Do you choose your vacation destination based on the food and drink offerings? Do you take notes while watching Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown“? Would you rather spend hours grazing London’s Borough Market than hanging out in front of Buckingham Palace? Then you, my friend, are one of us: a food-obsessed traveler.
You are someone who relishes in experiencing cultures through cuisine, who wants to gethands on with all things epicurean, and who seeks out the local dining scene. That probably also means you spend hours researching the web, sifting through message boards, going through old magazine clippings and travel books, and asking trusted foodie friends for their guidance. But what if there was a site that provided all the resources you needed to craft that perfect food-focused trip?
That site would be bitesee: the ultimate online guidebook for the food- and drink-minded traveler. A comprehensive site that we plan to build with your backing.
Our main goal is to equip our users with a full plate of food and drink sightseeing, or as we like to say biteseeing, for anywhere they may be headed.
We’ve already curated oodles of classes, quirky events (white asparagus festival anyone?), tours, day trips, and other sights to see. Whether it’s making chocolate from bean-to-bar in Belize or Brooklyn: bitesee will uncover experiences for food-minded travelers or anyone looking to be a culinary tourist on their own turf.
Content We Can Stand By
Personally we would never want to spend our hard-earned cash on a week-long cooking school vacation, or even an afternoon cooking class, and feel like we didn’t get our money’s worth. That’s why everything—and everyone—we feature on bitesee will be carefully selected and, whenever possible, road tested.
Contributors Whose Opinions You Can Trust
Bitesee’s contributors are locals and professional food writers who have years of experience, discerning taste, and extreme culinary curiosity. Their advice is something you can depend on. With their insider tips you will discover where the locals eat, drink and are merry in destinations from Paris to Portland, Oregon. Along with these essential eating guides, bitesee’s editors and contributors will recommend carefully curated food-related activities for those times between meals and mouthfuls.
We’ve already uncovered hundreds, if not thousands, of cool spots, unique activities and gastronomic adventures we want to bring to your attention. In order to put all of our encyclopedic epicurean discoveries online in a user-friendly manner, it takes a village. Okay,not a village, but a whip-smart team and coffee. Lots of it. From the good guys: La Colombe,Joe, Stumptown, Toby’s Estate, Birch…and when in Portland, Cup & Bar.
Bitesee’s founder Kiri Tannenbaum has been a food writer and editor for the past 11 years. Most notably, she was part of the launch team behind Delish.com, MSN and Hearst’s culinary site. During her tenure she interviewed more celebrity chefs than she can count and authored more than 1,000 articles and blog posts. Those writings were read by upwards of 21 million people and during her years at Delish, the site’s traffic swelled from zero to 7 million users per month.
Over the course of her editorial career, Kiri has also contributed to such publications and websites as The New York Post, Time Out New York, Food Network, Refinery 29, The Aesthete, Food Republic and (in the days before blogs) Citysearch.com where she served as a restaurant reviewer for New York City.
Prior to entering the world of digital media, Kiri spent a decade working behind the scenes in television. Her stints included cable giant MTV where, among other things, she made sure of Madonna’s arrival at the VMA’s and fed Busta Rhymes for the very first New Year’s Eve bash with Carson Daly. She moved upstairs to Nickelodeon where she witnessed Tom Cruise get slimed at the Kid’s Choice Awards and eventually followed her true passion, food, landing at Food Network where she managed key promotional partnerships and heard Emeril shout, “Bam!” in person.
Kiri also holds certificates from Le Cordon Bleu Paris and an M.A. in Food Studies from New York University where she is currently an adjunct professor. When her schedule allows, she leads culinary walking tours in New York City and is herself an avid culinary tourist.
This Kickstarter campaign could not be possible without the talent and support of these fine people:
Our superstar animator – Sam Marlow, we will be forever indebted for your imagination and dedication to the project
Our audio support – Allen Salkin, for listening to takes and trusting us with your mic
Our music – You’re My Sunshine (instrumental) by 3 Theory
Our Kickstarter guru – Lisa Q. Fetterman, Nomiku, you are our hero
Our reward partners: cookbook author extraordinaire Adeena Sussman, cheese and spirits expert Diana Pittet, and Paris local, Katie Mascaro
Our coffeehouses (see above)
And all the family and friends that were sounding boards along the way, especially EB Asbyll and Jeremy Tannenbaum
And…
A final thank you to *YOU GUYS*, our fellow food-obsessed explorers, for viewing our Kickstarter campaign (and reading down this far).
Please don’t forget to like us, follow us and share our campaign on Facebook andTwitter along with the hashtag #bitesee. To stay up-to-date on our launch, sign up for our newsletter.