Chowhound, an online food forum in New York, started in 1997 by Jim Leff and Bob Okumura is considered to be the beginning of food blogging. Until then, notes, thoughts and ideas about food preparation, ingredients, cooking, restaurants and recipes rested on paper in the form of notes in notebooks, magazines and books. We also peeked into the world of selected Slovenian culinary bloggers, each of whom found a special culinary experience with their own market niche.
In the infancy of internet records
He coined the term weblog to describe the process of logging onto the Internet in 1997 American blogger Jorn Barger. The beginnings of Internet blogging were slow, cautious, perhaps incredulous, with only about 23 blogs listed in 1998 according to some research. With the expansion of the new Internet phenomenon, a shortened version of the original concept of Internet writing came into use two years later - a blog. Today, it is estimated that 120,000 new blogs are created daily. A blog created in 1999 is among the first culinary online records by professional chef David Lebovitz, two years later they are Jason Perlow and Steven Shaw launched eGullet forum, and in 2002, the later famous blog of the American woman came to life Julie Powell The Julie/Julia Project, which was made into a movie in 2009 Julie&Julia. The reason for writing the blog was dissatisfaction with a job that no longer satisfied and improved her. That's why she set about cooking and testing recipes from Julie Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she uploaded her kitchen experiences daily to her blog and shared them with her followers. The successful blog was followed by a sequel in the form of the book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen.
A reward is an incentive
Since 2010, creators, recorders and documentaries of gourmet pleasures have also had their own awards Best Food Blog Awards. They are awarded once a year by a renowned culinary magazine Saveur, dedicated to people who love food, appreciate this art of preparation, experimentation, tasting and tantalizing the taste buds. It spoils readers with information about food in all contexts, heritage and tradition, home-cooked food and recipes from all over the world. Awards are given in 13 categories (best blog in general, cooking blog, desserts, cocktails, wine and beer, family cooking, photography...). As the winner of the Best Baking And Desserts Blog category, it made history in its first year David Lebovitz, who we already mentioned at the beginning of the text and is an American who creates in Paris. This year, the main prize for the best blog went to the writer and photographer Stephanie Le for her blog "I am a food blog", which has only been active for two years. Her blog impresses with compelling recipes, stunning and enticing photos that inspire. She convinced with illustrative design, presentation of dishes that are so tempting that we want to try them, prepare them ourselves, taste them, experience them and enjoy them. Which, of course, is the purpose of a culinary blog.
Slovenian culinary "bloggers"
He made Slovenian culinary bloggers more visible Ljubljana project, which started last July. Culinary evenings are being organized once a month in Ljubljana's Smrekarev hram since September this year I love you. Selected individuals contribute their recipe and create a five-course tasting menu, and Smrekarjev hram's culinary team transforms their ideas into restaurant courses. The domestic blogging scene in the field of cuisine is varied, diverse, multifaceted, sensual.
One of the older blogs is kruhinvino.com, behind which a well-known cataloger of food experiences has been standing for eight years Boštjan Napotnik. Since November 2010, he writes weekly restaurant reviews in the Konzum v Mladina section, works as a creative director in an advertising agency, and writes a veteran Slovenian culinary blog in his spare time. At first, this only served as a memory record of what good things he cooked and ate, but over time it grew into his online kitchen. He is famous not only for his cooking, but also for his sharp tongue and "masculine" words, which he transferred into two books. His first book "Kitchen for real men" a book followed this year "Toolroom - kitchen for real men", where he collected recipes in which kitchen tools, which are necessary to prepare each dish, took a prominent place.
He can also brag about his cookbook Klemen Košir, amateur chef, otherwise publisher, publicist, photographer, blog creator naturscek.si, who has a third book in preparation. He is probably the only Slovenian blogger with a cooking theme that is not based solely on publishing recipes. Learning about nutrition and society is the working framework of his writing, which is deliberately set so broad that it can include any content. Two years ago, he started to publish on his blog a series of portraits of growers, which he wrote for the newspaper Nedelo during several years of journalistic work, more than not to preserve them from the ravages of time, but at the same time to offer them to people who did not read the newspaper. . In the two years of blogging, the writing has largely shifted to supporting the publication of his cookbooks. Through the blog, readers follow how it makes its way through the publishing process and what happens with the book in the end. The third cookbook about bread, My Everyday Bread, is about to be published. Before that, he published the book Namazi za mizo, followed by FAO 37.2.1 with the subtitle Wild Adriatic. It was awarded as the most beautiful Slovenian book in 2013, and also attracted the interest of the international public, as it was nominated for an award in the field of cookbooks, the Gourmand Awards.
An important visual image
As Stephanie Le reminded us with her winning blog, writing a food blog is not just about documenting food, but the preparation, serving, photography, styling and aesthetic visual image are as important a part of the blog as its content. Sabina Pensek, who specializes in food styling for television commercials and print media, incorporates professional knowledge into writing a blog tolstanutrija.com, in which he interweaves photography, a passion for travel and collecting recipes. In the world of gastronomy, she prefers to travel, explore the little-known, put together untried combinations and create as her feeling dictates. When she cooks for herself, for her soul, the kitchen is her temple, where she can turn off the valves and indulge in creativity, so that cooking becomes a pure meditation. Three years ago, he began to intertwine his love for food and photography quite spontaneously and not by chance Miha Bratina. From the very beginning, the focus was on the blog bratinov.si especially on photographs accompanied by short notes. These got longer over time, he also started adding recipes, but the main photo still remained. The blog changed and developed in this way, the author cooked more, took more photos and slowly began to cooperate more and more with various clients for culinary photography. The biggest upgrade to this story that happened recently is Bratinov Studio - a room specially equipped for culinary photo and video production.
You have to find your niche
The first rule of blogging is to find your specialty, so that readers will love to follow you, follow you, read you and can't wait for new entries. The specialty of the blog www.cinnamonandthyme.com, which he creates Anna Bulat, is its simplicity, the recipes are simple, mostly lucky experiments, and the ingredients are such that they can be found everywhere. Blog www.culinaryjourneybyme.com Špele J. Planinšek differs from others in that gluten-free recipes are at the forefront, emphasizing that it is a misconception that a gluten-free diet is less tasty. It offers healthy recipes that do not deny the enjoyment of good food. In the three years since she has been blogging, she has accumulated over 380 recipes, and in all of them she strives for locally grown, seasonal foods.
He also bets on healthy and plant-based ingredients Zulejka Javeršek, who started writing Lakotnik's lair six years ago and later renamed it Tuned kitchen, www.uglasena-kuhinja.com. Along with reflections and anecdotes, he strives to publish recipes for everyday dishes based on plant ingredients. It's not just about recipes, but more about the story, the intertwining of life, ideas and food, and about thinking about what food means to us beyond just its nutritional value. Ana Božič, which can be found online on the blog www.naredilaana.com, is a lover of all things food. She loves planning food for celebrations and cooking for family and friends. The blog, which was initially intended for the exchange of recipes between friends who like to cook and bake, has been in the making for several years and is regularly supplemented as a personal collection of recipes. What are we waiting for, let's browse the blogs and surprise our chosen ones with new culinary masterpieces.
More information:
www.ljubljananjam.si, kruhinvino.com, bratinov.si, www.cinnamonandthyme.com, naturscek.si, www.naredilaana.com, tolstanutrija.com, www.uglasena-kuhinja.com
