Toast.
People who want a quick, reliable Yorkshire pudding or chicken curry recipe will soon have to go somewhere other than the BBC's popular Food site. The public media company is shutting down the repository of 11,163 recipes as part of a plan to save money and make content "more distinctive." Britain's culinary world has always held the site's food section in pretty high regard — chef Dan Lepard defends it as a "world-class archive," and Telegraph food writer Xanthe Clay flat-out calls it "part of our cultural heritage." The BBC argues it's unfair to say recipes are being deleted, per se. To quote the source who spoke to The Guardian, they're just getting "archived or mothballed," at which point they will "fall off the face of the internet." In a separate tweet, the BBC also helpfully noted that "if you know [the] URL for a recipe, you could still go to it."
Weirdly, these reassurances didn't do much to quell people's anger. The announcement came this morning, and in the last few hours, "BBC Food" has started trending on Twitter, and almost 100,000 have signed a Change.org petition begging for the BBC not to cut the "much loved and used website," noting that it's "madness" to remove a comprehensive collection of recipes that's taken years to create, especially since the British government is actively trying to convince people to eat healthier food.
Can someone explain how removing recipes from the BBC website saves money? Surely we should be encouraging families to cook healthily!
— John Prescott (@johnprescott) May 17, 2016
Everything I've cooked from the @BBCFood recipe collection is flashing before my eyes. FOR THE LOVE OF LEMON DRIZZLE DON'T CUT THIS
— Clare Vooght (@ClareVooght) May 17, 2016
The Economy shall awake from its SLUMBER & the Press shall regain its VIGOUR once we have slain the Dragon of BBC Food's Recipe-Book
— Samuel Johnson (@DrSamuelJohnson) May 17, 2016
The demise of BBC Food is not just about loss of the recipe archive, plus nutrition &ingredient advice - it's the ongoing work of the team.
— Xanthe Clay (@XantheClay) May 17, 2016
"How to download all #BBCrecipes?" is a top searched question as @BBC announce plans to close the @BBCFood website pic.twitter.com/GACeKywwId
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) May 17, 2016
Just to reassure all foodies that we have instigated a crawl of the BBC food website
— UK Web Archive (@UKWebArchive) May 17, 2016
Pitch: I Tried To Cook Every BBC Food Recipe Before They Take Them Off The Internet And It Was A Total Disaster And I've Got Gout
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) May 17, 2016
The BBC throws out that, if it's any consolation, TV programs will still be able to post recipes after episodes air, but only for 30 days. Some recipes will be available on the stand-alone Good Food website owned by the BBC's commercial arm.
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Filed Under: junked food, bbc, england, food media