Anne Myers

In 2012 two things happened that brought me to my knees – literally and figuratively: a life-threatening medical trauma and Dinner Divas. By God’s grace the medical trauma has passed and I am on my way to complete recovery. This post is about Dinner Divas – from my perspective.

Within hours on the first day of the Dinner Diva shoot, I knew that I was in emotional trouble. What started off as an analytical and logical business project, turned personal after I met and did a little pre-production work with the 12 bloggers who would eventually become our first Divas (and a Divo). From my side, it was love and respect and admiration at first sight of the Divas and Divo and all and any misgivings I have ever had about blogging and bloggers evaporated instantly. As a covert softy I was caught totally unawares by seeing them under such pressure on set and so, unprofessionally spent the first four days (as well as the last three days) crying non-stop. The very last day I also spent more than an hour using every nano-cell of willpower to prevent myself from physically attacking somebody after two solid weeks of extreme pent-up frustration and anger and embarrassment caused to my genteel clients and crew and Divas… But, that’s a story for another day …. if ever. Those of you who were involved with the shoot will know what terror and control and unpleasantness I am referring to …

But back to my snot en trane. It continued after shooting ended, in fact, all the way to the last episode’s editing! When I left the edit suite for the last time the 6^th of December, having just signed off episode 13, I vowed that Season 2 will be in a different format. We already nailed a different format and what a format it will be! I have bounced it off a couple of my confidantes, and it is poised to be bigger and better than season 1. More about it later – much later …  all I can say now I that Season 2 will continue to focus on food blogging as an emotionally satisfying and potentially profitable hobby/passion/career.

My reasons remain the same: food blogging should be financially rewarding to keep it sustainable.  A top food blogger once explained to me that to prepare for, and write a post can take between 5 and 7 hours. If. And that means if you can get the right ingredients, if the recipe works, if the light plays along, if your image comes out nicely, if the words flow from your mind, if, if, if … Any blogger will tell you that if anything goes wrong from writing the recipe, shopping for the ingredients, testing/cooking it, styling it and taking the photograph, Photo-shopping the images, writing the post, editing it and then loading it all onto your blog, it can take longer – much longer! Then, because all this does not just happen as a by-the-way, let’s not forget the cost …

So, the television series Dinner Divas is primarily produced with the intention to draw advertising attention to (at least) our better food bloggers’ work while enticing fresh blood to enter this emotionally-rewarding realm. So far at least three bloggers from Season 1 have been approached directly by a large corporation with the view to forge long-term business relationships and apparently the buzz is on between our biggest foodie platform and some serious advertisers. So far not much interest from new blogging blood (as far as I know) which perhaps just goes to show that people seem to know what goes into writing a blog J. And so far several bloggers have had television, radio and print exposure and other PR opportunities that they probably would not have had had they not been on Dinner Divas.

But that aside, I do have a point: a tribute to the hero and heroine food bloggers, the Divas and Divo. They have had the courage to go beyond the expectations and opinions of others. They came on the show knowing the downsides yet came with brevity, armed with their own story and authenticity and sincerity which they communicated in writing, with their food and with their unique vibes and beautiful faces. They inspired viewers to also have the courage to change, to think differently and to face challenges from the examples they’ve set on the show. They’ve not allowed their fears to take decisions for them; they understood that fear translates to risk which often opens the door for fresh opportunities. They revealed their vulnerable selves under relentless lights which revealed their brilliant, abundant, generous spirit, their lovability and their sense of fun. They understand that in the end, we tend to regret more the chances we did not take than the ones we did take. They took the chance and in in the goodness of time, it will enrich their efforts and blogs – one way or another.

Here are my heroines and hero – absolutely no order of preference:

Tami Magnin aka Rumtumtiggs

Tami has a voice that will soothe any radio listener into instant relaxation. She is gentle and sensitive and her food reflects her love for family and togetherness. She is the quintessential community spirit who will mobilise her whole suburb to bake cookies for the underprivileged family in her street. It was really sad to see her go so soon and her tears did not help to stop mine! In fact, it got them going even stronger. You should have seen the shock on the runner’s face when I asked him to get me a box of tissues – unheard of unless I have a cold!

