Foodista Accepts a Challenge
Foodista has recently been covered in both the New York Times and TIME Magazine. I was quoted, and to provide a counterpoint, so was Christopher Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated. Between these two articles, Condé Nast announced that they were shutting down Gourmet, and in response Mr. Kimball wrote this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times. Let me start by saying that I have deep respect for Mr. Kimball and what he has built, but I also disagree with his assessment of the Internet, Wikis, and how it all works. I was thinking about writing a response to the Op-Ed, and then earlier today noticed that Mr. Kimball issued the following challenge on his blog:
The current rage is the WIKI recipe notion — a community of on-line foodies who can select and tweak recipes to come up with the best possible version. Then there is the opposite contention — I think that only a professional test kitchen with substantial resources, strict testing protocol, and lots of time can develop the very “best” recipes, all things being equal. So, I am willing to put my money, and my reputation, where my big mouth is. I offer a challenge to any supporter of the WIKI or similar concept to jump in and go head to head with our test kitchen. We will jointly agree on a recipe, on the rules, on a time frame, etc. At the end, we will ask a panel of impartial judges to make and test the recipes and declare a winner. Should be fun! Who is interested?
I posted a response comment on his blog accepting the challenge, it is awaiting moderation. This should be interesting! What do you think?
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- A Big Thank You to All Our Foodista Contributors
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15 Responses to “Foodista Accepts a Challenge”
October 15th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I may not be a chef but I know what is really a good food. I don’t really refer my taste buds to few known culinarians but if the food sounds healthy to me, that is what matters.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I have been following this discussion and am glad to see you accept the challenge!
If crowd-sourced recipes can run with the test kitchen, would love to see if you can measure how many unique contributors/edits it takes.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
seems like great guy, love the magazine and his show. Can’t help but think he must feel a little threatened, however, by what you guys have put together. Endangered species ?
October 15th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
“only a professional test kitchen…can develop the very “best” recipes”…???
So generations of grandmas have no idea what they’re doing in a kitchen?
I hope you kick his test kitchen’s butt.
October 16th, 2009 at 12:50 am
I love that you accepted Kimball’s challenge, it will be interesting to watch this develop. I do find myself wishing that we could all just get along. As a member of the online food community, I find it invaluable. Haven’t had a chance to dig too deeply into Foodista’s recipes, but I plan to.
I also own several of the “Best Recipe” series and find them extremely useful in my own recipe development. It’s like having my own test kitchen that does the work to figure out the technical average of a dish and then details out some of the effects of changing key variables.Do I cook their recipes as printed? Almost never, and then almost only once.
Have you thought about which recipe(s) you want to use for the throwdown? I also think that both recipes should be released to the Internet so that we can cook along and vote for our favorites somewhere. Professional judges are nice, but this is about what happens when the recipe hits the hands of the millions of people who cook at home every day, not what happens when the recipes are produced in a test kitchen, right?
October 16th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Whooo hooo! Here is what you have been waiting for. What great publicity. Go for it. You are up against a big rival. This is what it is all about. Believe in yourself and be sure to edit the occasional toy truck. I agree with the statement before this one. I think most of us read the recipes for ideas and then change them a little bit. Good luck you guys. Go for it, Barnaby!
October 16th, 2009 at 8:22 am
All I know is that the mac N cheese recipe in their “Best Recipes” book (aka “the anal cookbook” in our house) is far far far away from the best recipe
I don’t read the mag or watch the show because I think cooking should be fun – not some uptight exercise
October 16th, 2009 at 9:00 am
I think you should kick his ass! (Can I say “ass” on Foodista?) Go get ‘em, Tiger.
October 16th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I don’t see why we can’t all just co-exist (I know, I know, this is the Reed Hippie in me talking). Everyone is right to some degree. Clearly all our gramma’s and great gramma’s had their fingers on the pulse of what was good, and they shared recipes, tips and tricks just as we do today. But it’s also great to have some people out there (like Kimball) that can test all those recipes and see which ones really stand out, so if it’s important to have the more dense or more moist or more springy, etc., cake, you know what to use/do. There’s value in both perspectives. I think Kimball is a little naive to believe that people all over the country are abondoning their gramma’s recipe for apple cobbler simply because he tested 15 and our gramma’s wasn’t the top dog.
Food is about more than just an arbitrary set of criteria that makes something “the best.” What about the memories attached to a dish prepared in a certain way? The way a dish makes you feel when you cook it yourself, or come up with your own variation that suits your personal taste? There’s just more to it than his blinders will allow him to accept. So go for it, Foodista! I see a Bobby Flay Throwdown Upset coming Kimball’s way!
October 16th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I agree, Siiri. I think this is a fun challenge and even more fun discussion! Frankly, we’re all winners. It’s not black and white. In the food space there’s plenty of room for everyone: professional chefs, test kitchen gurus, the novice home cook to the advanced home cook, food bloggers, etc. What kind of garden would it be if we only had red roses? Boring. I want my “garden” filled with lots of variety and color! And discussions like this do exactly that.
Happy cooking!
Sheri @ Foodista
October 16th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
One drawback to the wiki vs. professional challenge. Just like with Wikipedia, a saboteur is much easier to sneak into the wiki process than into the test kitchen.
The one thing I like about Kimball’s magazine and show is that they discuss the why of ingredients, amounts, or techniques versus the alternatives.
For my own recipe searching, I like the AllRecipes model of one person posting a recipe, then others commenting on it to a community-edited recipe. I’d rather see ten recipes with user comments and draw my own conclusions than see one recipe that’s been edited by 10 people.
I’ll be interested to see how the challenge works out, but I have a feeling you won’t win.
October 16th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I am looking forward to this challenge with much anticipation. What fun! Two totally different approaches to food writing and recipe creation coming together, head to head!! I’m so glad Mr. Kimball threw down the glove. Now we’ll get to see this process in action. When do we begin?
October 16th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I’m still waiting to hear back from Mr. Kimball. He left a comment saying he was talking with Amanda Hesser, of http://www.food52.com, about doing something . Though an interesting project in crowd-sourced recipes, Food52 is not a Wiki. To truly run this test, he will need to engage with a Wiki platform like Foodista.
October 17th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I wonder if it’s because of the high-brow arrogance of people like Mr. Kimball that snobbish cooking magazines such as Gourmet are dying while Rachel Ray, with her simple 30-minute recipes, is laughing all the way to the bank.
Most of people who come to websites like Foodista don’t have culinary degrees or fancy internships in snooty French restaurants under their belts.
I think that Mr. Kimball fails to understand that most of the people who publish recipes on sites like foodista HAVE tested them out REPEATEDLY before they posted them for the public. I have tested out my recipes on my family, friends, co-workers, my husband’s coworkers and church family repeatedly before I ever published them.
I’d much rather try out a recipe that someone’s great-great grandma brought over from the old country than an over analyzed “test-kitchen” recipe any day.
I like the “why does this happen” scientific approach the test kitchen people do but I can also get that from Alton Brown without the condescension.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:43 pm
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