‘Restaurant reviews aren’t what they used to be’: digital disruption and the transformation of the role of the food critic

ABSTRACT

This study uses data collected from interviews with professional food critics to analyse how the proliferation of amateur blog and online consumer reviews has disrupted and transformed the tenets of mainstream media restaurant reviewing. The article argues that the proliferation of digital platforms has fundamentally changed the practices of the professional restaurant critic – including changes to the process of carrying out reviews, the ethical framework guiding this process, and the format of reviews. Professional restaurant critics have been forced to accommodate to the new pressures brought by digital media. These changes mark the discursive terrain of a struggle between professional restaurant critics defending their position and status as cultural intermediaries in the gastronomic field against the entry of amateur digital competitors.

KEYWORDS:

• Restaurant review
• gastronomy
• digital media
• online consumer reviews
• food blogs

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank participants at Food Politics: from the Margins to the Mainstream conference in Hobart from 30 June to 1 July 2016. I am also grateful to the two editors of this special issue for their invaluable guidance and suggestions, as well as the two peer reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier versions. Any errors remain the responsibility of the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Readership figures are for print publications and do not take into account additional cross-platform readership on web apps or websites.

2. ‘Comping’ is short for ‘complimentary’, relating here to meals provided free of charge.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Morag Kobez

Morag Kobez is a PhD candidate in the Queensland University of Technology School of Communications. She is also a freelance food and travel journalist.