Honesty is not the problem. It's not even the start.
Food cognoscenti eat their own kind. Again.
About once a year, someone throws chum into the food-writing waters. Fractures emerge. Pious posturing ensues. Defensive statements are made.
“No, not me. I’m legit. They not like us.” Facts? There’s no Kendrick Lamar at the Ramen Bowl.
This time, the BBC ran a headline citing demanding “food influencers to be ‘more honest’ in their reviews.” For transparency dear reader, I am a member of The Guild of Food Writers and my slow-braised beef is not with GFW.
I am weary with both the superficial examination of the topic coupled with the sycophantic self-righteousness of those who position themselves as The Enlightened.
The usual things are said, and so the spiral continues. I’ve seen this before, and I’ll see it again.
Here’s what should be said.
Honesty is not the problem. It’s not even the start. This perception of dishonesty is symptomatic and downstream of chronic issues and tectonic shifts happening. In my experience, the culprits are:
Incentives: what drives individuals, organisations and the systems in which they operate.
Social media: as an accelerator of society’s pivot towards popularity and dumbing down.
Integrity: you have it, or you don’t.
From the perspective of someone in the Middle East, there is a clear and present danger of being at the wrong end of a legal system with personal criminal repercussions, aka defamation and trigger-happy owners.
A fetid co-dependency between one to three and, in my region, number four creates a perfect storm, conjuring mistrust among audiences and cabals among commentators.
But, soundbites do not position the conversation correctly from the outset. Overly simplistic headlines are great clickbait only (an incentive system).
In fairness, the BBC article did skim some issues, but there’s much more to it. It does not grapple with the complexity of the underlying drivers that keep the industry in a chokehold to the detriment of those on the inside and those looking on.
There’s a much longer, four-part piece to be written. I am very tempted to write it.
Liam is a restaurant critic and food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He owns EatGoSee and contributes to other publications. You can follow Liam on Substack, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky.
I'll add my two dirhams worth, which is exactly what I said on Threads. For disclosure too, I've been a GFW member since 2018. Their FB group is hugely supportive and where I came across this BBC NI article. I agree with your points, however the bigger issue at hand is that reviews should only be labelled reviews if the writer has paid the bill. Otherwise it's simply promotional PR copy.
Anyone without integrity can sell anything, including their soul. So, I agree. Buy for what the product or services sold will do for you.