Rant: Food/Drink Bloggers, Step Up Your Game!

Food & drink bloggers, listen up and carefully consider my words. I'm challenging you to Step Up Your Game! Are you willing to accept that challenge? 

Yesterday, The Passionate Foodie blog reached a milestone, its 14th Anniversary, and during that time I've written nearly 5,000 articles. Through the years, I believe my writing has improved but there''s definitely still room for improvement. It's a never-ending objective, to continue to hone my writing, to better myself.

I've also learned so much about food and drink over these years, and I continue to learn new things all the time. To me, that's part of the joy of blogging, researching and learning about so many fascinating topics. It's also a never-ending objective as there will always be more to learn. 

There are plenty of other food & drink bloggers, some who have been around for as long as I (if not longer) and many others who are much newer. I don't view any of them as competitors but rather see them as colleagues. As such, I freely share suggestions and advice with other bloggers, helping them and hoping others will reciprocate. Even if these bloggers attend the same event as me, writing their own articles about the event, they each bring their own unique viewpoint to their story.

Now, I've also seen some lost blogging opportunities as well as food & drink articles which could be improved. I freely admit that I'm guilty of such offenses and that means I continually try to up my game, to eliminate such offenses. Today, I'm calling on every other food & drink blogger to follow my lead. 

Step Up Your Blogging Game! I don't want to hear excuses. I don't want to hear the reasons why you think you can't do so. I want to see results, to see other blogs improve and shine.

The past year, as the pandemic has raged, has been a difficult time. Restaurants closed, wine tasting events were canceled, and there have been less food & drink opportunities for bloggers. Some bloggers simply wrote very little, failing to up their game, failing to create their own opportunities. It is said you can best judge a person when you see how they react to a crisis. How did you handle the issues of the pandemic on your blog?

For myself, I took the time to write some historical articles about food and drink, original pieces often looking into the origins of these items. For example, I wrote A History of the Sahara Syrian Restaurant, which ended up being one of the most popular articles on my blog during the past year. Although the restaurant had been closed for nearly 50 years, the building remained largely unused and its iconic sign on Shawmut Avenue was familiar to many. I delved into the mystery of its existence, providing history about the restaurant and building.  

Also during this past year, I've written historical articles about topics including the Sherry Cobbler, Peking Duck, Greek Restaurants, Peruvian Chifa, Salisbury Steak, Vietnamese Restaurants, and more. Even with restaurants closed and tasting events canceled, I still found plenty to write about. I just had to be more inventive, and devote my energies in a slightly different vein. 

Are you ready to up your blogging game? I hope so. 

Of course you don't have to follow my advice. Maybe you don't have sufficient free time or maybe you don't care about upping your game. I'm trying to reach those people who do care, to wake them up and hopefully stir them to action. I would like to see the food & drink blogging community improve overall, and that requires many of us to work harder at our craft. It takes us looking more critically at our own writing, to see where we can improve.

Are you willing to do so? Will you accept my challenge?