Feast or FamineWith Hong Kong’s restaurant industry in crisis, now is not the time to be asking for freebies
- A Hong Kong food writer’s threats to not include a restaurant in a story after being refused a free ‘tasting’ would be hard to stomach at the best of times
- With how badly the industry is suffering right now, some writers have made it a personal policy to not accept free meals
A friend who occasionally does food and beverage public relations (although that’s not his main gig) forwarded me an email he received from a freelance food writer who was asking him to set up a “tasting” at a restaurant.
For a tasting, the PR representative invites food writers and bloggers to come along and try the food, and gets their feedback on the dishes and service, so the cooks and staff can change and adapt, if necessary. Some food writers and bloggers write up these meals as “reviews” and they don’t always disclose that they were invited. Usually, tastings are done when a restaurant first opens.
A request for a tasting at other times is basically just asking for a free meal.
This friend is no longer involved with that restaurant so he didn’t invite the freelancer for a meal, but he sent her a press release and photos. The freelancer then replied with a veiled threat implying that she might not include the place in an article she was writing unless she was given a tasting.
The area she’s covering is a specific section of one of the most restaurant-focused areas of Hong Kong, and there are endless places to write about. Is she choosing only the restaurants that cave in to the request of a free meal? Restaurants that can afford this are not necessarily the best places. And it seems unfair that if an establishment can’t afford to comp a meal, they shouldn’t be written about.
