An old school guy who dove right in

David Lebovitz didn't need a blog. He already had a website, respected cookbooks, prestigious national food magazine articles with his byline, and a career that included working at Chez Panisse. So why did he start one?

“I like the fact that it's immediate and there's less pressure to perform,” he emailed from his home in Paris. “I write about whatever strikes me at the time. I'll be pouring my morning café au lait, thinking about what a swell Italian coffee pot I have, so I'll write about it. Or I'll write about a delicious buttery croissant I ate at a new bakery that I dropped in a puddle after one bite, or an Italian artisanal chocolate I discovered on a recent trip. I don't need to sell these stories to editors, who look for more mainstream topics.”

His blog also serves as a good reality check or editor. “Sometimes I've snuck recipes I'm working on onto the site then checked readers' comments, since they'll always point out even the slightest inconsistencies or flaws. It's like having 10,000 copy editors, which may, or may not, be every writers' dream.”

Lebovitz points out that many bloggers become obsessed with their traffic and count how many hits the site receives. He tries to focus on the quality of content and the challenge of drawing intelligent responses.

Spending 8 - 10 hours a week on his blog, he writes mostly in the morning, and updates it three times a week. He had to learn the programming language HTML. “I spend way too much time on my blog,” Lebowitz admits. “But on the other hand, people collect stamps, go to the gym, etc. My blog is my hobby.”

“The anti-blog piece in a national food magazine complained that too many blogs just recount last night's cheese sandwich, which is certainly true. But that's the beauty of the medium. You do what you want, write as you wish, and if you get readers, that's great. Even if you don't, it's still a valid form of self-expression.”