Blogs : Food Media
Food Media CHOW's roundup of food-related news from blogs, newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and film.
Who Died and Made You a Blogger?
The recently relaunched Bon Appétit website has enlisted two unlikely recipe testers to try out its “Top 100 Dishes”—and correspond via a coast-to-coast blog called Project Recipe. One of the bloggers is the cute, blonde, New York City–based twentysomething actress Bridget Moloney. She says she’s also a writer—but I can’t find anything she’s written professionally besides the BA blog. (Seems like she’s just an actress who’s angling for a cooking show—hence the title of this post—and it makes me a little sad inside to think that the Land of Food Blogs, a safe haven to food nerds of all shapes and sizes, will someday be taken over by Beautiful People and judged by Gawker. Sigh.) Still, she’s totally adorable, and she’s playing the part of the “novice cook.”
The “experienced cook” is Chris Hall, a Berkeley-based book designer with some experience in restaurant kitchens, and he really does offer some helpful tips. For instance, Bridget posts this question about measuring liquids for cioppino:
The recipe, very specifically, says to boil 13 cups of the stew base until it reduces to 10 cups. Am I crazy for measuring that out? Did you just eyeball it?
Chris replies:
Make a jury stick. Just measure out 10 cups of water in your (empty and not yet in use) pot, then mark the level with pencil on a bamboo skewer. Make it nice and dark. Then add another three cups, measure again, and mark that level. When you want to know how far along you are, just dip the jury stick in the liquid and see how far the level is from your target. It takes out all the guesswork.
Pretty brilliant, right? That’s a new trick for me. Let’s just hope that when Blondie gets her Food Network contract, she takes Mr. Hall along with her.
Posted by | Monday, June 23, 2008 at 4:34pm | 5 comments
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Bitter much? Ms. Moloney is a charming writer who has done good things for This Recording, which is about as good as blogs get.
BA apparently wasn't looking for an accomplished chef - they could have gotten any number of CIA-educated dolts, or somebody from their own test kitchen - but somebody who could illuminate the process of becoming a cook. Would she have gotten the gig if she weren't a looker? Probably not. Would she have gotten the gig if she didn't have a felicitous prose style? Also, almost certainly not.
OK, let me get this straight. You have to be ugly to be a food blogger?
Geez, of course you don't have to be ugly to be a food blogger! But the fact is that blogs are growing out of so many magazines -- and forcing many writers to post photos of themselves. No matter how cute they are, some writers don't want to do that. I don't mind putting my face next to my words, but I am nervous about the future. Is it possible that applying for a blogging job may someday require sending a resume, writing sample, and head shot?
I have read Project Recipe since the first recipe, and I cannot recall what Ms. Moloney looks like. I think her looks are mostly irrelevant. I hear this argument a lot, and I would really like to know where all these ogres are who have auditioned for cooking shows or applied to write blogs and were denied.
The interesting thing is, to reply to Kara's original question, is not that there might be an appearance requirement to blog for a magazine, but that there might be an age requirement. A lot of these magazines are using blogs to pull in younger readers, so if you're over a certain age (and have to show a photo which makes it obvious) you might not get the job. I actually think that's more likely than being turned down because you're less than gorgeous, since almost everyone can take a picture that makes them look presentable.
By the way, I love Project Recipe, too. I wish they would get a TV show, I'd definitely watch it.