I have a secret to tell you

Please don't tell anyone else. This secret, it's very hush-hush and if anyone finds out, it'll all be over. Seriously. It's for your eyes only. Here, come closer. Ok, you ready? Here goes: bloggers who write about restaurants and food do so because they love restaurants and food.

I know, it's crazy but it's true. We don't invest hundreds of pounds on meals, ingredients, cook-books and cooking utensils and significant amounts of time because we hate it. Who would have thought? All the evidence points to us being evil, manipulative, malevolent and ignorant and now I come along and shatter that illusion with the truth. Amazing, huh?

Why then, are so many chefs and restauranters leery of what we do? One reason could be because they don't know who we are. If that's the case, that's their fault and their problem. They should learn, or at least get their PR firms on the case. Some of us are anonymous. I have my own reasons for anonymity. Others no doubt hide behind anonymity to shill or attack at will. But, and here's the rub, readers have brains, they can sift and they can analyse. I would be willing to bet that if a diner is savvy enough to read one blog, they are likely to read a few, in addition to the magazines and newspapers they also read, whether online or in print. Blogs do not exist in a vacuum, one bad post does not make a bad restaurant. However, five bad posts plus a piss poor review in a national newspaper, might make prospective diners think twice.

I don't wish to sound like I have swallowed The Cluetrain Manifesto, but the internet is basically a worldwide chat. There is a lot of shit out there but there are also a lot of deep and meaningfuls taking place. You won't agree with all of them, but if you look, there'll be something for you. If you love your brawn, you're going to love Opinionated About, but if fast food is more your basket of chips, you'll find Central Florida Restaurant Mum invaluable. Personally, OA is more for me, but I enjoy Florida Mum's stuff, if only to see how the other half eat.

In my opinion, the thing that scares Mario Batali and his unconnected compadres is word of mouth. When it was just the odd reviewer on a newspaper and a couple of trade mags, it was all very manageable. Word of mouth was unable to spread further than a few blocks and it was ephemeral. Now it's tougher, more complicated and thanks to Google, lasts longer.

Whereas what seems to be a younger cohort of chefs regard word of mouth as all important and have chosen to embrace us keyboard toters with relish. My podcasts with Giorgio Locatelli and Aki Kamozawa and Alexander Talbot, among others, are evidence of that.

I fail to see why people get so exercised about bloggers. Most blogs have pretty low readership figures, but our readers tend to be loyal. They post comments, send us emails and sometimes eat and drink with us. We build a relationship, in just the way that I always assumed restaurants wanted to build relationships with their patrons. Readers and bloggers alike share a passion and choose to indulge it in a particular way. Why do some see that as such a threat?

For more on this, go and see what Adam Roberts, The Amateur Gourmet has to say.