- Amanda
Community is a word that gets tossed around a lot online. Everyone wants to be part of an Internet community: it's reassuring to feel connected to a human group in a vast digital space. Though community, like style, isn’t something you can fabricate, many sites try to gin it up. The most glaring indicator of such astroturfing is a “community” button in the main navigation, because community should be ubiquitous, not relegated to its own pen. "Community managers” are another red flag: it means the administrators view community as something that needs to be managed from on high -- what if our users don’t represent our brand? -- rather than something that they, too, participate in.
When we launched FOOD52, we weren't trying to create a community. We wanted to build a business but we weren’t yet sure exactly what shape it would take: all we knew is that we'd start building it around a great crowd-sourced cookbook. What we found, in a matter of weeks, was that a community of devoted home cooks swiftly and organically arose. People were hanging out, sharing ideas, contributing to the book, and shaping the content and tone of the site. They helped each other out with cooking questions, gently let newcomers in on the culture of the site, and chatted directly with us. A lot. And it was they -- you! -- who helped us figure out what the business would become.
We believe in communities that have a strong aesthetic and voice, but a welcoming demeanor. Communities without direction -- without a sense of common purpose -- flail and fail. It's communities with a purpose, ones you might call “constructive communities," that thrive (like Kickstarter). Our purpose, it's become clear, is to connect people who love food -- because eating well matters to us. As the site builds community, the community builds the site.
Two years in, here's what the FOOD52 community has done together: we've just finished our second book, and are now working on an iPad app. We’ve created a trove of community-vetted recipes, and launched a Hotline so people in a cooking dilemma can get fast answers from experienced home cooks. One night recently, we helped a cook who ran into trouble with seized chocolate and coached her through a failing semifreddo. A community-powered iPhone app for the Hotline is also in the works.
We've also plucked some of our leading columnists from our own ranks, including Tom Hirschfeld, who writes about growing his own food on his farm in Indiana, and an upcoming columnist (spoiler alert!) who's going to write about urban gardening.
FOOD52ers have been getting together offline since we launched. There are more than 40 member-hosted potluck parties happening around the country (and even one being held as far away as Nigeria) to celebrate the launch of our first cookbook later this month. On an overcast day this August, one of our members, Maria Raynal, gathered more than a dozen FOOD52ers to help out Detroit Dirt with this composting project.
That sort of grassroots entrepreneurship makes Merrill and me proud. Maybe it’s our Yankee side, but we aren’t ones for idle chit-chat. We like to make, build, create. We joke that we are the hosts, curators, and occasional disciplinarians of FOOD52 – like French guardians, we live on the property we take care of. We don’t just build the site, we participate in every aspect as community members. It’s the first site we visit when we wake up, and the last one we sign off of before bed.
Six months ago, we decided it was time to redesign our site to better take advantage of what our community had become – and to more clearly define the business we were building. We had been studying how our community used the site, where people congregated, who connected with whom. While many community sites are static and organized by topic, the beauty of FOOD52, it seemed to us, was that people were immediately able look around to see what’s new, who's there and which conversational group or activity to join.
Photo by TrespassersWill, Flickr
We wanted to accentuate that sense of transparency and boundless opportunity. The metaphor we had in mind was a thriving city street – with interesting people buzzing about, appealing storefronts and small visual enticements at every turn. In one visit, you should be able to find the content you want, see what recipes have gotten people talking, who to trust and follow, what other cooks are up to, and where there are clusters of activity. You should come to FOOD52 (or any social site, really) and feel immersed in a lively and productive metropolis. Discovery and inspiration should be the norm.
You should also know the guardians – Merrill, me, and our team – are there with you. We should be looking after the site, and using it alongside you, too.
So that's what we set out to build. There is a period when city crews are tearing up the street, when the plumbing doesn't work, and the jackhammers are annoying -- that would be now. Sorry! Despite it all, FOOD52 is now a vibrant and ever-changing street for you to explore, with the community’s curated content resting atop it all. We found ways for the many great cooks hidden inside the old site to appear out in the open. We let people’s own engagement with the content dictate what appears on the storefronts – the home page and other main pages. We built structures that would handsomely frame our beautiful, curated photography and the work of our smart columnists and editors. We're celebrating the community and all who take part in it. And Merrill and I and our small team are there, too, asking our own Hotline questions, planning contest themes, curating news, putting together special offers for you in the Shop, and talking with you.
