Welcome to the redesigned ruhlman.com, with great thanks to Leah McCombe, the designer, and Kyle Crouse, the programmer. Please forgive us if it takes a few days to work out any bugs. Most of the changes are cosmetic, but a couple of new items have been added. I’m going to try to offer signed copies of most books via paypal and see if this is practical. Also, I’ll be writing a second blog, called The Elements of Cooking (using terms or ideas from the book), on which I hope to address issues of fundamental cooking technique.
It’s been an active week on the blog with the book tour and the Next Iron Chef brouhaha. It’s my policy not to delete posts unless they are truly harmful in some way, but I urge commenters to post only words that you would say aloud to whomever it is you are addressing. Just ask yourself if you would before hitting the button.
In response to the vitriol, I would offer this:
Among my favorite books, if not my favorite book ever, is Brendan Gill’s Here At The New Yorker . In it he says too much is made of life’s being serious:
“In fact,” he writes, “not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the argument that life is serious, though it is often hard and sometimes terrible. And saying that, I am prompted to add what follows out of it. That since everything ends badly for us in the inevitable catastrophe of death, it seems obvious that the first rule of life is to have a good time; and that the second rule of life is to hurt as few people as possible in the course of doing so. There is no third rule.”
Comments and criticisms on the new design are most welcome!
The site looks great Michael. You could bump up the font size for those who can’t do it themselves, it’s a bit small.
As for the vitriol, I’m afraid that most of it is the natural result of the content you have been posting.
Next Iron Chef is a sporting event, and many sports fans have a hard time accepting that they are not the ones who have been chosen to compete. So they compete vicariously, unfortunately for your nerves, here on your blog. It’s a pain in the butt, I’m sure. But as I told my daughter when she expressed horror over the obscenities being hurled at her beloved Mets during her first Phillies game, there’s nothing to be done about it. Not nowadays at least when the cultural and legal taboos against acting like a moron in public are at their weakest since Columbus subjugated the Caribes.
Argument, name-calling and macho posturing are part of the experience and part of the price you pay for wanting to be part of a competitive sport.
The best that you are anybody can hope for is that the nastiness stays at a low simmer and doesn’t boil over like it sometimes does at football (soccer) matches. It’d be awful seeing someone stomped over something as silly as a disagreement over whether Andrew Knowlton is hotter than you are.
Got Pork?
Nice job Michael. You’ll get the kinks worked out.
Will TFLC be getting signed copies as well?
Nice re-do of the site! I like the wider Comments column. Comments can be read with less scrolling. There are no major display issues on my system; I concur with some of the tweaks that have been suggested.
On to “Elements.” I started reading some of the essays and quickly “ruined” (I perfer to think of it as lovingly used) my first edition by making a note in the margin about a question about storing stock. I’ll save the question ’til blog 2 comes about. Then I thought of something I wanted to check, and sure, enough, it was in the glossary. And then other, and another. Great fun was had persuing the glossary.
This is an extremely useful book. For information that’s not contained elsewhere, for a quick reference, for times when you don’t want to carry around a huge tome, this volume hits the spot. It’s a terrifically fun read, as well as being a look at what you think is important in cooking. Very well done.
For middle-aged eyes, a slightly larger type size, please (I had the same comment sent to me at one of my own redesigns, and I’m so glad I listened — readability is everything). Love the new header. And as to vitriolic comments, (a) it seems we are all subjected to that once, and (b) comment moderation for a while might help, though in principle I hate to use it. However, once when I was out of town (and out of touch) for a few days, someone left a nasty piece of hate spam on my blog, and my readers were subjected to it for the whole time I was away. I felt awful about that, and vowed that whenever I am traveling I will enable comment moderation — because free speech or no, I would never have allowed a hateful (racist) comment to appear on my blog.
Can’t read it, sorry! Must be the over-forty eyes. Must must increase the font size.
