When, where & why did cybercafes surface?
1984, Los Angeles California, innovative courtesy service connecting Olympic diners with local food & way-back home. After that? Anything was possible and everything happened. Cybercafe pioneers were artistic innovators, social educators, technology promoters and corporate marketers. From day one, cybercafes were praised for making global connections and criticized for encouraging human isolation. People sharing common physical spaces choosing to interact with people in remote places is nothing new. This food historian wonders if this is deja-vu all over again. Except for the Internet? 17th/18th century coffee houses were not so very different in mission/purpose/accomplishment.

[1984: Summer Olympics, Los Angeles]
"ECI created the world's first cybercafe network in 1984. This was a concept of telecollaboration artists Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz who were commissioned as part of the L.A. Olympics Arts Festival by the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. The Electronic Cafe was maintained for seven weeks."
SOURCE: Electronic Cafe International

[1988: ECI, the first public cybercafe, focuses on artistic expression]
The Electronic Cafe International, founded by Kip Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Santa Monica, California.

[1993: ECI pushes virtual & physical boundaries]
"Welcome to the Electronic Cafe International, where the orders of the day are strong coffee and cyberspace. A crowd of technophiles is here to absorb a demonstration of BodySynth, a device that converts muscle tension into music by running electrical signals through a computer and--of, suffice to say that you get the sounds of different instruments by flexing different muscle groups. Just to make things more interesting, a Videophone beams the performance to Amsterdam...Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, husband and wife, invented the Electronic Cafe International...What exactly is the Electonic Cafe? For starters, it's an actual place, tucked behind a dead-end street in an industrial district. it is indeed a cafe--at least to the extent that cake and espresso are served--but it's also jammed with video screens, camera equipment and computer monitors. The ECI is, in the words of its founders, 'a cafe for the global village.' This means you can do a lot of reaching out and touching on a global scale, aided by an extensive menu of state-of-the-art telecommunications equipment. As Galloway is fond of saying, 'coffee's a buck, Videophones $10 an hour, full-motion satellite, $48,000 an hour.' But the cafe's real focus runs toward more communal events, involving group 'telelinks' or 'videolinks' to other places around the world....Most of the events are performance-oriented...Europe is a vital techno-territory for the global cafe set. There are ECI affiliates at the Documenta 9 museum in Kassel, Germany, and La Cite Museum of Science and Industry in Paris--both with technology that oustrips the hardware at the mother cafe here. On the other hand, humble affairs such as Pepito's, the cafe outpost in Managua, Nicaragua, operate with little more than a Videophone and a Mr. Coffee. The Galloway and Rabinowitz are adamant that the network be inclusive, and not shun outlets that can't afford all the whiz-bang equipment. And so, several times a month, Galloway finds himself packaging up a Videophone and sending it by UPS to some remote corner of the globe.. A recurring link-up involves what must be some of the more communication-starved individuals around, namely the inhabitants of Biosphere II, who are eking out a hermetically sealed existance somewhere in the vicinity of Oracle, Ariz....The ECI grew out of a project commissioned by the Olympic Arts Committee in 1984. 'We had state-of-the-art multimedia telecom isntallations in five real ma-and-pa restaurants in different ethnic areas of L.A...it was sort of virtual tourism. International visitors could electronically zip around town and figure out where they wanted to eat"...That installation lasted six weeks..."We wanted the next project to be permanent"...And so, the Electronic Cafe International officially opened its doors on New Year's Eve 1989, with its first New Year's Eve Telebration. Starting at about 5 a.m., Galloway, Rabinowitz and fellow revelers telelinked with every time zone on the planet, just as the New Year came into being in each time zone, from Australia to Hawaii."
---"For That Epresso-Techno Taste Sensation: Drink In the Global Sights and Sounds at The Electronic Cafe," Martin Booe, Washington Post, January 4, 1993 (p. C1)

