snack

snackingaround: do you have time to join another community?

I've been getting a lot of emails from new foodie communities online. Create a profile! Post restaurant reviews! Make foodie friends around the world! Recent additions are Eats.com, TasteSpace, FoodBuzz, and FriendsEAT. Add these to the old guard of eGullet and Chowhound and the profile community interface on media sites like Zagat, Savory Cities, Chow, Serious Eats, and Gourmet.com and I wonder when or if we reach the point of maximum saturation? Do you have the time to join another online community?

snackingaround: gourmet.com

You know a party is going to be good when you get emails a week out asking if you are attending. Such was the case for last Tuesday's fête at Bar Boulud for the launch of Gourmet.com. Ruth Reichl and Daniel Boulud are both excellent hosts independently, but combined the.effect was exponential.

A non-culinary reporter (who was trailing a well-know chef to research a big story) surveyed the packed house and queried "so who are all these people? magazine people?" Not exactly. Practically the entire Gourmet masthead was represented, along with other journalists. At one point I found myself in the middle of a NY-media vortex of Braden Keil, Steve Cuozzo, Richard Johnson, Ben Leventhal and Lockhart Steele. It was a moment I thought it best to smile and be silent, lest I say the unpublishable thing. The rest were the restaurant industry like (a partial and alphabetical list) April Bloomfield, Jean Francois Bruel, Cesare Casella, David Chang, Tom Colicchio, Ken Friedman, Rita Jammet, Daniel Johnnes, Gray Kunz, Mark Ladner, Zarela Martinez, Drew Nieporent, Francois Payard, Eric Ripert, Michael Romano, Michael Stillman, Bill Telepan, Fabio Trabocchi, Jonathan Waxman and Jody Williams. But I digress.

Previously Gourmet was embedded online at Epicurious and now they have a URL of their own. I've spent some time looking through the site, which has a nice clean look and is relatively easy to navigate. Most of the content is different from the print version, although you can find all that there too. The old Choptalk blog has morphed into articles under headings like food politics and ingredients. There are links to timely news stories, though sadly for Snack traffic the blog roll is no more.

They also have snazzy videos produced by Zero Point Zero, the same production house that does Tony Bourdain's No Reservations and Gourmet's own Diary of a Foodie. I discovered you can subscribe to Diary of a Foodie in iTunes for free.

Gourmet.com is almost a completely different experience from print, because of the au courant digital format and all of the original content. I'm curious to see how it will impact the magazine in a general sense. According to the advertising media-kit the median age of Gourmet readers is 49.5. My guess is the website will turn back time.    

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

 

snackingaround: chef diaries

Recall back in August, pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini launched his website. The updates on the 'what's new' page are particularly tasty. In September he had the opening party for Tailor. In October, he was filming Top Chef Season 4 in Chicago. It's worth a click, if only to see him wearing 42 jars of marshmallow fluff.

Another chef diary worth a stop is Mario Batali's blog. Yes, there's the new the super-video series Unclogged on Serious Eats, but I am referring to the blog on his website. It's more stream-of-consciousness diary entries like this post from October 3rd:

Start the day with rain and a swim, some tech difs to get the cars  rolling and then off to Toledo with gogo driving mostly fun and real conversations, Charlie pushing for come contrived dialog did not really hurt, arrive in Toledo and then realize we did not want to arrive in Toledo a little shit fit from chucky and we are back on the road to arrive at adolfo’s house MY DREAM HOUSE smokin patio with catering facility and great kitchen, in house cantina delicious wine super hospitality shot a cooking sequence with gp and adolfo made pisto manchego (wow) arroz con azzafran (wow) torrijas a kind of wine soaked French toast with reduced wine and cinnamon sugar and then perdiz 2 ways legs braised in stock and grilled breast RARE!!  Gp would not eat it rare and I should have listened?.

*Note Gp. Gwyneth Paltrow.

snackingaround: eater by the bay

I'm not the only one en voyage of late. The Eater boys have been stirring things up on the west coast this week. Today, now, Eater San Francisco is live. 

snackingaround: johnnyiuzzini.com

Johnny Iuzzini, the much lauded and tattooed sultan of sweet currently in residence at Jean-Georges, has just launched JohnnyIuzzini.com. Highly stylized and chock full of digital goodies like photos (strawberries at the green market and cakes!), video reel (sweet dreams sound track bien-sur) and calendar of events (note Tailor opening on the 30th and JI's birthday the 31st) it's worth stopping by for a bite.

snackingaround: cross mojo-nation edition

Gawker, home of media and celebrity stalkings, announces full time food czar.

Choptalk, the Gourmet Magazine blog, covering fashion (Lacroix darling!) via Paris.

Wine Spectator goes youtube with a call for amateur wine videos (note: friends don't let friends drink and film).   

snackingaround: shameless self-promotion edition

If you find shameless self-promotion distasteful, look away.

Hot list, three pastry chefs opening, hot list, eastcoast/westcoast, radio, and hot list.

snackingaround: new blogs, warm fuzzy deathwatch, and going to la

Eric Ripert blogs. Oui, c'est vrai. (Wine Spectator online sub required)

Food & Wine Magazine joins the blogosphere. Too late for this season of Top Chef, but plenty of time for best new chefs. 

Eater's DeathWatch gets a heart, just in time for Valentine's Day.

The Thrillist boys head to LA.

snackingaround: pupu platter

It’s a daunting task to sift through the billions of bites of information the internet serves up everyday. Sometimes, you miss something good. Sometimes, your friendly neighborhood blog points the way to…Cheetos lip balm, the inner Daniel, the menu for hope, and the taste of seduction.