I would recommend putting the ad strip on the right and the About/category sidebar on the left. That way if we don’t want to be annoyed by flashing ads, tasteful as they are, we can resize the screen to cover them. You’ve gone with a wide format, like our pal Heidi, which I’m not in love with, I prefer it 100 pixels narrower. If you are on a typically sized screen, then the site would take up the entire space. If you use a screen like mine, a big Mac screen, it doesn’t, but I like to see several windows open at once, don’t really like one dominating the space.
The top nav bar is hard to read, in addition to increasing the contrast, I recommend doing some sort of mouse roll-over effect.
Odd placement of the photo in the About window in the right sidebar. Makes you look kinda short, which from what I understand you are not. The windblown hair is oddly edited too.
You may want to do something to highlight your comments among the long list of comments you often get on your posts. Easier for us to see the VOR (voice of Ruhlman).
Nice clean layout. Love the colors. Well done.
The Brendan Gill quote is paraphrasing the great Kurt Vonnegut I believe. If he just came to the same basic conclusions on his on, all the better.
dude; seriously, put the background back in the picture of you that’s next to ‘about’. Fade it out, fuzz it a little, whatever. But right now you look like you’re trying to do a Farrah Fawcett in 1978 there, and it looks sorta bad, though I like that pic of you when the background is in there.
I think I have to agree that the font is a bit smaller, but in overall, the organization of the website is very fluid, I like it. If the font gets larger, the overall layout of the site will look different.
…Today I’ve been to some voluntary work which needed to cook something for the needy, and I felt so sad about the people without very decent fundamentals about cooking and eating, and this seems so widespread that looks pretty normal, while seeking fundamentals like I do looks picky and obsessive, am I really?
Nice work, Leah and Kyle!
Beautiful blog design! I agree about the font size, but that’s all I’ll opine about — everything else is a matter of taste/early-redesign hiccups, I think.
Hooray for an Elements blog — I’m halfway through “B” and can tell already that I’ll have questions!
And something I meant to add in my previous comment regarding NIC: thanks for your honesty and willingness to discuss the process here. It was illuminating to see the inner workings of such a show, and I for one really appreciated that rare glimpse.
Congratulations on the excellent design for your new blog. The only comment I have to make is ubiquitous, hoping you understand its far reaching implications, – - you must be amongst the most patient of people ever to have graced either a stage or a blog. It’s a distinct pleasure to read you and to know that people like you are out ‘there’.
“re: Knorr advertisement
There’s a ton of MSG in Knorr products: enough to make Lot’s wife wish she had been turned into a pepper mill, instead.
There’s a Bob Dylan joke somewhere in there.
Posted by: Corey Haim & Eggs”
Corey Haim & Eggs,
Knorr is a good product, imo. MSG is underused in the U.S. That whole Chinese Restaurant Syndrome has proved to be a myth–not backed by scientific scrutiny. MSG is an amino acid found in nature e.g. seaweed. I’d be more worried about the sodium content in Knorr products rather than the MSG.
Funny how nobody seems to care that the N.I.C. finale used swordfish as it’s secret ingredient. Swordfish has been over-fished. Many restaurants refuse to serve it as it goes against their principle of sustainability.
I guess my point is that if we are gonna be opposed to MSG shouldn’t we also be opposed to other unhealthy things like eating swordfish which is full of mercury and is not a sustainable product?
Nice layout! I’m running Firefox and it looks okay on mine so far.
Thanks for ALL these excellent comments. I don’t disagree with any of them. I’ll be working on this this week. Thank you, everyone.
Michael, the redesign looks great! I’m looking forward to the ‘Elements’ blog and how its evolved.
Let the debates begin…holy cows beware!
Very nice opening page. Very clean and crisp. Quickly conveys what your pages are about –food. (Though I did notice you also listed your general NF books as well).
When I click on “Walk on Water” “Buy It Now,” I pull up your link to “House.” I checked the other NF books, and they’re fine. I didn’t check your cooking books.
When I pull up your “About” page, I like the photo of you. The page is very balanced. However, there’s a lot of text –you might want to see how you can either bring in some white space or punch it up a bit with either some subheadings or bold text. Right now it has a nice narrative flow. I don’t think you need to do much, just figure out how to give the eye a place to anchor onto now and then.
