The Blogosphere: The New Food Entertainment?

After writing on many different subjects ranging from video games to smart choices when eating, I felt it necessary to discuss food entertainment in a different light. There are numerous television stations that air shows having to do with cooking as well as many reality shows deciding who the next best chef will be. It is true that food television is becoming more popular by the minute and ratings will continue to soar as long as the programming stays entertaining. Food entertainment programming is starting to become a topic of concern in many food blogs. People are expressing their feelings about dumbed down programming and just plain repetitive shows. However, due to the growing success of food television and use of the web, a new form of food entertainment has been born. Welcome to what could possibly be the next best food entertainment, the blogosphere.

Food Network started off with shows on cooking and has continued to air programming with a wider range of topics. Shows such as Unwrapped and Good Eats delve into the creating, packaging, history and science aspects of food. Although these shows are highly informative and entertaining, viewers wanted more. With shows such as Iron Chef and Top Chef becoming such a phenomenon in the food world, Food Network decided to create The Next Food Network Star. This show is great for two reasons; one it is a reality show about food, and two it is designed so that the winner gets a test season. What a great idea! A show that creates new shows, or is it?

Popular food blog, Serious Eats, posted a question about how The Next Food Network Star has not produced a “star” besides Guy Fieri. Food blog, From Scratch (see above left) has commented on the same thing, as well as how the shows are dumbed down. On the other hand, the show Ace of Cakes tends to have a bit of dark humor and is much more entertaining than watching Sandra Lee and her Semi-Homemade recipes. People absolutely love Ace of Cakes . How would this become a huge problem for food networks? Finding appropriate programming. The viewers are starting to lean more towards entertainment and traditional reality shows than just instructional food shows. Are these issues leaving an opportunity for something new in the food entertainment world that is not necessarily television? I believe so.

From the moment that this blog was started there has been extensive research on a range of topics. Even when searching for information on serious topics there will always be a blog that makes for a “wow, did they really just write that?” comment. This is probably the most entertaining part of researching on the web. Up to this point, the best blog I have come across is Cake Wrecks. This blog is a constant stream of humor about when professional and amateur cakes go wrong. The writer and creator of Cake Wrecks, Jen uses witty comments along with stories from readers to create one of the most entertaining sites in the food world. Already voted Best Humor Blog by the Blogger’s Choice Awards, this site keeps getting better by the minute. Another site that I have mentioned before is Food Network Addict. For Food Network Nerds like myself, this is the place to find out the new Food Network gossip as well as additions to the network. The site is filled with plenty of humor specifically aimed towards the Food Network chefs and hosts, occasionally with drawings and captions of inappropriate nature. One other element to mention is that this writer gets great interviews from the hosts as well as decent advertising spots. He is definitely doing a great job with this blog.

What this comes down to is the fact that many people are becoming either inspired or frustrated with the programming and are turning it into amazing blog sites. Already, Food Network has picked up food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, and turned it into a web series. The probability they will try and turn more blogs into shows is pretty high. If they are smart they will try to get these blogs to sign on as either web shows or actual shows. There is a catch, if the blog creators are smart, they will just try and generate traffic and make money off of ad sales. Bottom line is that as programming becomes more and more generic, the off the wall blogs are going to generate more traffic. They are easier to access as well as easier to produce and maintain. They really are becoming a new and exciting venue for food entertainment.

The Search for the Right Ingredients: Best Foodie Sites

Due to the focus of The Right Ingredients, finding web resources can be a bit difficult. Most foodie sites tend to discuss recipes and restaurants while leaving out other issues that are still food related. Finding sites that discuss what is happening in food entertainment are few and far between. Luckily searching for sites that discuss food education tend to come around more often due to the health and nutrition movement happening all over the country. After an extensive weeklong exploration of the web, I was able to gather twenty Internet based sites that tend to have information relevant to the focus of The Right Ingredients. This post will be an observation and honest appraisal of each of the twenty sites acquired and will be based upon the Webby Awards and IMSA criteria for blogs. These guidelines are used in order to help separate the sites with facts from sites with just opinions. For more information, these two criteria sites are linked. All of the sites discussed can be found in the linkroll as well.

