Tiny Urban Kitchen is a blog founded by Jen Che and presents her original recipes and photographs, local restaurant reviews, travel guides, and personal anecdotes. Che is a resident of Cambridge, Massachusetts and a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before starting Tiny Urban Kitchen, Che worked as a research chemist.
Tiny Urban Kitchen began in 2007 and has earned national recognition since its inception. On April 2, 2010, Che was interviewed for Glamour magazine’s daily health and fitness blog, Vitamin G. On April 29, 2010, Tiny Urban Kitchen was named “Best of Blogs” by Food News Journal. Most recently, Che was named the winner of Project Food Blog. Che was one of 700 food bloggers to undergo ten weeks of challenges, including preparing, hosting, and photographing a luxury dinner. As the winner of the $10,000 prize, Che will be donating the entire sum to charity.
Che has also been featured on wbur.org, Boston’s local NPR site, in The Boston Globe, in Time Magazine, and on CNN’s Eatocracy.
Food Blogs
Food blogs have been increasing in popularity due to the ease of creating a blog. Based on the growing popularity of food blogs, on November 1, 2010, WordPress.com launched a food blog aggregator, FoodPress. FoodPress, whose tagline is "Serving up the hottest dishes on WordPress.com," selects posts from food blogs hosted by WordPress.com. The blog is updated daily. Other food blog aggregators include TasteSpotting, Feedyum, foodgawker, and feastie.
Food blogs are gaining increasing attention from both the national and international media, and have been covered in several articles in magazines and newspapers, including Time Magazine and USA Today. Kate Hopkins, blogger and author of 99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink, contends, "Nearly all of these articles mention the passion behind these new food sites, but most have failed to notice the bigger picture: that a large community of individuals is writing about food in ways that the mainstream food media had forgone."