I just got more noisy. Well according to the latest State of the Australian Blogosphere I’ve moved up from being a mumbling 128 in Spring 2006 to a rather shouty 89 in terms of noisyness. But it’s not just me. Food blogs have got a lot more noisy in general and restaurant owners and chefs are taking them a lot more seriously.
They are even getting pretty cranky with those bloggers who dare to question the brilliance of their cooking. I believe Jamie over at The Breakfast Blog was the first to receive an email from the angry Scotsman Raymond Capaldi for saying “The eggs were rich and creamy, but too much like a pile of slop for top marks”. Certainly I’m at war with Capaldi for an electronic yuk over a dish I refuse to be bullied into liking.
Then there’s Thanh over at I Eat Therefore I am who seemingly received a threatening email from Matt McConnell at Bar Lourinha and strangely nothing more.
Meanwhile, Guy Grossi’s boys, Janette actually, decided to call Mathew from the Esoteric Rabbit blog in for a few words in his shell-like for his scathing review of Mirka at Tolarno.
But what I do want to write here is about how gracious some people can be, especially under fire when the review doesn’t just appear on my blog but in the Herald Sun too. I was quite rude about C’Est Bon and owner Amelie Bonnet was very polite. She apologised and said she hoped she would see me again.
You know what, it made me think “yes, I will go back there” and feel a bit bad about my review. I think we could do with a few more Amelie’s out there. Hey, and her name’s cute. Somebody should make
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I am so glad I came to your site today! I’m currently getting my Masters in Gastronomy at Uni Adelaide, and would like to do my dissertation on the impact of food blogs on the professional world of food (writing and cooking). We should totally chat about this more…
What I find crazy is that despite how many chefs hate the blog world, a lot of them and even professional food writers are starting blogs. How is their blog any different from people telling their friends about a restaurant they didn’t like? I would think a restaurant would want to know what people do and don’t like about them.
Good post!
C’est Bon’s attitude is professional. I suspect the offending waiter may have been severely chastised.
Hi Leena, We should talk. I just watch it in an informal way and need to count up the numbers of locals bloggers. I keep meaning to write about all the restaurant search sites of varying quality where people can post comments. there are so many it is all quite confusing – I should try and grab all their reviews into one RSS feed.
You are so right. It is nothing different from word of mouth although it probably does accelerate the news. Up here it was bloggers who discovered the latest new hot Japanese joint Tempura Hajime before it was reviewed by The Age and then booked out for three months. I reckon it is good feedback. i help judge an awards scheme where they receive back an extensive score sheet so they can see hw they perform.
KH, the response restores my faith in people and hope the good karma reflects back on them.
Leena – tell me who these chefs are! I know of about 2 that blog. We need more chefs and restaurateurs blogging. I recently had a chat to Ed about this and the consensus was roughly, “We cant hear you Chef!”
If the chefs took the bull by the horns and adopted the “dont get mad, get even approach” to blog reviews then they would have nothing but a healthy and unbiased forum to what is percieved to be going on in their eateries.
Good topic Ed.
Whoah – food and blogging, quite the explosive mix! Congrats on your noisiness, Ed.
Looking at things from my limited ‘industry’ experience…I’d hazard a guess that the reason so few chefs do blogs is that most of them are too f’ing busy doing 75 hour weeks..to be frank. Same goes for owner/operators.
With regards to the general topic I think that these days restaurants are fair game in the blog world, it may take some of us a while to adapt to widespread ‘amateur’ analysis, what’s more worrying is that it gives ANYONE, regardless of the motivation, a platform to bag something that you literally live and breathe every single day. Our business is to ensure customers leave happy, sometimes, despite your best efforts, things go awry and they leave disgruntled. You feel it. You don’t just dismiss it offhand, however that single event can suddenly and irrevocably propagate around the web, sure, you have to take it on the chin but it still hurts.
Steve, I think the debate would be god. as long as in trying to get even they don’t turn up on my doorstep with a rolling pin…
Cheers Jon. It’s good to see these list promoting local blogging (and me!)
Davy, true most people are very busy but for a restaurant or business blogging is an essential part of marketing. All it takes is to link or write a sentence “we just got some lovely tough old mutton in which I’m going to slow cook for 3 weeks”
I find it liberating that anybody can share their experiences with the world because I’m not sure we always get the best from the old media critics simply because they are so well known so et a very different service to the normal punter. I guess the thing is that blogging is about “the wisdom of crowds”. Every restaurant is going to have a one-off that goes wrong. But sometimes the problem is more than a one-off. There are blog posts out there – on this site – where readers pile in with their bad experiences.
Obviously there are some malicious people out there but I don’t think it gives any of us any joy to write a bad review. Interestingly, I’v had more bad experiences writing for the restaurant guides than this blog.
Ed,
I started a blog when we were setting up our place with the full intention of keeping it up to date but that went out the window once the renovating started! You’re right though, it would be interesting, maybe I’ll have another go…
Incidentally, do you know when the good food guide is due for publication?
Davy,
It’s tough and you can often gauge how busy bloggers are by their frequency of posting although some people are just so damned disciplined. The guide is out at the end of August so not long now. Did you get reviewed in time?
Hi Ed,
I think so, they contacted me to send some photographs saying that it doesn’t guarantee inclusion but that it’s pretty safe to assume…so I’m assuming! Strangely I think we’ll be in Cheap Eats as well.
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Don’t worry. Hope Jo gets better. I saw you had a reasonable review from Simon Plant and I can’t see why they wouldn’t include you. Depending on the year the cut off point is 13/13.5/20. I’ve been contemplating our own disaster, our dog that was hit by a car at 6pm on Saturday – I think I drank nearly four bottles of wine that night and nearly as many Sunday as we didn’t know if she’d pull through. She was knocked out and I had to carry her to the vet. Three of her legs were stiff, one floppy an she had alot of internal bleeding. The good news is she comes home today although she’s still poorly. Let me know if you want me to delete any. Good luck
Thanks Ed, the table thief dog? I’m sorry to hear that, glad she’s on the mend though…hate cars when it comes to animals, bloody cold killing machines. Did the car stop or did they just carry on blissfully unaware? Isn’t booze a wonderful thing? Although the recycling does sounds like a pub skip being emptied come collection day! I’m sure it wakes up about half a mile radius. Hopefully just the non-drinkers though.
Yes, had a really good review from Dani Valent in The Sunday Age as well, we’ve been very fortunate with the press we’ve had…very conscious of the fact that things move on though…
How come the Sun doesn’t publish reviews online? They’ve really got a crap website compared to The Age generally, would’ve been handy to have the review to link to. Oh well.
Cheers,
Davy
No it wasn’t the thief, the good one although he hasn’t stolen any food for three days now – he must be upset. The Hun had just been a bit behind The Age and that’s all about to change. Matthew Kitchin who was features editor is now running the website and will put it all online. I wonder what that will bode for my column refering to this blog or whether they will try and suck it into News.
Sorry to hear about the dog.
I tend to get the opposite response from chefs/street vendors even when I point out that their food is crap – most people are just happy to get a tiny bit of recognition in Cambodia simply because blogging is the only food media here. Whenever I get the chance, I print my photos out and give them to the photographed street vendors – and they’re generally over the moon.