As I have written in my short bio, I am a little recipe obsessed. Many times, I'll have an idea for something I want to make, but not know the exact seasonings or measurements. Like most people, I turn to the internet and try to compare multiple recipes, often taking elements I like from several to combine into one dish. Often, this can be an exercise in frustration and for this, I blame the Pioneer Woman.
Pre-Pioneer Woman one could search for a recipe, click on any links that sounded promising, find the name of the recipe, a list of ingredients, and maybe, if you were lucky, a picture and reviews of the recipe. Nowadays, everyone and their Aunt Sally have food blogs. In order to get to the actual list of ingredients, you must scroll through their cute and touching anecdotes, several glossy pictures of the process, and finally, again if you are lucky, you will find the recipe. Some sites actually make you click on an additional link to get the actual recipe. It is so time consuming and honestly, the story and pictures are tantamount to annoying ads to me. I just want to see what the ingredients are to determine if this is something my family will like and whether or not the recipe will require an additional trip to the store.
I have no idea whether or not the Pioneer Woman started this trend, but if she did not, she at least perfected it. Her stories are charming, folksy, and relatable. Her photography is beautiful and balances well with the content. She seems to be the inspiration for many food bloggers to the point that this particular style and format has been imitated on infinite food blogs across the internet. No longer is it the norm to just post a recipe with a picture. One has to tell a story about it, and punctuate each step with a beautiful color saturated photograph. It looks stunning, but it is so frustrating when all you are looking for is seasonings to put in your marinade.
While searching for recipes, I made a rather startling discovery. I was looking for a recipe and found a version on the very old school pre-PW site, allrecipes. From the reviews, I could tell that the recipe had been around since at least 2001. PW had published the same exact recipe, pretty much word for word on her blog years later. As stated before though, hers of course had the delightful narrative and gorgeous photos.
It made me angry, if I am being honest. Not angry because she had obviously plagiarized, but that she had thought of this first. She has built a whole empire on being a former city girl turned rancher who is just so wholesome and deprecating about her serendipitous transformation into Food Channel maven and author. It now just seems so manufactured. She came up with this idea to elevate simple recipes found on the internet into a food blog. This led to a massive following, being the star of television show, a published author, and even a whole line of housewares. She is no chef; she is merely a home cook trying out recipes from the internet and she just so happens to have a nice camera and decent writing skills.
I do not mean to hate on a beloved personality. I’m a little jealous I did not come up with the idea first, and I am annoyed that her format has become the norm. If you have a food blog, please stop with the stories and pics, or at least, put the recipe first. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way. We all just want to quickly search recipes, not read about your friend Linda’s Great Aunt Sue who made this that one time at Christmas and now it has become a tradition in your house.
