Hello All-
I wanted to address something that we have all encountered in our digital world. The internet has been an incredible resource for chefs and students to stay on trend and share new ideas. Some of my favorite examples are: using Instagram for following some of my favorite chefs, using YouTube to check out what is happening internationally with food, and also new technology that is being used in the industry.
What I would really like to address in this post are the bad things that are out there giving the public so much false information about food, and food preparation. Specifically, I want to call out reels that we see on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. I personally find it hilarious that many of these false reels are called hacks, because of the duality of the term HACK. According to Cambridge University Dictionary: A hack is also a writer who produces a lot of work for money without caring very much about its quality.
One of the biggest offenders of these poor quality hacks for food are known as “5-minute crafts” and often provide false information or even dangerous techniques. A good way to determine if these posts or reels are fake is often hidden deep in the descriptions of the video and listed as “FOR ENTERTAINMENT ONLY” which is intentionally a hidden item because many people do not read the descriptions of videos posted online- often only the titles. These titles are often just headline grabs to get clicks and views.
I want to ask all future and current culinarians to dig deeper, to find content that is truly educational and to denounce the garbage content that is part of our culture today. If you need a guide on these types of posts, there is an excellent cookbook author, and content generator on YouTube named Ann Reardon and her channel- How To Cook That, I urge you to give her a look, and to create your own content that can help inspire and educate foodies!
Chef Allison Newton
Lead Instructor