Food Blogging

Chef John Strikes Gold with Allrecipes Acquisition

August 30, 2011 by diannejacob 52 Comments

Chef John has a reason to smile.

Chef John Mitzewich of Food Wishes figured out where the web was going, way ahead of the rest of us.

It’s not print, sadly. It’s not even photos. The web is going to video.

Four years ago, Mitzewich, a former cooking teacher and chef based in San Francisco, started his food blog, focusing on video. Then he put his how-to cooking videos on You Tube. To this day, it’s just him, his tripod, and a $35 mic with a men’s sock over it. He makes two to three videos a week.

Now almost 40 million people have uploaded his more than 600 elegant cooking shows with friendly instructions and upbeat jazz notes. Know who was paying attention? Allrecipes. They entered negotiations, and bought his content.

“Food Wishes’ content will [be] brought to Allrecipes’ global audience of 20 million home cooks [Read more…] about Chef John Strikes Gold with Allrecipes Acquisition

Like Throwing Darts in the Dark? That's Freelancing

August 23, 2011 by diannejacob 51 Comments

Freelancer Cheryl Sternman Rule. She's learned how to throw darts that hit the target. (Photo by Paulette Philpot)

When I was a magazine editor, I wondered why freelance writers couldn’t figure out what I wanted. I rejected 95 percent of pitches.

Now that I’m on the other side, I see how difficult it is when you’re an independent writer, on the outside looking in.

At the recent Book Passage conference on Travel, Photography and Food Writing, food writer Cheryl Sternman Rule spoke about why pitching to publications is such an anxiety-producing process. What she said resonated with me, so I asked her to share it:

“As a freelancer since 2004, I’ve spent years both pitching and avoiding pitching,” explains Cheryl. “For me, pitching seems like a dark art. There’s black magic about it that often makes me feel like I’m throwing darts in the dark.

“Editors have editorial calendars, or ideas in their heads for what they’d like to cover. We writers are not often privy to this information. So we shoot story ideas out like darts and hope they’ll hit some mysterious, shrouded target. It’s a tough game to play, psychologically.”

That’s exactly right. You keep throwing until you strike the target, even when you get no feedback. You need a thick skin to be a freelance writer, not to mention an ability to see in the dark.

Meanwhile, Cheryl [Read more…] about Like Throwing Darts in the Dark? That's Freelancing

Food Bloggers Make a Pie for Mikey

August 15, 2011 by diannejacob 34 Comments

A beautiful moment occured Friday in the food blogosphere. For an afternoon, all the anxiety and competition about being part of an online food writing community faded away, and people came together in support of food blogger Jennifer Perillo of In Jennie’s Kitchen, who lost her husband suddenly to a heart attack.

It started in a touching post Perillo wrote about Mikey’s favorite pie. People had written her, asking what they could do to help. She suggested they bake a pie:

“As I spend Friday reflecting on the love and life that was gone in an instant, I’d like to invite all of you to celebrate his life too. Mikey loved peanut butter cream pie. I haven’t made it in a while, and I’ve had it on my to-do list for a while now.

I kept telling myself I would make it for him tomorrow. Time has suddenly stood still, though, and I’m waiting to wake up and learn to live a new kind of normal. For those asking what they can do to help my healing process, make a peanut butter pie this Friday and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there’s no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on.”

And bake they did, not just individual food bloggers, friends, and acquaintances, but writers on websites like Food52, Eatocracy and the Food Network. Here’s the Facebook event: Peanut Butter Pie Friday for Mikey and Jennifer Perillo.

When I taught my Saturday class on food blogging, I reminded students that blogging is about being part of an interactive community. I showed them the video White on Rice made about the event, and we all shed a tear together.

I thought about why food obsessed people like us cook. It’s a nonverbal way to express ourselves to the people we love. To say, “I did this for you.” Over the weekend, dozens of people did it for Mikey, someone they probably never met, for that reason and another: To celebrate being alive.

Pile of Food Blogger Cookbooks in the Works

August 9, 2011 by diannejacob 132 Comments

“So many food bloggers have books coming out right now!” declared Amy Sherman of Cooking With Amy. She, Cheryl Sternman-Rule of 5 Second Rule (on the list below), and I were gabbing on the phone, preparing for our food blogging panel at the Book Passage Travel and Food Writing and Photography conference this weekend.

I had not counted how many, so Amy whipped up a list and emailed it to me. I added a few names, including writers I coached on book proposals (so proud!). And she’s right, it’s a pretty impressive list.

I happen to know that the advances on this list range from around $3500 to six figures. (A book advance is the amount the publisher pays you upfront.) Regardless of the advance size, there’s no doubt that cookbook editors think food bloggers are hot enough to follow, befriendand even comment on their blogs.

Food bloggers have tons of advantages as book authors. They come with their own list of potential readers. They’ve not only created a community but often they’re part of a [Read more…] about Pile of Food Blogger Cookbooks in the Works

Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman on What She Learned by Writing a Cookbook

August 2, 2011 by diannejacob 66 Comments

Deb Perelman turns in the manuscript for her first cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, at the end of this month. I caught up with her to ask her how writing a cookbook has been different than writing her blog.

You can meet Perelman at the International Food Blogger Conference in New Orleans August 26-28. She, Kate McDermott of Art of the Pie, and I will be talking about recipe development.

Q. What percentage of recipes will come from the blog?

A. Very few recipes, maybe 10 to 15 percent. I have to put in the greatest hits or it wouldn’t feel like the Smitten Kitchen cookbook.

Q. Where did you get your inspiration for new dishes?

A. I have no shortage of ideas. I have a long list of recipe ideas I’ve been building on for a decade, and I keep them all in Google Docs. I can reach them from any computer, from the phone and from the grocery store.

Besides cookbooks that I know and love, the web is a great tool to research recipes. I gravitate towards recipe sites that have reviews, like the Food Network, Allrecipes and Epicurious. It’s not that I’m looking for new ideas. It’s more like I have my recipe for pancakes, and I wonder if the salt level is too high or how much milk other recipes use.

I get a lot of ideas from restaurants too, where there’s something about the dish I like, like the combination of ingredients.

Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes. (Photo by permission of Deb Perelman.)

Q. How is the cookbook different from the blog?

A. There are things I’ve pulled from the cookbook because they were going to be really complicated [Read more…] about Smitten Kitchen's Deb Perelman on What She Learned by Writing a Cookbook

Blogger Stalks and Copies Another Food Blogger

July 19, 2011 by diannejacob 103 Comments

Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Strohmeyer of Virtually Vegan Mama.

What do you do when another blogger copies your recipes, ideas, and even gets the same freelance gig? That’s the situation food blogger Jennifer Strohmeyer of Virtually Vegan Mama found herself in recently, when another blogger took Strohmeyer’s recipe ideas for her own blog, and even got the same freelancing gig at the same website where Strohmeyer contributes.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. We’ve had lots of discussions here about adapting recipes. Everyone modifies everyone else’s recipes, it seems. Maybe Strohmeyer was imagining things?

I think not. Let me tell you what happened.

But first, a little background on Strohmeyer. She started her blog in mid-January (full discloser: Strohmeyer is a former client), sending photos to Food Buzz and [Read more…] about Blogger Stalks and Copies Another Food Blogger