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Food bloggers: Helpful or disruptive?
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A side-by-side comparison. On the left, a photograph of a beet salad from Craft Restaurant the way it would like dish to be presented. On the right, a photo by food blogger Katie Ett of gnocchi from Craft Restaurant's Colicchio & Sons.
On the left, a photograph of a scallop dish the way Craft Restaurant would like the dish presented. On the right, blogger Katie Ett's photo of Craft Restaurant's Colicchio & Son's cinnamon bread.
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Kai Ryssdal: The blogosphere offers opinions. Lot's of 'em. What to buy. What not to buy. What to wear, what not to wear. And increasingly, what to eat or not to eat. Food blogs and review sites are everywhere online today. Leading to behavior at restaurants that would probably have Emily Post rolling over in her grave.
From New York, Sally Herships has more.
Sally Herships: It's Thursday night. I'm at Fatty Cue, a trendy barbecue joint in Brooklyn. I'm here with Hagen Blount, Lawrence Weibman and Andy Freedman. Three big, hungry guys trying to decide what to get for dinner.
Blogger 1: The spare ribs and the brisket.
Blogger 2: Exactly.
Blogger 3: I would be interested in the cucumbers.
They spend a while debating their order, but when the food finally comes -- no one touches it. Instead of attacking their plates, they're photographing them. Which isn't easy, because it's kind of dark in here.
Bloggers: Have you been using the two-second delay? One second. One second delay, yeah.
Hagen, Blount and Weibam are going to post the photos online, along with a review of the restaurant. That's because they're food bloggers, or -- depending on who you ask -- food paparazzi. And Weibman's not very fond of the term.
LAWRENCE WEIBAM: The idea of paparazzi definitely has a negative connotation to it -- almost like a shoe fly. And what we're doing here is out of passion, we love food.
But whether you call them paparazzi or bloggers, they're showing up in restaurants more often, bringing cameras, and sometimes even tripods, along with an appetite. Like at Cafe Flora, a vegetarian restaurant in Seattle. Nat Stratton-Clarke is the owner. For the most part, he's very happy with the free publicity.
NAT STRATTON-CLARKE: This wonderful woman from Dallas came in last week. And she is gluten free. And the only reason that she knew about us is because she typed in "gluten free Seattle" and up came this picture that somebody had taken.
But sometime the quality of the photos doesn't match the quality of the food. They can be under-exposed, or taken mid-meal, bite marks and all.
Katie Grieco is VP of operations and new projects at Craft Restaurants in New York. We sat down to look at some of the pictures bloggers have posted of three-star meals from celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio.
Greico: I think they're horrible looking, aren't they? You tell me. If I were to look at that picture, I wouldn't think that looks particularly appetizing. And that was a good review.
But Grieco isn't that concerned with the pictures themselves. Instead, she says the bigger problem is the possibility of bloggers disrupting the ambiance with flashes or tripods and disturbing diners trying to enjoy their meals in peace. The average check at Craft is about $100.
GRIECO: When people are paying a high price tag the expectations are often just as high, if not higher.
Trendy eateries like New York City's Momofuku Ko and Le Caprice have banned photography altogether. And Craft doesn't allow photographers to use a flash. But Grieco's biggest beef with bloggers is their potential lack of experience. She doesn't want amateur food writers influencing people's dining decisions.
GRIECO:When you feel like they're having that influence without really knowing what they're talking about, it's very frustrating.
Back at Fatty Cue food blogger Lawrence Weibman tell me he understands... sort of.
WEIBAM: But in the end, if a chef is making good food, he or she has nothing to worry about. Because it speaks for itself.
You know that old saying, "Everyone's a critic?" Well for restaurant owners, it's truer then ever.
In New York, I'm Sally Herships for Marketplace.
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The last line sums it up, “But in the end, if a chef is making good food, he or she has nothing to worry about. Because it speaks for itself.†I stand by my reviews and my photos (on http://jaysnycrestaurantreviews.com). I find Tom Colicchio to be a little too snooty for my taste. And for the record, I have dined at Craft before and wasn’t overly impressed with the food or service. When I criticize in reviews I always provide a lot of evidence and details. I also cross reference sites like Zagat to see if I am making things up!
I think what you mean are rude people in general. if your saying they stand up, stand in the way of waiters, bother other customers, that ain't a "blogger" or food paparazzi problem, it's the individual's problem. You can't put all bloggers in one pot... that makes no sense.
