Food blogging has run the gamut from chat forums to Hollywood fame.

Saveur recently held online voting for their second annual Best Food Blogs Awards, and put up this great timeline to go along with it. Looking over the many great cooking blogs out there, I’m reminiscent of my own entry into the blogosphere. Although I knew for many years that I wanted to be a food writer, I spent the first part of my career focused on the food: getting a culinary degree and then heading to some of the best kitchens in LA. But I was antsy to start writing and, inspired by great sites like Orangette and MattBites, my blog was born in mid-Spetmeber of 2007. I was working as a pastry cook at Spago Beverly Hills at the time, and finding a moment to test recipes, take pictures and write posts for La Vita Cucinare seemed a huge task. But slowly I found a focus, improved my photography and writing skills, and made headway in the world wide web.

Starting off in 2007 puts me right in the middle of the food-blog-boom. By this time cooks, chefs and photographers all over the globe had joined in; Chowhound was founded ten years prior! and sites like the Julie/Julia Project and 101 Cookbooks made food-blogging a mainstream term. Now-a-days it seems every big name is putting out a cookbook — Matt Armendiz just published the wonderfully fun On a Stick, and Deb from SmittenKitchen and Aran Goyoaga from Cannelle et Vanille slip coy references to their own forthcoming books into every new post. Bloggers have landed television shows, the James Beard Awards now feature a blogging category, and many food-bloggers, who may also be big name chefs or even celebrities, have become household names.

But I didn’t start La Vita Cucinare to find fame and fortune on the Internet; I just wanted to write and share my love of food with any reader who bothered to stop by. It’s been such a learning process — from (attempting) graphic design to working out my frequency of posts to really understanding photography (which I still struggle with!) — but it’s also been a true labor of love. I’ve met so many interesting people and have had so much encouragement, that I’ll continue posting, no matter where my name lands in the history of blogs. And with that, all I can say is thanks once again to my devoted readers and the many people who help me make La Vita Cuinare the best it can be.

With all the buzz that Ruth Reichl will helm a new Gilt Groupe food website, I see an opportunity to work for my idol. So, I’m taking matters into my own bit of cyberspace. Here’s why Ruth should entrust me as web editor and food writer extraordinaire:

1. I’m obsessed with food
I spend all my money eating at every restaurant in town, spend every minute of my time reading food websites, magazines and books, testing and cooking recipes, writing for (this lovely!) website and freelancing. When I’m in a lull between foodie adventures – from festivals to food-based vacations to markets – something just feels off.

2. I’m qualified on paper
A master’s graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, I am a one-man-band reporter/editor. Need a video shot of a chef butchering a whole lamb in the a.m., edited by mid-day and posted online, with additional high-quality photographs plus links with suggestions for butchering knives, by afternoon? I’m your gal. I’ve done the CSS and HTML for several websites (including this one!), maneuvered my way through several CMS platforms, shot and edited video and audio for interactive packages, and helped design/execute a prototype magazine for the iPad, Beaucoup, using Adobe’s new software.

3. I’m actually qualified
I have a bachelor’s of science in culinary arts from Drexel University and over seven years experience in the restaurant industry. My first real job was working at Spago Beverly Hills where Pastry Chef Sherry Yard kicked my butt into shape, which means I not only know how to hold a chefs knife, quenelle, and make a souffle properly, but I can taste the difference between Seascape and Gaviotta strawberries. From the farm focus I learned at Spago and my stage at Manresa to the modernist cuisine I learned at Providence and my stage at The Fat Duck, I can write my way through any food experience, culinary challenge or recipe.

4. Gourmet was the best job I’ll never have
Gourmet was the first food magazine I can remember reading and was the real reason I applied to journalism school. It had been my dream to work with the team that created Gourmet since I can remember, and everything I did, from culinary school to writing restaurant reviews for my college paper to working on a French goat farm was a step towards my goal of Gourmet. The day it was announced that Gourmet was done, I cried. Literal tears streamed down my face. If that’s not dedicated I don’t know what is.

