really grabbed the attention of the mainstream when it appears in a Shoe comic, as it does today. By now, "civilian" diners are probably aware that the people making like Annie Leibovitz with their dinners are likely going to publish that photo on the internets. [via Off the Broiler]
Some Sharp Chef Blogs
The Los Angeles Times rounds up a list of some great chef blogs, saying that "chefs are suddenly taking to blogging as if it were the foam of 2008." Heh. That's pretty good. What differentiates the chef blogs from regular home-cook blogs, says writer Regina Schrambling, is that "chefs tend to focus on the story behind the food, on the thought process that original cooking entails," rather than "nattering about what they fed their boyfriends last night."
While I think there's room, of course, for both kinds of blogs (and that blog readers turn to the different experience levels for different reasons), I have been enjoying the behind-the-scenes peek and the tips that come from these pressure-tested cooks. Among those Schrambling calls out: Laurent Gras (chef-owner of L.20 in Chicago; L.20 Blog), Michael Symon (Next Iron Chef winner; Symon Says), Alison Barshak (Blue Bell in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; Alison at Blue Bell), and Michael Laiskonis (pastry chef at Le Bernardin; Notes from the Kitchen), who we've been linking to extensively over the last few months.
Can I Take Your Picture?
"Are you a blogger too? Give me your camera. I’ll take a really blurry, close-up picture of the grapefruit in my salad. When do you think people are going to start making fun of bloggers?" —Danny Meyer [via Dan D.]
Mark 'The Minimalist' Bittman Now Blogging
For someone who writes under the column title "The Minimalist," the New York Times food columnist, cookbook author, and television personality Mark Bittman sure seems to have set an expansive focus on his new New York Times blog Bitten. Besides the stripped-down easy-to-follow recipes he's known for:
We’ll also bat around the big ideas that foodies sometimes ignore: how it gets produced and moved from one place to another, as well as who pays for it and profits from it....
What else?
There will be other regular features as well — loads of new recipes; guest posters; Minimalist video clips...; reports from my (and your) food-related travels; and more.
How Do You Nacho?
The admittedly dead-simple nacho recipe I posted yesterday prompted Serious Eater intheyearofthepig to offer a link to The Homesick Texan's Nachos 101. I admire and agree with Lisa Fain's take on the Texas-style take on the dish:
My dad asked me a very serious question the other day. He was concerned, since I’d lived away from Texas for so long, where I fell on the nacho spectrum. Did I prefer a pile of chips with some toppings slopped on willy-nilly or did I prefer each nacho to be one chip toasted with a tasteful spread of Longhorn cheddar cheese and a sliced jalapeno. I was shocked he even had to ask. For me, and for every Texan, there is only one kind of nacho: the latter. Nachos are simple and elegant. Each nacho is its own entity (and that is key), with just enough toppings to give it flavor and a bit of heft but not enough to make it saggy or soggy. Anything else is an imposter!
I know I can't stand the usual haphazard pile of chips—they're either loaded to the gills with glop or unseemly and pizazz-less in their nekkidness. Do click through for Fain's eloquently laid-out nacho philosophy and—just in time for the game—her technique.
Paupered Chef Relaunches
Our Dinner Tonight contributors, Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer, have redesigned and relaunched their blog, Paupered Chef, with a new direction: "We want to start doing more intensive investigations of cooking topics, things that take a lot of research, patience, and time. Slow-cooking. Like curing meat. Like preserving and canning. Like making cheese. And hopefully, making these artisanal products ourselves, we'll save some money along the way."
Help a Grad Student: Take This Food Blog Survey
Help a fellow food blogger in need! If you're a U.S. citizen, spare a few minutes to fill out Leena Trivedi-Grenier's survey about food blogs in the U.S. to help her graduate with a Masters in Gastronomy at the University of Adelaide. Check out her blog Leena Eats for more information.
Tempting Ed Levine
So Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine is on a diet. Which kinda blows for the rest of us here in the office because it means the days of "Oh, I just stopped at the bakery on the way in and picked up one of everything they had" are over. That's why I'm supporting Kevin Weeks (right, proprietor of Seriously Good) in his (good-natured, I think?) blog war against Ed:
So over the next 12 months I will tempt Mister Ed Levine with sandwiches. Sandwiches he, the fancy New Yorker, can’t possibly duplicate or, if he does, will be bad for his health. I, too, am risking my health in this culinary Russian Roulette, but I'm confident that I will prevail and at the end of 2008 we will see that Ed Levine really isn't that serious about eating—or sandwiches.
Kevin: Please tempt away. But know that Ed has been surprisingly steadfast with his diet, powered as he is by his 100-calorie snack packs. (Speaking of which, look for expanded snack-pack coverage on the site—as opposed to expanding waistlines!)
Meet & Eat: Yen & Michi
Yen and Michi's blog, Lunch, is exactly what it sounds like: a blog about lunch, updated daily with a photo of what they had for lunch and a 4 p.m. snack. A virtual peephole into Yen and Michi's day, Lunch inspires me to take the time for lunch. We get to know Yen and Michi in this week's Meet & Eat.