The first is the most influential site, the one that started the food craze, Food Network. The Food Network site (see below) is based upon the Scripps television network station and contains a plethora of information from recipes (from the newly acquired Recipezaar.com) to each show, to bios on all of the chefs and hosts of the show. They have recently redesigned the site and it flows beautifully. One flaw that could be improved is the color design of the main page; items tend to get lost amongst the white background. An item that could be added is a newsreel including things happening in the food world. Food Network happens to have two sister sites, Food Network Canada and FLN or Fine Living Network. FLN is a very well laid out site, very inviting in the color scheme. This site contains information on food, wine and entertainment aspects of food as well as housing Iron Chef Japan. Food Network Canada tends to have different information than the US site, but stays along the same lines. Next is Bon Appetit Magazine’s site, a great site with a lot of pertinent information. The magazine itself is not just about recipes but delves into what is happening in the food world. The site is well put together and does not need to improve on anything at the moment. Another site along the same lines is Gourmet Magazine's site. This site has a layout that is exactly what I tend to look for, an area for food politics, food blogs, etc. It definitely has a recipe area but again offers up more than just great dishes. A site that is found is association with these sites is Epicurious.com. This site houses many cooking articles and foodie related items. It is a great place to find new and exciting food information. The final television site that is important in the food world is Bravo TV. This isn’t necessarily a good source of information for the food world however it contains the show Top Chef; a show that has become one of the most viewed shows on television.

When searching for blogs specifically, a few were found that made their way to the top of the list. Food Buzz is very helpful site in conducting a search. Food Buzz is a food publisher site that basically certifies good foodie blogs, recipes and sites. The site has great colors, easy to read, just needs better organization and structural work. Some of the following blogs are Food Buzz certified and some aren’t, still, I find they are all quite helpful. One blog, Food Network Addict might be viewed as a gossip column to most but in reality is a source of news in the food world. Somehow this site manages to get information on what is happening in food television before anyone else. The site needs a bit of a revamping, it still looks amateur and the writing states facts but definitely has a bit of sarcasm thrown in. Next is Food Network Musings, another site that discusses what is happening in food television, food world and with the occasional recipes. This site reads a bit more like a newspaper column than most and has a very distinct layout. One thing I would change is where the linkroll and site information is placed. It happens to be on the left side, which draws my attention before any of the articles. Nonetheless, it is a great site. The next, Food Network Blog, not a very noteworthy site, however it helped me find something very specific which is why it is included. The site needs to be updated both structurally as well as content. Next, Super Chef Blog, (see right) is a great example of a food blog, a site for all things food. It is very well structured with incredible content to go along with it. So far, this is probably the best food blog site that I have come across. The only thing that could be added would be a border to each section to make it a bit more compartmentalized. The last of the mega blogs is The Amateur Gourmet. The creator of this blog has written a book as well as continues to post recipes, reviews and just foodie related topics on his site. The site is well thought out and visually pleasing. It tends to be a huge discussion area in the food world as comments are constantly being posted to the site.

There are three sites that are great sources of information as well, The New York Times, The LA Times and CNET. The two newspaper sites are laid out like newspapers would be, with food and wine sections. They are very informative and have easy ways of searching. CNET is a technical website, somewhat broad, however when it comes to video games and recent technologies it is one of the first sites to post. Occasionally my blog enters a techie type area, and this is where I end up. The last set of sites found mostly deal with government, food regulations, food marketing and children’s health. These sites aren’t necessarily the most visually appealing but their content is top notch, specifically because they set the national standards. When needing to research facts and figures, these are the best places to find them: The Federal Trade Commission, Nutrition.gov, Food Marketing Institute and one blog that deals with this subject nature, What’s In Store.

In all the time spent searching these were definitely the best sites, it is very exciting to see how Food Related Entertainment and Education have become a main course in the lives of people throughout the world.