A publication once sent a writer to review a brand new Japanese restaurant in Causeway Bay. The reviewer wrote that the food was very small, the flavours very light, the pricing very expensive, the service too fussy and the lighting too dark. The publication ran it and the restaurant closed down two months after print.
What the readers didn’t know was the review was done by an intern. Someone who was new to the city, had little experience in critical writing, and didn’t have the budget to spend much time at white-table clothed restaurants. The consequence was a $2 million project, the couple’s life savings, down the tube.
In journalism, what you say comes with responsibility. This story came to mind when New York University recently held a forum asking: Are restaurant reviewers still necessary? The floor was divide where professional reviewers on the panel enthusiastically said yes and food blogger, in real-time, blogged, no. And the imagery of celebrated food journalists on an elevated stage nodding their heads verses bloggers angrily challenging professional’s every thought on their keyboards is a good illustration of where we are today. What was really being asked during this forum is this: Should opinion writing be democratised? After a quick scan of food blogs around Hong Kong I have to throw myself into the yes camp.
Many blogs fall into one of three categories: the ego-driven nobody who power trips with his iPhone writing negative knee-jerk reviews if they are not fawned over at restaurants; the “I took my mom to ____ and we liked ____ very much” variety; or the worst of the bred, the marketing tool disguised as a personal blog.
The last category is harder to spot if you don’t do due diligence. Some of the most respected food blogger keep their identities hidden for creditability, but if you cover the food beat, then you’ll know instantly they are the grandsons and daughters of the city’s food industries. One recent blog criticised a new restaurant in Soho, never stating he was the marketing manager for the restaurant right above the one he was criticizing. You see how this could get messy.
When I used to take press meals, that is free meals paid by restaurants in exchange for press coverage ( a good time to insert that Time Out reviews anonymously and pays for meals), tables would be seated by free-loading journalists and bloggers looking for a king’s feast. What I didn’t understand then, but clearly see now is that the acceptance of a free meal creates the classic journalistic conflict of interest: how do I judge a restaurant when they have to be on their best behaviour? Hosting free meals allows restaurants to control how it will be portrayed in the media. This is a wildly hedonistic occupation, and anyone, it seems, can be bought.
I’m not trying to throw scare tactics to wain readers away from food blogs and put their trust on the professionals. Food blogger are not the bad guys in this write up. As Little Cream Book’s author and blogger Winne So says in support of blogs, “You are more likely to trust your friend’s opinion than a professionals.”
And as your friend’s blog turns in six-figure book deals such as This is Why You're Fat, Gourmet Glossary, and Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression, and a Hollywood movie deal (Julie & Julia) come to a book dealer or movie theatre near you, you think why not give it a go? And even in this over-saturated market of food blogger, there will always be room for more proses as everyone eats, and everyone can use puffery to sing to the masses.
I can easily jump camps and state the reasons why food blogs will take over my job. The main reason being they don’t have to print on dead trees. Print media have lag time between collecting the information and when it is released, sometimes months after restaurants are opened. Bloggers have instant publishing tools. In fact, all they need to do is whip out their iPhone tableside. This of course has problems as well. Often the outcome is the writing is spontaneously, unedited, hasty opinions. In this day and age, a restaurant critique is not just a record of been there, ate that, but also a reference book, a history lesson, a travel log, a celebration of food vernaculars, all while sounding delicious or grossed out. There is baseline standard that comes from understanding and investigation. That only comes from years of disciplined eating, referencing, traveling, tracking talents, and food poisoning.
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