Just give it a few years, guys. Survival of the fittest! Hopefully the good bloggers will weed the bad professional writers out and force others to step up their game. And even if they don’t, we food bloggers have something that professional food writers don’t–a community of other food bloggers that support each other and love to interact.

“Another item he insisted on (instead of rice) was the light, white, pan-fried and slightly risen bread called spring onion pancake (large, $7), something I’ve never seen before. ”

If he has never had a spring onion pancake (at a chinese restaurant) what the hell is he doing reviewing food. This is an absolute disgrace.

I think that the standard of writing in SMH Good Living (fairfax) took a free fall when Matthew Evans left. I barely read it now with the spelling mistakes and even at times repetition of paragraphs that Simon Thomsen includes. I no longer find the reviews informative, interesting or even independent and am sick to death of hearing about the “Banc club” great though they may be.

the fact of the matter is that a good writer is a good writer whatever the medium. printed material journalists are concerned more with outdated standards and archaic concepts of what constitutes good food writing.

as an example, under “home cooking” (for want of a better title) there is a range of perspectives that the old media doesn’t come close to touching on – purple goddess addresses how to do it with a household full of adolescents, a couple of dogs, and a budget, Jules Clancy (the stonesoup) presents beautiful food with raw emotion and intelligence accompanied by beautiful anecdotes on life, and the great big veggie challenge certainly takes overcoming fussy eating to a new level – the biddies on the taste forum (delicious, superfood ideas, bla bla) choke on such creativity!!!

the same comments and examples could apply to a range of subject matter that really should be covered in good living / epicure but isn’t, and is explored with a greater amount of intelligence online, by people who are educated and passionate (have you ever read chew on this on smh.com.au? i think, most of the time, it’s terrible!)

I could go on, but this is not my blog!!!

Thanks for writing something about it. I was spitting nails (on the inside!) when I read this on the weekend

I’m a bit surprised when anyone makes a call on the lack of professionalism amongst bloggers and say, fails to notice that the NZ Herald sent somebody allergic to fish to review a seafood restaurant.

I think blogs still have an image problem with many people. They still suffer from the perception that it’s all navel-gazing, personal diarising, of the minutiae of people’s lives. Which is of course, simply not true anymore and an outdated opinion.

However, I come across it every day. From friends (who’ve never looked at my blog), work colleagues and the various people I meet. At times I’ve taken to calling my blog a”website” – simply to get away from that perception.

Old media in particular are protective of their turf and their role as “experts”. It’s gonna change, but here in Aus – if you have a blog, you’re still a super-early-adopter.

Blogs like mine, which have more of a focus on cooking and home-cooked meals aren’t being slagged off as pretending to be Donna Hay (not that I’d want to be, BTW!). No-one is spending time worrying that PG’s Kitchen is less relevant/informed/valid than Vogue Cooking.

Maybe it’s the source, rather than the medium… dining.. particularly “FINE” dining has always been seen as a bastion of the rich and famous, the “in” crowd, the intelligentsia, the gliteratti. Those who are privileged enough to know enough to **insert gasp** REVIEW AND PASS JUDGMENT (i.e food/restaurant critics) ergo, are those things and more by association…

And all of a sudden, the great unwashed masses are DARING to give an opinion??

Anton and his mates in their ivory towers must be shivering in loathing and fear!!

Congrats too, ed, on the UK’s Guardian Unlimited online travel section mention.