[1994: High Tech Cafe, Dallas]
"Welcome to the cafe of the Dallas Infomart, a convention and sales center known as a high-technology showcase for the latest in computer products and networking...Now, at the newly opened High Tech Cafe, business can literally bontinue over lunch, as customers at selected tables can download their food and their Internet mail at the same time--taking bytes beteween bites, as it were. 'Hi, I'm Tim, and I'll be your client-server this afternoon,' the waiter announced recently to a party of four at one of the restaurant's modem-ready tables...'may I get you a drink? An appetizer? An RJ-11 cable?' Power lunchers at the four seasons in New York have long had telephones at their tables, and in California the chirps of cellular phones and beepers mingles with the tinkling of ice cubes and silverware...But at the Infomart, a striking glass building at downtown's edge patterned after London's 19th-centruy Crystal Placace, the goal is to wine, dine and be on line....the hard-disk equivalent of the hard Rock Cafe...The restaurant has been around for nearly 10 years as High Tech Mex [est. 1984?]...After two weeks of renovation by volunteers from Infomart's staff, the restaurant reopened on August 19 as the High Tech Cafe. Telephone lines and power sources for laptop computers were strng beneath the central bank of tables. Broken computers from dusty storerooms were cannibalized...for spare parts to decorate the restaurant... Armed with srewdrivers, the volunteers went to work creating the restaurant's new decor. The overhead lights are encased in the shells of old computer monitors. The green, leafy 'ferns' in the corner are made from green circuit boards and cables. Screens between the dining area and the bar--the Spacebar, to be exact--are made of mother boards from defunct computers and calculators. Instead of flowers on each table, there are vases filled with computer key caps gouged from outdated keyboards...A diner can start with WYSIWYG--geekspeak for 'what you see is what you get'--soup, onion token rings or a miltimedia salad. Perhaps a computer club sandwich, or CD ROM-ano chicken? Mr. Mudrone's signature desserts include the LAN Mine, the Overload and the Crash. At happy hour, patrons of the Spacebar can order drinks like Fatal Error, a Memory Problem and Virus Protection...Instead of wheeling around a dessert cart, Mr. Mudrone said, he would like to wheel out a multimedia laptop that shows the desserts on a high-resolution color screen. He is experimenting with voice recorders that would play his spoken descriptions of each daily special to customers, and allow customers to relay their menu selections either by voice or touch-screen computers. 'We thought about using Newtons for the waiters,'...referring to the hand-held computers that can beam files by infared link to a computer in the kitchen. But, perhaps because of the Neton's much-publicized problems with handwirting recognition, the idea died...'The problem is, the waiter could write 'hamburger' and the order could come bakc 'overshoes.'...While the clientele of the restaurant is drawn almost excluslive from the business and computer communities, restaurant managers hope the new decordand emnu will attract a broader base of customers...What's ahead from the cafe? Plans include a Doom Room, wehre individuals or groups can play Doom, a networked computer game that is phenomenally popular among the Internet's cognoscenti. Infomart officials and food-service managers are also discussing 'sponsored' tables, where diners would be able to explore various on-line services like Compuserve, Prodigy and American Online. For now, however, it is strictly B.Y.O.P.--bring our own portable. And the staff hopes to transform the restaurant's empty wall space into a showcase for computer memorobilia...The first treasure to go one display: a bottle of toner particles, vintage 1959, from the original Xerox copier machine."
---Here's to the Techies Who Lunch: Nibbling on salads, and E-mail at a modem-ready cafe in Dallas," Peter H. Lewis, New York Times, August 27, 1994 (p. 35)

London's Cyberia
"Welcome to Cyberia, Britain's first cybercafe, where you can turn on, tune in and "surf" the information superhighway. The cafe concept, devised to make a computer environment less formidable, has been borrowed from California where "surfing" - or hopping between global databanks - is commonplace. Here in Whitfield Street, central London, over a cappuccino and an almond croissant, cognoscenti and novices alike can communicate with kindred spirits around the world. Even people with scant technical knowledge will be able to access international databanks and pick up "e-mail". The cafe, which opened over the weekend, will also offer an electronic dating service, a property noticeboard and free space for non-profit making organisations. Its co-founders Ewa Pascoe and Gene Teare believe this is the first centre in Britain to offer public facilities to access the Internet, the worldwide network through which you can swap information and "talk". People can walk in, sit down at a screen and - with a little tuition from an in-house expert - join 30 million Internet users. Whether they want a brief "chat" with a friend in Chicago via e-mail (computer message services which transmit words, pictures and graphics between machines in seconds) or a detailed print-out of data downloaded from the library of Congress in Washington DC, Cyberia can deliver. The cafe can also provide Internet users (or "netties") with an electronic mailbox. Six people can use the computers at a time and if the demand is as great as Ms Pascoe hopes, users will have to book slots to save queuing. But she wants to go further than provide a room with computers and coffee to create a technology centre with a conscience. In addition to being a cognitive psychologist, computer programmer and researcher of risk assessment software at City University, she particularly wants to encourage women. Angered and frustrated by the male domination of computer technology - only 4 per cent of Internet users in Britain are women - she wants to redress the balance, as well as offering environmental groups easy and cheap access to information. "I believe in technology for women and for ecology. Women have got less access to hardware and they earn less so their ability to get involved in computers is lower from the start. And most of the technology is not applied to anything useful. Many male users think women on the Internet are bad news." Women were among the first to use the "net". In the late 1970s and early 1980s the system was employed widely by librarians, almost exclusively female."
---"Cafe with a Mission to Explain," Matthew Brace and Neil Curtis, The Independent-London, September 12, 1994 (p. 5)

