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Why Food Travel Should Be a Little More Bourdain, a Little Less TikTok
And how those who write the guides have a responsibility to go deeper than they often do
As happens more often than not, this week, I’ve been thinking about Anthony Bourdain.
Specifically about how many people loved his shows because he knew what food travel was about. Food yes, but also people. Culture. And emotion — so much emotion.
There was substance to his shows. He went deep.
Then, I thought about modern-day food and travel guides. A couple of minutes on TikTok and you’ve got yourself a guide to where to eat in *insert city here.*
Except not all of them are very good. In research for this, I watched scores of TikTok videos about where to eat in my adopted home of Porto and they did not deliver.
I truly believe that useful content makes this world a better place. But what happens when creating content becomes more important than the content itself? What happens when people with massive followings write a guide that is filled with places you as a local wouldn’t set foot into?
We travel, food, and drink writers have a responsibility to you — our readers — to do deep research. To write guides or articles that…
