Serious Eats
Serious Eats launches officially tomorrow, Monday 4 December.
It is the brainchild of Ed Levine and appears to be yet another attempt to form an online food community. The difference with this one, is that it has got some high profile bloggers writing and editing: Adam Kuban of A Hamburger Today and Slice, Meg Hourihan of Megnut, Alaina Browne of A Full Belly and Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet. If they can pull it off, they could be on to a winner with this site. They are all excellent writers with good knowledge. They might be able to succeed where Chow is still flailing around.
From the preview I have seen, the site looks good and has some interesting content. For example, they have video of a discussion between Jeffrey Steingarten (author and Vogue's food critic) and Susie Essman, Susie Greene in Curb Your Enthusiasm. They are chatting about their fantasy dinner dates - Jessica Simpson for him, Sigmund Freud for her.
Whoever wrote the blurb for the website described it as "the first website for serious eaters." This self-important statement may come back to haunt them, unless it is said with tongue firmly in cheek - I fear it is not. Having said that, they do have some heavy hitters behind them and if nothing else, once all those bloggers above put up posts announcing its launch, it will drive a lot of traffic towards the site. Although, visitors alone does not ensure the quality of a site. What might make this one work however, is the combination of decent editorial and member participation.
The site includes a forum for members to chat about food, a best of the web section, where the site's editors post what interests them from other blogs/websites, as well as the aforementioned videos and essays. This will be one to watch.
Ed Levine here. Thanks for the kind words about Serious Eats. And don't worry. Our tongues are planted firmly in cheek. We don't take ourselves too seriously at Serious Eats. The name came out of what I often say when I really like a slice of pizza, a hot dog, or whatever it is that I'm writing about. I'll say to myself, "This pizza is serious." I really like your site, by the way.
Posted by: Ed Levine | 04 December 2006 at 11:34 AM
Ed, thanks for the kind words. Good to hear things won't be too serious over there. Good luck with it.
Posted by: Silverbrow | 04 December 2006 at 02:14 PM
it's a shame though that once again, this site concentrates on North America - like slashfood and others, which I therefore don't always find very relevant. i wish they would invite European (and Asian, Latinamerican and Antipodean) bloggers to participate as well to make it more global. Or are there any takers for creating a similar European portal???
Posted by: thepassionatecook | 05 December 2006 at 01:55 PM
I agree, they do tend to be a bit too US-centric: either New York or San Francisco.
As for the European thing, I guess you have to look at the food forums for that, Opinionated About is particularly good for the UK.
Posted by: Silverbrow | 05 December 2006 at 03:19 PM