Write your abstract here. PART II - Web serves up tasty sites for food lovers. She uses carefully shot and edited
photographs
to guide readers through the steps of making a dish, featuring
her star ingredient, butter.
"I live in the middle of nowhere and there''s nothing to do
but have babies and teach yourself Photoshop," Ree said. "A lot
of my dishes are man-friendly and man-pleasing."
EATING BANDWIDTH
"The Web has really democratized sophisticated food," said
Tanya Steel, editor in chief of
Epicurious (www.epicurious.com), a Web site run by Conde Nast, which also
publishes the authoritative food magazines Gourmet and Bon
Appetit. The site attracts about 5 million users per month.
Epicurious, which began in 1995 as one of the first places
on the Web offering recipes, includes user-generated content
but also provides more conventional reviews and news on top
restaurants, as well as recipes, blogs and informative
articles.
Turkey dishes currently top both the Chow and Epicurious
Web sites ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, showing how
the phenomenon is still very much U.S.-focused. International
sites are largely driven by bloggers, and most information on
these Web sites is geared toward travelers seeking places to
eat.
Taking audience participation a step further, Chow and
Epicurious have also jumped onto the social
networking bandwagon. While social networking sites such as Facebook and
MySpace have dominated headlines, the niche Web sites are also
tapping into the technology and tools to connect gourmands.
Both allow users to create pages to post their own recipes
and collect and share information.
"I think the food space is the perfect area for social
networking," said CNET''s Goldman. Epicurious already runs an
application on Facebook that connects fellow food lovers.
Another area where both see a trend is in Web-based video.
Epicurious is launching a feature next week for user-generated
video content, where people can post food-related videos.
YouTube (www.youtube.com) is already overflowing with
user-submitted videos of cooking and eating, and Chow''s Goldman
works with video producers who create food-related videos in a
studio kitchen at their offices in San Francisco.
"Food video is growing by leaps and bounds," Goldman said.
"It''s a great medium. The Web is a great time waster."