We have re-imagined what a food community should look like. Despite the commotion and confusion that inevitably accompanies a bold new project, we believe – just as we believed when we launched FOOD52 – that what we're doing is worth breaking ground for.
-
amanda
Before starting FOOD52 with Merrill, I was a food writer and editor at the New York Times. I've written several books, including "Cooking for Mr. Latte" and "The Essential New York Times Cookbook." I played myself in "Julie & Julia" -- hope you didn't blink, or you may have missed the scene! I live in Brooklyn with my husband, Tad, and twins, Walker and Addie.
Some past articles from this author you'll love:
Amanda's Beat Up Baking Sheet
Friday Night Dinner Party I
Advice for Future Food Writers
50 Comments on Constructive Community:
The new design and the sustained mission are great--good job Food52. That said, I still don't find myself contributing content because I don't cook with recipes (besides baking). I wish there was a better forum for sharing and contributing 'rough guidelines'. (Maybe there is; could you point me in the right direction?)
Assuming there isn't, it could be a reason there are so many "lurkers" (of which I am certainly one!). Just an idea. I look forward to checking Food52 throughout the holidays to see what other folks are up to in the kitchen!
Thanks for all your hard work on Food52.
The new design and the sustained mission are great--good job Food52. That said, I still don't find myself contributing content because I don't cook with recipes (besides baking). I wish there was a better forum for sharing and contributing 'rough guidelines'. (Maybe there is; could you point me in the right direction?)
Assuming there isn't, it could be a reason there are so many "lurkers" (of which I am certainly one!). Just an idea. I look forward to checking Food52 throughout the holidays to see what other folks are up to in the kitchen!
Thanks for all your hard work on Food52.
The new design and the sustained mission are great--good job Food52. That said, I still don't find myself contributing content because I don't cook with recipes (besides baking). I wish there was a better forum for sharing and contributing 'rough guidelines'. (Maybe there is; could you point me in the right direction?)
Assuming there isn't, it could be a reason there are so many "lurkers" (of which I am certainly one!). Just an idea. I look forward to checking Food52 throughout the holidays to see what other folks are up to in the kitchen!
Thanks for all your hard work on Food52.
I generally lurk, but wanted to come out from behnd the screen (keyboard?) to say this new design is perfect for tablets and just gorgeous. I've gotten so many good ideas and recipes here.
Thank you!
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 6 months agoThank YOU! We're so glad to hear you like the new site! And it's always fun to meet a new "lurker"! We always wonder who you are. :)
I love this because I envision food52 in a very similar way. I may not be the one who contributes the most recipes, but food52 is my very first stop for dinner ideas and party meals and for information on anything food. I comment on everything I make because I know that the foundations of this site are feedback and discussion. I tell anyone who will listen that I love the site, not just for its recipes but because it's one of the most fantastic environments to grow as a cook. It's warm, and friendly, and everything you want in a community of like-passioned people. Further, I'm not sure how it happens but food52's vetting really works. I know I'm going to get a good meal out of most of the things I try, moreso even than most of my cookbooks! So thanks to A&M and everyone else and congratulations!!!
Amanda, the way in which you describe the early growth of food52 is exactly how I came to experience it - as a community of good, wise, generous friends with whom to share knowledge, experiences, successes and failures, late nights, early mornings . . . and I didn't even have to clean house or make sure the dishes were done for them! At first I sort of hung back and watched the activity through on the street through the kitchen curtains, and after a few months finally jumped in and started strolling along with everyone else. It is a warm and generous place you created. The move to the new house has been a bit difficult, but that's nothing you don't know. The old place seemed a bit more comfortable, which the new one seems to have a few more rules than some of us may have been used to. Maybe we need to give each other time to get accustomed to the new place. The speed has certainly improved, and it's a bit easier to find some things, and how hard everyone must be working is unimaginable. Thank you all for that. And warm congratulations on the birth of your second book. I can't wait till the party!
It seems I'm counting your books before they hatch - I meant congratulations on the birth of your "first" book! And an edit function would be so very wonderful. I tend to type on the fly without re-reading before I post. I guess that means I should hit pause, re-read, then post. Okay, I've got it.
