Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Hungry for more

Just over a year ago I asked for your input when I was redesigning the food supplement of a newspaper. Now - as if I didn't have enough on my plate - I'm doing the same for a website. (I do love my job sometimes. In fact, I love it most of the time.)
Anyway, now I would love you to let me know what you like - and dislike about food on t'internet.

...Nineteen, twenty, my plate's empty!
What sites do you love to look at for food news, reviews and general inspiration?
Do you meander around the 'lifestyle' sections of big news websites, or prefer to go off piste with a few trusted blogs?
Do you use recipe finder tools? Do you watch 'how-to' videos online?
How do you feel about "sponsored" recipes (ie, "These recipes are brought to you by brand X")?
Do you visit some sites purely to read the recipes of a particular chef or writer?
What about food on Facebook - or Twitter?

I'd really love to know what you think. Comment away, and hopefully I'll be able to come up with something you'll love in a few weeks... Pin It

10 comments:

  1. where do I start...? there is such a massive trend for food, globally it's huge at the moment and there's no place better to fill your boots than the interweb... and we're all responsible for some of the brilliance and a heck of a lot of shit... I read a lot of blogs so it's hard to say exactly where i go for inspiration but it tends to be off-line because on-line its too cluttered (I know, I'm part of the clutter) unless it's specific and then I know I want a chocolate cake recipe then i'll go to ChocLogBlog or if I want something homely i'll go to Lavender and Loveage etc... and sometimes, if I have parsnips i'll go to the BBC Food website, which is very good for all round recipes... twitter is a minefield of self interested twits (me included) and facebook is a waste of time, I use it for Belleau Kitchen but I hate it and rarely go there... it looks like sick children are playing in the dirt... other than that, for fabulous food recipes and inspiring writing try belleaukitchen.blogspot.com xxx

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  2. recipe books are a thing of beauty, but I rarely cook from them. I leave that to an internet search - and google things like 'parsnips passed their sell-by' so I get recipes which tie in with the contents of my fridge. I love looking at the design websites, as i think that often food blogs (mine included!) aren't as gorgeous as I would like (because it's damn hard to make food and then take good pix of it looking yummy) so I feel a bit bereft of food porn looking thro' blogs. I'm not sure about facebook, it's a good way to keep in touch with a blog you really like and not miss updates, and as a blogger i love it, and feel that facebook friends are quite loyal. Twitter on the other hand...

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  3. Okay, I like lots of pictures. I don't like how to videos because my internet connection is so bad, I can't watch them. So if you decide to go for them, can you also provide the whole recipe and instructions as per usual please?
    For me, Twitter and FB are signposting places to take me to nice food on peoples blogs. I'm also a sucker for a competition, as you well know! I also love challenges which inspire me to try something new or different, like Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipes.
    I don't mind people blogging about food provided by PRs as long as they say so, same for reviews. It can be interesting to see what others think.
    I do go to BBC Good Food and Delicious Mag sites when I am seeking a particular recipe, but am often inspired by things on others blogs. Hope this helps, I'm hopelessly addicted to the internet and cooking blogs in particular!

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  4. I love my collection of recipe books, but they do tend to be more "bedtime reading" than used in the kitchen. I am google girl, and usually end up going through Taste.com or Delicious for dinnery things, or trusted blogs for cakey sweety things. If I have read a blog about a Nigella Chocolate Cake, for example, I will go back to that blog rather than fish through all my Nigella books trying to find it. Same if I have seen something in a Delicious magazine, I will google it before I go searching the bookshelves.. My favourite foody blogs are Kitchenmaid, Crumbs, Smitten Kitchen, and Whisk and a Spoon (love the photos in the last two).. BabyMac has great foody posts sometimes too. I don't read a lot of foody blogs regularly though.
    I don't watch cooking videos online, but do love cooking tv shows. I quite like it when bloggers put photos of the steps involved, which is handy if the consistency is looking dubious, but not really necessary for "cream butter and sugar"... I don't twitter, and don't really use Facebook for food either.
    Don't like sponsored blog posts and tend to tune out if someone is desperately trying to "sell" some random ingredient which you can tell they aren't comfortable with.
    Ummm, is that all?! Sorry - such a rambling answer!! Good luck ;)

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  5. I don't find news and reviews very interesting these days and almost all my inspiration comes from blogs these days. I haven't bought a new cook book for 2 or 3 years, although I still buy old books and that's only partly due to poverty. Unlike many others, though, I wish there were fewer pictures on blogs - to be honest I'm a little bored by food photography. I do go to some sites like the BBC or one or two others if I need a basic recipe or a how-to reminder. If a recipe is sponsored I tend to ignore it, but there are some exceptions. I rarely watch cooking videos although there are some that are very useful by cooks (amateur and professional) who would never want to write a blog. I recently watched some excellent videos on a chef's site presented by professional pastry chefs, for instance. I never use Facebook or Twitter and I can't see that changing. I hope that helps but I'm afraid I may less than typical.

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  6. When cruising food blogs - love a few beautifully staged photos that accent ingredients and final product, am turned off by product endorsing, like being aimed at particularly good cookbooks, like 'how-to' vids if there is a tricky technique but don't use them a lot. When cruising the Web's zine media ... like regional webzines that are well done and accessible (fast downloads), pass on any that have pop-ups (so annoying), love zines that combine travel and food history as well as recipes. FB and Twitter are a pain in the ass and so I ignore them. I use Google, Food Network, and my fave blogs for recipe finders ... hope this helps.

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  7. I also love the ingredient search function on recipe websites. I much prefer a tutorial with step by step photos rather than a video. Never bother with the video, but some how scrolling through photos makes me think, yip I can do that. I'm always slightly dubious about "branded recipes" don't really have anything againist them, many are good. But they always make me think, "do I really need that quantity of their product, or can I use less, but they just want to sell me more".

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  8. I love the blogs Desert Candy and Orangette. I don't like big news or 'sponsored by' recipes.
    I love a well-turned phrase and a smart food writer, but what I want most is a recipe that I can count on to turn out right! Excessively arty photos are nice but not essential. :)

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  9. i'm not a huge an of sponsored recipes-they annoy me as i feel bad i i want to substitute the sponsored ingredient for a varied ingredient/different brand. and i love pretty pictures-one blog i read just for the pictures, i could never make the food.
    as for recipe finders, i like using them, as i can specify what i have in the cupboards/fridge etc.
    hopefully this helps you :)

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  10. Like many of the others above, I am not a fan of 'sponsored by' blog posts or webpages either. My food browsing is primarily on food blogs, preferably ones that I know and that I have 'chatted to' online. Twitter is becoming a very important part of my food life - in terms of eating out, eating in and chatting about what's hot and not. Also love ingredient searches- useful for the frugal cook using up leftovers! I have bookshelves of recipe books and love them all dearly and frequently use them to cook from, however....the web is brilliant for searching these recipe books - I vaguely remember Nigella has done this muffin recipe, and a quick search on google and I can find which of my many tomes it is in. Also love using the ipad next to the hob - bit risky but fun.

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Hello - thanks for stopping by. If this was real life I'd make you a cup of tea and open the biscuit tin, but in lieu of those things, let's have a chat anyway...