Whose view do you warm to ? A superstar food critic who writes for the established publishing house or the living room eater who has a passion for food equal to , if not greater than the aforementioned superstar.
A pinch of salt
“ Really? ” The first thought that comes to mind when I read recommendations. I guess its quite normal to open the bonnet and kick the tyres before taking the plunge.
As low-cost publishing capabilities expand with technology, its not surprising that the food blogging community has exploded. Everybody has a critic in them and the blogger platform seems suited for the average food lover to voice frustration or shower praise over his latest gastro-ventures. No disrespect to the Giles Corens and Guy Dimonds of our world, but how hard can it be to rant about last night’s dinner?
Sure, I’m one of those who asked that question, being just the latest to join the food blogger phenomenon. This debate has been floating around for a while now; is the traditional restaurant critic a dying breed in a world increasingly driven by social media?
The case for the critique
Critics aren’t just eaters, they are also journalists. They’ve slaved their way through many years in the industry honing the exact skill of pen to paper ( or finger to keyboard ) and the reviews tend to paint a holistic perspective of the dining experience. Each review is a considered and edited journalistic mini-work of literary art.
Often it’s the subtleties inserted into the essays which help bring their writing to life. For instance AA Gill regularly refers to his partner in crime as ‘the blonde’ and his writing often begin with long winded eccentric rants about anything but food – all of which is slickly written and bursting with personality that it doesn’t matter if he’s bashing or praising, I’m just attracted to the spectacle and style.
Style
Not to say that bloggers have no style – in fact, far from it. If a critic evokes the grandiose tone with glitzy cinematic quality ( not strictly true depending on who you read ) , the food blogger would be the independent hand-held art-house flick which may lack the superstar budget, but it is this rage against the institution quality that makes blogs so attractive. The ‘nakedness’ of a blog puts the author’s voice front and centre, with full creative freedom – it makes for a dress down one to one conversation.
The written edge
I do get the sense that the food blogger is not writing a particular ‘role’ – he’s just being himself and is just you know, real.
The straight-forwardness like Helen over at world foodie guide, not short of her own bursts of character either, crafts her posts like a photographic odyssey into said culinary fancy. Unrestrained by editorial shackles, Krista of londenelicious keeps things brief in her reviews and bullet-points the victims and wallet damage before summing up her experience in a few paragraphs.
What a thousand words don’t say
Perhaps the most distinct difference between bloggers and critics are the visual cues. I guess its because bloggers aren’t just writers to begin with. They are largely unbound by description with the written word and tend to supplement their first hand experience with photographs.
I find this to be the refreshing edge blogs have over the traditional publisher, coupling the straightforward ‘realness’ with lots of sumptuous pictures. It is this element of the food blog experience which injects the personal touch and help draw in audiences… certainly made a fan out of me.
This write-up concludes in part two here.
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Tags: aa gill, critics, londonelicious, world foodie guide
[...] Read part one here. [...]
Hi Kang!
Interesting standpoint…I believe it depends of the person behind the food critic. Superstars sometimes have compromises with the big restaurants that are not very clear. The same with great food bloggers …there isn’t black or white for me, there’re a lot of greys. Summing up: If you see a pinch of “business” in a critic…go away!
Gera .:. sweetsfoods
I find pictures accompanying the reviews tremdously helpful. I want to see what someone is praising or criticizing.
Great post Kang! Not least because you are so complimentary about me…
I like the point Gera makes too. I’ve always paid for my meals and the one time I was invited to a restaurant, I said no. I ended up praising the food, but was quite honest about the bathroom hygiene. I would have felt really awkward writing what I did, had it been a ‘free’ meal. I did have free drinks and extra desserts at Dal Pescatore, but that was the Santinis’ legendary hospitality and not because I was a special guest!
Look forward to reading Part Two…
Gera – yeah i think that’s very true, ppl are wary of a critic trying to ’sell’ something, it goes against the whole idea of a critic being unbiased. Hmm, honestly though Ive not come across a ‘great’ foodblogger who is ‘paid’ to write a certain point of view.
Correct me if i’m wrong, but isnt the whole idea of an independent foodblogger , since he/she has creative freedom, can ( and often times will ) offer a more frank review, ie, shower praise when it is due but equally condemn the food when it’s total crapola.
Also – food bloggers have a much more restrictive budget ( i know i do..) hence I would expect them to naturally pick the ones they love b4 they start picking ones which they are going to try out in the spirit of pure journalism. (ie: write about what you love, isnt that the idea of blogging?)
Hence its a marked difference between bloggers and critics in a sense that the food blogger would sometimes filter out the bad eats ( either not worth writing about or just not go or not enough money to conciously pay for the potential of bad food ) and write about what he/she thinks is awesome.
What do you think? Do you tend to choose the places which you know have good food over the ones which you know have bad ones keeping in mind the limited budget…unless u have a rather large budget to keep reviews going?
Loving Annie – yes, and that’s what I think is so good about foodbloggers : The pictures. in many respects its a more down to earth and definately more real review because you feel like you’re in the dinner too when you see every picture of what the author is talking about!
Helen – Yes. That line is important and being that bloggers are ‘independent’ , to fight to keep the independence is one of the most important aspects of blogging.
Helen is right it’s more “difficult” to write a food review when you’ve a free meal
I agree also with you Kang, food bloggers have a much more restrictive budget in general; nowadays budgets are affecting everywhere.!
One important point they’re their own editors but in the other side, food critics write for magazines or similar and there’s a chief editor at charge..a different situation…The food blogger has more freedom to put what she/he wants on the writing.
Nevertheless, I see food bloggers doing review of products (not restaurants) that is pretty obvious they’re related with the producer and it’s ok, because the reader has the last word- always- to take it or not.
[...] Eater, by the way, has been writing thoughtful posts on why we trust food bloggers even though some of us aren’t exactly inconspicuous at restaurants (so query the consumer [...]