This has been a wonderful resource and a new lease on my cooking life. I have come to deeply admire the cooks on this site - and this is all due to Amanda's and Merrill's brilliant idea to bring community cooks together. It's great to see such an influx of new cooks in the recent weeks. Thanks so much for this opportunity to interact with people who are encouraging, deeply creative, and so kind to each other.
Hi! I don't know where else to comment this, so I'll just say here: happy book release day!!!!! Congratulations to everyone one involved! (That's everyone!) What an exciting day!
You took the words out of my mouth, fiveandspice! I was just looking for a place to post--happy book day! I hope y'all (and we all) have a blast with the launch parties.
Hear, Hear! Congratulations to all, oh happy book day!
Hi, Congratulations! I do like your elegant new site especially the new logo and the food photography... and I look forward to rediscovering all the different pieces of the old site that I used to check in on.
I love wandering around the site (usually prompted by a weekly message from A&M) and always become re-inspired by an enthusiastic description of what someone just made, mother always made or someone who hints that they may have just consumed a whole batch of something. It is such a pleasure to be able to access this treasure trove of diverse, personal and obviously well-loved recipes. Here's to more!
p.s. and although the last thing you probably want to hear about is yet another funny little quirky thing wrong with the new site, this one is really really minor....noticed the Contest Winners category has doubles, triples and even quadruples of many recipes... makes the browsing process a little long.
So true. Congrats on creating a truly warm, welcoming and constructive online community! All too often, people hide behind a sense of anonymity and become a vicious pack of wolves in online comments sections. Food52 is more like a dinner party where everyone is a friend of a friend, and you know you have something in common before you even say hello. Thanks for keeping the competition "friendly" and fun.
oops... there it is :)
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 7 months agoYes, that's all part of our tricky new system -- now you see a comment, now you don't! But seriously, we're working on it. Thank you so much for your lovely comment, and generous thoughts!
just tried to post a comment and it disappeared....
Food52 touched me about a year ago, when I first tripped over it because it touched all the right buttons for me -- really wonderful creative home cooking recipes, gorgeous photographs, all wrapped up in a warm blanket of community that seemed so full of love, you could feel its arms embrace you. I became an instant fan. While my time is crunched, and I don't participate as much as I would like, I'm so glad to have F52 in my go-to repertoire whenever I need a hit of food crush.
As I am working hard to get my own site and community built, I really appreciate how you guys have braved the wilds and cleared a path.... as well as how you've handled your challenges with the new site with grace and clear heads. Of course it will all settle down and your shiny new site will soon take on a soft happy glow and hum along sweetly.
Thanks Amanda and Merrill for creating such a wonderful place where we all can come home for dinner (and lunch, and breakfast, and snacks, and....).
As a quiet reader for these two years all the way from Brazil, I have to come forward at least this once and let you know that the improvement is much celebrated. Thanks for inspiring my cooking for these past years and hopefully to many more projects to come! You guys rock! Cheers!
Hi A&M,
Love the new site re-do! We can't wait to have you back on campus at Northeastern in December. The buzz (and the banner) has already started about your visit. See you soon! Maureen
In keeping with facelift/new look, I'm giving up my 20 year old bob for short hair, hopefully in time for the Bay Area get-together ;)
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 7 months agoCan't wait to see it!
All I can say is- Amanda and Merrill, since I found you about 18 months ago, my food life has improved. Love everything you do and love almost every recipe that I have tried. Great format. Sorry that I am not a recipe contributor. Thanks to all that are more creative than I.
howdy neighbors! A&M, is that a cannele you are munching on in the top photo? Where was this?
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 7 months agoIndeed it was! We were at Burdick on 20th Street, between 5th avenue and Broadway -- dangerously close to our office.
Amanda is a co-founder of Food52.
added 7 months agoHello everyone!
Thank you for all of your thoughtful and kind comments! Just letting you know we're finally sending out our "Welcome to the New FOOD52" email today. If you receive it, we didn't want you to feel confused. You've already seen the site but many others on our list probably have not. We held off sending this email until we had some technical issues shored up, and the re-worked home page up.
I'm off to make pizza dough (blog post "research") -- have a great Sunday!
I've been wowed by this great site and sense of community since my own day one, a bit over a year ago. Logged in today to get this huge surprise of the new design. I love it!! I've said this before, but I'm saying it again, I love FOOD52 and all it's inhabitants. There's real kindness that lives here and I'm grateful to be a part of it.
