Blogs : Food Media

Five Things You Didn't Know About Guy Fieri

The Hungry Beast has a revealing interview with Guy Fieri this week that unearths some interesting nuggets. To wit:

1. He owns a T-shirt cannon.

2. He is going on a national tour “in a bus stocked with Pabst Blue Ribbon and painted with flames.”

3., 4., and 5. “He now travels with a bodyguard to events, has bras and underwear thrown at him during cooking demos, and counts Sammy Hagar and members of AC/DC as close friends—no wonder he speaks about himself in rock-star language.”

Whoa. Visit the Hungry Beast to learn about Fieri’s other quirks, such as naming dishes things like No Can Beato This Taquito and Mac-Daddi-Roni Salad.

Posted by Joyce Slaton | 3 comments

Waiter, Get Your Hands Off Me!

Bruce Buschel is opening a restaurant. And he has some ideas about what he’d like his staff to do and not do. So many ideas, in fact, that he was able to supply the New York Times with a list of “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do.” Buschel is on the ball; witness some of the picks of his list:

“8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.”

“20. Never refuse to substitute one vegetable for another.”

“32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.”

Buschel was on NPR a few days later, and he had more to say. Here he is on servers touching customers:

“I think it’s not a polite thing to do. I think a lot of people can take it the wrong way. The study that’s being quoted doesn’t mention genders. I’m sure a lot of women think that if they touch a customer on the shoulder, their tip goes up. It may or may not be true. I just think that, again, you’re invading somebody’s space. I know recently, I was standing in a restaurant waiting at the bar and somebody came over from behind and actually physically moved me, grabbed my two shoulders and moved me. And I turned around and he said, the waiter has to get past. So there are all degrees of touching. And some people may get excited and some people may be offended. So I think the best thing is just to not do it.”

Yeah, keep your paws off me!

Posted by Joyce Slaton | 0 comments

Snacks and the Modern Gamer

The brutally obvious nature of the picks in Topless Robot’s “10 Most Beloved and Unhealthy Gaming Snacks” doesn’t diminish the fleeting-if-all-too-real vicarious pleasure a casual reader picks up from hearing the analysis of total crap ranging from Oreos to Slim Jims to that ghastly World of Warcraft Mountain Dew.

On the topic of doughnuts, Topless Robot notes:

“It is one of the few foods you can buy a box of, bring it to a friend’s house and only your most picky of bitch friends will not find something they like.”

Not Pulitzer-caliber stuff, but, to be fair, Combos aren’t winning any James Beard Awards anytime soon.

Posted by James Norton | 0 comments

The Last Good Job in Food Media

We’ve got a plum proposition for one very specific food journalist: Come and work for CHOW.com. We’ve got a food editor position open. Old media is crumbling around us, have you heard? And while you’re cleaning your hands of that sticky paste-up goo and worrying about filling the front of the book, or whatever it is print editors do these days, we’re entertaining readers and teaching people how to cook. Which is why you got into food media in the first place, right?

As we say in the job posting, the best candidate for this job will make us laugh. He or she will manage a kitchen, lead a team, and want to perform in front of the camera but not clown around or be superearnest. The food editor will, above all, convey information clearly and directly. He or she will think creatively about food and online media and techniques. Will love to eat and love to learn about food, yet will be skeptical about the old ways of doing things. The food editor will have ideas about bok choy and user engagement and online communities. But won’t use words like decadent and yummy.

We have other criteria; see the job listing on mediabistro.com or CBS Interactive.

Posted by Davina Baum | 0 comments

FARK.com and the Vegetarian Culture War

An almost completely innocuous Los Angeles Times article on raising vegetarian kids touched off rapidly updated and at times hilarious/offensive /interesting debate on dietary choices over at FARK.com.

An amuse-bouche of the back-and-forth:

“Vegetarians are the worst. Can’t we round them, teetotallers, religious people and rap-metal fans up and ship them off to Iran?”

“Why do vegetarians always look so unhealthy?”

“You’re an idiot. Ever heard of Bill Pearl? Four time Mr. Universe? Used to rip license plates in half to demonstrate his strength? He was a vegetarian -- lacto-ovo, but still a vegetarian. Your theory -- he just kicked sand in its face.”

“My ancestors didn’t work their way up the food chain for me to become a vegetarian.”

“meat carnivores are militant and defensive about eating meat. I mean, I’d agree that vegetarians are annoying, but this thread is more self-righteous and annoying than any vegetarian that I’ve ever met.”

And, of course, you can’t do this argument without quoting Jim Gaffigan:

Posted by James Norton | 1 comment