Barry Gerber aka What’s Cooking

 Barry came to the show as the solo Divo. I tried to get another male blogger to up the testosterone level a bit, butfailed and happily – as it turned out – our dear Barry flooded the set with his gentle manliness. He is loved and respected by all of us who shared a little time and some space with him. He is sensitive yet big and strong and a confident cook who knows his way around a kitchen and behind a stove. He can cook.  Barry is the man who, when he heard my little granddaughter loves the artist his wife manages, brought autographed posters and pictures and collectables of her idol, right to her home.

Kate Liquorish aka undomestiKATEd

We loved Kate’s elegance and her stylishness on set and of course, her incredible beauty was a sight for many sore crew eyes. Her passion for smart food is infectious and she has great food ideas. We need more food bloggers like Kate – people with satisfyingly significant careers while still promoting great food. More bloggers like Kate will attract the young and edgy reader and wannabe home chef to online food ideas, meal solutions and recipes.

 Thuli Gogelo aka Mzansi Style Cuisine

Eish, what can one say about the vivacious and beautiful Thuli? Authentic, true to herself, passionate about her roots and its food and keen to share it with her readers may be a good short description of this unique, fabulous food blogger.  We also need more food bloggers like Thuli – people from different cultures sharing their food will be a real shot-in-the-arm for the industry.

Candice le Noury aka The Gorgeous Gourmet

Dear, sweet Candice fell out only because she admitted to using other people’s recipes. She is a hard-working food blogger who knows how to market herself and get great deals on the table. She can also cook exceptionally well and her fine touch and eye for detail and style shows on her gorgeous blog. We know that she can develop original recipes and can’t wait to see more and more and more authentic talent from her creative pen.

Kristy Snell aka Foodmonger

 Kristy is such a natural in front of the camera which is quite unusual for an attractive girl . But her greatest on-camera asset is her spirit. She can give as good as she gets and the one that crosses her path with unfairness will get a solid mouthful from those luscious red lips, cameras or not. She is a formidable cook, has no ego in front of the camera and we loved, loved her talking to herself all through the cooking sequences. She is (in my opinion) by far our best stylist/food photographer-blogger with a styling mind that thinks right out of the box. I could do a show just with her … move over, Nigella or wannabe Nigellas. Kristy is on her way!

Nina Timm aka My Easy Cooking

South Africa’s sweetheart cyber-chef Nins is not only a clever marketer, a devoted, hard-working, consistent, passionate and talented food blogger, but also a natural presence on camera. She took to the camera as if she’d done it for years and even though she may have been nervous or tense, nobody could tell by her lovely smile and calm, peaceful demeanour. Her new-look improved blog is testimony of her determination to produce the best work, always. And she exudes love – she loves what she does, she loves those that she does it for and loves to be part of the food blogging community. We love you to, darling Nins.

Zirkie Schroeder aka Pink Polka Dot Food

To me, Zirkie is the quintessential head girl. And detail-spotter. She was on my case with every spelling error, hyperlink that was broken and smallest detail that was incorrect while pro-actively marketing and promoting the show. She is passionate about her family and friends and especially motherhood and her food smacks of love: it is cooked with love and served with love. She is a gentle soul brimming with integrity and her food is an extension of her best qualities. No wonder her blog is so loved.

Usha Singh aka Healthy Vegetarian Foods

For me, Usha and Zirkie are very much alike. Usha is also a gentle, loving, giving soul brimming with dignity and integrity and her food is an extension of her very nature. She loves being a mom and cooks with love and attention to detail. She is unashamedly vegetarian and does not apologise for her food nor does she try to convert the world to vegetarianism. She simply cooks and her food does the conversions! We need more bloggers like Usha (and Mitzy Reddy) who are willing to remain true and authentic to their own culture’s cuisine and happily share it with other cultures in blogland.

Janice Tripepi aka Janice Tripepi

Janice is my perfect ideal of a food blogger: passionate, authentic, true, real, great-at-it, superb writer (did I say authentic?), honest, safe (meaning you can actually cook her recipes with confidence that they will work!), dependable, trustworthy, droolworthy …. erm … what more can I add ..? She is the blogger whose recipes my family and I have cooked most and with huge success time and time again. On set she was focussed, organised and efficient – oblivious of the cameras. We need more food bloggers like Janice who has singlehandedly taught me more about Italian cuisine than any television presenter or cookbook author – and that is how to build flavour or in her beloved Italian, Sapori!

