I'm a Food Writer. How'd That Happen?

You may recall I recently took the French Fry Challenge -- Keller vs. Bourdain, and in my opinion, Keller's fries at Bouchon came out on top.  Well, apparently people other than my doting parents are actually reading The Fro Fro Blog, and one of them is Ryan Tate, whose SF Covers covers the San Francisco foodie scene.  Ryan saw my post and proceeded to burst my french fry bubble in front of the entire Internet. 

See, I had no idea that Keller's french fries are frozen, and likely outsourced to Sysco.  But Ryan's post, an open letter to Michael Pollan, encourages him to "fire up [his] laptop (named for a genetically engineered fruit no doubt!) and log on to food writer Laura Froelich's blog, where she says prepared French fries from Sysco, the massive food service company, are the absolute best in the world, far better than the ones made by hand in a fussy traditional French style by Tony Bourdain in New York."

Did you catch that?  "Food writer Laura Froelich."  How the heck did that happen? 

I started this blog in December with no expectations beyond having a creative outlet outside of my day job.  I figured I'd write about whatever struck my fancy and maybe a few people would read it.  Mostly my family, and perhaps the occasional African-American Google-ing for haircare products.  Over time, more and more of my posts have been dedicated to two of my passions -- food and fitness.   (A symbiotic relationship, since in order to eat the way I like to eat, I need to work out the way I work out.)

Then, lo and behold, the magic of the Internet took over. To date there have been two critical events in the history of Fro Fro Blog traffic.  One was my first Thomas Keller-related post, in which I covered an appearance he made at the Commonwealth Club.  All of a sudden, people who were searching on Google for Thomas Keller were showing up here.  And there were lots of them!  But that was nothing compared to tidal wave of traffic that showed up to read about my sighting of ABC's Bachelor (An Officer and a Gentleman), Dr. Andy Baldwin, competing in the Accenture Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon.  Apparently someone had linked to my post from ABC.com's Bachelor discussion board.  So I continued chronicling, my readership has continued to grow, and I now have a very small, dedicated following...and I'm a food writer!

The last thing in the world I want to be known for is fueling the agribusiness machine.  But I guess that's how things go on the Internet.  You can go to the Farmers' Market on a regular basis, but in the end, you're the girl who loves the frozen french fries. 

Comments

[lizelle green]

With the little free time I have these days, this is one the few blogs that I stop to enjoy. Inspiring, yes. But, more importantly, your prose make me smile. Keep it up Ms. Food Writer. I'm reading.

[laurafrofro]

Thanks so much, Lizelle! FYI, the feeling is mutual. I especially enjoy your beautiful photography.

[Ryan Tate]

Hey Laura, I thought about that myself as I wrote it, because it's sort of a tautology -- if I link to something someone has written about food, then by definition they are a food writer, even if they have a day job (as you clearly do). I can see how it might be misleading though so I'm thinking about revising it.

BUT, I do agree with Lizelle that you should be proud of the blog, and if you called yourself a food writer I think it'd be accurate.

Oh, and sorry for the "bust," just know I personally continue to eat and love far worse things than Sysco fries cooked by Thomas Keller, so, as the guy who sells me pastries told me the other day, "no one's judging you!" :->

[laurafrofro]

Thanks so much, Ryan! Despite what the tone of this post might suggest, I'm thoroughly flattered.

In fact, I'm hoping you won't alter your post. To your point it wouldn't make yours any more accurate, but it would render this post much less so.

I also agree with you that there are many worse things to be busted for. Maybe you'll read about them here soon ;-)