Water cooler talk, but with photos

I'd forgotten that in an interview with Courier Mail journalist, Natascha Mirosch, early this year, I'd compared the social interaction of the foodblogging community as being like "water cooler talk, but with photos".

In hindsight, I'm not sure whether that sounds glib, but the excited chatter and voyeuristic photo-sharing is something I can easily identify with.

At the start of the article, which appears in today's Good Life weekly liftout, Natascha asks Courier Mail breakout

"Who doesn't like reading descriptions of restaurants they may never be able to afford to go to? Who wouldn't enjoy reading about other people's cooking disasters or turn down the opportunity to get a view of the inner sanctum of the restaurant kitchen."

Who doesn't indeed. We love it, and we know it!

There's an interview with Deborah from The Food Palate as well as Marilyn Domenech, author of Marilyn's blog, a complementary site to her Brisbane restaurant Baguette. And, as mentioned, a fair bit of nattering from yours truly, as well.

A sidebar panel titled "Essential Reading" lists Grab Your Fork, Spiceblog, The Food Palate, The Occasional Epicure, Marilyn's blog and Blogger.

An online copy of the full article (minus the side bar panel) can be found here. ~~I should be receiving a hard copy in the post in the next couple of days so I can check out (and hopefully post up) the layout.~~ EDIT: Article pics uploaded 27/04/06. Thank you Kelly for so thoughtfully sending me a copy through the post!

And to all the Brisbane readers who've just discovered this site:
Welcome! I hope you brought your appetite!

Courier Mail Good Life

16 Comments:

At 4/18/2006 1:26 pm, Matt at Abstract Gourmet said…

Very cool Helen, and well done to Deb as well for getting some street cred.

Power to the people :)

Cheerio.
Matt
At 4/18/2006 2:26 pm, Julia said…

Congratulations! Great write-up and I hope many new readers discover your blog!
At 4/18/2006 2:34 pm, Robyn said…

Cool article! :D And yeah, you = so not a "podgy adolescent boy". I guess it's good they clarified that.

YAY FOOD BLOGGIN!
At 4/18/2006 8:59 pm, FooDcrazEE said…

cheers to food bloggers and especially to u,
At 4/19/2006 1:18 am, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi Matt - Thanks. It's a nice way to start a (short) week.

Hi Julia - Thank you. There's been a significant spike in hits today so I can only presume they're all Courier Mail readers.

Hi Robyn - lol. No thick German accent either.

Hurrah for foodbloggin'! How would I cope without your daily adventures?

Hi foodcrazee - Thank you. It's fun to get some ink every once in a while, but hey, the regular online support is equally valuable, if not more (awww).
At 4/19/2006 9:48 am, deborah said…

good on you helen! i look forward to seeing your name and words in print one day soon. of course you'd need your own lift out to feature all your photographs too. can't miss the visual element.
At 4/19/2006 2:09 pm, Reb said…

Excellent! great publicity for you, well done! I'll have to get an autograph next time we go for a meal ;)
At 4/19/2006 4:36 pm, M said…

Congratulations! As a Brissy boy I enjoyed flicking through my local paper to find a story on some of the sites I visit daily. It's great to see the Australian food blogging community receive positive recognition.

Well done to all, and I hope this is the beginning of futher media publicity for all you hard working bloggers!
At 4/20/2006 12:15 am, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi Saffron - Thanks. Congrats to you too. I'm thinking about a liftout with scratch-n-sniff photos. Whaddya think?

Hi Reb - lol. Fifteen seconds and counting...

Hi M - Thanks. The foodblogging community is great. Why wouldn't it? We obviously have our priorities straight!
At 4/20/2006 6:06 pm, cin said…

Great article. It's alwasy fun to see you guys mentioned/quoted in mags & newspapers :-D
At 4/21/2006 10:46 pm, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi Cin - Yeah not everyone gets to be a Gourmet Traveller centrefold. LOL.
At 4/26/2006 6:13 pm, P&N said…

Nice to know it's not only my parents who read my pieces! Honestly though Helen, it's a pleasure to interview someone who is so articulate!

I recently had to interview an ex footballer who had no conversational skills apart from 'nah/yeah' and this was someone trying to promote his business! (In QLD, old footballers never die, they just become restauranteurs!)

I was disappointed though at the lack of QLD food bloggers- we talk the talk but we are an apathetic lot when it comes to action!

I did however discover some time later the fabulous Old Foodie, whose well researched and very regular (400 words a day without fail!) efforts deserve recognition. This woman is a powerhouse of knowledge. She's been obsessed by food history for years and apparently has 1000's of paras on all sort of food. She was recently persuaded into cyber space by her family who have been lucky enough to get her gems by email for the last couple of years. Definitely worth checking out.
http://theoldfoodie.blogspot.com/

What I'd really love to see though, is more chefs blogging.

How about it guys? Instead of crashing in front of bad tv when you get home from a hectic night at 1am, to wind down, get online an tell us about it- warts and all. I for one would love to hear about the pain in the ass customers, the kitchen disasters, insider gossip.

If food is sex, then a restaurant kitchen is one big porn set and I for one would love to be a voyeur!!

Natascha
At 4/27/2006 12:24 am, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi P&N - An insight into restaurant kitchens would be interesting, but at the same time knowing too much would take the magic out of dining out =)

Anthony Bourdain's first book Kitchen Confidential is fairly entertaining and probably not that far off the truth!
At 4/30/2006 11:02 am, Amanda said…

Personally I don't really need to see chefs blogging - I prefer to buy their books. The thing I like about food blogging is that it is accessible by many non-chefs. People who are relating experiences that many of the untrained at home can identify with.
At 4/30/2006 3:15 pm, Helen (AugustusGloop) said…

Hi lushlife - That's true. Blogs often provide great insights into the "magic of the ordinary".
At 5/01/2006 8:07 pm, P&N said…

or the ordinariness of the seemingly magic!