Tech & Tools

Food Channel Releases Etiquette Guide for Food Bloggers
 
The Food Channel has announced its new Food Blogger’s Etiquette Guide e-book. Readers may view the guide for free on the Food Channel website or download it for $0.99. The booklet is made up of 10 short tips and illustrated with photography taken by the Food Channel’s creative director.

The 10 rules of food blogging are the following:

1. Be professional, even if your blog is a hobby.
2. Photos are OK—in fact, they are a compliment to the chef. However, flash photos are a distraction to other diners. Do not use a flash.
3. Respect privacy. Do not take photos of other diners.
4. Make sure your photos will do proper justice to the restaurant and its food.
5. What applies to photos should also apply to what you write, especially the part about “respect privacy.”  Don’t quote from private conversations or from interviews with the staff—or even the restaurant owner or chef—unless you have identified yourself as a blogger and they are OK with being quoted.
6. Use good judgment when judging. In other words, if you are going to criticize, be sure you know what you are talking about.
7. Be polite. Again, blogging is not the same as being a food critic, no matter how much social media has changed the game.
8. Link to the restaurant’s website. Give your reader the chance to learn more about the restaurant and to peruse the menu a little further.
9. Let the restaurant know you’ve written a blog.
10. Don’t let note taking, photo taking, or observations hinder your enjoyment of the meal or the atmosphere.

— Source: The Food Channel