Celebrating Local Diversity: People of Color Blogging About Food & Drink (Updated)

"So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned - my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
--American History X

In July 2015, I first published this post and considering recent events, the murder of George Floyd, the hate that is spewing from ignorant racists, the protests, the violence and more, we need to stand united against the forces that seek to divide our country. We need to embrace diversity, opening our minds to new ideas, and to eliminate our biases and prejudices. Embracing diversity will only make us better human beings. And don't we all want to be better people?

As a tiny contribution to this issue, I want to once again showcase local people of color who blog/write about food & drink. I want to bring to the forefront all the valuable contributions and unique voices of these bloggers. And it is certainly time for an update. In light of recent events, it would likely benefit us all to post about it again.

I've been blogging about food and drink in the Boston area for over 14 years, and the vast majority of bloggers I've seen at local events have been white. I've spoken about this before, stating we need to find ways to attract more people of color to these events. An initial step would be to identify those people of color who blog, to showcase their talents. This could be a motivation for other people of color to get involved and start blogging too. It will also present blogs with different voices, a way for all of us to expand our own experience and knowledge.

The following is an initial list of people of color, living in New England, who blog/write about food and/or drink. This is by no means a comprehensive list but provides a starting foundation. Check out these food & drink blogs and I am sure you will like what you find.

If you are or know of any other local people of color with food & drink blogs in the New England area that are not on this list, please have them send me their info, including their name, URL and a brief description of their blog, and I will add them to the list.

Embrace diversity!

Bianca of Confessions Of A Chocoholic

Chanie of Life By Zen: Chanie shares her adventures and experience with delicious foods, drinks especially great wines, and life in Boston. She cooks and is always testing new recipes or looking for fun foods but prefer to talk about her food adventures and dining experiences.

D. of A Little Bit About A Lot Of Things: This is a food and lifestyle blog. D has been been writing since 2010 and her photos have appeared in Boston Magazine, Boston Common, Thrillist, BostInno and others.

Fiona of Gourmet Pigs; Gourmet Pigs was started in Los Angeles in 2007 and Fiona moved to Boston in 2014. The blog reviews restaurants, bars, and events in the two cities and wherever she travels to around the globe.

Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen

Korsha of Korsha Wilson

Kristina of Appetite For Instruction

Lisa of Anali's Next Amendment: Lisa writes about life, food and current events. She’s been blogging since 2006 and is a freelance writer and attorney. She regularly writes for LegalZoom and manages Free Yoga Boston. She’s also an organizer and contributing editor at Kwanzaa Culinarians, where recipes and food stories from the African Diaspora are shared.

Celebrating Local Diversity: People of Color Blogging About Food & Drink

Diversity is important for all of us, helping to broaden our experiences, to open our minds to new ideas, and to eliminate our biases and prejudices. The benefits of diversity touch on all aspects of our lives, and it is a topic many people have been addressing. It is a topic that can be controversial at times, but we should not avoid it because of that fact. We need to meet it head-on, to embrace diversity and cherish its positive aspects. Diversity will only make us better human beings.

As a small contribution to this issue, I want to showcase local people of color who blog about food & drink. I previously highlighted women who blog about wine, and it has been an extremely popular post. It helped to bring to the forefront all the valuable contributions and unique voices of these bloggers. We need to expand our scope and learn of the unique viewpoints from people of color as well.

I've been blogging about food and drink in the Boston area for almost ten years,, and the vast majority of bloggers I see at local events are white. I have spoken about this before, stating we need to find ways to attract more people of color to these events. An initial step would be to identify those people of color who blog, to showcase their talents. This could be a motivation for other people of color to get involved and start blogging too. It will also present blogs with different voices, a way for all of us to expand our own experience and knowledge.

Initially, I would like to create a list of people of color who live in Massachusetts and blog about food and/or drink. In time,I will expand the list to people outside of Massachusetts but I want to start off small first, to make it a more manageable project. This is by no means a comprehensive list but provides a starting good foundation.

Bianca of Confessions Of A Chocoholic

Chanie of Life By Zen: Chanie shares her adventures and experience with delicious foods, drinks especially great wines, and life in Boston. She cooks and is always testing new recipes or looking for fun foods but prefer to talk about her food adventures and dining experiences.

