Food Bloggers: Bane or Boon?

With the recent chatter on Eater about fellow food blogger KevinEats and a rant by "blogger" (but not food blogger or foodie), I find it appropriate to ruminate on the topic of food bloggers and to a lesser extend, foodies. I discussed previously the differences between Chowhounders and Yelpers, but in this case I'm talking about a newer, fresher group of "floggers" (food bloggers, as my blog-aggregator junkie cousin once dubbed).

I met last week with 8 other food bloggers who prowl the streets of Los Angeles looking for a good meal. I've found this group a bit more agreeable than the standard-issue Yelper (though there are a number of very knowledgeable Yelpers) or Chowhounder (many of them double up from their blogs). I'll be posting the review of that meal at Ford's Filling Station soon, but until then let's talk a bit about what a food blogger is.

A food blogger is very simply a camera-equipped reporter and reviewer of restaurants, eateries, bars, and other food-related establishments such as wine shops, coffeeshops, and specialty grocery stores. They come high and low, from different ethnicities, ages, and backgrounds, but generally they tend to be younger, more technologically inclined, and on the cutting edge of the local culinary scene. They expend the most time and resources compared the denizens of other internet foodies such as Yelpers and Chowhounders because of the following reasons. They have to publish their own content; they have to design their own website (simple or complicated); they have to organize and edit their own photos; they have to market their blog through Foodbuzz or related aggregator; they generally aren't financially motivated. Of course, Yelpers and Chowhounders generally aren't in it for the money, but bloggers have to spend more time publishing their content and since time is money, they've obviously put their treasure where their heart is.

Most of the time food bloggers are chronicling their various eating adventures for the sole purpose of documenting them for their readership. Sometimes food bloggers are more about cooking, like Chez Pim and David Lebovitz. Others eat mainly at high-end restaurants like KevinEats. Some like the cutting-edge, underground, un-heard of places like Tony C of Sinosoul. Others are more general like Gourmet Pigs, which isn't a bad thing at all. Some are more like beat writers, like FoodGPS, which covers Los Angeles restaurant news better than any site (though he has great reviews as well).

Food bloggers come in every shape and style, many impelled by their pursuits, passions, and backgrounds, which makes that microcosm both interesting and personalized. My girlfriend Christine fondly recalls reading Eat, Drink & Be Merry or Daily Gluttony as if she lived vicariously through them. That's the beauty of food blogs, they're personal food memoirs, digitalized for the Web 2.0 age. They're the dearth of traditional media like the LA Times despite lower journalistic quality of content because they're quicker, more relevant, personalized, and easily accessible.

With the recent backlash on Daily Beast, it's becoming more apparent that "floggers" are becoming a nuissance. Jessi Klein, who writes the article, is fed up with the oversexualization, the overhyped drama, the ridiculous exultation of all things food, especially in the verbal sense, by foodies who prowl restaurants with their obnoxious cameras. True, sometimes foodies, and especially floggers get out of hand. They romanticize things that don't matter in two weeks. Like Jose Andres' Bazaar. I guarantee you in LA it'll be blase in 6 months, perhaps a year. Remember when Gordon Ramsay, Gordon effing RAMSAY opened a restaurant in LA? Yawn. Thomas Keller's opening Bouchon in Beverly freakin Hills! When's lunch?

But food bloggers are officially a force, especially with the young guard that's surprisingly very Asian (though not necessarily, there are plenty that aren't - FoodGPS, Diglounge, FoodMarathon, la.foodblogging, etc.), but also very metropolitan and up with the culinary zeitgeist. That makes them the influencers, people who can direct the hearts and stomaches of other foodies and diners in large cities like Los Angeles. There're here to stay, so publicists, promoters, and restaurateurs will have to deal with it.

That said, I think food bloggers should stay away from going the way of Chowhound or Yelp where it's all about criticism. Bloggers should highlight what's worth consumers' time and money. They should reveal what's notable and compelling in the local food scene. They shouldn't ever demand anything different from the ordinary diner. They should be polite and keep those flashes covered. If you can't get good photos, get a Fuju Finepix F30 which has great lowlight capabilities (thanks for that tip Kevin), or employ a fast aperture lens on your DSLR. I'm liking my friend's 24mm f2.8 or my 24-60mm f2.8, but I plan to upgrade to a 35mm f2.0 for even faster work (lower light). Or go eat at lunch, for pete's sake, when the sun's out. Nothing beats natural light.

Most of all, keep blogging and telling the world about what's worth eating. I'm doing my part and I can't always keep up, but I think local food bloggers are doing a service to all.