Gilt Taste

[johnder]

Hi Everyone,

So I recently switched jobs and now find myself running technical operations for Gilt Groupe. While historically they have been focused on fashion "flash sales," we recently moved into a new experiment with what we are coining as an interactive food magazine. The premise is to wrap a selection of artisan purveyors in a site that will feature rich content in the form of recipes, editorials, and interactive videos. Needless to say I am very excited to be a part of this as a great side perk is having all these amazing products flowing through our office for testing on a daily basis!

Currently we have a pretty amazing who's who line up of contributors, headed up under Ruth Reichl (full contributor list here)

As we are still in Beta, we are constantly changing and tweaking our site to increase the value added to both people who want to enjoy the editorial side and also those who want to purchase from the product side. I wanted to provide a discussion area in which discussions can be directly passed back to the people involved and also provide a lens on some of the behind the scenes action.

Given my long history with eGullet and knowing first hand the quality of the reader base here, it was my first thought to turn to this group to:

a) be a place for me to provide some insight on the development and specifically the amazing food photography that is happening on the site on a daily basis

b) be a place to open up a discussion line that can be passed back directly to the editors and managers of the group, both the positives and the negatives.

Needless to say it is great to be surrounded by such hard core food people both day to day at work now, and also here on eGullet. As a side note, I am not here to promote the site, push never ending surveys or questionnaires on everyone, or otherwise gain or profit from it here. I just found the process of building this site and the work of the editors, contributors and food photographers to be fascinating and wanted to share.

John

[Chris Amirault]

So here's the beta site. What do folks think?

[rancho_gordo]

Since you've asked, we were set to participate and I feel like we dodged a bullet by backing out at nearly the last minute. As a vendor, it wasn't a great experience.

But it's an interesting experiment and I hope you continue to improve it and make it relevant. I know there's a problem finding the economic model to pay for good journalism and food journalism in particular. I think the jury is still out.

[The Supper Model]

It's a great beginning. I love Melissa Clark's recipes and some of the personal essays, and yes wonderful photography.

How are you reaching out to food bloggers already out there? There are a ton of us who are already Gilt costumers so that would be interesting to find out if you have thoughts/plan in this area.

Otherwise, very excited to see where you go with it.

[MikeHartnett]

To be honest, I'm not sure I understand it. The idea behind Gilt, as I understand it, is deals on brand name stuff. Sort of a "you don't have to be loaded to dress/live/etc. like you are" idea; it doesn't have to be snobby and out of reach. It's a very coherent idea. Gilt Taste, however, seems to clash with that idea. Brand name foods for way-high prices. Ribeyes for $85 a pound? $222 worth of caviar? Plus, while I have deep respect for most of the people writing for the site, I question the motivation for hiring them. To draw people to the site to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of caviar? I just don't see the correlation.

When I first heard about Gilt Taste, I was excited by the possibilities. Unique stuff at good prices, I thought. Plus, if all these people had signed on in apparent support, it had to be good, right? At this point, though, it seems like someone else trying to sell fancy, overpriced oils, caviars, and giant hunks of meat to people who don't know any better, instead of seeking out the truly unique and providing a good deal.

[gfweb]

I like the idea of a site for obscure high quality stuff. But these prices and products are not something I need.

I like the idea of a glossy web food magazine that aggregates the best of the many great blogs. But I'm not sure that I see that in Gilt.

The list of contributors has many great names. But so do lots of trade mags in other fields ...and only rarely do you see an original contribution from them.

So I guess I'm not yet seeing the concept properly. Why would I bookmark this URL?

[mathewr]

i just cant wait for the ipad app i hear u guys are creating

[jrshaul]

It's like someone found a way to pipe Whole Foods directly into my brainstem.

The recipes are good, but the Whoopie Pie of the Month is pretty much the antithesis of everything I believe about food.

The possibility of "vendor lock-in" also gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. When Apple designed the computers to seamlessly connect to iPods to encourage sales, they treated all all other music device as a sort of electronic cinderblock. Designing a recipe specific to a vendors' product isn't difficult, but it is awfully worthless to those who can't afford it.

[WJConrad]

Sorry to resurrect this topic two months after it died, but I have a serious bone to pick with your site with posting tons of great looking baking recipes but only by volume instead of by weight. I mean surely there is no way that Thomas Keller--of all chefs--gave you his recipe by volume: http://www.gilttaste.com/stories/4960-tko-recipe-thomas-keller-s-take-on-the-oreo

Please, I beg you, make a commitment to baking quality by posting all baking recipes with dry measures by weight <i>and</i> by volume. And while you're at it, why not sell kitchen scales and thermometers? Many of the recipes could really be by temperature instead of by cook time. (You've already got temperature on the poached chicken, actually) I'm skeptical of sticking temperature probes into baked goods, but everything else seems fair game.

Edited April 26, 2012 by WJConrad (log)