The debate on the ethics and credibility of food blogging is not a new one, but as a newly formed group, there is a need to set the record straight on our part—we don’t do invited tastings, and for good reasons. NUS Food & Travel Club is a passion project with the sole purpose of providing transparent and objective reviews which reflect our dining experiences at that point of time. Heck, we don’t benefit from doing any of this; but our aim is to make people think more about the food they eat and be more discerning with reviews that they read. Our responsibility is to our readers—we don’t stand to gain in any way from the places we eat at.
On Invited Tastings
Invited tastings are a showcase for restaurants to highlight their best food and customer service—everyone is extra friendly, and the food is prepped with more care; I mean nobody wants to make a fool of themselves in front of the media. Establishments host these tastings for food bloggers and journalists as a form of marketing (let’s ignore paid advertisements for now, those are different from editorial content), to introduce their food concepts or new menus. Food bloggers and journalists on the other hand, accept these invitations because they aim to provide objective and transparent reviews as well. Hold on, what?
You can probably see three different groups of people:
1) Those who accept invitations (and declare them), claim that they review objectively, and ask readers to take their word for it.
2) Those who accept invitations, return subsequently to pay for their own meals, and then review it.
3) Those who feel no obligation to explicitly declare to their readers that their meal was hosted, claiming it will not affect their objectivity in anyway, and ask readers to take their word for it.
A few thoughts on the above:
1) Let’s hope that your readers are not all gullible.
2) If you’re going to return to pay for your own meal anyway after an invited tasting, why accept it in the first place other than for a free meal? Also, wouldn’t your decision to return or not be dependent on your experience during the invited tasting? (a side note to those who choose not to write about a tasting when there are more negatives than positives—you must really enjoy free lunches.)
3) This is absurd. Whether or not one’s objectivity is affected, it’s up to the readers to decide; writers should at least have the basic decency to declare such potentially inhibitory factors which might skew their impressions.
Why We No Longer Take Invites
Picture this: someone invites you for a meal at their house, and the food is terrible. Perhaps most would keep quiet. The braver few might have the courage to phrase criticisms indirectly, lest they cause offence—but I’m quite sure few would bin the food after a mouthful; not that we’re encouraging food wastage, but you get the point—it’s human nature to have a feeling of reciprocity after receiving benefits.
I’m sure many writers do their jobs responsibly, yet it begs—how objective can someone be if they don’t account for the value of money? Although, paying for your own meal also doesn’t make one more objective. It is still up to readers to decide for themselves—we just want to make that process as clear and transparent as possible. Unhindered by inherent moral obligations, the fear of offending any establishments or generating a bad reputation for our own brand, we can say it as it is.
This stance is also aligned with our goal to provide the most objective reviews possible, based on the actual dining experiences that normal diners would usually have—meaning no bigger portions, no special treatment, no pretences. No need for us to defend or clarify with all that “meals are paid for ourselves otherwise stated” nonsense; of course, we pay for all our own meals, like any normal diner would.
Wait, Did You Say No Longer?
Yes, within a year of our formation we have been invited to and attended some tastings. We give our utmost gratitude to the editor at Foodinsing (love you Ting Feng) for giving us our very first break and allowing us the opportunity to explore what we wanted to do in our embryonic stages. We have nothing but respect for responsible writers who only serve to introduce good food to the community through these tastings—but it’s just not the path we want.
So, Is NUS Food & Travel Club Any More Trustworthy?
That’s for you, our dear readers, to decide for yourselves. On our part, the no-invitation policy we’ve adopted allows us to strip away all the fancy bells and whistles for maximum transparency, to document as realistically as possible what actual diners will experience. Expect nothing but direct, blunt (sometimes brutal) and most importantly, honest words from us; but in the end, it’s up to you to be a discerning eater. Like they say, everybody’s a food critic.
Except that some food critics eat for free.
A.T.
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