Someone whose opinion I care a lot about questioned my claim to being an proper “expert” in the field of cheese because I lacked any formal qualifications in the area.
At the time I was stung by the comment (in hindsight it was perhaps their blunt delivery) but it did make me think about the millions who blog about food and any other subject. Just by writing about the subject, immersing ourselves in it, does that make us an expert?
As a journalist for a daily newspaper in a previous life, I was an “instant expert” on the issue I was writing about that day. This was pre internet and real research was required.
Today, at the flick of my keyboard, I can look up the milk content of a comte or the process for creating the veins in Stilton. Expert in the house, just add wifi…
You can eat at an award winning restaurant, take a photo then share it with the world at the same time as giving your view on the meal. That doesn’t make you Ruth Reichl, but your opinion and experience is still valid.
That I, so far, have no formal training or am unable to call myself a “Master Fromager” is, I think, beside the point. My efforts aren’t really to claim some kind of superior knowledge and bore people with it. Rather than share my personal interest with a wider audience. I’m not so much interested in the science, rather than the pure enjoyment.
In my blog intro, I describe myself as a “budding”expert…and I am enrolled in a proper cheese appreciation course later this year…
Expert? Not necessarily. But really, do we care?
Enough of the serious ruminations…here is some cheese porn…