Anél Potgieter aka Lifeisazoobiscuit

And so we come to the winner! Anél is a new-generation blogger who is determined to stay authentic and unique. One can spot an Anél-post or Anél-recipe a mile away as it is new, fresh, edgy, twisty and something is invariably out-of-the-box or deconstructed. Yet, her food is not about being different. It’s about being honest, hearty and delicious. Above all, it’s about love, friends, togetherness and joy in sharing. She is a daring cook and loves to use different (with focus on local and seasonal) produce. And she has a quality that is very inspirational and infectious: enthusiasm! She will be a very quirky and popular judge on Season 2.

Sue Green aka Sous Chef

Sue must be the most popular blogger in the foodie community because whatever happened to her on screen evoked the most comments on Twitter and facebook. She was also the most nervous and despite all assurances that she looked and sounded fine, nothing we said could convince her otherwise. She was popular with the judges as her food consistently remained true to her blog’s voice and that is that great food does not have to cost an arm and a leg.

As an old hand at this, I can tell you that it takes guts, grit, grace, nerves of steel, a total absence of ego, absolute determination and a huge sense of humour to perform on television, let alone cook and cook under pressure. That’s why these food bloggers are the top twelve, my personal top twelve. They are the food bloggers who committed, stuck to their commitments regardless of some of their personal circumstances that changed and who afterwards remained humble – and continued to blog with passion and love, completely and unconditionally giving to their readers. These are the food bloggers who changed my viewpoint and opinions and who are and will be personal heroes and icons for many years to come, if not for life. Above all, their loyalty, sincerity and realness will forever leave footprints on my soul.

Viewers too, will remember the Divas and Divo. Our viewership was more than 4 times that of our most well-known cookery series and just 35 000 viewers short of another series that aired during the same period on a weekday evening in a coveted prime time slot! And moreover, we shared the exact same target market as the other so-called ‘blockbusters’ at a fraction of the production costs! It just goes to show that a small budget, if produced with lots of energy and using the right talent (the Divas and Divos) can bring the public to the party by the hundreds and hundreds of  thousands – giving that immensely valuable return on investment to the benefactors, our sponsoring brands who made it all possible.

We will release more details of Season 2 once we’ve had a decent post mortem session with the Divas and Divo to brainstorm and to see what can be improved. I have always believed that you cannot grow in your work if you do not listen to others who have a valid and constructive opinion about your work – that’s why we always do post mortems and focus groups. They keep us on our toes.

Oops, I almost forgot: there were judges and a host also. My accolades next time … promise!

For months we have presented, negotiated, justified and pitched until we were breathless and blue in the face and another place, but finally, it’s all happening and we are inviting you to join us on the most delicious journey of your life!

Dinner Divas was conceptualised specifically to stimulate local attention to local food bloggers and their blogs and positively and beautifully showcase (and honour!) your delicious work. Many bloggers work long, tiring hours, passionately developing and loading content onto their blogs and here now, is your opportunity to draw massive media attention to your blog. And if you are in the market for other, bigger and better career and business opportunities, the series may very well be the fuel to improve or the spark to ignite a new business or career for you. And fun galore is guaranteed as you will meet and compete with other bloggers and meet up and get some brilliant ideas and tips for your blog from experts in various fields. And besides, you can enter this one! Most other cooking competitions have rules to restrict you from entering if you are ‘working in the food business.’ Well, Dinner Divas is especially for foodies and in fact, if you ‘work in the food business’ you can even promote your business or service on air provided it’s mentioned and promoted on your blog! In fact, we’d be referring to your blog (or book or catering business or money-earning website or whatever business you’re in) and referring viewers to your and showing your URL on air and other media.

Here’s the concept: between 8 and 12 entrants will cook their family dinner ideas and solutions for a panel of expert judges. They are two foodies and a food editor. There will be more than one editor and they will alternate between episodes. The main menu themes consisting of three dishes would be ‘My passion/my skill/my kind of food/what I love to cook, eat and serve and my blog on a plate’.  The judges will determine who’s taking the title and tiara through an elimination heat, a semi-final and a final heat. In the elimination and semi-final heats, you will compete in the Dinner Diva kitchen whilst the finalists are in for a few tasty trips to get acquainted and be inspired by the delectable, culinary Cape Town.

