Culinary Forums, Blogs, and Podcasts, Oh My!
by Judi Sandall
judi.sandall@chefschoolreview.com
Chef School Review Columnist
It doesn’t take a wizard to see that the culinary world has exploded onto the Internet. Savvy chefs everywhere have cooked up personal Web sites and many of the top celebrity chefs also serve up a well-seasoned mix of online chats, forums, blogs, and podcasts.
Culinary Information Highway
According to Jeremy Caplan, New York-based reporter for Time Magazine, “health conscious cookers are turning to the web for help in researching, preparing, and learning about food.” To this end, he has nominated nine tasty sites to help the culinary dabbler, the weekend chef, and the serious foodie “surf the web - the healthy way.”
Culinary Hi-Tech
All of the top chefs—Emeril, Rachael, Wolfgang, and Mario, to name a few—have personal Web sites on the ‘culinary’ Internet. Chef Jamie Oliver has a ‘tasty tidbits’ personal diary on his Web site and provides space for a forum to “chat to each other, exchange recipe ideas and maybe even help each other out with any problems you might have in the kitchen area.” He recently hosted a two-part culinary podcast on Italian food as well as another “for the lads,” which gives advice for aspiring male chefs who want to “impress the ladies with their culinary skills.”
Blogs Etc.
The Internet has indeed become ‘the way’ to get the culinary word out and has raised food-related personal expression to a science with culinary blogs. Within the general world of culinary blogs, there are also niche blogs that cater to interest groups such as vegetarians and vegans, organic foodies, blogs that publish gluten-free information and recipes, wine blogs, travel blogs with culinary overtones, nutrition blogs, and the list goes on.
Culinary & Computer Whiz
If you were born into the Internet Generation, or even if you have recently come to the Internet, and have an interest in all things culinary, now more than ever, you can easily combine your interests. You can parlay your culinary education plus an interest in the Internet into your own culinary Web site, blog, online chat, forum, or all of the above. Tomorrow’s up and coming chef will need to have a variety of Internet communication skills in addition to a solid culinary background. Put on your chef whites, grab your iPod or boot up your PC, the culinary information age is here.
Sources
About the Author
Judi Sandall is a technical writer and a regular Chef School Review columnist. She is a graduate of the State University of New York, with a BA in English Literature.
Posted on December 23, 2006 at 10:42 AM
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