snackingaround: year of the chef blog

I had emails last week from two chefs who have started blogging: pastry chef Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin and Brad Nelson the corporate chef of Marriott International. While they both have very different styles and philosophies, they do share the desire to interact with their customers and colleagues, and have a web presence that might lead to bigger things.

It is a trend I noticed at the end of last year, which prompted me to redesign my blog-roll (which is on the left column). I replaced the links to restaurant websites with links to chef blogs. In the past chefs would congregate in discussion communities like eGullet. Now they seem to want their own platforms. Jean-Georges blogs about his personal life, like his daughter's birthday party and a vacation at the beach. Johnny Iuzzini covers the progress of his upcoming book and his various events and appearances. Laurent Gras is documenting the opening of his new restaurant.

I expect more chefs to start blogging, and eventually I expect the media to start writing about it. 2008 year of the chef blog! Online first, print second, magazines to follow.

UPDATE: 2.7.08: Eater: Celebrity Chef Blog Status Update

UPDATE 3.12.08: Los Angeles Times: Chef's blogs - even sharper than their knives

 

Comments

[H. Alexander Talbot]

these blogs also help us organize thoughts ideas and concepts in a digital medium which can be preserved, cataloged and hopefully we do not spill the coffee on them.

[Natalie Sztern]

This will cause a tremendous impact on the publishing industry if books and magazines are suddenly abandoned for the sake of the blog. However, having said that, after spending my hours working for a pay check and then coming home to read all the blog feeds of the day-there is no time for me to finish the books on my night table and the magazines in my mailbox.

I have even paid for an online subscription to cook's illustrated. If this continues will my great grandchildren ever hold a book in their hands?

Suddenly my computer is more valuable to me than my jewelry, if I should be robbed - now for a girl who likes the bling that is a whopper of a sentiment.

[chadzilla]

The chef blog is also an inevitable step up from the huge amount of food blogs that were dotted around the web (even in the egullet era). It's also sort of like reality television (except in a 'multi media' format). The public's growing obsession with chef tv and everything else chef also contributes to the chef blog's inevitability.
... but more than any of that, it has opened new doors and helped me to found culinary friendships that I would have never had otherwise.
As far as replacing cookbooks... not as long as I have money to buy them. Perhaps, however, we will see more books produced with multi-media facets like the upcoming 'Mosaic' which is the evolving internet portion of Chef Grant Achatz's coming cookbook (which is also, ironically, self-published). If publishing companies don't wake up, cookbooks will go the way of the independent record label and free internet downloads. Well maybe not, but I'm hoping!