Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - Kewl Kitchen Kit (and the ethics relating to free stuff) – Part 1

I am going to tell you about some interesting kitchen equipment I’ve come across recently, but before I do so I think it’s important you be aware of why and under what conditions I am writing about this stuff.

In my last column I noted I had attended the first Food Bloggers of Canada conference. It had been organised by a talented and committed trio who worked their collective buns off to deliver a superb event. For a treat – but only after you’ve read the rest of MY column – do check out their wonderful blogs: Eyes Bigger than my Stomach by Melissa Hartfield; Eat.Live.Travel. Write by the Macaron Queen, Mardi Michels; and Feeding Ethan by Ethan Adeland.

The conference was held at Hockley Valley Resort which as you can see in the photos has its own giant charcuterie display fridge, thus qualifying as an official foodie haven Although I paid full freight to participate in this kaleidoscopic introduction to the food writing world, registration came with a bunch of unanticipated benefits: The bag of swag awaiting us was so large the contents filled the table in the laundry room for days as I sorted through it. All during the conference representatives of a number of brands were on hand to talk about their wares.

For instance Canada Beef, the presenting sponsor, hosted the first dinner and had a number of their
“ambassadors” on hand. The official appliance sponsor, KitchenAid also had a significant presence as did various other purveyors of food and drink, kitchen equipment and books etc. Disclosure: I’m a huge fan of the KitchenAid product. We have a big grey stand mixer - called “Nigel” by my ladies - who does regular duty in our kitchen. For that matter we also love beef in its many incarnations and I could certainly be ambassadorial…

Even before we arrived at the conference two pans from Nordicware showed up in the mail with a challenge to blog about them for the opportunity to win more product. Post conference the goodies continue. Delta Faucets are providing each attendee with one of their newest faucets that incorporate touch technology (something I can see as being very useful in my kitchen given how often I have mucky hands), and the Manitoba Canola Growers are sending us a tasting kit.

Clearly, none of this largesse comes free of the expectation that some publicity might come the way of the generous donors. (And I suppose I’ve just met some of that expectation by having mentioned 20% of the Food Bloggers conference supporters!) That is all well and good, and in fact one of the key ongoing discussions during the conference was the ethics of writing uncritically about such freebies, or of not being up front about how they came one’s way.

To be clear where I stand, as a food and drink writer (and in contrast to a restaurant reviewer for instance) I’ve generally chosen not to write about restaurants or product that I don’t appreciate or use personally.

Apart from having been a guest of Dishcrawl (as disclosed in the last column), and of the Hamiltonian’s Publisher at Barbara Caffé (my second column), I’ve paid for all my own meals in the restaurants I’ve written about in the past 32 columns.

Sometimes it has taken multiple visits to an establishment to get the story; sometimes I’ve been able to pull a piece together based on a chance encounter. I’m always glad of the opportunity to be exposed to new venues, people and product. However, when approached (or when I’ve solicited entry to a venue or asked to use a product), I have been up front that while I will certainly consider their offerings I am not guaranteeing a piece about it, let alone a positive review.

That said, and no matter how I came across them, why wouldn’t I want to share information about neat new stuff that might make your life easier or more interesting in the kitchen? Or about tasty new products, or old standbys that we tend not to give much thought to: the excellent new stocks from Campbells and Canadian Mushrooms for example…

Just know I will always honestly tell you what I think and, when applicable, let you know if I have got something free. So in Part 2, I will write about several pieces of kitchen kit I’ve tested recently, as well as some I’ve owned for years…

To see more pictures, click here. 

Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak

Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.