Dear Chefs
It's been pretty widely covered that many chefs dislike bloggers. And today we find out that Charlie Trotter doesn't like bloggers either. You know what? I take issue to that. One of the questions we debated about in high school (while bored in the middle of ap stats) was,
"Which is worse? Stupidity or ignorance?"
This is an important question. On one hand, a stupid person will never figure out nor have the capacity to understand what the Internet is, or end up calling it internets. On the other hand, an ignorant person never finds out about the full power of the internet due to either lack of interest or lack of respect.
We are all ignorant, simply of different subjects. There are stats that show most blogs do not make it past a year, but the ones that do survive are quality blogs written by good folks. What ends up happening is that chefs who hate blogs are basing their opinions from their limited slice of the world view; the internet is much larger than their experiences. I can easily say that I spend more time online in a day than Batali, Flay, and all the other Iron Chefs COMBINED IN A WEEK. So what do chefs know about the internet? Or blogs? Or what it takes to write one? Are they ignorant to this subject matter? What do they know?
Conversely, I know nothing about what it takes to succeed in a kitchen. And perhaps that leaves me no right to talk or write about the food that I ingest. Here is the main difference between me and chefs:
When a chef slams "bloggers", they are slamming ALL the bloggers. When I talk trash about a restaurant, it is about ONE restaurant. This distinction is vital to the discussion of whether bloggers have the right to say what they say. I am the first to say that sometimes stereotypes are useful. Sometimes a lion will hug you, but most of the time, it will eat you. So that kind of stereotype is worthwhile. With people? This is less useful.
At the very least food bloggers make an attempt to enjoy the food a chef puts out. In other words, a food blogger makes an attempt to cross the ignorance path. The opinions offered on quality blogs should serve as customer feedback forms for chefs on how to improve on consistency and quality. I'm never gonna whine if someone trashes my writing or photography skills because hey, they may be right; my ego ain't that big. But chefs who whine about bloggers should go make like JT's song and cry me a !@#$ing river. In my view, most chefs are too busy to spend time to understand the world of blogging and the work required. So are chefs STUPID or IGNORANT? What is going on here?
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
Have you heard the Medical Doctors asked you “Are you a doctor?" and then told you “I am a doctor". Hence, you, as a patient, need to listen to me. It does not matter, according to the mechanical theory, the way the surgery is about to use on the patient leg will make the patient limb. The patient is an expert in the structure engineering and foresees the problem. This is simply that he is informing you not discussing with you. The elegant of these MD has destroyed many people's life.
Similarly, are you a cook said by the famous cook? I am a famous cook and I have my taste. If you do not like it, that is your problems. This is one of the reasons that the life of the restaurant usually does not last long.
chicago2007oct
November 5, 2007 5:22 pm