{"id":9949,"date":"2010-07-05T10:03:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T08:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=9949"},"modified":"2010-07-05T10:03:09","modified_gmt":"2010-07-05T08:03:09","slug":"food-wine-bloggers-should-be-opinionated-but-substantiate-their-views","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/food-wine-bloggers-should-be-opinionated-but-substantiate-their-views\/","title":{"rendered":"Food & Wine Bloggers should be opinionated, but substantiate their views"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A lively entertaining debate about how opinionated bloggers can be in their blogs about their restaurant experiences was created when well-known food alchemist Pete Goffe-Wood, owner of Wild Woods Restaurant, Eat Out Top 10 restaurant judge, restaurant consultant, and owner of the Kitchen Cowboys cookery school for men\u00a0addressed the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting at the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Goffe-Wood said that he started blogging about a year ago, as an extension to his\u00a0writing\u00a0for the Food page in GQ<\/strong> magazine.\u00a0\u00a0 He does not rely on\u00a0his Kitchen Cowboy blog\u00a0to make money, but instead he uses it to express his passion about food, and his opinions about issues relating to the restaurant industry, e.g. pricing of wines, corkage, restaurant reviews.\u00a0He does not blog every day, but rather when he needs to “vent” his opinion about something that is an issue for him.<\/p>\n

It is clear that Goffe-Wood enjoys opinionated bloggers, who do not shy away from expressing their views, and who stand by what they write.\u00a0\u00a0 Some of his favourite blogs are “Diary of a Food Whore”, “Eat Asia”, as well as “JamieWho”.\u00a0 He singled out attendee Kim Maxwell as a good reviewer, and mentioned the controversy about JP Rossouw’s review of La Mouette.\u00a0\u00a0If one critiques a restaurant, one must be able to substantiate the reason for the criticism, he said.\u00a0 A blog that did not carry criticism about restaurants, and that\u00a0only said good things about good restaurants would not have depth, in his opinion, and would not be a benefit to the restaurant industry.<\/p>\n

Goffe-Wood clearly does not like food blogs with recipes, which he disparagingly described as having beautifully styled photographs, but with “inane writing and inane recipes”.\u00a0 He himself would never write about recipes on his blog.\u00a0\u00a0 He also criticised bloggers who had nothing new to say, and who cut and paste the work of other writers.\u00a0\u00a0 He discussed the value of blog comments, and felt them to be a\u00a0beneficial in that they get a discussion going, even if commenters can be harsh in criticising each other.\u00a0\u00a0 Another question raised was how polite one must be in expressing a negative opinion.<\/p>\n

Pieter Ferreira has been making MCC sparkling wines at Graham Beck for the past 20 years, and is called “Pieter Bubbles” by his friends, and writes a blog\u00a0called “Bubbles on Wine”.\u00a0 His blog grew out of his Tweeting, which he does\u00a0during his day to day activities on the Graham Beck Robertson and Franschhoek farms.\u00a0\u00a0 The Tweets become a reminder for him about his experiences during the day, and these he can put into his blog on a later occasion.\u00a0\u00a0 He likes to put other writers’ interesting stories\u00a0on his blog, and also to share exceptional experiences at restaurants, or about a special bottle of wine.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0While his blog is a personal one, he is blogging mainly about Graham Beck brands, and therefore it benefits the wine estate as the blog posts will be found via Google searches.<\/p>\n

Ferreira’s bubblies are so outstanding that Nelson Mandela chose Graham Beck Cap Classique for\u00a0his inauguration.\u00a0 Many years later, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle celebrated their inauguration with the same brand.\u00a0\u00a0Ferreira told the story that the cellar at the White House may only stock American wines.\u00a0 The Graham Beck wines are stored in the kitchen, to get around this sacred White House rule.\u00a0\u00a0 Ferriera brought the Graham Beck Brut Blanc de Blanc,\u00a0Brut Rose, Coffeestone Cabernet Sauvignon and Gamekeeper Reserve Chenin Blanc\u00a0for the Bloggers’ Club members to taste.<\/p>\n

Due to space constraints at the Chef’s Warehouse and Cookery School, the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings\u00a0will be held at a larger venue in future.\u00a0 Please contact Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com<\/a> to\u00a0obtain more information\u00a0about the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a> (Photograph by Lesley Cox)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lively entertaining debate about how opinionated bloggers can be in their blogs about their restaurant experiences was created when well-known food alchemist Pete Goffe-Wood, owner of Wild Woods Restaurant, Eat Out Top 10 restaurant judge, restaurant consultant, and owner of the Kitchen Cowboys cookery school for men\u00a0addressed the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,3,124,20,21,19],"tags":[5539,5540,5340,3638,4818,5536,32378,5541,3854,4731,3067,4571,3549,4664,5549,1388,226,5544,5545,5548,4331,2688,4330,3552,4817,4630,5596,5542,5538,1458,3248,968,5537,1859,252,3548,5535,4907,5543,1588,32373,1759,5339,365,49],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t