On Sunday the Sunday Times had a lengthy article, entitled ‘Food Soldiers’, about the blood, sweat, and tears that go into the preparation of ‘fine food’ and the running of good restaurants. The article concluded with a denigration of ‘frikkin’ bloggers‘ by newly renamed Belmond Mount Nelson Hotel Chef Rudi Liebenberg, quite out of character of someone who comes across as gentle and kind.

I Tweeted the last paragraph of the article, and posted it on Facebook, and an interesting discussion arose on the latter forum, threatening to become a ‘Chefs versus Bloggers’ fight. Veteran Chef Billy Gallagher fully supported Chef Rudi, writing ‘I believe you write good stuff Chris and I follow your blog which is always interesting to say the least, having spent 40 years in the hotel business. It was hotel chefs that laid the foundation. The South African chefs Association created the platform for today’s South African chefs and this 40 years ago was a hotel chefs initiative.  Many of the top 10 restaurants are on wine estates which adds a wonderful backdrop to these very talented chefs. Let’s give Rudi his opinion right or wrong‘.   Twelve Apostles Executive Director Horst Frehse also wrote in support of Chef Rudi.   Susanna Tecklenburg of Oude Wellington wrote  ‘I eat, sleep, sitting on the loo social media between cooking and running my restaurant. It sure brings in business and you meet new people all the time and guests appreciated when you comment on their posts. Read all the blogs and specially yours Chris Von Ulmenstein and value your opinion. Thanks for all your input and info all the time. With my busy lifestyle you ‘frikkin’ bloggers help us to be in touch what’s going on out there!’.  Chef Anton Bekker of Taste Restaurant was critical of the effect of MasterChef SA on diners: ‘Social media keep my restaurant afloat! I do have problem when people watch masterchef and then think they know everything. Lol. Or when a food writer comments that the hollandaise needed some more cream. … haha’. Sarie Kos Food Editor Herman Lensing was the first to react to the Facebook post, stating that all diners have the right to express an opinion, and that chefs should cook for their customers and not for critics.  Amanda Brinkmann was very vocal about the subject, saying that due to the politics in food writing, she believes in and supports ‘citizen journalism‘.  Deon Schutte clearly wrote from a chef’s perspective: ‘I think that many chefs from the old brigade format still believe that the chef is king and the customer knows nothing. Exec- and Head Chefs should get back onto the restaurant floor and engage with customers. Few of them actually cook as they are mostly tied up in admin and management of the kitchen and the Sous Chef is the poor underpaid soul that does all the cooking. Many venues have lost their “good food and atmosphere” because of the chef manager’s attitude…’

There were a lot of contradictions in the Social Media paragraph, and the biggest one was that it appeared that Chef Rudi was collectively calling all Social Media writers (i.e. bloggers, Tweeters, and Facebookers) ‘bloggers’, and horror of horrors, included TripAdvisorists under this banner too!  I was fired up by the Facebook discussion, and thought of more and more aspects of the debate, to such an extent that I decided to write this blogpost.

I thought it only fair to call Rudi, and to double check if he had really called our blogging fraternity such a horrid name.  It was hard to reach him, as he had already left the hotel, and his staff are not allowed to pass on his mobile number. I left a message for him, and he called back, being very gentle in explaining how the last paragraph of the (double-page) article in the Lifestyle section of the Sunday Times had come about.   He explained that he had a three hour interview with journalist Sue de Groot, and in that time he spoke honestly to her about the challenges chefs face in running their restaurants.  His biggest beef is the damaging effect of reviews on his and his team’s morale, remembering in exact detail that I had complained about a pastry brush bristle in my empanada in 2010.   I had long forgotten about the incident, but Chef Rudi remembered it in vivid detail.  He asked me to consider that they prepare 400 empanadas per day, or 2800 per week, so it is a small percentage and should be understandable as human error, given the volume produced.

Chef Rudi remembers the good old days when food critics were of the ilk of Anna Trapido, Victor Strugo, and Gwynne Conlyn, mainly writing about Johannesburg restaurants when Chef Rudi was at The Saxon.  He moved to Cape Town in 2009, the year in which Blogging really took off, and was warned about the bloggers in Cape Town, and almost prescribed to as to whom to like, and whom not to like.  He soon realised that he would make his own decisions in this regard, based on his own experience!  He wanted it to be clear to me that he does not hate ALL bloggers, but that he is annoyed that they express opinions about food without having any understanding of what it takes to prepare the meal.

As we were talking it became clear to me that Chef Rudi was really really annoyed (as many of us are) by TripAdvisor reviews, and that he was including them in his ‘frikkin’ bloggers’ definition.  I asked him to evaluate where his biggest irritation lay, and it is the TripAdvisorists that far outweigh the writing by Tweeters, the blog writers, and the Facebookers.  We laughed about the ‘cheek’ of guests writing on TripAdvisor, after having said that all was fine with the meal when leaving the restaurant, but then writing a horrid review a few hours later, probably using the free wifi service offered!  So while I was relieved that Chef Rudi’s rant was not specifically against blog writers, I was sad that he could equate blog writers with TripAdvisorists, and see us all as one and the same.  I do hope that our discussion will have made Chef Rudi rethink his ‘blogger’ definition.

Chef Rudi also feels that reviews should have balance, and that no eating experience can be so poor that one cannot find some elements to praise about it.  He feels that ‘bloggers‘, especially the newer ones, are not experienced in writing a balanced report about their experience,  only focusing on the negatives.  They also tend to become personal in their comments, instead of keeping them professional.

It is my observation that restaurants generally are very poor at marketing their businesses, few investing in a specialist hospitality PR company such as Manley Communications, or even doing basic Social Media Marketing, thinking that a Facebook page is all they need for their business.  Many do not have a proper website, or even a blog in which they can share photographs and/or recipes. They create the most beautiful dishes, but rarely Tweet, Pinterest, or Facebook photographs of them.  For many the only way in which information is communicated about their restaurants is through reviews written and photographs posted by the ‘frikkin’ bloggers‘, including blog writers, Facebookers, Tweeters, and those trippin’ TripAdvisorists!

POSTSCRIPT 3/6:  Banning ‘bloggers’ is not exactly the marketing strategy restaurants should follow if they do not like reviews. Face the writer, invite them back, and thank them graciously for the feedback.  Once the feedback has been actioned, let it go!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Twitter: @WhaleCottage