You know, Food52 has felt like a community since day 1. Many thanks for creating such a wonderful space and now making it even better.
To Amanda, Merrill and the Food52 team…many thanks for your collaborative creative endeavor; and together, with fellow Food52 cooks we have this rare knack of making strangers feel right at home. I hope we will be here for a long time! Best wishes for continued success.
Cheers! Eat, Drink & be Merry…
Thank you for putting this site together. I am delighted by the community you have created and the new website design (so much so that I showed it to the the woman re-designing the website at work as an example of a brilliantly designed website).
I am a management consultant, and I spend 200+ days travelling for work each year. I haven't cooked more than one meal a week in the past 6 years, but I recently landed a long-term project in Geneva, Switzerland and have started to re-learn how to cook. This site is a terrific resource and the one food site I check everyday. It is an unfailing guide, much as Amanda's book, Cooking for Mr. Latte, was when I was a graduate student in 2003 (everyone thinks I'm a genius cook and throw the best parties thanks to Amanda and her book. Thanks, Amanda!). Merrill, I adore your recipes. They inspire me to eat more than spatzle (which is all I ate in Switzerland last year).
I look forward to continuing to discover new recipes every day with the Food 52 community.
Thank you so much!
Whoops! That's what I get for using my husband's (TSGarp) iPad to post my comment. Another reason to get one of my own, I guess. Apologies, that last comment was from me.
I read this post as I rushed out the door this morning (being five or six - depending on the time of year - hours behind means my day really begins with food52, which I love) and I've looked forward to responding all day. Now it is 10:30 pm HST and after a long full day of work, children (and the biggest tantrum to date), traffic, my mom, my dogs, dinner with my family, bath time and bed time for my kiddos, I am ending the day as I began: with food52.
To say that food52 has changed my life is not quite accurate; it has become a part of my life, and a wonderfully inspiring, exciting, delicious part at that. Usually when I try to explain my experience of this community to friends and family, I know they don't really get it. What I love about food52, is that all of you here know exactly how heartfelt these words are, how much we all look forward to seeing each other on our street.
I love the analogy of a thriving city street and appreciate the necessity of city crews and jackhammers. I also know that when our street is completed, we'll all be here, as before and think back and wonder what all the fuss was about. Thank you, Amanda, Merrill, and everyone else who makes food52 the community I love and am grateful to be a part of .
Are there still kinks with saving recipes? Most of the recipes I've supposedly saved aren't showing up in my saved recipes. Every once in awhile, one will make it there. Love love love this site and the food I've made using the wonderful recipes, but I must confess not being able to save things reliably is frustrating. Thanks.
Thanks Amanda for explaining your vision for this site so vividly. The neighborhood street metaphor helps me understand better the redesign. Extending that metaphor, a bustling street has lots of activity, but it also has static landmarks: I wonder if the homepage would be easier to navigate if there were more spatial landmarks. For example, I would love to know that I can expect to see the latest community picks at the intersection of streets X and Y, near where I pick up my daily latte. Thanks to the whole food52 team for all their work on creating such a fun and vibrant site.
This post is wonderful. While I was a bit overwhelmed by the home page at first, once I figured out how to make it fit in my browser, I really grew to appreciate what you've done with it. . In my opinion, what makes this site so great is not just the outside community, but the involvement of the food52 staff. The best blogs always have a dedicated and present blogger. And so often, once bloggers get busy and start working on new projects, they find themselves without time for their sites, the very thing that enabled their new projects. That hasn't happened here. So thanks for being so involved, for building this vibrant hub, and helping this community flourish.
Wonderful to see how you've grown, evolved and innovated your way to a truly rich and diverse community that always seems full of good cheer and goodwill. Thanks for all your hard work!
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about this Amanda. As so many others are saying it's amazing to me how the serendipitous moment of discovering food52 has turned into such a lasting impact. Inspiration, motivation, friendship, the works. When you love your "neighborhood" it's easy to see flashy changes to it and think "well there goes the neighborhood, next thing you know it's going to be Las Vegas" but it's wonderful and comforting to know that the team behind food52 loves it and it's wonkiness as much as we all do and that when the constructions over, everything we love is still going to be there. Kudos to you guys! Can't wait to see how things shape up as the dust settles. (and I also can't wait until I start getting notifications again! It's feeling lonely in my inbox ;).
