A Brief History of Food Blogs
This timeline is a companion to the story How Food Blogging Changed My Life, by Ganda Suthivarakom
To the food bloggers of the world, I raise a glass to toast your impressive, enduring body of work. To those of you considering starting a blog, I say, Jump in! There's plenty of room for you. Don't be discouraged if you don't find your niche right away. It really takes some time to settle into a good rhythm. Don't believe me? Here's a really small timeline of food blogging, with some familiar names and links to (what I believe is) their first posts. And leave us a comment to tell us where your blog fits into the timeline.
1997
July 2, 1997
Jim Leff and Bob Okumura found Chowhound, an online discussion forum about food in New York.
eating on I-78
December 17, 1997
Jorn Barger coins the term "weblog".
1999
October, 1999
** David Lebovitz**
David Lebovitz, cookbook author, begins posting updates on his influential baking and desserts website.
August 23, 1999
Blogger, a web-based blogging software, is introduced by Pyra Labs.
2001
August, 2001
Jason Perlow and food writer Steven Shaw launch eGullet, a food online discussion forum.
September or October, 2001
Saute Wednesday
****This influential, newsy blog was the brainchild of Bruce Cole, now publisher/editor of Edible San Francisco. An archive of his first post no longer exists online; this is one of his earliest available posts.
2002
August 25, 2002
The Julie/Julia Project
Julie Powell's Salon blog may be the first cook-through blog.
"365 days. 536 recipes. One girl and a crappy outer borough kitchen.
How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait….."
Late summer, 2002
Gastropoda
Professional food writer Regina Schrambling embraces the web well-ahead of her print peers.
[No title]
2003
February 18, 2003
101 Cookbooks
Vegetarian Heidi Swanson cooks her way through recipes from her vast collection of cookbooks.
"Quite a bit of effort went into this number. Fresh pasta, fresh curry paste, and a few ingredients I rarely use: dried mushrooms, paprika, and turmeric (brought back from Zanzibar quite a while back and then ignored for a couple years)."
May 27, 2003
WordPress is first available for download.
July 6, 2003
Cooking with Amy
Amy Sherman, a cookbook author, developed her own recipes for her early cooking blog.
July 7, 2003
The Food Section
Josh Friedland's site aggregates the best in food and restaurant news.
"I purchased New Zealand baby clams, which will be combined with extremely hot extra virgin olive oil, thinly sliced garlic, chopped shallots, and white wine. When the clams open, I will add al dente spaghetti and chopped Italian parsley. Buon Appetito!"
July 9, 2003
Simply Recipes
Though Elise Bauer had been hand-coding her collection of family and friends' recipes for at least a year before, this is one of her earliest blog format posts.
August 19, 2003
Chez Pim
Pim Techamuanvivit, a Thai ex-pat in San Francisco who speaks French and writes in English, shares her fine dining experiences and cooking techniques.
September 30, 2003
Chocolate & Zucchini
Parisienne Clotilde Dusoulier makes French home cooking accessible but no less glamorous.
"I also wanted to get copper canele molds, because Maxence likes caneles so much and the ones we've made using our silicon mold are not as caramelized as the ones you buy in bakeries."
October 13, 2003
Slice (formerly Slice NY)
Adam Kuban's ode to New York City pizza is likely the first niche blog devoted to a single food.
"Eagle-eye readers will have spotted the mistake pertaining to Patsy's address. That's not a Slice typo. Maybe if Newday wasn't out on Long Island, they'd know that Patsy's is at 118th and First Ave. Oh well."
2004
January 14, 2004** **
#
The Amateur Gourmet
Adam Roberts's blog brings humor and a refreshing irreverence to the table.
"Are you sick of competency?
Of food blogs run by competent people with flawless track records and no history of salmonella?
Are you tired of not having salmonella?
You've come to the right place."
April 11, 2004
'Ono Kine Grindz
The author of 'Ono Kine Grindz celebrates the cuisine of his home, Hawaii, a food culture that doesn't get much attention in print media.
July 29, 2004
Orangette
Molly Wizenberg's earnest words, rich photography, and reliable recipes make her almost instantaneously popular.
"This is my space to start writing for myself again, rather than for only for professors, advisors, students, grant committees, and the like."
November 16, 2004
The Girl Who Ate Everything
Robyn Lee's voice is pure blog, full of youthful charm and curiosity.
"Food and music = happy. Not necessarily together…wouldn't wanna see a concert while eating or watch singing food but yeah. Fwee."
2005
March 6, 2005
delicious days
Nicky Stich and Oliver Seidel, Munich residents who publish in English, raise the bar on blog aesthetics with their beautiful photography.
"Now after almost 8 months I can surely record that there was life before Arabica beans and life with them. "
May 1, 2005
Seven Spoons
Tara O'Brady, a Canadian mother of two, used a point-and-shoot camera when she first started blogging.
May 10, 2005
Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef (formerly Gluten-Free Girl)
Shauna James Ahern is one of the first bloggers to develop recipes for the gluten-intolerant.