Our sponsors are Nulaid Eggs and Sasko Flour with a fabulous headline sponsorship by Mr Price Home. The criteria will not only be how well you cook or bake – it will mainly be about how you express yourself (and your blog’s message) through your meals albeit vegetarian, easy dishes, quick meals, exotic meals, baking mainly, budget beaters or any ethnic cuisine of your choice.  We will premiere on SABC2 on Saturday the 13^th of  October.

You will not be given a task that you are not prepared for. No mysteries. No walks of shame. No pressure tests. No armies and shoppers to cook for. In fact, you will be given all the rules and what you require to cook before the time so that you can be properly prepared, select and test your recipes in your own time before we even shoot the series!

We are shooting the series in Cape Town from the 20^th of August into early September and if you are chosen to be one of our competing Divas but live outside of Cape Town, we will pay for your travel and all accommodation and meal costs to attend the shoot. And, if you go through to the semi-finals and finals, we’ll do it over and over again . And in true Diva style, we have a make-up artists on set all the time to pander to all your appearance requirements

The rewards and prizes are great too! Every chosen competing Diva will receive gorgeous, useful and valuable prizes plus a chapter in the Dinner Diva 2012 recipe book. In the chapter you can showcase your best recipes, your best posts and promote your blog. You can take your own pictures or we can and we will edit your copy perfectly if you want us to. The winning Diva will receive the tiara and title of Prima Dinner Diva for 2012 and a cash prize of R50 000. In addition our top Diva will have a guaranteed job as a judge on next year’s series and a double chapter in the recipe book. All the divas and their blogs will receive extremely valuable media attention. And yes, we know that the winning diva may be a divo and then we will change all references and the title to be gender-polite, promise!

If you are interested to be a Diva then make your ultimate dinner date with us by entering below. If you have questions feel free to email me on anne@2blonds.co.za . But enter quickly, there is not a lot of time.

Can’t wait for your entry: this is going to be the best food trip ever! Not to mention the very best of food series ever! Guaranteed. So please enter by clicking on the image below.

It was love at first sight. I knew I had found an idol, another role model: The Food Bitch. I love her, yet I am envious of her because she can say what I dream to but dare not because of rules governing our fragile society. Not that I’ve been meaning to say that the Spur suck, but it does feel liberating, wow! The Food Bitch can go to the bottom of our issues and face them head on. Most of us can’t – or won’t. And that, my dear fellow foodsters, is in my humble opinion the big issue with us: not speaking out when warranted. And those who do speak out get attacked and maligned and marginalised and ostracised and I have now run out of decent English words to describe all that happens to us who dare to speak out.

 My point? Bitching can be liberating and uplifting, simple. And it has the potential to lift the standards for us all who have to suffer because somebody in charge has no respect for us.

 Clearly, yesterday’s post of The Food Bitch (Why I Hate the Spur) touched a massive nerve with FOOD24 readers. There must have been more than 1500 comments and likes and dislikes, surely an all-time record? Clearly, the Spur is a popular eatery. But clearly, it is losing favour and on a downward spiral. Yet, I seldom see a Spur empty.  It seems like business as usual and it proves one thing: we keep on supporting them in spite of our discontent, as seems to be our habits and tendency as a society in general. We bitch in private but seldom publicly.  

 Caro and team, well done in hiring The Food Bitch and I hope somebody has the guts to make Spur aware of what your readers are thinking and feeling. I bet that none those readers who commented on and liked or disliked the post, ever made Spur top management aware of what really goes on in (some of) their branches.  Well, somebody should. And here is a golden opportunity to take the public view en masse to Spur top management. Corporates usually respond actively and favourably to consumer complains whereas a branch manager or franchise owner will rather bribe you with a freeby dessert or bottle of wine hoping you and the problem will go away, flagrantly showing such a lack of respect for you and your concerns. But if top management becomes aware of this post and the massive reaction it evoked, we may soon again venture out safely and have a Goodie Burger that is fresh, clean and delicious, delivered with pride and respect for all concerned.

 It’s good to remember that the only way a business can show how much they value and respect their customers is through goods and service.  The lower the standard of goods and service, the lower the respect a business feels for you. It is as simple as that.

 I am working like a maniac to tie up everything for Dinner Divas and soon we’ll cook our hearts out to some welcome fame and fortune … in the meantime, I hope Spur gets wind of our feelings and give us back our beautiful, delectable burgers …. and all the rest of goodies on the menu!