[1995: business models & marketing]
"@cafe...opened last week at 12 St. Marks Place...Eight of the dining tables are rigged with fullly packed desktop computers, and there are plans to bring the number up to 40...@cafe even sells subscriptions for full Internet access from the restaurant or home for $25...Some patrons complain that dining with a computer is too bizarre, a sign that humanity is truly devolving...Table hopping is de rigeur in @cafe, where few people besides the technically savvy staff seem to know what they're doing...The ambiance is decidedly more sedate at the Internet Cafe, at 82 East Third Street, which also just opened. This small library cafe has one main terminal, thorugh which notebook owners can plug into the Internet from their tables. It also sells memberships to its own Internet service, bigmagic.com and plans to rent laptops and to offer printing, scanning and web-page design...But don't expect dinner--just coffee and muffins."
---"At Two Cyber Cafes, They Eat and Drink, Hunt and Peck," Jennifer Wolff, New York Times, April 30, 1995 (p. 46)

"At Cybersmith [Cambridge MA], personal computers line the counters and customers can sip cappuccinos while surfing the Internet. Those who prefer to sit at booths have a sleection of specialties to choose from, like 'Internet Access' and 'CD-ROM and Multimedia.' And customers--from 7 to 70 years old--can sit and experiment, with a staff of 'technosmiths' to help them with any problems. Cybersmith is one of a growing number of low-cost eating places catering to both the cyber set and those mystified by but curious about everything cyber...But while most cyber cafes have computer games or a few terminals with access to the Internet, Cybersmith offers a range of the latest in interactive technology, incoudihng online serivces, computer games, virtual reality machines as well as computers outfitted with video cameras that create images for T-shirts. 'The technology elite is developing thses different media, but the geneeal public has hd no place to go catch up...We wanted to offer an unintimidating way to introduce the novice to cutting-edge technology. The care adds a sense of community, something familiar that people can approach.' Within Cybersmith's 5,6000-square food space are 53 computers, most of them Apple Macintoshes. A flight simulator is the newest addition. Cybersmith has also installed a new communications link that will speed up access to the Internet and online-services for its customers...the cafe's intergenerational lure, one that extended beyond the 15-year-old Nintendo jockeys who might be expceted to flock to a place like this. 'We've had lots of older folks come in here and say 'Teach me what my grandkids have been telling us.'...Cybersmith...opened in February...A few thousand patronize the cafe each week, with the peak hours during the evenings and on weekends."
---"Waiter, Oh, Waiter! Excuuuse Me, but There's a Mouse in My Coffee!" Glenn Rifkin, New York Times, July 3, 1995 (p. 39)

"Welcome to the cybercafe, the newest addition to the on-line lexicon. New York's first three cybercafes, which opened this spring, charge customers $10 to $14 an hour to use a computer linked to the Internet. While they eat cake or drink a cappuccino, patrons can send electronic mail, check out a chat line, or at one cafe, plug in their own laptop. More than making money, the cafe owners say their goal is to educate a public still intimidated by computers. 'You don't have to be a brain surgeon to use the Internet, ' says Dave Williams, co-owner of the Heroic Sandwich cybercafe...The on-line cafes are among about 50 that have opened worldwide in the past several years, with at least 25 more in the works...About 20 are in the United States...Manhattan's largest cybercafe, named for the 'AT' symbol on a keyboard, offers a full menu with everything from sandwiches to sushi and meat loaf. But it feels like a coffee house, with 15 terminals scattered amid red brick walls in a former book shop...The care also offers video conferencing and concerts or poetry readings that are broadcast onto the Internet through tiny cameras and microphones atop five computers. Education is the goal at the Internet cafe, which offers Internet training classes, $20 for two hours, plus one hour of computer time...The Heroic Sandwich is the smallest local cybercafe, with one pentium pc...owner Dave Williams, says, 'The non-threatening approach is deliberate, and designed to attract women.'"
---"Surf the Internet at the Cybercafe," Times of India (dateline New York), July 10, 1995 (p. 17)
[NOTE: the third cafe mentioned in this article is the Internet Cafe.]

