Bloggers are self seeking idiots and people taking photos of art, rather than looking.

Bloggers Are a Bunch of Self Seeking Idiots

Gavin Wren Food Blogging, Writing

But first, let me clarify something – I love blogging.

I think it’s one of the most fulfilling, engaging and self-nurturing things that I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve found the process of creatively developing my own ideas, designs, words and photographs, without any client briefs, deadlines or meetings utterly liberating on a creative level. Having the freedom to write whatever the hell I want, whenever I want, has been beautifully empowering.

During two and a half years of blogging, I’ve written thoughts and feelings that I didn’t realise were inside me. I’ve transcended the world of keen amateur photography to become a professional food photographer. Through attending events and meeting people, I’ve gone back to university, to study a Masters degree in Food Policy. My personal and professional world has changed unreservedly, purely as a result of pursuing blogging.

Therefore, I believe that blogging as a personal indulgence… come and read more…

21 things about eggs lots of organic eggs

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Eggs

Gavin Wren Food Education, Writing

Eggs, beautiful eggs. We love eating them, we buy billions of them every year and all have an opinion on the best way to cook them. I’ve recently become an egg-spert on these fascinating storecupboard staples, having spent a few months researching far and wide into how the UK egg market operates on my Food Policy MSc course.

To celebrate the beautiful occasion of submitting this year’s final coursework, I want to share 21 things I discovered whilst writing my research. If you want to know more, just get in touch, there’s about 1001 things I know about eggs now.

21 Things You Didn’t Know About Eggs

1. The UK consumed nearly 12 billion eggs in 2014 and that’s increasing.
2. That’s 185 per person, per year.
3. In the 1960s, it was 250 per person, per year, but that figure slumped by the eighties.
4. 85% of UK egg consumption is produced

Free Range Eggs Box with little blue barn raised stickers

What Free Range Means and Little Blue Stickers

Gavin Wren Food Education, Writing

Have you seen those little blue stickers on the packs of eggs recently? The ones telling you that hens have been temporarily housed in barns? It’s because there’s been a bout of Avian Influenza (AI), a disease that’s bad news for the chicken population of the UK so they’re all being kept indoors to prevent it spreading and these stickers are part of that process.

A few weeks ago somebody on Twitter was questioning whether it’s right to carry on buying these eggs, if the hens are no longer free range. It’s a good question, and not a very easy one to answer. I also realised that many people might not know the difference between barn eggs and free range eggs, so I’ve written this post to spill the beans on how the 35 million UK laying hens spend their lives. After reading this, you can make a decision on

YBFs Floating Red Onion

The YBFs

Gavin Wren Food Opinion Pieces, Writing

Young British Foodies.

Every year, there’s an awards ceremony dedicated to the grassroots talent in the food industry, the unsung heroes and the up-and-coming visionaries in the food world. These awards celebrate the people who are really, really into food, but haven’t received the recognition they deserve yet. Let’s call them foodies (despite my disdain for that term) because that’s what the awards are called, the Young British Foodie awards, or YBFs for short.
Entries for the 2017 tranche of accolades has just opened, anyone can enter into the various categories, from foodservice, via alcohol to food writing or social media sharing, on the YBFs website.
As a celebration of these awards, I want to share my 2016 entry. I’m positive it only narrowly missed being a finalist, at least that’s what I like to tell myself. I hope you enjoy it, while I get on

Culinary Luddism

Culinary Luddism and The Downside of Slow Food

Gavin Wren Food Opinion Pieces, Uncategorized, Writing

10 days ago my interest was piqued by a tweet from Jay Rayner, proclaiming that people who think “ALL PROCESSED FOODS BAD” should read an article by food historian Rachel Laudan about ‘Culinary Luddism’. In this beautifully educational piece about the culinary history of local foods, Laudan explains at great length why processing, locality and freshness are not inherently good things, especially when viewed through a historic window …

An avocado in defence of clean eating

In Defence of Clean Eating

Gavin Wren Food Opinion Pieces, Writing

Congratulations, you’ve made it through January 2017. We can now turn our backs on that inaugural month and all the short lived health crazes that accompanied it. Veganuary and dry january both featured prominently on social media this year, the last vestiges of many new leafs which abounded just a few weeks ago have fallen into the annals of history for yet another year. We’ve already reached peak gym membership 2017. In this time I’ve …