5. I am a Ruth Reichl fanatic (in a good way)
I’ve read all your books, the Gourmet weekly e-mail  word-for-word, Gourmet every month (see above), and follow your tweets. I want to work with the best, and you are the best.

6. I’m hardcore
You can’t work for seven years in restaurants and not be. Twenty days of 17-hour shifts. Been there. Five a.m. shifts, done that. Work till 2 a.m. and back at 6? Done that too. I’m willing to do whatever it takes, whenever, to get the job done and my standards are cut from the perfectionist block of the chefs who trained me.

7. I’m well-rounded
I can do more than just recipes and cookbooks. As the food science reporter for Medill News Service, I covered a variety of health and science related topics, including but not limited to breaking news updates on poultry safety regulations, the state of economics of Illinois farming and the intricacies of preparing a cow horn with quartz for biodynamic farming. And my fellowship with the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern allowed me to research how climate change affects our food systems and practices.

8. I’m a forward-thinking gal
I believe that for any publication to succeed in this ever-evolving world of online media, it is absolutely crucial to keep at the forefront of the industry and develop an innovative relationship with the reader. I am constantly reading about media, web, and technology and teaching myself the techniques necessary to craft this relationship.

9. I’m me

I’m hoping that this list will act as my personal homing beacon straight to you-know-who. If you’re reading this, Ruth, my portfolio’s here and I’d love to tell you even more reasons why I’d be a sure-fire asset at your new site.

Words of Wisdom for the Class of 2009

Congratulations Class of 2009. You’re a graduate, so pat yourselves’ on the back and give a giant round of applause. You’ve made it through the long hours, hard classes, and sometimes boring professors. Finally it’s the day when you can take off the toque and walk out a free cook.

As you push through the doors of your culinary school, realize the wide world of restaurants is a tough business. You’ve managed to acquire a job and it’s time to put your schooling to use. Here is some tried and true advice based on experiences in some of the toughest restaurants. Take it with a grain of salt and use it as best you can. Be advised this is a harsh environment and these words of wisdom are meant to help you steer clear of many of the problems you may encounter. The advice may seem jarring, but it’s tough in hopes you avoid bearing the worst brunt of kitchen abuse. With your guns of knowledge fully loaded, you will be ready to learn and grow into the best cook possible.

- First of all, swallow your pride just a bit. Yes, you graduated culinary school, but, compared to everyone else in the kitchen, you don’t know much. Head into your new kitchen home acting like hot stuff and you are more than likely going to get pushed around. Treat the older and wiser cooks with respect, and if you are lucky someone might tell you there is tape stuck all over the back of your chef’s coat. If you go in showing respect, chances are you will gain some along the way.

- Be prepared. Always have a sharp knife, a notebook, and a sharpie. If you can’t manage those three things, think seriously about whether this is the career choice for you. You will always need these tools. You don’t want to be the guy with a dull knife when the chef comes around and borrows it, do you? And you need a notebook to write down everything. Because you won’t be able to remember anything when the chef, sous chef, and senior line cooks are barking orders down your throat.

- Appearances are everything. Don’t walk into the kitchen looking like you just rolled out of bed. And it’s a good idea to have a clean jacket, hat, knife, and apron if you are staging. Even if the restaurant tells you they will provide these things, it’s better to be safe then sorry.

- Never, ever wear Crocs in the kitchen. They have holes in them. Hot liquids go through holes. Sharp knives go through holes. Please go and buy a decent pair of chef shoes. Preferably a wooden soled pair, because you are starting a job that requires you stand on your feet for 10-12 hours a day. Wooden soles will hurt your feet at first, but you will adjust and they are the best thing for your back. The only person who can get away with wearing the ridiculous Crocs is Mario Batali and that’s because he is a rock star.

- Always say “behind you,” “hot behind” when you are carrying something hot and “sharp behind” when you are carrying your knives as you pass behind your coworkers. If you don’t, you will get burned, stepped on, cut and even worse, you will hurt your coworkers. This is not optional.