I honestly believe if the restaurant has good food, there is nothing to hide. And taking what bloggers think might even help their business.
Food bloggers have been eating all their lives, which makes them expert, blogs aren't shoved in your face, everyone chooses to visit what they want to read, so... I don't see a problem. If I paid for the food, I can do whatever I want!!!! no photo like momofuku ko is freakin' retarded.
I'm a food blogger and I take photos all the time. I never get up to take the photos and don't even own a tripod! I also try to be quick and just grab quick shots before we all dig in. I think banning photos is just ridiculous! I like sharing my thoughts because I'm always honest and seem to get a lot of positive feedback. I'm not all fancy about it - it's just my opinion of one place on a particular day.
I am a former restaurant owner and CIA graduate who now works for Cookwork.com, a website for chefs. I recently started a conversation with our membership on foodies writing about food. It is one of the most popular conversation areas on the site.
Overall, there is a lot of frustration with people who do not have formal culinary or nutrition training giving advice to people on what foods to eat and how to prepare them. One chef related a story about a diner coming into the kitchen after her meal to advise the chef on how she felt he could have improved it.
I think it's great that people are interested in food and are visiting restaurants to experience new flavors. I even think it's good that they go back and write about their experiences but they should leave professional cooking and advice on professional meal preparation to the professionals. It's what we're trained to do.
I blog and take photos at many restaurants. I have three rules I try to follow: 1) no flash 2) be quick, don't too much time staging 3) If convenient, I try to ask the waiter/waitress if it's ok. If they say no, I won't take photos.
I asked before taking any photos at le bernardin, and once i did that, they were more than accommodating. I also think it's less off putting to the staff, and they are generally friendlier about it after I've asked their permission. I think they appreciate the gesture.
I believe that this should be left up to the individual business to make a decision as to whether or not photos should be allowed. Besides, the likelyhood that the photo a person takes at the table even remotely resembles what is on a website or press release is pretty remote. Even during the best of times a dish will not come out looking like that press release or website photo. those photos are usually done by a professional under professional conditions. The photo of the beet salad dish and the gnocchi dish are great examples. The beet dish looks phenomenol and was taken under ideal conditons. the gnocchi dish looks great considering the conditions, lighting etc.
Taking one or two souvenir photos with friends at your table isn't the same as setting up a tripod to do a photo shoot of your dinner. That really is rude and inconsiderate of the other diners in the establishment. One or two quick snapshots and probably no one will care. Critics probably still don't like it. OTOH, it's really pretty easy to tell if a blogger knows what they're talking about or not - just by reading their review - so restaurants and pro critics don't have much to worry about there.
As a former executive chef and restaurant manager I would have had a real problem with people taking photos in my restaurants and NOT because I would be worried about how they look etc. etc.
Greico has a very good point with which I agree 100% "Instead, she says the bigger problem is the possibility of bloggers disrupting the ambiance with flashes or tripods and disturbing diners trying to enjoy their meals in peace."
In addition to that, the food paparazzi I have seen get up from their tables getting in the way of waiters with loaded plates and trays and also getting in the way of other customers either being seated, getting finished or visited the restrooms.
The people I have seen doing this are being obnoxious in public. Have a little respect for the people around you who are also paying good money for their own dining experiences.
As someone from the profession I have very little respect for "foodies" but taking photos in restaurants has nothing to do with whether you know what you are talking about or not, its just plain rude.
Greico definitely stepped in it on this one. Who does she think was influencing restaurant choices before food blogs. Sure the food critics had/have great pull in the industry but a dissatisfied customer will reach just as many people over the long run than a single published review in the NYT.
I've been highly impressed with Chef Tom Colicchio over the years but he definitely needs to sit down and have a talk with his VP of new operations and tell her to stop reading the company press releases and remember why they exist.
This notion of the customer not knowing what they're talking about is, well, bologna. This isn't the iPad, where we can just read a web page of tech specs and know what we're getting. We're talking about a matter of taste, and it's unfortunate that some delicate flower of a chef might be offended that the unwashed masses don't 'get' their dish. They will happily take your money for a meal even if you don't know the difference between escarole and escargot.
They have to know that we're going to talk about meals with our friends, and that means, nowadays, a larger audience. If they don't like it, make better food or make better marketing.
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