Berlin's X-Press
"Move over Cyberia, Germany has its first cybercafe in Berlin: X- Press, a trendy spot in the middle of the city provides its customers with workstations that provide them with access to the World Wide Web."
---"Germany has its First Cybercafe in Berlin," Computergram International, August 29, 1995 (p. 29)

Singapore's CyberNet Cafe
"Inside the pre-World War Two shop, a fishing net hangs from the dark wooden ceiling and a surfboard marked "CyberNet Cafe" lies above the food counter. A dozen personal computers and colourful magazines beckon as customers walk into the shop, a stone's throw from the harbour. Welcome to Singapore's first cybercafe, where patrons can eat, drink and surf the wonders of the Internet. "The cafe idea is for people who do not know much about Internet," said Chan Cheng Boon, director of business development and marketing. "If they find this environment comfortable, they can also do their work here." At the cafe, a cup of coffee, a croissant and an hour of surfing the Net costs S$13 (US$9.20), while a two-and-a-half hour training session for newcomers is S$49 ($34.50). The fees include the use of the cafe's Internet address. Chan said the cafe plans, pending government approval, to allow users to use their own addresses. Opened on August 28 and modelled along the lines of London's Cyberia, the world's first cybercafe, the S$200,000 ($140,000) shop was set up by Chan and three other young Singaporean businessmen who met while studying in Britain."
---"Singapore's CyberNew Cafe Serves Bits and Bites," Reuters newswire, September 14, 1995

[1996: global connection becomes big business]
"A cybercafe looks like a collision between delivery trucks from Radio Shack and Au Bon Pain. It rents online time to customers while serving them food and beverages. Cafe-goers explore cyberspace while leisurely sipping on tea or latte, perhaps waiting for a friend to pop in. Not everyone sees the logic. 'It strikes me as anthithetical to the notion of a coffeehouse,' said Clifford Stoll, author of Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway. 'Guys will sit there working online, ignoring their companions, not even speaking to them."...Even from a business point of view, one local tavern and restaurant owner shies away from them...But others think the critics are missing the point. 'The celebrity of the Internet would break down some of the barriers of people talking to each other.'... Locally so far, it's tough to tell. Blue Mountain Coffee & Tea in Northwest Washington was the first place to offer a computer for its customers. But it was only one machine, and that was not hooked up to most Internet services, and the whole thing fell into disuse for a while when a customer spilled coffee on the machine, frying it. A cybercafe opened in the Shenandoah Valle in Staunton, Va., last month, but for most Washingtonians, that's a long drive for and e-mail and a croissant... The OnLine Cafe [Rockville Pike MD] being created by Brian A. Colella...will be the metropolitan area's first eatery using a group of computers as its central attraction...Early this month...began charging $10 an hour for online time...It will be a while before anyone can judge whether the Washington entry will be as intriguing as the wired dens that have opened over the past two years in San Francisco, London and New York....Mark Dziecielewski, a Briton who is the leading chronicler of the cybercafe movement. By his tabulation, there are 240 such places worldwide, 90 of which are in the United States."
---"The Cybercafe: Anyone Care for a Byte to Eat?" Robert Thomason, Washington Post, January 17, 1996 (p. C1)

"First they put computers where we work, then they pushed computers where we live. now, the computer companies are going after us where we eat and drink. Both the Intel Corporation and Apple Computer Inc. are planning to serve their computer technologies to a broader consumer market through technology-themed restaurants and coffee shops. Noth companies are betting that technolgy will be as enticing a lure in the eating and drinking business as rock-and-roll (Hard Rock cafe), celebrities (Planet Hollywood), and sports (All-Star Cafes)...Intel is forming an alliance with the Starbucks Corporation of Seattle to devvelop what could become a chain of 'cybercafes'--in effect, Starbucks coffee shops with Intel inside. Last week, Apple announced that it had licensed its name and products for an international chain of 'cyber-based theme restaurants.' Patron will be able to play with multimedia software, select menu items from touch-screen color displays, buy Apple merchandise and conduct video-conferences ofver the Internet with people at other Apple Cafe restaurants. Apple's business partner, Mega Bytes, International N.V., based in London, intends to open the first 15,000-square-food Apple Cafe late next hear in Los Angeles, wtih plans to expand to London, Paris, ne York, Tokyo, Sydney and cities...The idea of mixing coffee and Internet access is not new. Scores of independent coffee and pastry shops, generically known as cybercafes, have sprung up around the world as the Interent has grown in popularity."
---"The Companies Want to Know: Like a Little Cyber in Your Cafe?" Pepter H. Lewis, New York Times, November 18, 1996 (p. D6)