- Always wrap and label everything you touch. Pull out that sharpie and put it to good use. Always take the tape labels off of everything you send to the dish pit. If you don’t, there will be a sticky residue left over from the tape. This residue is a sign of laziness. Do not be lazy.

- Always keep at least two side towels on you. Use a towel to touch any pan. Even when you know it’s cold. Take a pan from the freezer, use a towel. Trust me on this one.

- See the chef over in the corner, leaning against the counter, chatting with the manager? Don’t do that. Follow suit of your fellow co-workers and stand up straight with your head down, working quickly, very quickly. At one point, that chef did the same thing, but now he is the chef and has decided he has the time to chat it up. Hopefully, one day you’ll have that option as well. Today, however, you are being paid minimum wage to attempt whatever task your sous chef has given you. So be quiet and work.

- Always work like you are in the weeds. Quickly and efficiently. That way when you are actually in the weeds you will be ready. And everyone around you just might believe you are taking your job seriously.

- There will come a day when someone newer and less experienced comes along and you suddenly get moved up from the lowest spot on the totem pole. When this happens, it is likely that your coworkers will invite you along for drinks after work. This presents a dilemma. Commodore in the work place soothes the anxiety of a high stress environment and bonding over beers after work definitely helps in building a solid team. However, if you party all night with the guys, then everyone knows why you are lagging the next day during prep time. And it’s probably not the best idea to have one too many drinks and call your sous chef a jerk, especially when you need him to help you get set up for a big party the next day. So be fair warned, when you play with fire, you may get burned.

- Try not to make constant references to culinary school. You graduated and that’s wonderful, but no one wants to hear stories about your professors or your recipes. We all had them and we all have learned new and better skills and tricks. So start learning your new tricks too.

- There is always work to be done. If your prep list is done, then prep for tomorrow. If you are done with that, then clean. What if you’ve already cleaned your station? Okay, detail all of the equipment with a toothpick. There is always work to be done in the kitchen. If you don’t find it, chances are someone will find some work for you, and you probably won’t like it.

Kitchens are tough, hard places to survive in. They are full of a lot of ruthless, unyielding, people who only look out for themselves. You have to really, really love food and have tough skin to survive in this world, but at the end of the day if you are doing what you love, it will get you through the rough patches. You will almost certainly get yelled at, but everyone does. When you are eating that amazing juicy fig, or plating the perfectly cooked steak, it will be worth it, I promise. Hopefully this advice will help you along your way. Good luck and welcome to the kitchen.

A few months ago I was flipping through the pages of a fashion spread when a svelte model caught my eye. She was holding a Lubitel camera, and I was smitten. Not long after, Thomas, my long-distance beau, arrived for a visit from Los Angeles with a present in tow, a Lubitel of my very own. I have to say, I was a bit intimidated at first by the double lens and waist level view finder. However, this beginners level, medium-format camera isn’t difficult to use, and the nuances that come with variations in shutter speed and exposure are a welcome change from the monotony of the world of digital photography. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the first rolls I have developed, complete with idiosyncrasies in focus, exposure and lighting. Enjoy and look for more Lubitel pictures to come!

Back to writing….

One horrifying day a few months ago, my laptop, a five-year-old Dell who had seen more than it’s fare share of drops, dings and over use, refused to turn on. Rushing the injured equipment to my car, I drove across town as if my Honda had transformed into an ambulance. The smartly dressed Geek Squadette at Best Buy informed me moments later that my poor laptop, the source of my Internet information and the vessel into which my writing out poured, was indeed dead. Full of despair I returned home, only slightly consoled by the enormous and almost ancient Mac my other half owned. At least writing was still possible, and so my blogging posts continued. But the Mac was slow, wouldn’t fit into any size bag for a field trip to the park, came with an annoying beeping sound and many delays in processing. A few days later that beeping sound revealed itself to be a dying hard drive as the Mac refused, following suit with my poor Dell, to turn on. I began to think my fingers were laced with some sort of computer poison.