I don't know why it has taken me so long to start posting to this website (I've been following F52 zealously for a bit more than a year now). But it seemed appropriate with the new look and feel to grow some legs of my own and take some baby steps. I love the new site - it's great to see how it's really designed for a community of people to interact with one another. I look forward to participating more and (gulp) maybe even posting some of my own recipes - thank you so much for welcoming us into your "home"!
Hearts & minds, A&M&T(team)......Its rare to see real people, with real emotions and real passions and real connections in the sheer numbers that food52 boasts. Crowd-sourcing works (Wikipedia), but connecting with people on such a fundamental level as food does, and in the way you do it is amazing. I have learnt SO much about food, and courage and exploration. Now when I see Nilla wafers, I know what they are....for a gal who didn't grow up Stateside. Thank you for giving me a whole 'village' of passionate cooks who make it alright for me to be OCD with my food! So long a letter.....thank you
I still don't remember "discovering" food52 but am so grateful that I did. I'm so appreciative of the friendships I have developed with folks all over the country and hope to meet you all some day. Yes, my membership here has, indeed, been life-changing, just as sdebrango says. This whole cooking/blogging business has become my passion - thanks to all!
My heartfelt thanks to the Guardians of Food52! " As the site builds community, the community builds the site" is exactly my experience of Food52, and I am grateful. There is a consistency of generosity, dignity, humor found in all the conversations throughout the Food52, and the conversation nourishes, teaches and blesses.
When I joined Food52 in January I had no idea that in October I would be hosting a gathering, a meet-up of West Coast community members. What an unexpected joy that is/was!
When I think of boulangere getting in touch with old friends and neighbors through her recipe for Belle Foley's Chocolate Cake I am left again with the miracles of community.
When I think of the recipes I submitted (never done that before) and the recipes I tried that I would not have taken on without the enoucouragement of the Food52 community I am struck with how different my life would be without Food52.
I state with pride that Food52 is the first site I check in the morning and the last site I check at night . And I love the street is occupied 24 hours a day and it is as fun at night as in broad daylight!
Food52 for me has been life changing, Amanda and Merrill and all the crew I just want you to know that your hard work and dedication is so appreciated. This "community" is truly amazing. You have brought together home cooks from across the nation and the world ,thats no small feat. You created a website that is welcoming and nurturing and a tremendous source of information. You are all loved. Thank you so much for all you do!! One of the first things I do every day is check food52.
Food52 has become my go-to for recipe inspiration and inspiration in general. Not being the most patient person I know, I have found the new site incredibly slow which is frustrating. I know you share my pain. On the other hand, I see content in a more comprehensive layout with myriad directions to wander off in. As soon as the site is running at optimum speed, I will be ecstatic! Meanwhile, I am practicing deep breathing and meditation while waiting for a recipe to load. And looking forward to iPhone and iPad apps! Keep up the great curating!
Yes, yes, yes to all of these wonderful comments. I'm here to stay, happy to navigate the twists and turns of our little street on the Internet, and always excited to find out what's inside each new storefront. FOOD52 has brought so many great people into my life and food onto my table.
Joining the FOOD52 community has been a wonderful experience, and I deeply appreciate and applaud the thought and commitment from its "guardians" that has led to its continuing evolution and development. To paraphrase Alvy Singer, a community like this is like a shark -- it has to keep moving forward, or it dies. And who wants a dead shark on our hands?
By nature, I am incredibly resistant to change, so I was nervous when I saw that the new site was up and running. It's taken a bit of getting used to, but I can definitely see your vision for the site coming to life. I love it here! You guys rock. Can't wait to see what's next!
Hear hear! Food52 has improved my cooking, my friendships, my connection to the other food obsessed folks out there - and well just LIFE! We will work our way around the street crews (you guys need orange vests :-) and make our way to all of the cool little shops and corners!
Food52 is worth the growing pains; you are one of a kind. I have been a part of this community for about a year, and I have never eaten better or had more fun doing it! Thanks for all your hard work!
Wow, I'm so happy that I can be the first one to comment. And here's what I have to say, dear Amanda, Merrill, Food52 elves, and all the members of this amazing community: I love you all. You have added an immeasuable dimension to my life. I look forward to connecting with you every day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I can't say it any better, so just repeat what drbabs said!
Please Sign up (or log in) to add a comment!