"I was starting to think I would never feel well.
Notice that sentence is in the past tense. Because now, I know. And now, I feel much, much better. Gloriously better. Finally.
I have a diagnosis: celiac disease."
July 21, 2005
Eater (formerly Eater NY)
Reveling in celebrity chef culture, Eater becomes the first stop for all restaurant gossip.
"Welcome to Eater. The paint is just about dry, the banquettes arrived just last night from Budapest (customs is a real bitch), and it looks like the chef is done experimenting with the menu. So, come on in. May we check your coat?"
August 22, 2005
The Wednesday Chef
A cookbook editor at the time, Luisa Weiss tests clipped recipes from her favorite newspaper food sections with the palate of a professional.
"I'm a longtime food blog reader, and would often search the web for blogs writing about the recipes published each week, but to no avail. …why not start a blog that catalogs the recipes tried from the two best (arguably) food sections in the country and see what happens?"
September 9, 2005
The Kitchn
Beloved design blog Apartment Therapy launches The Kitchn to give their posts about food a home of their own.
September 25, 2005
Homesick Texan
Lisa Fain's blog is one of the first regional cuisine niche blogs, celebrating the food of the state she grew up in.
"I love me some refried beans, but here in New York City, it's impossible to find any that are worth a lick (let alone a bite)."
2006
February 14, 2006
The New York Times's Diner's Journal
The blog for the Times's food critic makes the most elusive creature in food media more accessible and emphasizes the significance of the blog medium.
March, 2006
Chowhound.com is acquired by CNET, reports the Village Voice. It will eventually become a part of Chow.com.
June 4, 2006** **
#
Matt Bites
Matt Armendariz brings an art director's style to his blog's photography and design.
"Ladies and gentleman, my name is Matt. I am a Snail Wrangler."
June 30, 2006
Smitten Kitchen
Deb Perelman's taste is impeccable and her recipes, both adapted and original, are reliable.
[A photo of dewy cherries, no text.]
July, 2006
Twitter launches.
July 27, 2006
Not Eating Out in New York
Cathy Erway, a dedicated locavore, uses a points system to denote how healthy and how green her recipes are.
"Watermelon gazpacho, for instance, is one of my favorites. I imagine that using peach or perhaps crisp white peach to complement the traditional blend of vegetables would also be a bright spin on the already spun-beyond-recognition summer dish."
December 1, 2006
Serious Eats
Ed Levine brings together some of the food blog world's biggest names under a single roof: Alaina Browne (A Full Belly), Meg Hourihan (Megnut), Adam Kuban (Slice and A Hamburger Today), and, at launch, Adam Roberts (The Amateur Gourmet).
2007
January, 2007
Tastespotting
Sarah Gim's Tastespotting gathers user submissions and curates a visual tile spread of the best "food porn" photos on the web.
January 3, 2007
Dorie Greenspan
Already a widely-respected cookbook author, her blog is a continuation of her book signings — a chance to meet and chat with her readers.
"In every city I visited, I met someone I knew from the web - people who'd been baking from my book and posting stories and pictures about the desserts on their blogs and on websites where groups were working their way through the book - and I loved it."
October 31, 2007
Bakerella
All strains of cake pop fever can be traced back to Angie Dudley.
"My six year old niece is turning out to be quite the little baker. She was so excited to decorate these for Halloween."
2008
January 27, 2008
** Canelle et Vanille**
Aran Goyoaga's blog employs wide and tall photos with great details and distinctive styling.
"I feel like a little kid on her first day of school. What a terrifying thought that is! I have always been shy of crowds, introductions and so on. But I really wanted to start a pastry journal, mostly for myself, to keep me going and to force me to bake everyday."
2009
June 10, 2009
Food 52
Professional food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs turn to the crowd to source their modern-day community cookbook.
"I'll admit I'm a true butter lover. I'm not one of those people who spend five minutes shellacking a layer of butter as thin as parchment on each slice of bread, working the knife back and forth like a bricklayer with his trowel until the butter is perfectly even. No, I'm a slatherer."
July 14, 2009
The Pioneer Woman introduces **Tasty Kitchen******
Ree Drummond's food community is spun-off from a comment contest on her wildly popular blog, The Pioneer Woman.
August 7, 2009
_ Julie & Julia_, the movie based on the book based on the blog, is released in the U.S.
2010
_January, 2010 _
Foodspotting, a social site for sharing food pics, launches.
October 14, 2010
The New York Times's Diner's Journal reports that starting in 2011, the James Beard Foundation will get rid of the distinction between online and print journalism, which means that blogs can compete in the same category as magazine articles.
2011
May 12, 2011
Voting closes for the Saveur.com 2nd Annual Best Food Blog Awards. Vote now!
Where does your blog fit into the timeline? Leave a comment below with your own food blog story.
UPDATES: I'll be updating this with other important food blog dates as we find them. If you have something we should add, send a tip to ganda@saveur.com.
Correction: The Kitchn's first post was created on September 9, 2005, not December 7, 2007.
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