Thus almost daily trips to the local libraries ensued, presenting all sorts of new problems. The closest library to my new residence in Korea town was the Pio Pico library, populated over the holiday season with a large number of elementary, middle and high schoolers whose free time soured during winter vacation. Packed in groups around computers, laughter and shouting filled what should have been a quiet zone. Everyday these library patrons viewed each other’s MySpace pages and played fantasy computer games for hours at a time, reserving the computers I dreamed of using. Often every computer was booked, and when I finally lucked into a computer to use, the noise was too much to handle. The four limited- use computers were only available for fifteen minutes at a time, and after tackling the hoards of e-mails left unchecked everyday, the time was up. Which meant back into a deep line of patrons waiting for computer use. Sundays became a headache of a trip to the Hollywood location. Parking was almost impossible because of the farmer’s market located across from the library and patron demand was even higher for a smaller number of computers. But through perseverance, I managed to continue to check my e-mails, keep up with my bank accounts and bills and somehow update my blog. And then it seemed a black cloud was truly over my computer usage, as the public library computer system crashed. Day after day I trekked to the libraries, only to find no computer usage signs posted. All hope left my typing fingers, and I sank into a great computer depression. My blog, which I had eagerly created only a few months earlier, was left untouched, with no hope for decent posts in the near future.

And then my dark cloud was lifted, as a wonderful benefactor came in the form of my Aunt. Her spare computer was speed delivered to my door moments after this sad story reached her ears, more than three months after my poor little Dell died.

And so it’s back in the technological saddle again. The last few months have been full of experiences ready to be typed into words, recipes created and tested,ideas dreamed, books read(or at least started), and of course lots of food. So look forward to many more weeks of posts, all about La Vita Cucinare, my life of food, thanks to my wonderful Aunt and my new computer.

Baking is a tricky little art. Reading a recipe seems straightforward enough. Measure ingredients, mix together, and bake. These simple instructions should create the perfect cookie, batter or dough. Mix those ingredients too much (over creaming them) and you are left with lacy, crunchy cookies or an overly, aerated batter. Under-mix the ingredients and you have cake-y cookies and batter with bits of butter and sugar about it. Butter too cold: that dough won’t cream the same. Water not warm: no elasticity in your dough. Misread a recipe, skip over a step, forget an ingredient, and the whole thing may go down; way down into the garbage, a causality of pastry battles. Every element’s handling is vital and a change in each can garner a different result. Of course this means the same recipe could turn out different numerous times, and getting it right often may just be luck. With so many elements and so much to concentrate on, pastry certainly is a tricky art.

Getting over these adversities means being meticulous. Reading a recipe thoroughly before beginning it. Measuring and measuring again every ingredient. Studying text on how ingredients work together and how each should be handled in order to produce the desired result. Working at it, practicing over and over again in order to master the minute skills of art. Trying to understand failures and working to improve recipes in the future. Those without the lucky touch of a pastry chef who seems to always get it right must work at it. The perfect cookies, beautiful bread, and smooth custards will be all the reward needed for the hard work pastry can be.

Of course, even if the elements are right and all the ingredients are accounted for, even then a recipe may fail. A poorly written recipe may be the cause, which means back to the testing board to try again. Was the oven too hot? Were the eggs too cold? Was there enough flour? Should the tart shell be par baked? Should the butter be room temperature? All these details can be vital in perfecting a recipe, and this becomes the focus of those dedicated to pastry and to their recipes. Frustrating as it may be to turn out cakes or candies that are not quite right time and time again, it is these tests that create tried and true recipes and teach the intricacies of the pastry arts. So although it may be difficult, trying at it over and over again is the way to win the pastry battle and create the perfect cookie, cake or dough.

Look forward to more thoroughly tested recipes and pastry battle wins coming soon.

Working as a pastry cook who attended a Culinary Arts school with a program not designed specifically for patisserie, I often wonder if I missed out. When my fellow co-workers talk about tiered wedding cake projects and colored sugar pieces, I wonder how my simple Pastry I and II classes can compare. Courses outside of work are costly, and are often demonstration driven which give little opportunity for the kind of hands practice necessary for real improvement. I console myself with the fact that I am currently enrolled in the Hands On/Learn As You Go School Of Arts, but sometimes it takes that extra step.

