Chefs are respected icons. They are masters of the culinary arts. Like any other niche in which hierarchical stages of expertise may be reached, depending on education, skill level, experience, and popularity, chefs can enjoy celebrity status. Whether you are a culinary school student who aspires to become a professional chef someday, or whether you are looking to learn how to cook for your family, or whether you just happen to have a passion and enthusiasm for the art of cooking, then one of the best ways to learn how to cook, receive cooking tips, or derive inspiration for new food preparation ideas is to follow the free website blogs of popular chefs in the culinary industry.
It is not uncommon for many expert chefs to have a legion of fans and followers who are fascinated by his or her prowess in the kitchen. While many chefs use Facebook and Twitter to keep up with their fans, there are many others who maintain personal blogs as well.
Many chefs have adopted the trend of hosting their own personal websites, on which they create blog entries and maintain these blogs on a regular basis. It is through these blogs that you can get inside the minds of some of the most popular chefs in the industry. You can learn from them and draw inspiration from them. Or, if you are looking to create your own chef’s website with a blog, then you can use them as a source of emulation.
Here is a list of 7 popular chef blogs to follow, each of whom are from the New York City area:
#1: Notes from the Kitchen - Michael Laiskonis
Michael Laiskonis is the executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin, one of the most famous restaurants in New York City, dedicated to serving only the finest seafood menu in town. In his blog, Laiskonis offers commentary and insights on his work in the kitchen. His blog is choc full of plenty of photos, and even incorporates his passion for art and design into his blog as well. One of his most popular blog posts, entitled “Ergonomic”, discusses the art and science of preparing food with shapes and lines in such a way as to enhance the dining experience.
#2: Confessions of a Sugarholic - Pichet Ong
Pichet Ong is a world-renowned pastry chef. This chef’s blog provides a glimpse into his passion for the culinary arts outside of the confines of his own kitchen. Choc full of food porn (the staged photography of food presented in such a manner as to arouse the desire to eat it), this blog is an amusing read for his legions of fans.
#3: DanielAngerer.com - Daniel Angerer
The web page design of Daniel Angerer’s blog is more of a food journal than a personal account of his own culinary experiences. He focuses a great deal on sharing his recipe ideas and gives an account of his culinary feats: meals that he has cooked. He is also famously known for serving cheese made from his wife’s breast milk, at his restaurant!
#4: Chef Seamus Mullen - Seamus Mullen
Seamus Mullen chose to showcase the act of cooking quite literally from start to finish on his free website blog. And from the start, we literally mean from the start, when he himself personally slaughters and skins the animal that he later cooks and serves at the restaurant. it is an interesting insight into the lifecycle of food preparation, as seen through Mullen’s eyes.
#5: Fresh Off The Boat - Eddie Huang
Eddie Huang shares his insights on the world of the restaurant business, his personal experiences managing his own restaurant and interacting with his staff, his experiences as a chef. His free website blog has a humorous twist, as he injects humor, his musings about hip-hop, basketball, and New York City.
#6: The Life of a Chef - Daniel Mowles
Daniel Mowles’ blog relies mostly on a digital portfolio of pictures to tell his story. He offers a glimpse into his life as a chef, both inside the kitchen and outside. His pictorial blog showcases not only a sampling of the meals he has prepared but of other aspects of his life as well.
#7: Chef Mateo Blog - Rafael Mateo
Rafael Mateo tackles many issues of concern to him with respect to the restaurant industry, such as New York City’s Department of Health restaurant “grading system”. His blog also focuses on his various travels, from a “culinary tourism” perspective, such as his trip to Chicago and the dining experiences he blogs about there.
The above list of popular chef blogs to follow is by no means exhaustive, but it gives you an insight into the experiences that chefs in today’s Web 2.0 are keenly interested in sharing with the world online. By following their free wesbite blogs, you can derive inspiration as well as tips and tricks of the cooking trade.