Name: Yen Ha and Michi Yanagishita
Location: New York City
Occupation: Architects at Front Studio
URL: lunchstudio.blogspot.com
What prompted you to start your blog, Lunch?
We've always eaten lunch the way we do (which is to say everywhere and everything) and we've always had this slight obsession with cataloging, so it seemed normal to combine the two compulsions in a blog. Architecture tends to be a rather serious profession, so we wanted to create a light and amusing distraction.
What's the most surprising thing to come out of your blogging?
We've been pleasantly surprised to be making friends through Lunch. Using the blog as a pretext, we've been writing old friends, acquaintances, and sometimes strangers, inviting them to share a meal. We're seldom opposed to meeting new people or trying a new place for lunch, which makes for some fun meals.
Andrea Strong's Response to 'Top Chef' Viewers
On last week's episode of Top Chef, Andrea Strong (The Strong Buzz) was brought in to give the contestants a taste of what they could expect online in the form of criticism from food bloggers. Viewers reacted strongly to her appearance in the comments on Padma Lakshi's Top Chef blog.
I just noticed that this week, Strong had a chance to respond to them.
The Amateur Gourmet on More Nuanced Blog Restaurant Reviews
In a post titled "Going Back," Serious Eats contributing editor Adam Roberts (aka The Amateur Gourmet) starts sounding dangerously professional when reconsidering his protocol for writing about a restaurant on his blog. On the perennial question of whether food bloggers should visit multiple times before dishing—like newspaper and magazine food critics do:
What do these three experiences have to do with food blogging? Well, if that third time had been my first time at Chiles & Chocolate in Park Slope, I would have written a savage review. If the second time had been my first time, I would have written it a love letter. But since my first time was my first time, I gave it a half-hearted nod and that's the review that remains in my archives.
That's a problem. Those three experiences add up to a fuller picture of the restaurant. Now I know that Chiles & Chocolate is inconsistent--a word that professional food critics use all the time. I know what stands out on the menu: the agua fresca, the chile relleno, the flan. And I know what to avoid: anything with chicken breast. If I were to write a review now, it would be more thoughtful, more measured, more complete and ultimately more useful.
Food Bloggers: Going Legit(?) and Entering the Mainstream
The news that food bloggers are going legit and entering the mainstream hit the blogosphere like a new Paris Hilton sex tape. First, Restaurant Girl (aka Danyelle Freeman) is slipping into Pascale La Draoulec's old restaurant critic spot at the New York Daily News. Forget for a moment whether Freeman is qualified for the job, or whether her breathy purple prose style is appropriate for a newspaper restaurant critic's voice, or finally whether the fact that she's known to every restaurateur and chef in town is a problem.
The real story here is that a young woman who started a New York restaurant food blog now has one of the half-dozen restaurant critic jobs at a major New York media outlet with more than a million readers. Love Freeman or hate her, her ascension signals the arrival of food bloggers into the old media mainstream. Sure, her industry-friendly statement that "I want to give chefs and restaurants their best opportunity to communicate a vision" would send editors at places like the New York Times and New York magazine into apoplexy.
Food Bloggers on Their Final Meals
It's been a favorite topic here at Serious Eats—what would your last meal be? (It's been in Talk here and here, and Ed discussed it with the Village Voice.)
And now, the latest installment of the popular meme can be found on food blog Chew on That, where the editors asked several food bloggers what they'd eat for their last supper.
There's Tina from the Wandering Eater (she started our first Talk topic on the issue) opting for a meal at the French Laundry with friends; Deb from Smitten Kitchen goes for a surf and turf affair; Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" Roberts does a continent-hopping extravaganza in Atlanta, New York City and L.A.; and Serious Eats's own Robyn "The Girl Who Ate Everything" Lee can't make up her mind among pizza, Japanese katsu curry, and "pork-filled zongzi and fried pork dumplings with egg custard tarts for dessert."
There are many, many more bloggers on there with interesting takes on what they'd nosh on in their final hour—take a gander.
What would you scarf if the Angel of Death were looking over your shoulder?
Education Op: The Ins and Outs of Food Blogging
Those of you interested in starting a food blog of your own—or current bloggers who just want to learn more—might be interested in class taught by Matt Armendariz (mattbites.com; that's him at right).
Taking place July 15 (1:30 to 3:30 p.m.) at the Whole Foods Bowery location in New York City, Armendariz's lecture and demo "will discuss what food blogging is and how it has changed the landscape of food writing and accessibility. He'll also discuss what to blog about, how to take better food photos, and the basics of food styling." (Sign up here.)
I'm particularly interested in Armendariz's tips on photography and food styling, since he's adept at creating beautiful shots. [via Matt Bites]
Food-Focused Sites 'Nearly Killed My Business'
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 sea legs and visiting at least three times before unspooling a review—while foodbloggers and Yelpers, well, you just don't know what their agenda is.