The blog is nice. Great use of graduated red on the top. I’m wondering if the photo sizes in your posts can be made a bit smaller, and the font size a bit bigger. The changing ad on the left is nicely integrated and it doesn’t bother me at all. Interesting column right width. I think it works… well… almost.
The overall width takes up my whole screen unless I go in and play with my resolution settings. So sometimes –your photo in column right falls a tad off the edge. Think you can bring your mug over to the left just a bit?
And lastly….can you edit this? “I write about many subjects in magazines and newspapers, but mostly in books and mostly about food, the work and business of the chef, and about cooking, for pleasure, for sustenance, for money…”
But overall, a big improvement, very elegant and impressive!
As for the rule of life to have a good time, I agree. Absolutely. But I think a lot of people –especially creative types, have to go through a phase where everything is rather serious and puzzling. I know I did. You don’t go through art school and much later decide to switch gears and become a writer without being a pill! It’s the getting out of it and finding your place later on that’s a blessing. What’s difficult now is watching people you like very much beating themselves over the head thinking that everything has to be “just so.” Ah well. They’ll find out later. Gotta have that faith.
I’d agree with Lux above: the advertising is pretty heavy handed, and the glaring contrast and bright colors make the rest of the site hard to read.
Your Elements of Cooking blurb on the right still contains placeholder Lorem Ipsum text, btw.
I’m sure I’ll still read the blog, but never really saw much wrong with the previous layout, so can’t say if this is a success or not.
Congrats on the new design, it’s really really nice. Sigh. I want that kitchen more than you know.
Top nav buttons on books page: just switch the type to a tint of the red (i.e. pinkish) or better yet white. Red on black is going to be impossible for color blind people (there’s apparently a lot of them, mostly men)…The horizontal nav bar is fine the way it is.
Ok, ok, I’m a designer, I’m opinionated.
@Ruhlman
re: Knorr advertisement
There’s a ton of MSG in Knorr products: enough to make Lot’s wife wish she had been turned into a pepper mill, instead.
There’s a Bob Dylan joke somewhere in there.
@Ruhlman:
In response to the vitriol, I would offer this:
Among my favorite books is Brendan Gill’s Here At The New Yorker. In it he says too much is made of life’s being serious: [Snip]
Point taken, but you do take food – a tremendous part of your life, so it would seem – very seriously (some might argue, too seriously) and thus, would your idee-fixe not be contradicting Gill’s discourse?
Now, if you had quoted Henry Louis Gates, instead, then, I’d be impressed.
This effing rocks (and, yes: I’d say that in person!)
One thing about TypePad (or as my friends and I call it, “Thai-Pad”) though, is, unlike, say, Yahoo Groups, where the format is relatively user-friendly, TP’s major annoyance — to me, at least — is that, one must peruse the entire page in order to read or backtrack on posts etc.
Whereas, on Yahoo Groups, the formatting or template, allows the user to perform a search for posts or posters, and to read the posts in either a shortened or expanded sequence. Many more features, but you get the idea.
Anyway, the blog looks cool.
Kudos, Mr. Ruhlman!
On the new site and on the words of wisdom as to not taking things too seriously…
I vow to direct any and all vitriol solely to a certain Brown and Orange-clad football team who plays their home games on the banks of beautiful Lake Erie…and only in the comfort of my own living room as I watch said team butcher the finer points of the greatest game ever invented.
Best!
The blog looks lovely, with a few small issues excepted:
1) Bump up the font size a little.
2) Move the RSS feed link a little higher up to make it easier to find.
3) “Upcoming Book Events” still has placeholder links.
4) The dark-red text on black background in the top nav bar is very hard to read.
5) The link to your wife’s photography business is listed under “Favorite Kitchen Tools”??? That doesn’t seem accurate.
6) The right column is a little disorganized. You might want to move the graphic for the “Elements of Cooking” blog, it pulls focus in a weird way.
Finally, I would not use quite that much third-party advertising on the site; it looks tacky, and it’s not like this is your primary or even your secondary income stream. If the ads don’t result in significant revenue after a few months, I’d ditch them and go back to the full list of your books on the left column instead.