[1997: kosher cybercafe]
"First, there was the cybercafe. Now, the kosher cybercafe. The ITD Corporation, an Internet service provider based in Hackensak, N.J., plans to overhaul its IDT Cafe and Pizza at 19 West 45th Street in Manhattan and turn it into the IDT Megabite Cafe, offerieng Internet access to supplement its already-kosher menu. The cafe is scheduled to open in about two weeks and is believed by those who keep track of such things to be the first kosher cybercafe in New York or anywhere...there are more than 300 [cybercafes] around the work, including half a dozen or so in New York City...At the IDT Megabite Cafe, there will be one computer at each dining table (for a total of about a dozen) and two additional computers to check electronic mail messages. But unlike most cybercafes, which typically charge $12 an hour, the IDT Megabite Cafe will offer free computer access. The makeover, which will cost about $135,000, will also include a new interior decor and new menu items like a kosher sushi bar......Mr. [Howard] Jonas said he expects a more diverse crowd to complement the cafe's traditional lunchtime clientele of Orthodox Jews who work in the diamond district. To that end, the cafe will open its doors and extra two hours on most nights...The exception, of course, is on Friday night, when the cafe closes one hour before sundown in observance of the Jewish Sabbath."
---"Megabite, Anyone? This Cybercafe is Kosher," David W. Chen, New York Times, February 13, 1997 (p. B8)

Cybercafe Census
"From the PoolSide Bar and Internet Cafe in Phuket, Thailand to the ZimSurf Internet Cafe in Harare, Zimbabwe, there are nearly 1,500 Internet cafes open for businss in 86 countries today. Here are the 10 countries with the most cybercafes: USA (297), United Kingdom (121), Germany (114), Spain (102), Japan (88), Italy (69), France (63), Switzerland (54), Belgium (52), Canada (47)."
---"Pipeline," PC Magazine, May 5, 1998 (p. 10)

First cybercafe in a major league baseball stadium
"Volume Svcs. America and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will open a cyber cafe on Center Field Street at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL. It will offer food, drinks and 12 state-of-the-art computer stations for business, personal communications, web surfing and baseball watching. "The cyber cafe is the first of its kind in Major League Baseball," says Kevin Austin, g.m. for Volume Services. "The menu is still in the planning stages, but we'll offer high-quality desserts, expresso, cappuccino and gourmet coffees." The cafe will operate during home games and other Tropicana Field events, he adds. Admission and computer use will be free, on a first-come basis. Named 2001 Technologies Cyber Cafe, the operation is scheduled to open at the beginning of baseball season next April. The club is teaming up with 2001 Technologies, Inc., which will provide the computers and technical staff to help fans. Each mouse and keyboard will be wireless, so customers can use the computers while they have dinner or dessert and coffee."
---"Cybercafe to open in Tropicana Field," Foodservice Director, December 15, 1999 (p. 6)

@Internet recipes, webs, blogs &c.
Traditional media protocol is driven by industry standards, economic realities & popular demand. The Internet pushes this relationship to the max. Anyway you look at it, the possibilities are endless.

First recipe on the Internet?
The "Web" as we know it today, was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990. The Internet existed in various forms from the 1950s forward. This system was a byproduct of the Cold War. Original users were government officials, think tanks, research scientists, military intelligence personnel and computer analysts/engineers. The first recipe shared on the Internet is not recorded. It was probably a family favorite of a high level official with top-level security clearance and some downtime. Electronic bulletin boards and usenet newsgroups were the forerunners of today's social media. Moderated or open, these groups arranged themselves by topic. rec.food.recipes (1985?) was one of the earliest dedicated online recipe exchanges. Our research indicates the first Web sites devoted to food surface in the mid 1990s. Global Gourmet, launched September 1, 1994, claims to be the first. We find no evidence refuting that. Allrecipes.com launched in 1995. Below please find significant markets in the online culinary world.

[1988]
Moderated newsgroups & electronic bulletin boards encourage recipe exchanges
"Brian K. Reid, a big name in computer science, is best-known to some network users as the moderator of the gourmand news group, and on-line electronic cookbook. Reid enforces nine rules of recipe-writing, including: 'no rambling,' 'no preaching,' (on cholesterol or vegetarianism,) 'no fake ingredients' (garlic powder strictly forbidden)--and 'no mystical quantities,' (an occupational hazard around computer types. 'In a recipe making 12 liters of soup,' Reid wrote, 'don't expect me to believe that it needs to have exactly 6.375 tablespoons of flour.' Chefs who wish to be freer with their frijoles may turn to a rival cooking forum, where Arthur Wouk of Duke University recently denounced another contributor for proposing sugar as an ingredient in water bagels."
---"The Computer Heard 'Round the Nation: Network Links 500,000 Users," Barton Gellman, Washington Post, November 20, 1988 (p. A1)

