Does the world need another food blog?

Today the LA Times ran an article classifying blogs by home cooks as “cyber-treacle,” with writers “nattering about what they fed their boyfriends last night, or fuzzily photographing their latest batch of heart-shaped cookies.”

Ouch.

The Times writer prefers blogs written by chefs, who tend “to focus on the story behind the food, on the thought process that original cooking entails.”

In the article, she eventually recognizes that chef-written blogs also can be extremely self-promotional, restaurant-promotional, product-promotional, and (most likely) not written by the chefs whose names are on the blogs. But she lets the insults about home cooks’ food blogs stand.

Really, there are so many good ones. Lovely, informative, helpful, funny. From the practical to the practically pornographic.

And I like to know what they fed their boyfriends last night.

So, what am I going to bring to the proverbial table?

I recently left my position as head pastry chef at a German bakery to get married, move, introduce Henry the dog (mine) to Henry the cat (his), unpack, write thank-you notes, lose my way around town, dance in the kitchen, figure out the TV remotes, unpack some more, commandeer some closet space, and watch “Lost.”

Now, it’s time to figure out what’s next. I’m thinking cake design.
In the meantime, I plan to reach out. Professional cooking can be a competitive sport, where recipes, ingredients, and techniques are guarded, always by understanding and sometimes by contract. Now that I’m a chef-turned-home-cook (a home chef?), I want to drop the competition and be part of a community. Sharing sounds good.

So, this is my space for trying new things and sharing the results. To bake from some of my long-ignored cookbooks. To pass along my favorite recipes. And to join the family of “nattering” food bloggers.

Heart-shaped cookies for everyone!