Sunday, April 12, 2009

Spring Brings a Fresh Start

This is my favorite time of year, not only because of the beautiful weather in the Bay Area but also the feeling of renewal and hope. So while some of you are busy roasting lamb or glazing ham, I decided to take this time to launch a new look for my blog.

The main change is the header, so if it doesn’t look different to you, try clearing out the cache on your computer and hitting the refresh button. I’ve also made some subtle changes over the last few days, including calling myself Single Guy Ben.

There’s been some confusion in the past with new visitors who think because I called myself Single Guy Chef that I was, literally, a chef. And while it was just a play on the whole food theme of this blog, I was getting a bit tired of having to explain myself. So thus, I’m now reborn as Single Guy Ben, or just plain The Single Guy.

But you might say, hey Single Guy, so why is your URL and e-mail still singleguychef? Well, that’s because I’ve used that since I launched the blog in 2006 and people have gotten used to that and have me in their address book that way, so it would be too confusing to find a new URL and have people change their address book. So some remnants of the Single Guy Chef remain.

I hope you like the new look, and I hope you continue to visit my blog. I’ll still be posting simple recipes to help people, especially singles, come up with easy but elegant dinners. And as I go food shopping or eating out in the San Francisco Bay Area or beyond, you’ll read about my adventures here. Let me know what you think. One way you can take part right now is by voting in the poll over on the right column, letting me know which recipe sounds like the most interesting for my Test Kitchen feature using Food & Wine recipes.

Here’s to spring and fun times ahead!

7 comments:

foodhoe said...

I love the new photo and the new layout looks clean and fresh. Nice job with the spring cleaning!

Carroll said...

Looking good! I don't know if the singles-ad style "about me" blurb under "Cook Eat Blog" is new or not, but it really made me chuckle.

Anonymous said...

I like the new heading. Why not show your entire face? More videos please - those are always fun to watch!

Single Guy Ben said...

Thanks Foodhoe and Carroll (and yes, the "personal ad" is a new element for fun!).

Anonymous, I hide my face because I'm shy ;-) but also when I started the blog, I just kept my face slightly covered thinking that I can be somewhat "anonymous" when going out to restaurants. Of course, my photo-taking gives it away, but at least they don't know which blog I'm with.

I'll try to do a video soon. I know it's been awhile since I've done one! Thanks to everyone who's been subscribing to my channel on YouTube! I'll add something new for you all!

Jenster said...

Love the new header! The photo made me laugh (in a good way).

Passionate Eater said...

Aww, Single Guy Ben, I love your new website redo, but I have to be honest, I loved the old one too. (And you are a chef to me.)

Mrs. L said...

Great new look. But it will be hard not to keep calling you Chef Ben :)