D. of A Little Bit About A Lot Of Things: This is a food and lifestyle blog. D has been been writing since 2010 and her photos have appeared in Boston Magazine, Boston Common, Thrillist, BostInno and others.

Fiona of Gourmet Pigs; Gourmet Pigs was started in Los Angeles in 2007 and Fiona moved to Boston in 2014. The blog reviews restaurants, bars, and events in the two cities and wherever she travels to around the globe.

Georgina of Notes On Lifestyle By Georgina

Jacqueline of Culinary Consulting

Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen

Korsha of Korsha Wilson

Kristina of Appetite For Instruction

Lisa of Anali's Next Amendment: Lisa writes about life, food and current events. She’s been blogging since 2006 and is a freelance writer and attorney. She regularly writes for LegalZoom and manages Free Yoga Boston. She’s also an organizer and contributing editor at Kwanzaa Culinarians, where recipes and food stories from the African Diaspora are shared.

Markeya of Traveling Foodie In 4" Stiletttos

Tiffany of The Fab Empire.com: Tiffany is the Boston Editor of The Fab Empire, a lifestyle blog that caters to up and coming urban professional featuring notable people, events, eateries, nightlife and entertainment throughout the country.

Vanessa of Without A Measuring Cup

Yaimani & Yadira of The Two Riveras; We write with simple honesty on food, travel, sisterhood, current obsessions and the simple joys of life. Follow us as we share photos, stories and pieces of our adventures from Boston and beyond.

Check out these food & drink blogs and I am sure you will like what you find. If you are or know of any other local people of color with food & drink blogs that are not on this list, please have them send me their info, including their name, URL and a brief description of their blog, and I will add them to the list.

Rant: Diversity & Blogs

Diversity is important for all of us, helping to broaden our experiences, to open our minds to new ideas, and to eliminate our biases and prejudices. The person who only drinks Chardonnay would benefit from tasting a variety of other white wines. The person who only eats Italian food from the Olive Garden would benefit from dining at other Italian restaurants. Broadening the horizons of what you eat and drink opens you up to so many possibilities.

The benefits of diversity concern far more than just food and drink. They touch on all aspects of our lives, and it is a topic many people have been addressing. It is a topic that can be controversial at times, but we should not avoid it because of that fact. We need to meet it head-on, to embrace diversity and cherish its positive aspects. Diversity will only make us better human beings.

As a small contribution to this issue, I want to address one aspect of diversity, to showcase people of color who blog about food & drink. I previously highlighted women who blog about wine, and it was an extremely popular post (and also is due for an update).  It helped to bring to the forefront all the valuable contributions and unique voices of these bloggers. We need to expand our scope and learn of the unique viewpoints from people of color as well.  

I've been blogging about food and drink in the Boston area for over 9 years, and the vast majority of bloggers I see at local events are white. I have spoke of this before, stating we need to find ways to attract more people of color to these events. An initial step would be to identify those people of color who blog, to showcase their talents. This could be a motivation for other people of color to get involved and start blogging too.  It will also present blogs with different voices, a way for all of us to expand our own experience and knowledge.

Initially, I would like to create a list of people of color who live in Massachusetts and blog about food and/or drink. In time,I will expand the list to people outside of Massachusetts but I want to start off small first, to make it a more manageable project.

To create this list, I need help. I need local people of color to contact me about their blogs. Please send me the name of your blog, its URL and a brief description of what you write about. You can email me, message me on Facebook or contact me through Twitter. Once I have a number of entries, I will post a directory to these blogs, so that everyone can learn about these blogs and hopefully start following them.

If you have any questions, feel free to add them to the comments or contact me directly.

New England Food Show: Some Thoughts

Along side the International Boston Seafood Show (IBSS), there is a smaller trade show, the New England Food Show (NEFS), and I always take some time to check it out, to see what new food & drink items are being showcased. The NEFS seemed more crowded than the IBSS on Sunday and Monday, and it was difficult to pass down the aisles due to the crowds. On Tuesday, it was far easier to navigate the NEFS, to check out the various booths which cater to restaurants, food shops and more.