[1994]
First company taking orders for food via Internet
"...Pizza Hut...received attention in 1994 for enabling customers in Santa Cruz, Calif., to order a pizza over the Internet." ---Trying to Find Gold With the Internet," New York Times, January 3, 1995 (p. C15)

CD-ROM cookbooks
"Welcome to the world of CD-ROM cooking disks. When plugged into personal computers, these compact disks can present reams of informaiton complete with videos and music. They are the latest effort to take recipes out of cookbooks and put them into the modern language of multimedia communications. Cooking videos, the previous effort, were a flop. Not many kitchens are equipped with VCR's and there has been no rush to put computers in the kitchen, either. For now, the printed page has nothing to worry about. But what does the future hold? CD-ROM's...take the idea of the cooking video a step further. The screen of a computer with CD-ROM capabilities and speakers can not ony display written recipes but also provide oral directions while visually showing how to truss a chicken; it can provide a menu for serving the chicken and a print out of a shopping list for the meal, all of this with background music. One disk can hold the contents of hundreds of cookbooks without photos or videos, or the recipes of a large cookbook complete with photographs and video...A foray into the world of electronic cooking has produced only seven CD-ROM's that work with I.B.M.-compatible computers. A couple of others are for the Apple Macintosh only...Robin Leach...has turned 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' into a CD-ROM cookbook. The others span the spectrum of cooking styles, from a disk with more than a million recipes, where Velveeta and canned mushroom soup run rampant, to 'The New Basics Electronic Cookbook,' a CD-ROM version of the cookbook from the 'Silver Palate' due, Sheila Lukens and Julee Rosso. These are a taste of what may lie ahead...Among the information exchanges on the Internet are electronic bulletin boards for people interested in foods in which users post questions...and ask for recipes...The cooking disk that cones within hailing distance of its potential os the Better Homes and Gardens Healthy Cooking CD Cookbook. It searches, it scales recips up and down, it provides nutrition information, it prints out a shipping list..."
---"Kitchen Computer: Promising Steak, Serving Burgers: Please pass me...," Marian Burros, New York Times, February 2, 1994 (p. C1)
[NOTE: Other CD-ROM cookbooks listed in this article: Cookbook U.S.A., Digital Gourmet, John Schumacker's New Prague Hotel Cookbook, & The Healing Foods Cookbook.]

Nutrition facts & recipe builders
"Nutrition in cyberspace? Sure. Every other imaginable subject is being discussed via computer. Besides, the electronic frontier that is predictyed to revolutionize the way we live, work and communicate is also likely to shape our decisions about what we eat. People are already swapping heart-healthy recipes, engaging in lively debates about vegetarianism or offering moral support for fellow dieters on computer online services. Aside from these interactive forum, services such as America Online and CompuServe also offer articles about nutrition. A few clicks on the computer and you can read about anything from how to feed infants properly to how to cook eggs safely. Computer junkies and nutrition professionals are sharing all kinds of information on the computer network known as the Internet...subscribers of America Online particpate in a forum called the Cooking Club, in which they adopt 'screen names' and chat about low-fat recipes, healthy new products or culinary impossibilities."
---"Cooking Up Some Brand New Recipes via Computer," Carole Sugarman, Washington Post, May 17, 1994 (p. F16)

The Global Gourmet
"The Global Gourmet Web site, "the Web's first food and cooking e-zine," was created in 1994 and is filled with cookbook reviews, recipes and articles about food. Executive Editor Kate Heyhoe is a well-known chef and cookbook author. One section, "Kate's Global Kitchen," currently features an article on making home-and-tummy-warming soups, including recipes for Bourbon Corn Chowder and a Chilean chicken-and-vegetable soup called "Cazuela de Elsa." Heyhoe weaves her energy agenda nicely into the piece, suggesting that "with fossil fuel costs ramping up so steeply, the costs of installing and using solar-voltaic, wind power, ground-source heat pumps, solar films and renewable energy devices are starting to be mighty competitive." "Global Destinations" has informative country profiles and recipes from around the world. One is advised that, "[a] vegetarian in Argentina is like a duck out of water," with Argentina being "second only to the U.S. as the largest consumer of beef in the world." Also learn to make Finnish Cabbage Rolls (or Kaalikaaryleet), Maraqat al-Safarjal (a Tunisian lamb and quince ragout made with dried rose petals) and Polish "Fire Vodka" (Krupnik). —Christine G.K. LaPado, writing for the newsreview.com website, January 19, 2006."
SOURCE: GlobalGourmet.com
[NOTE: This site adds: "The electronic Gourmet Guide (aka eGG) site launched in 1994 under a domain name that was later sold. In 1995 the eGG became foodwine.com. In 1996 globalgourmet.com was born, and in 1998 all the sites merged into The Global Gourmet®. The GlobalGourmet.com is still operating in 2012]

