Two years ago, I sat down at my computer and began writing. I really didn’t have much direction or knew what I was going to do, but I knew that I wanted to do something about food. So, what you see here is the culmination of two years. I wanted to put together a post that would detail the things that I’ve learned from blogging and everything else in between.

First things first: how did I create the best damn food blog…? Well, I knew absolutely nothing about writing and even less about blogging. It was something that intrigued me, because I subscribed to quite a few, but was afraid of stepping out and doing something like that for myself. I found that my attention span was that o a nat when it came to creating anything and sitting to write was up there, but, I realized, I was just as passionate about writing as I was about food, in-fact, I was more passionate about writing, so iamchefapple.com was born – so to speak.

Today is my birthday and I’m in a reflective mood, so this post is really about all the things that I’ve learned and what makes iamchefapple.com such a popular blog.

The three (3) things that I try to do with this blog are:

(1) Mouth-Watering recipes:

I want my posts to make you hungry. Through my word smithing (which I will admit, I am not trained in the art of word smithing or writing and my grammar may or may not suck at times – I write like I speak) and pictures, I want you to walk away drooling, I want your saliva glands to hop into overdrive and have you driving to the grocery store at 4 in the morning to make whatever recipe has got you tranced.

This is where I want to take one of your basic needs – nutrition, in this case – and turn it into a want, as in “I want to eat this right fracka-lackin’ now!” I get you or at least try to get you to understand that this a recipe that you should have in your arsenal of recipes and that you don’t know what you would have done or what you have been doing with your life without this recipe.

I, also try to show you an easy way to put together all these wonderful recipes in a way that is easy to understand and easy to make. I want to take the annoyance out of cooking and bring back the joy. I will readily admit that some of the recipes that I’ve created, aren’t that good for you, case-in-point, I only eat some of these things rarely, because I know that the calories will kill me, but, every once in a while you have to indulge yourself and that is why those recipes are here.

(2) The “tech” post:

This is where I show you how you can do anything that you put your mind to or at least anything that you read or see on my blog. This is where I show you and explain to you how to make the perfect hard-boiled egg, with no traces of sulfur on the outside of the yolk or how to recuperate from a killer hangover. Whatever it is, I want to be able to give you the information to do whatever you want to be able to do.

I look at these posts as reference material for my blog, I want YOU to pass these around over and over and over again. I want you to think “How clever! I’ll bet, I can do that!

and (3) Me, my personality and all the crazy things that go on in my life:

Most readers of my food blog are women between the ages of 25 and 50. Many of them are up and coming chefs, but the vast majority are single women, moms and wives who are looking for a way to add something interesting to their dinner table. I’ve had many readers inbox me and tell me that they enjoy my blog because they feel like they are actually apart of it. I talk about my childhood adventures and my life growing up as a kid in The Bahamas. I think this helps my readers to connect with me. Anyone can write a blog, not everyone, can honestly open up and show their inner most self.

What’s the value in this kind of post? I’ve been asked on several different occasions. I want my readers to think of me as a friend. A friend that can show them how to cook, a friend who’ll be there with questions myself, a friend who’ll open up and show them just who I really am. Hence the title, IAmChefApple. My blog just isn’t about me being a Chef, it’s about that and how I got to where I am now.

Why I think people read my blog?

Is it the recipes? I suppose it could be. If you the reader come to my blog to look up a recipe, I’m really not engaging with the you. It’s a one-way street; a monologue in which you really don’t receive anything, other than a recipe. While it makes sense for a food blog to have recipes, it’s not what make people want to visit my blog.

Is it the pictures? I hope so, good food blogs have good food pictures, but again, that isn’t what make people want to visit, or want to come back.

So, what is it? What will keep readers at a food blog?

It’s the writing.

I try to create articles that people will enjoy, but, I don’t understand why people won’t leave comments, instead they will send them to my inbox, I don’t mind, but I would really love it for my readers to leave comments so that everyone can benefit. I know that there are nights when I sit in front of my computer and I’m overwhelmed by thoughts rushing through and around my head that I have to write them down so that I don’t forget. Once my thoughts are calmed, I start researching. I own more than 1000 cookbooks, many of them are technical, many of them are ethnic, then there’s the internet. I always tell people that just because I have an idea of what I want to write doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll be able to get to that and finish it right away. I have more than 80 articles that are still in draft form, because I am testing, tasting, reworking, retouching and so on.

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