Food Blogging and the Visual Culture of Eating

The early 2000s saw the rise of the food blog as a new, largely amateur form of culinary writing that operated outside the traditional gatekeeping of newspaper critics and glossy magazines. Sites such as Clotilde Dusoulier’s "Chocolate & Zucchini," begun in 2003 from Paris, and Deb Perelman’s "Smitten Kitchen," launched in 2006 from a small New York City apartment, built large, devoted readerships around personal voice, home-cook accessibility, and original recipe development. These blogs effectively democratized food criticism and recipe writing, allowing enthusiastic amateurs to build audiences and, in some cases, publishing careers, that rivaled those of professionally trained critics.