According to the records of the US Patent & Trademark Office, Global Gourmet launched September 1, 1994: "Word Mark GLOBAL GOURMET Goods and Services IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: providing users of a global computer network with access to an interactive on-line computer database and bulletin board services featuring information about culinary products and services; providing on-line computerized ordering of nutritional, culinary and food-related products and services; providing video recordings and printed information regarding nutritional, culinary and food-related information that may be downloaded from a global computer network. FIRST USE: 19940901. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19940901 Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING Serial Number 75067049 Filing Date March 4, 1996 Current Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1B Published for Opposition January 7, 1997 Registration Number 2145180 Registration Date March 17, 1998 Owner (REGISTRANT) Electronic Gourmet Guide, Inc. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 9770 Cherry Avenue Cherry Valley CALIFORNIA 92223 (LAST LISTED OWNER) FORKMEDIA LLC LIMITED PARTNERSHIP 230 SUNRISE CANTON WIMBERLEY TEXAS 78676 Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "GOURMET" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN Type of Mark SERVICE MARK Register PRINCIPAL Affidavit Text SECT 8 (6-YR). SECTION 8(10-YR) 20080211. Renewal 1ST RENEWAL 20080211 Live/Dead Indicator LIVE"

[1995]
First printed Internet food site guide
Gary Holleman's book Food and Wine Online [Van Nostrand Reinhold:New York] was heralded as the first catalog of the culinary Web. When the Internet was new to average Americans, books listing topical web sites (patterned on phone book yellow pages) were cutting edge. Mr. Holleman states "The International Association of Women Chefs and Restauranteurs (IAWCR) is the first culinary association to homestead in cyberspace (p. 9).
[NOTE: Food Timeline Library owns a copy of Mr. Holleman's groundbreaking book. Compare with first recipes in ancient Mesopotamia.]

Magazines with recipes launch online: Hearst uploads Good Housekeeping January 1995
"Browse through, or preview, selected text, photos and graphics, on the "Featured Magazines" page. Appearing on the screen will be current or recent issues of at least two magazines each month. These could include Hearst magazines such as Popular Mechanics, Esquire, SmartMoney, Sports Afield, Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping, and/or magazines from other publishers. This selective position will be made available for a fee;"
--- "Hearst Debuts 'The Multimedia Newsstand' on the Internet, PR Newswire, January 24, 1995

Consuming demographics
"[Tor Manders] collects recipes with a computer...the Oakton software specialist relies almost exclusively on dishes posted on the Internet. He owns only a few cookbooks. Collecting recipes via computer is 'more immediate' than using a cookbook...[Manders] computer collection goes back 10 years. 'I just click and save them.' It's also far less limiting than a cookbook in which a cook gets one author's version of, say meatloaf. On the Internet, a simple request for meatloaf may turn up 50 or more recipes---and from users all over the world... Every day, Manders scans the Internet's rec.food.recipes news group...The news group functions like a combination recipe swap/ international chain letter..."
---"One Guy's Guide to Cooking from the 'Net," Carole Sugarman, Washington Post, February 15, 1995 (p. E4)

Conde Nast media group launches Epicurious
Conde Nast's Epicurious (Gourmet & Bon Appetit)launched September 1995. This Internet site appears to be the first online counterpart to print magazines totally devoted to food & drink.

"Newhouse, which counts magazine content heavyweights like the New Yorker among its holdings, so far has just one online venture on tap. According to Folio: First Day (Newhouse won't comment), the company's Conde Nast segment is developing the cuisine-centric Epicurious online service, which will incorporate content from its Gourmet and Bon Appetit titles."
---"Finding your way with fellow publishers . . .Newhouse, K-R to join forces on 'Net," NewsInc.(newswire) February 20, 1995

"Even cautious publishers like Conde Nast Publications and Hearst Magazines are finally jumping into cyberspace, joining pioneers such as Newsweek, Time Inc., Rodale Press and Hachette Filipacchi Magazines. Conde Nast is believed to be developing two online products, including Epicurious, a service based on its Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Hearst in January opened the Multimedia Newsstand, a magazine subscription service on the Internet's World Wide Web (http://mmnewsstand.com)."
---"Pacesetting Magazines are Shifting Strategies for the Second Phase," Keith J. Kelly, Advertising Age, March 13, 1995 (p. S22)

