When considering food journalism today, it’s tempting to focus entirely on new developments in the global media landscape: countless food and cooking shows, the ever-expanding food blogosphere, and rapidly successful social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram that make the discipline more interactive. No matter where you look, food media has been digitized in staggering ways. But what about printed food media? Despite industry changes, the printed incarnation of food media still remains an epitome of the craft.
Last week, the Chicago Tribune hosted a panel on print food journalism as part of its Trib Nation Events series. The panel included Tribune food editor Joe Gray, who oversees the paper’s weekly food section, Good Eating. With him were reporters Bill Daley and Judy Hevrdejs, both experienced food writers, and dining editor Carmel Carrillo. Restaurant critic Phil Vettel rounded out the panel, but to maintain his anonymity, he joined the conversation via microphone only.
The discussion centered around the mechanics of printed food journalism, current trends, challenges, and the future of the discipline. Joe Gray touched on the “explosion of food information” over the last five to ten years, stating that “people are more familiar with different ideas, they keep us on our toes.” He noted an elevated engagement among his audience and more informed feedback.
Yet it seems that the proliferation of food media has not compelled many to try cooking themselves, according to Gray. He feels that “a lot of people don’t cook, a lot of younger people in their twenties and thirties.” Moreover, Bill Daley said that “a lot of people just eat and don’t think about what they’re eating. If you ask what they had for dinner last night, they’d be hard pressed to remember.” Paradoxically, however, the demand for food media remains very high.
All panelists likened food writing to a kind of first-person chronicle, whether they’re reviewing a restaurant or composing a home cook story. For example, Bill Daley chronicled the rather challenging process of learning how to make the perfect pie crust. His piece captured all of his failures and successes in a causal first-person narrative, much like a blog.
Phil Vettel drew more distinctions between his work and what commonly appears on food blogs. A veteran restaurant reviewer, Vettel maintains his anonymity as an editorial policy, keeping his face out of the public eye so restaurateurs won’t recognize him. As dining editor Carmel Carrillo explains, “we don’t want our reviewers to get special treatment. We want to be able to tell readers this is what you’re going to get at this restaurant, and it should be the same for everybody.” This kind of anonymity is less common in the blogosphere, where the impetus to develop a unique personal brand translates into a lot of public exposure.
Vettel also addressed the temptation to cover new restaurants as soon as they open, and why he prefers to wait. “Brand new restaurants have a very big appeal to me because nobody knows anything about them and so what I’m having to tell them is more newsworthy, but some places maybe need a little more time before I get around to them. We have other critics and bloggers that seem to be sitting down at the table when they’re still installing the drapes. And yes, a restaurant that’s charging full price ought to have its act together on day one, but really that’s not entirely possible. It takes a while for a place to find its rhythm.”
During the panel, Vettel also commented on Chicago’s current restaurant market, in which new establishments open constantly, thus introducing more and more varied cuisines to the city. On the challenges of covering such a dynamic market, Vettel said “the very nature of dining coverage means I don’t need to be all that focused. In a way I don’t want to be that focused. I want to be spread out and keep a nice balance of ethnicities and price ranges and geographic locations, and keep those things in mind when I look at my overall coverage.”
One of the biggest challenges to print food journalism today is not at all uncommon. With the emergence of online media, print media of every kind has faced financial constraints and tough decisions. As Vettel stated, “one of the regrettable parts of my job is that these days when we have shrinking papers and shrinking budgets I don’t have the wherewithal always to go back to restaurants after a time. I will say that what gets me back into a restaurant for a re-review is a discernable and major change: the owner has changed, the chef has changed, they have changed their whole philosophy or their whole approach.”
Vettel also spoke about how the industry has changed for new journalists trying to establish their careers. Remarking on his own career path, he stated: “These days if my job opened up (and it will not!), it would probably be something akin to a nation-wide search before they would replace me, but back then it was kind of an office-wide search. It wasn’t a ‘fourteenth caller’ kind of thing, but the right place and right time had a lot to do with it.”
While food journalism today is undoubtedly concentrated on television and Internet outlets, the Chicago Tribune’s print food coverage remains consistent, though not unchanged. In an unpredictable industry, the paper continues to offer predictably engaging food stories with a broad readership. And with popular characters like Phil Vettel on staff, the paper seems likely to hook more hungry readers in the future.
Contact Information
Carmel Carrillo; dining editor, Chicago Tribune
@CarmelCarrillo
Bill Daley; food writer and features reporter, Chicago Tribune
@billdaley
Joe Gray; food editor, Chicago Tribune
@JoeGrayGoodEats
Judy Hevrdejs; lifestyle reporter and columnist, Chicago Tribune
@judytrib
Phil Vettel; restaurant critic, Chicago Tribune
@philvettel