In the past year, since arriving in Los Angeles and landing a pastry cook position, I’ve managed to transform my home kitchen into somewhat of a mini bakeshop thru Christmas presents, gift certificates, and, well, splurges. Starting with my pride and joy, a hot pink Kitchen Aid mixer signed by Mario Batali, Lee Hefter, Alain Ducasse, and Jacque Torres among others, I have built up my utensils from necessity and desire. Silpats, cutters, ring molds, a digital scale, pastry brushes, plastic bowls for melting chocolate, metal bowls for mixing, whisks, off set spatulas, regular spatulas, you name it, I probably have it. One day I cleared out all three of the drawers in the kitchen and thus my bakeshop was born. An empty flower vase became a holder for my wooden spoons and spatulas; all my piping tips, cutters, silpats, and plastic piping bags went into one drawer together. Things have a home, a place where they always belong. And when the mood strikes and I manage to find the time, I test recipes in this little bakeshop I’ve created.

Of course the oven’s still a still oven and the food processor from Target isn’t quite the same as restaurant quality. A speed rack would be a wonderful addition although lord knows where I would find the space to fit it, and I still haven’t managed to purchase a blow torch, although Home Depot carries them for only thirty dollars a pop. And there’s always more to purchase, like the space heater I decided is a must after a sugar demonstration I recently attended. But for now, my little bakeshop is working just fine.

A little about my Links

Artisan Sweets- This is a really well done food blog. The photos really pop and the prose is well written. Here is a writer who shares her life through her love of desserts.

Blackfish- This restaurant is the creation of two very talented Drexel alumni, Charles Roman and Ashley Hess. Blackfish is spectacular, and Ashley is a dear and appreciated friend.

Becks and Posh-This food blog is so cute. I love the idea of this couple exploring food together; it reminds me a little of my own life, and I really enjoy the European insights.

Cake Monger- Here is a talented young pastry cook making some marvelous cakes in San Francisco. His blog puts me in such awe!

Chef Chris- A fountain of knowledge and a thorough and motivating instructor, Chef Chris Koch really impacted my experience at Drexel University. I try to carry the lessons and skills he taught me as I move forward with my culinary career.

Christina Cooks- Christina Pirello has been such an inspiration and source of support for me. Her website just touches on the many amazing things she does! I am so thankful to have her in my life.

Curious Cook- Harold McGee is somewhat of an expert on the science of food and cooking. His website is a plethora of information and a wonderful resource.

Dirt Cake- This is the food blogger who inspired me to start a blog myself. A wonderful source of inspiration and often a partner in crime on adventures or recipe testing, Miss Katzie is true friend and a gifted pastry cook.

Dori Greenspan- This is a wonderful blog about an American living in Paris and her cooking adventures there.

Drexel University Culinary Arts- My alumna mater, Drexel University taught me my basic culinary skills as well as a love for the city of Philadelphia, introduced me to a great cheese steak and an appreciation for Bon Jovi.

Farrah Olivia- I spent a six-month internship working with Pastry Chef Leon Baker and Chef Morou Ottawa. The work they are doing at Farrah Olivia is outstanding, and I cherish the knowledge they instilled in me.

Matt’s Bites- This is one of my favorite food blogs. Matt Armendariz is not only a magnificent photographer but also a great writer and his love for food really shines through in his dedication for this blog.

Providence-I am currently working at this wonderful one star Michelin restaurant learning a whole new ball game under pastry chef Adrian Vasquez.

Presidential Catering- Jennifer Mandracchia is the gifted pastry chef of this catering company. She is always eager to answer a pastry question, and is often a collaborator on recipe ideas.

Sherry Yard- During my time at Spago Beverly Hills, the talented Chef Sherry Yard taught me many of the basics of pastry arts.

Spago Beverly Hills- I spent fifteen months working at Spago Beverly Hills learning the ins and outs of a grand fine dining restaurant with some of the nation’s top chefs.