"With much of the magazine industry still ambivalent about the merits of going on line, Conde Nast has decided to bite the bullet. The company will announce today the creation of CondeNet, a subsidiary that will develop material for the World Wide Web, the part of the Internet that is fast becoming the site of choice for magazines that want to be on line. Though Conde Nast hopes that eventually all its 14 core magazines will develop material for the Web, the magazines themselves will not be replicated. Instead, information and photographs from archives, reports from Conde Nast's worldwide network of stringers and some material from the magazines will be reconfigured to better meet on-line needs. For instance, the first magazine scheduled to go on line will be Conde Nast Traveler, sometime in June...Later this summer, CondeNet will start Epicurious, which will draw on the resources of Gourmet and Bon Appetit to provide information on food, wine, cooking and dining out. The editor in chief, Joan Feeney, former executive editor of Mademoiselle, said that Epicurious would offer a menu du jour, complete with directions for buying the food and cooking it. Someday, viewers should be able to call up the names of restaurants in cities they are about to visit, get copies of menus and even place orders."
---"Conde Nast to Jump Into Cyberspace," Dierdre Carmody, New York Times, May 1, 1995 (p. 10)

U.S. Patent & Trademark Office "Epicurious" tradename was first used in commerce September 1995. Registration #75975440. The registratnt was Advance Magazine Pubishers, connected with Conde Nast. Gourmet magazine announced Epicurious in the October 1995 issue (Letter from the Editor, p. 24)

Allrecipes.com
"Patti Greaney, a no-nonsense maker of television commercials whose work bounced her from coast to coast, seldom had much time to cook for herself. But whenever she found a fee moment to pull out the old pots and pans, her expectations of what she might whip up soared far beyond the recipes she had at hand...So Mrs. Greaney sought expert guidance. But, she said, she soon found cookbooks were too boring, family recipes too mundane, and the world's greatest chefs were, well, generally about as approachable as divas at curtain time. In a flash of inventiveness...she merged her hunger to prepare fine foods with their mastery of producing punchy nuggets of advertising copy. Two months ago, with the help of partners, she steaked her claim on the Internet with Starchefs, a computer-generated open door into the lives of some of the most acclaimed chefs. Starchefs is one of the most entertaining and easiest to use of the emerging culinary sites online. And it seems that cyberspace, that impossibly crowded computer web of information, is rapidly developing a sense of taste...Gary Holleman...author of 'Food and Wine Online'...said that as an indication of the popularity of food sites, when he searched the Internet for sites containing the word culinary late last year, he turned up nothing. When he repeated the search a couple of months ago, more than 800 sites popped up. As a consequence, even the most casual Net cruisers can visit fine restaurants, chat with master chefs, swap favorite recipes, browse vineyards and shop the culinary markets of the world with full-color sights and, in come instances, engaging sounds."
---"What's Cooking in Virtual Kitchens," Michael Marriott, New York Times, December 13, 1995 (p. C1)
[NOTES: (1) FoodWebs mentioned in this article: Culinary Professionals Resource Center, Diner's Grapevine, Electronic Gourmet Guide, Food of the World, Internet Epicurean, Lamalle Kitchenware, Virtual Vineyards [est. 1994], Food and Wine Online Newsletter, AOL.Diner (2) StarChefs site is still operating: http://www.starchefs.com (3) We have a copy of Mr. Holleman's 1995 book on order.]

[1997]
Business statistics
"According to current counts, Web sites devoted to food and recipes range as high as 3,000."
---"Cyberspace is Cookin'!," Art Siemering, Philadelphia Tribune, January 21, 1997 (p. C1)

[2012]
Current counts
"Fifteen years ago, a group of five cookie-loving anthropology graduate students launched CookieRecipe.com—one of the web’s first social media sites, with all of its contents created by its community. A few years and a few dozen websites (CakeRecipe.com, BreadRecipe.com, ChickenRecipe.com, etc.) later, the sites were rolled up into one—Allrecipes.com. As use of the Internet grew among busy, family-focused women, Allrecipes grew as well. Today, the site that started with a single cookie recipe has grown to become the world’s largest digital food brand, with 17 sites and 9 apps serving 25 million cooks in 22 countries. Much has changed in the world since Allrecipes first launched in 1997. In honor of its 15th anniversary, Allrecipes reran its first on-site survey from 1999 to capture a snapshot of these changes. Measuring attitudes and behaviors related to online recipe websites, Allrecipes discovered the impact digital food resources have had on the shopping and cooking behaviors of home cooks over the past 15 years."
SOURCE: Fresh Bites Blog

About culinary research & about copyright
Research conducted by Lynne Olver, editor The Food Timeline. About this site.