I found numerous items that had been shown at the NEFS last year and some items which, though tasty, didn't impress me. I only found two items, one food and one drink, which were especially compelling, which I wanted to bring to the attention of my readers.

The Swatt Baking Company, located in New York, produces L.A. Cinnamon Bread, which they prepared with a sweet glaze atop it. I love cinnamon bread and this was an excellent example of such, with plenty of cinnamon flavor, a good texture to the bread, and the glaze added a nice sweetness without stepping over into being cloying. A two pound loaf of bread and a 15 ounce bottle of cinnamon glaze costs $7.95, with discounts for larger quantities. Unfortunately, their website has very little information about the product.

Want a new, tasty local drink that might actually be good for you too? Motto Sparkling Matcha Tea was created by two friends, Tom Olcott and Henry Crosby, and it was launched about seven months ago. This drink is crafted with premium matcha, basically ground green tea, as wellas apple cider vinegar, honey, organic agave, lemon juice, sparkling water and "other natural flavors." A 12 ounce bottle sells for about $3-$4 so it is priced similarly to other high end juices and carbonated drinks. A bottle also contains 70 calories and 16 grams of sugar.

Green tea has a number of health benefits so this drink should provide some of those benefits, though I don't know how much matcha is in this drink or its rough equivalency to a cup of green tea. I may follow up on that matter with the creators. What appealed to me was its taste, which was only lightly sweet and with a prominent green tea taste. I am not a big fan of sweet tea, but the sweetness level here is low so I enjoyed it. It also has a clean and compelling taste which many tea lovers would enjoy.

There was a panel discussion, put on by the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, at the NEFS called Social Chefs: Using Your Followers to Build a Following. This discussion brought together four prominent Boston chefs who shared "some of their tips and tricks for converting virtual followers into regular customers." Though I was unable to attend this discussion on social media, I received some notes on the discussion that I wanted to share. Though much of this information is directed to chefs, everyone will be able to find value in these words in regard to the use of social media.

Chef Jason Santos:
-His phone is always in his pocket so it’s very convenient to be active on social. “I try to make is a part of my day.”
-He doesn’t look at social as a competition. “We’re all friends. I just naturally go into it and use it to engage with my followers.”
-His tactic is to keep it visual. He likes to excite people with what he’s doing. “Pictures add realism.”
-It is important to be active on social. “As chefs we are in charge of shaping the brand.”
-Always create a conversation. “I always end my posts with a question to keep people engaged.”
-He thinks it is important to use hashtags on Twitter

Chef Joanne Chang:
-“It takes all of a minute. I try to engage my following by letting them know what’s going on behind the scenes.”
-She gets ideas from other chefs/ restaurants and finds social educational.
-“I ignore negative feedback. If I can’t do it positively, I just don’t do it at all.”
-“If you view social media as advertising, it will backfire.” Her tactic is to keep things educational and create a buzz.
-Twitter is her favorite social platform because it’s short.
-“My managers are busy engaging with guests, I engage virtually on social platforms.”

Chef Jamie Bissonnette:
-Facebook is like a calendar, uses it to post pictures of events but mostly uses Twitter day to day.
-Engages managers and chefs to post on behalf of restaurants and wants them to be a part of their social voice.
-Social media allows for a new platform to learn about peers worldwide. “We don’t have to travel to France to see what chefs are cooking there. It’s a new way to get to know each other.”
-“It’s all about PMA-Positive Mental Attitude. You have to support everyone and engage in friendly competition.”
-“We have our own voice in this city, we aren’t competing with the food scene in NYC or Chicago.”
-“A chef is a teacher. I teach my employees but I learn from them too. It’s the same with social, it allows us to learn from each other.”
-When asked about negative feedback on social “I look at it as a door to turn the situation around.” Explains that he can reach out to them and listen to their concerns.

Chef Brian Poe:
-Uses Yelp to keep track of customer complaints and fix any reoccurring issues. “If I see continuous comments that a door guy is charging $20 to let people in, that’s something I wouldn’t have found out otherwise.”
-Explains that building a following on social takes time. “Be patient.”
-“The Boston food scene is becoming more serious, we have some of the best chefs, our clientele is becoming more educated.”
-“Twitter is instant and more like a filter, Facebook has staying power.”
-At first his tactic was just to get people to go in and eat. He would use social to see what others were doing. Now he’s “grown-up” and working on his brand.

