So you've just been reviewed. You think it all went well. The only problem may have been a slight delay with the main but apart from that, the floor staff report that all went well. You knock off with a couple of drinks and thoughts of the service and events of the night going through your head like a skipping record.

There's nothing you can do about it now". Just have to wait for the Tuesday paper in a few weeks time to feel the sting of every caustic comment, there in black and white. So you reckon you have it sussed? Wrong!

The likes of Lethlean, Evans, Downes and others are seemingly light weights in the eyes of the consuming public due to the new phenomenon of the food blogger. Basically, anybody is now capable of being a published food critic. Enter the food blogger. Seriously Chef, unless you embrace technology and start enjoying RSS feeds from, among other topics, food bloggers, you can quite possibly be being beaten up by a critic that has a more discerning subscriber base than that of the traditional media and you dont even know it.

You see, the thing about blogging is people are actually reading and in most cases interacting with each other. This has been tagged as a form of "social networking. The old fashion review from the paper has a one way delivery. Blogging gives everybody, including the chef and chance to have a say."

As a chef you can not only view all this but you can even, assuming you have the confidence, invite a blogger in for a review.

If joejoe41@blogcentral is going to town on your presentation of your "went out with white undies" presentation of a steak Tartare, then you can pipe up and explain what you intention was.

You guys (chefs) whether you like it or not, have to embrace the technology. That lady on table 4 with the crochet needle and Mills and Boon novel is quite possibly, bashing you up

Personally, I, as a result of the technology being available, access all my news online. I subscribe to a few bloggers RSS feeds and I would rather the honesty and lack of polish of this, than some of the pomp and words of more than 3 syllables, being offered from some of our so called, more respected journalists.

According to Ed Charles, newly appointed columnist in the Melbourne Herald Sun and self confessed "will write for money" foodophile journo, there are as many as 40, dedicated food bloggers in Melbourne alone and he suggests that "this is more than the whole of the UK".

So who are you going to worry about Chef? The lightweights of the broadsheet or tabloid daily or the everyday, unknown customer who could well be your review nemesis'.

The time has come for the foodservice professional to pull their "head out of the sand" and embrace the online forum in particular, the sometimes savage comment of the food blogger.

You might not know them, you might not see them, but you will certainly hear them.


For more information on RSS feeds and a great list of bloggers drop me a line at srkirk@kirkfood.com.au

For a good list of hometown food bloggers have a look at Ed Charles' site www.tomatom.com.

For me, I'm going rip shreds off some poor unsuspecting public servant on another blog that I contribute to but more on that later.

Bon apeclick.

Steve