Those are all small things though. Overall it’s very nice!
your hair looks good. oh, and the new banner is good, too.
Michael, I think you must be unfamiliar with John Gabriel’s Greater Internet F***wad Theory.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
Note that there’s naughty language in the above link. Unfortunately, I myself have been subject to that in the past. People don’t tend to bite their tongue when they have nothing to lose. It’s honesty at its worst.
Love the new design!
One more thing: The horizontal nav at the top is red text on a black background, which practically disappears. Change the background to All-Clad stainless grey. Or make the text that color. Either way will be a visual improvement and will still match your masthead’s pot rack.
I really like the new colors and graphics. Sidebars are a bit cumbersome for me as well, but nothing I won’t be accustomed to by the end of the week. I also am looking forward to the elements blog. Maybe something like a message board for people who want to ask about older books?
I love your new site design. The banner at the top is fantastic. The red is perfect and the pans add a nice touch. Good job!
Can’t wait until my copy of “The Elements of Cooking” arrives so that I can get in on the discussions.
pretty! i like the red. I like the home page photo of you in the kitchen.
when I click on the “read more” for the Return to Cooking book, it gives info for Soul of a Chef…a normal kinda quirk for a new site.
I’m excited about the Elements blog. I will have questions
Oh! Signed books on paypal! I’m in, since you don’t seem to be getting down to San Diego on your tour of the west. The site is slick and I like the “windswept look” picture. Font is pretty small, though.
Travel safe-
Loving the new site! Have to agree about the font size, though. Never seen anything so teensy on the web before, but I’m sure your designers are CSS-savvy and will fix this problem with a quick wave of the mouse. (If not, wave your chef’s knife in their direction and demand 10 points, minimum, then threaten to mince their pixels.)
Check that final sentence in Brendan’s quote. Yeah, I notice things like that! Sorry.
The new design looks great in IE.. unfortunately I use Mozilla and the blog is all out of whack (no graphics, sidebar is off screen, etc). Hopefully the proper tweaks can be made. Looking forward to the new book and weblog!
I miss the cartoon to the right, of you creating a chef…and the moving ads to the left are distracting…but hey, change is okay…we can take it!
Congrats on the new design. Lovely photos, and nice section with all the books. I do agree with Drew about the new font and size of the blog text: a bit small for aging eyes.
Just finished Soul of a Chef today, and ordered Elements of Cooking and Making of a Chef. When I find a writer I like, I go the whole hog and try to read everything! One idea for the new website: I would love an area to discuss the books. I know you are going to be opening a dedicated discussion for “Elements,” but some of us are discovering your older books for the first time. It seems the website would be a terrific place to chat about some of the issues they raise–sort of an online book group. Keller’s ideas about striving for perfection, for example, struck a chord with me, and relate very closely to how I see my profession. It would be fun to mull these ideas over with other readers, and possibly have the author drop in from time to time as well.
“Soul” is an outstanding book, and I can’t wait to dive into the others. Thanks for putting up with all the craziness your TNIC participation seems to have generated here. The show led me to discover your writing, and for that, I am very grateful.
I’m delighted to hear about the second blog. I thought I was pretty kitchen savvy but I’m finding lots of fascinatiing and new (to me) elements in “Elements.”
Pretty tiny font, I have to concur, but the layout is smooth. It’s a bit busier than the last one, but I like it.
Love it Ruhlman. The red looks cool. Agree with the others though about the font…maybe its just that we’re not used to it, but one size bigger would be perfect.
Hey, MR.
Sorry to have missed you at Book Passage Sunday – work calls, you know?
And, thanks for giving us this forum to voice our (mostly measured) opinions. If you actually read your way through those past couple of ‘comments’ sections, then life on the book tour must be really unbearable!
As to the ‘new look’, all I have to say is its a bit difficult to read this new font/size. If I weren’t such a luddite, I’d probably be able to make an adjustment of my own, but for now, its a bit of a headache to read.
Cheers!