Good Thursday morning to everyone. Welcome to today’s #jectv Twitterivew with Jeremy Iggers. We’ll talk about food, himself & the TC’s.
Joel: To begin with. Where did you grow up and go to school? What was your focus growing up?
Jeremy: Didn’t really get into food until my college years, traveling around the world.
I grew up all over – Arkansas, Louisiana, Chicago, Buffalo, and a couple of years overseas in France and Germany
A traveling man! :) So how did you get started in writing about food?
Jeremy: I came to MN to go to grad school in philosophy, and thought it would be fun to review restaurants as a hobby.
I found a room in an apartment in Dinkytown, and one of my roommates turned out to be the first editor of TC Reader!
I showed him – DR Martin – some sample reviews, and he hired me – but I had no idea what I was doing.
But there weren’t a lot of pro restaurant critics in 1976. Three years later, the Minneapolis Star hired me freelance.
Back in those days, the local restaurant scene was pretty bad – hardly any ethnic restaurants, just meat and potatoes.
So you got to “pioneer” an industry that was changing locally. When would you say the “shift” happened locally?
Jeremy: The shift really hit in the 80s, I went to work for the Detroit Free Press, but got hired back in 84 by the Star
Lots of new restaurants opened in that era, both haute cuisine, and ethnic – big explosion of Vietnamese places.
There was a lot of national food media, too – Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, that drove local interest
I see. So you were with the @StarTribune up until when, and when did you start your food website?
Jeremy: I was with the Strib until 2007, mostly reviewing restaurants. I left in 2007, and started http://TCFoodies.com in 2009
The restaurant scene changed dramatically over those years – first Vietnamese, then everything else Szechuan
Northern Italian, Ethiopian, Korean, Thai, plus a lot of new more authentic Mexican restaurants
And of course a lot of interesting haute and nouvelle cuisine places – Quatre Amis, Aquavit, etc., etc.
The food options have been really expanding in the Twin Cities. What happened with www.tcfoodies.com yesterday?
Jeremy: We moved TCFoodies to a new home as part of the Twin Cities Daily Planet, now @tcdailyplanet.net/tcfoodies.
It’s a great fit – TCDailyPlanet – which I started w. friends in 2005 – has lots of food content & great interactivity
Our motto is Fresh Food News Daily, and we’ll be dishing up food stories that you can’t find anywhere else.
What kind of sharing will people find on the website? (i.e Reviews? Cooking tips? Trends?)
Jeremy: Like Lu Lippold, a terrific blogger – every Tuesday. Check out her recent story about Candyland : http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/column/lu-lippold/saint-pauls-tiny-candyland-stands-corporate-snack-giants
Anybody can have their own blog on the Daily Planet – and we want new blogging partners. Contact me.
We’ll also feature lots of food and restaurant stories from our ethnic, neighborhood and community media partners…
Sounds like a good site for people to bookmark on their web browser! Will you be a contributor as well?
Jeremy: Yup! My column will appear every Wednesday – here’s the one I posted yesterday: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/jeremy-iggers/what-i-learned-north-coast-nosh
I almost forgot to mention – we have a new weekly TCFoodies newsletter – go to http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/subscribe to sign up.
To close, what’s your “Big Picture” for your foodies website?
Jeremy: I’m excited about it. It’s going to be a place for foodies to share info about everything food policy & healthy eating
to fine dining and gastronomic adventures. And we’re hoping to add special foodie events as well…
Joel: Super! It’s going to be exciting to watch, especially for all of the Twin Cities “foodies” out there. Have a great day!
Jeremy: Thanks! The tcfoodies link hasn’t completely transferred yet, so go to http://tcdailyplanet.net/foodies instead. Happy Eating!