We can see that each chef views social media in their own way, though there are similarities between some of their positions. Each chef has provided some valuable insight here and it is worthwhile to consider their thoughts in our own use of social media. These are chefs who have been successful in their use of social media so they have the experience and knowledge to help others.

Would any other chefs like to add their thoughts on social media?

Rant: Tapeo, A Social Media Failure

Tapeo, a Spanish tapas restaurant on Newbury Street, has four wines listed under the category "Jerez: Sherry" yet none of them are from Jerez or are actual sherries. That is undisputed, and I was also told that the restaurant might add an authentic sherry to their list in the future. But that is not the main point of this rant, though it is still something important to me.  When I sought to learn the restaurant's rationale behind this matter, I encountered a much larger issue, which serves as the theme of this rant as well as a cautionary tale for other businesses.

Let me begin with some preliminary background. Tapeo uses social media, including Twitter and Facebook.  On April 29, I posted an inquiry to Tapeo on both Twitter and Facebook, basically stating: "Could you tell me why your menu has 4 wines listed under "Jerez: Sherry" but none are actually sherry or from Jerez? Three of the wines are from Montilla-Moriles and the other is from Malaga." One week later, on May 6, I received a response on Facebook that they did not know the answer and would check for me.  So far, everything seemed good, but it did not stay that way.

Two weeks passed without a response from Tapeo, so I sent them a reminder on Facebook. By May 31, I still had not received any further response from Tapeo so I posted again on Facebook, including that I considered their ignoring me to be poor customer service. Sometime within the next two weeks, Tapeo deleted all of my Facebook posts, without any notice or explanation. And they still had not provided me any response to my original question. It was very clear then that I would not receive any type of answer through Tapeo's social media, so I decided to stop by the restaurant to discuss the matter.

Last Wednesday, I dropped by Tapeo and spoke with the General Manager, Anthony Montanaro. It was he who told their Function Coordinator, who runs their social media, to delete my Facebook posts. She had provided Anthony an inaccurate and incomplete version of what had occurred, so that Anthony believed that everything had happened within a timeframe of several days, rather than over more than a month.

Anthony felt that any questions about Tapeo should be sent directly to the restaurant, through the telephone or their email.  He does not see Twitter or Facebook as the appropriate place for questions, especially those like mine which he sees as negative. If similar such questions were posted by other people on Facebook, they would probably be deleted too. This then is the crux of the matter, over the proper use of social media.

Social media is about engagement, about interaction with consumers. It is not merely another forum to broadcast information about your business. Social media is not a one-way street, like a print ad. The key to successful social media is creating a conversation with your customers, allowing them to ask questions, to comment, and for you to respond to their inquiries, negative or not. It should be seen as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Tapeo seems to fail to understand these points, seeing their social media only as a place to broadcast information about themselves. They are unwilling to engage in conversation with their customers. They are ignoring the "social" aspect of this type of media. And they fail to tell consumers that is how they view social media. They could derive so many greater benefits from their social media but they have chosen not to do so.

I, like many other people, assume that if a business is using social media such as Twitter and Facebook, then it is acceptable to ask them questions there. I do it all the time, with many different companies.  So there was nothing wrong with asking Tapeo my original question about sherry. Then, when I was told by their Function Coordinator on Facebook that she would get back to me with an answer, I had a reasonable expectation she would do so, and within a reasonable time period. Her failure to ever respond to me was a social media failure as well as a business failure. Deleting my Facebook posts just compounded the error.      

Remember, that whoever runs your social media, whether an employee or an outside consultant, is an agent of your business, and their actions or omissions reflect on your business. As a business owner, do you monitor what occurs on your social media? Do you know what is being said about your business? You should, as you never know what might be going on and what you are ignoring could negatively impact your business.

Restaurants and other companies should learn from this cautionary tale. Use social media properly, interacting with your consumers, not ignoring them.  Address questions posed to you, rather than deleting them because you don't like them. Get over your antiquated ideas about media, that it is only there to broadcast about your own views. Be responsive to your customers as that is what they now desire.

Interact, listen, converse, learn and reap the benefits.