The Online Cook Divide
Cooks are not created equal and I can prove it. Not by comparing a plated gourmet fest with a lukewarm Sloppy Joe—that kind of culinary divide is obvious. No, to really separate the cooks from the cook-nots, one need only survey the Internet.
For a good time, head to www.allrecipes.com and www.bonappetit.com. Don’t bother with the recipes. Just spend some time reading the feedback and reviews left by visitors.
It should only take about 4 or 5 reviews before you can peg what echelon of cooks each website is attracting. The amateurs can be found at allrecipes.com. There you will find them, celebrating casseroles and extolling the virtues of cake mixes. These cooks tend towards the basic. They leave remarks like, “The recipe called for cilantro, but that seemed weird to me. I left it out” or “Canned green beans work just as well as fresh. Save time and just bust out the can opener.”
I’m not judging—allrecipes has helped me get dinner on the table on more than one occasion. And there is a real place for easy, reliable, everyday favorites. It’s the feedback that irks me. Call me a food snob but I’m dismissing anyone uses multiple exclamation points to celebrate a mayonnaise/broccoli/stuffing concoction. It seems fair to say that the folks reviewing recipes at www.bonappetit.com would cringe at most of the feedback the www.allrecipes.com folks offer up.
www.bonappetit.com is a foodie Mecca. The reviewers here know crème freche from crème brulee and heaven help the poor soul who wanders over from allrecipes and tries to mention a cake mix.
Here you will find feedback worthy of a chef. In fact, most of the reviewers seem to believe they know better than the chef who created the recipe. The reviews typically feature cooks confident (or conceited) enough to alter the amounts of ingredients or suggest more chic alternatives. If the recipe calls for soy sauce, a reviewer will insist you must use a particularly delightful brand imported straight from Yokohama . If the cake is made with orange extract, the Bon Appetit reviewer will replace it with orange water.
While the constant need to one-up other foodies can get tiresome, I’ve found you can really trust the reviews at www.bonappetit.com. If you need a basic recipe, www.allrecipes.com works. If what you’re looking for, though, is a dish that will impress & delight, and you’d feel better reading the opinions of cooks who know, www.bonappetit.com is where the real cooks are gathered.
Comments
On Dec 4 at 11:34 PM said:
From Amy: I say, you need to check out www.foodnetwork.com. The Food Channel is in no way affiliated with Emeril and the rest of the gang on Food Network.
The one thing that we can offer is that if you email (go to the "About Us" section) or post something that you're stumped on, hopefully we or other readers can help you figure it out. Best of luck!!
On Dec 4 at 11:34 PM said:
please get for me the name and phone number of the company that makes chocolate cookies in the shape of all the states in the u.s.
thank you very much,
robert nagy
734 783 3830
On Dec 4 at 11:35 PM said:
Hello, My name is Henni and I am doing a report in school on pastry. It is an all year project, and I was wondering If I could please get some information about pastry. Maybe I could get contacting information on some of the Food Channel stars that know about pastry. It would be great if you could.
-Henni
On Mar 11 at 12:58 PM Peg Christensen said:
What the heck is pareve margarine??? Need answer quick
On Oct 30 at 02:00 PM maryann clos said:
while in my doctor's waiting room I found your magazine and wanted to subscribe to get free cook book too and it says I only had until August31 and today is October 30th - please let me know if I can qualify rather late?
On Dec 4 at 11:33 PM said:
I wish the foodchannel.com would provide a forum for contacting the network with comments.
Not being able to find a link, I'm posting here in hopes that the Food Channel folks will see this.
Emeril, bless his culinary heart, uses a fair number of technical terms. He talks about "bechamel" and "court-bouillon" . . . I'm able to find these terms.
But Emeril's French is straight out of New York City. *LMAO* For the life of me I can't figure out the spelling of "mir fois" -- I google it and come up with a lot of web sites in French. Which is fine because I speak French. But I'm not finding what I'm looking for.
"Mir fois" is veggies -- carrot, onion, celery. It's basic to a court-bouillon, and other basic preparations.
What I'm suggesting is that when Emeril tosses out one of these terms, it'd be nice to see it in print at the lower corner of the screen. Simple stuff . . .
I figured out "bechamel" -- But it could be spelled "besh amell," "bay shamell," "baysha mell." And a half dozen other ways I haven't thought about.
Terms used in cooking are useful, important. It'd be nice to see the Food Channel list a link for "Terms" and to see these terms written out on the screen during a cooking program.
What say you?