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Restaurant Publicists


mame11

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I've learned something in Washington that I never realized... a lot of people, including chefs, who get media attention have publicists. In the food world sometimes there are official outside publicists, and sometimes its a member of the restaurant staff or even a spouse or sibling of the chef or owner. :) Also, it seems more and more chefs are competing on shows to launch their careers. Sadly it seems to work. Just my $.02 cents.

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I've learned something in Washington that I never realized... a lot of people, including chefs, who get media attention have publicists.

Publicists (often in cahoots with the restaurateurs paying them) who pay bloggers, shills, goons, and "journalists" to do their dirty work. You don't know the half of things, my good friend. Not all apples are bad; some are.

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Publicists (often in cahoots with the restaurateurs paying them) who pay bloggers, shills, goons, and "journalists" to do their dirty work. You don't know the half of things, my good friend. Not all apples are bad; some are.

I need a blog. :)

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Also, it seems more and more chefs are competing on shows to launch their careers. Sadly it seems to work. Just my $.02 cents.

It seems that these competitions have replaced Food & Wine's best young chefs as a stepping stone to culinary fame, and so far I am thoroughly unimpressed. These competitions and publicist driven notoriety celebrates the personalities over and above the craft of cooking or the celebration of the food.

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Publicists (often in cahoots with the restaurateurs paying them) who pay bloggers, shills, goons, and "journalists" to do their dirty work. You don't know the half of things, my good friend. Not all apples are bad; some are.

Maybe I don't travel in the same sordid circles as Don, but as a "journalist" in this field for 15 years now, I can say that I have NEVER been offered a bribe or other payment by any restaurant publicist. For a time I attended several press dinners arranged by publicists for new restaurants or established restaurants seeking new ink, but while they certainly hoped that an article or blog post would come of the effort, that was never a condition of the invitation. As a freelancer, these events were especially valuable to me - I managed to pitch and sell several articles to various publications, either about the restaurant in question, or from a contact made at one of these events. Sometimes the benefit was two or three degrees of separation away, and sometimes the article had nothing to do with the restaurant that hired the publicist. Not all "journalists" have unlimited expense accounts; nor can we afford to try every hot restaurant or new hole-in-the-wall on our own dime.

It's a crowded field with lots of restaurants vying for our dining dollars, so it makes sense to court "journalists" and bloggers (and to participate on this site) in order to get the word out there.

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Publicists (often in cahoots with the restaurateurs paying them) who pay bloggers, shills, goons, and "journalists" to do their dirty work. You don't know the half of things, my good friend. Not all apples are bad; some are.

My experiences with publicists have always been positive. Don, is there some personal experience you have had that you are hinting at here? Seriously, you are maligning a whole class of people because the OP 'discovered' that restaurants have publicists.

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