Simply Unbelievable
We interrupt this website for a bit of folderol. But I've gotten away from such things for far too long, and as I noted the other week, I want to get back to at least some of it, to a degree.
This is a really minor, utterly personal, semi-meaningless, silly, off-beat, somewhat funny for its being an inexplicably unnecessary, borderline insulting annoyance. I came upon it totally by accident, I've waved it off as "Okay, really weird, so what?", but it kept occurring, and finally it didn't just become "occurring," but a pattern, and I had enough and wanted to write about it.
This came about when scrolling through the news feed on my Pixel phone. Every once in a while there would be a food-related story from a website called Simply Recipes, it would look interesting, I'd read it, it would be somewhat interesting, and I'd move on.
Later, a day or few days later, there would be another article from Simply Recipes. It too would look interesting, it would be somewhat interesting, and I'd move on.
The would keep happening -- except that after a while I stopped thinking it looked interesting, but instead something about it seemed weird. But I figured I must have missed something.
Except that it kept happening. And happening. And happening. Every single time.
What it was is that the article would have a title something like, "I asked four chefs about their favorite mustard, and they all said the same thing."
At first that was it. "Interesting," I thought, "all four chefs like the same mustard. It must be really good. I should maybe check it out." Except that over time, it struck me that every single time the "four chefs" they asked always said their favorite was "the same thing." Always. As in...always. AlwaysAlwaysAlwaysAlways. The same brand of jarred pickles, canned diced tomatoes, bottled orange juice, barbecue sauce, mayonnaise. The same, the same, the same, all four chefs "said the same thing." Always.
The odds must be staggering.
By the way, early on, I tried a couple of the items. Both were good -- one didn't seem anything amazingly better over what I usually got, but it was good. The other was pretty tasty, better than many, though not necessarily the best I'd gotten, but it was good. Neither were things that struck me "Well, if all four chefs said it was their favorite, it must be amazing." They weren't amazing. But they weren't bad at all. They were good. Absolutely. (I'm not using "good" pejoratively, by suggesting it wasn't very good or even excellent. I don't want to get into subjective tastes here. Just two categories: good or bad.)
The only reason I say "early on" is because after a while I stopped reading the articles from Simply Recipes. While I figured that the items they wrote about would always be tasty, I couldn't assume that they were necessarily The Best and So Much Better Than All Others. And though the products had all been good, there was something that just seemed...scammy about it. Not that it was a scam, I have no way of knowing that, and would guess strongly it wasn't -- the problem for Simply Recipes is that when their random and varying "four chefs" always always always say only one item was the best, always, it has the appearance that someone paid for advertising. I don't think that's case, as I said -- but I do know that the odds make it improbable that every single time all four chefs they asked would always say the same thing. Always. And though I don't think it's a scam or paid advertising -- I can't figure out how this improbability would happen. It defies the odds. Which is why, no matter how much they can reasonably explain it away (assuming they can), their results are meaningless. Because those results don't appear even remotely probable.
When I say "always," that's a word without context, so to give it perspective I'll estimate that this happened 30-40 times. All four chefs said this was their favorite item 30-40 times, which was every time.
And as I said, too, after a while I found it both annoying and insulting. Annoying because I wanted to know what the product was that was The Unanimous Best -- except that I no longer trusted that it was the best, or even necessarily in the top five. And insulting because it was assuming I'd be gullible enough to think that because their "four chefs" all thought the product was the favorite that there were no other products that other chefs might think would be better. Would a fifth chef think the same? What if they asked 20 chefs what their favorite was? How did they decide on the four chefs? Didn't they themselves find it weird that the four chefs they'd ask would always always always always always say the same thing???
I finally decided to check out the Simply Recipes website.
And to my surprise (and pleasure), it looks pretty interesting, very comprehensive, mature, and extremely well-done. It covers an extensive range of food-related subjects in many different categories. And many of the articles not only looked intriguing, but also valuable. And thoughtful and professional. Nothing remotely as weird as their "I asked four chefs..." stories. Which made their "I asked four chefs..." stories all the more bewildering.
So, I went to track down my mission: to find out if it was a newsfeed issue, and maybe my newsfeed only chose to include their "I asked four chefs, and they all said the same product" articles, and perhaps Simply Recipes had other "I asked four chefs" articles on their website where with the chefs had differing opinions.
I found the section on the website with their "I asked four chefs..." articles, scrolled through the long page where these were mixed among other articles, and found nine of them posted there -- and...every single one there, as well, were exactly the same. All of their magical four chefs always, again, named the same brands.
And just to prove the point, here are two screen shots with eight of them. I've highlighted the "I asked four chefs..." articles so that you can spot them better. (And the only reason it's eight, rather than all nine, is because I couldn't shrink the screen enough to fit the ninth article in so they'd all be legible.)
Oh, okay, as I said, there was also one other than I couldn't fit on one of these screen shots. I might as well include it, as long as I've gone this lunatically far --
So, there you have it. I absolutely don't understand it. Clearly, Simply Recipes is doing this on purpose. But I don't know why. Yes, it singles out a good product -- maybe it's even the best, though not necessarily (nor likely, given all the products and chefs there are). So, why??? Wouldn't it be much more valuable to readers of an otherwise very well-done food website to provide a range of top products?
I don't get it, and it's not for me to get it. I do want to read articles about food products that every chef asked agrees on. But -- I do not want to read articles that are about food products that every chef asked always always always always always always agrees on. Because it is simply unbelievable, and borderline insulting, and not valuable enough when it can't be believed.
I will add that having told my newsfeed to stop showing articles from Simply Recipes, it now offers other chef-testing articles. And while happily there are several that have a mix of opinions -- usually articles that rank food brands -- I'm amazed and boggled that there are still a couple of other publications that have very similar "four chefs all liking the same brand" articles. (The Kitchn.com leads the pack in this now, although I haven't looked into their consistency as closely.) Maybe they're owned by the same parent company. Maybe it's kismet. That said, Simply Recipes remains the most egregious.
There. I got it out of my system. And yes, I know it was really minor, utterly personal, semi-meaningless, silly, off-beat, somewhat funny for its being inexplicably unnecessary, and a borderline insulting annoyance.
But you have to admit -- it's really weird.
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