It seems like only yesterday I switched over from my old, crusty html site and created my blog. The reasoning behind it was simple…I no longer had to create/update pages in dreamweaver/golive and upload them to the server. The new “free” CMS (content management system) system would take care of all that for me, freeing me up (or so I thought) write and cook more. The reality of opening another restaurant quickly sank in and I was posting a couple of times a month. It did free me from being tethered to the software, for which I am eternally grateful.
Back in ’08, blogs were all the rage. The ability to free up chefs to just write and not have to code opened the door for many chefs to go online. This game changing software and approach to content creation is evident in any search engine you choose, for any recipe you are looking for.
Fast forward to the end of 2011…economy is in the tank, 10+% unemployment, global warming, wars and asteroids whizzing by the planet. Must seem like the end of days to some, just another day to others. All this got me thinking one night, how has this affected chefs, or more specifically how has it affected them in their attempts to blog and get the word out. And so the search began….
The search I am speaking of is searches in Google and Bing for chefs blogs. No, not foodie blogs (though I love them) or blogs hosted on sites like Blogger, WordPress, Typepad and tumblr. I am looking for blogs/sites that are on a chefs own domain and can be found in the search engines, say while searching for recipes of some sort and that are being updated. An update is not from 2008, it is some in the last 6 months of the year. I mean, this is how you build a brand, right?
So I set out, late in the nights in the middle of November scanning the engines for self-hosted chefs blogs. Searching recipe queries, terms like “chefs blogs”, “ food blogs chefs”, “vinaigrette recipe chef blogs”, “chocolate desserts chefs”, ya know…the easy stuff that normal people would search for when looking for chefs blogs, and maybe easy recipes too. This very much reminded me of life before Google, when you had to “surf” the net to finds things of interest…
So whatdidIfind?
Well, in all honesty not much. “Soup recipe” brought up a bunch of crap, “duck tongue recipe” was bit better, “roasted tomato marinara sauce” was better (without all the recipe site spam), and “compound butter recipes” was the best…well OK my recipe is in there. To be totally honest, not too many chef’s site came up and that was a little disappointing. After digging through 20+ pages of Google and Bing results I found, either in the engines or on another list like this, the Top 10 working chef’s sites/blogs on the Internet.
Now before anyone gets their panties all bunched up, this is by no means saying that anyone is better than anyone else, nor is there any favoritism towards these chefs and their sites/blogs. I have not met any of these professionals I just happened on their writings via Google and Bing. I am though, very surprised that there are not more sites out there, guess people are wasting too much time on facebook and tumblr…sorry guys.
So here they are (drum roll please)…the Top 10 working chefs blogs, in no particulate order…
http://www.danielangerer.com/
http://thepickledtongue.com/
http://andrewcarmellini.com/
http://www.curtisduffy.com/ – last update March 2011
http://www.diaryofasweettooth.com/
http://blog.chefmateo.com/
http://www.jfolse.com/
http://benjaminchristie.com
http://www.jamieoliver.com
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/
Now the criteria for this is/was that they (the chefs) are activity updating their blog/site at least in the last 7 months…that they are creating the content and that it can be found in Google or Bing by doing a search query. Like it or not, these are the once I found.
I was hoping for much more, but do understand what it takes to do this consistently and it is by no means an easy task.
So take the time and check out these blogs/sites. They are worth a look as those involved have not only poured their heart and soul into their work, but also have taken the time to translate their passion into words for the rest of us to digest. My (chefs) hats off to you all!
So what about you?
Have you found or know of another working chef’s blog/site that fits the criteria above? If so, leave a comment and drop the link in so we can check it out…thanks!
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