Who is qualified to tell us where to eat? For the past few weeks, chefs, restaurant critics and food influencers have been in an uproar over this question.
It kicked off when the influencer Jono Yates, better known as Only Scrans, appeared on the reliably juicy “Go-To-Food” podcast and suggested that restaurant influencers might need some kind of licence. His argument, broadly, was that we now have an enormous number of people presenting themselves as food authorities without necessarily knowing very much about food.
I watched with particular interest because I have a foot in every camp. I’ve been a working chef for 24 years. I’ve written about restaurants and food culture professionally for newspapers and magazines for 20 years. And I am also, God help me, an influencer or content creator, or whatever we’re calling people who monetise their Instagram account.
Influencers’ impact on restaurants is undeniable, and they have helped make food more accessible. But Jono’s right – many of them have never set foot in a professional kitchen and may only recently have had any real exposure to high-end cuisine.
Shorts
