When it comes to starting a food blog, there are lots of decisions to make.
The good news is that you don’t need to start completely from scratch: just like with recipes, it’s completely natural to browse other blogs for ideas, fork what’s working, and add your own unique spin for a blog that perfectly matches your tastes.
In that spirit, we’ve compiled a list of 11 unique food blogs to help you get cooking on your very own food blog.
Many of these blogs use affordable .blog domains, which are managed by WordPress.com’s parent company, Automattic. You can buy .blog domains from other providers. But they are still managed right here by our team, so we recommend you buy your .blog at the source to avoid upcharges!
1. Munchin’ With Maddie
Munchin’ with Maddie is a “feel-good food” site with plenty of recipes to fit a variety of specialty diets, including gluten-free, sugar-free, paleo, and vegan recipes.
This blog is photo-forward, with gorgeous food and process photos in addition to simple recipe blurbs.
Maddie organizes her recipes both by “course” (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert) and diet type, giving readers multiple ways to search depending on their needs.
We also love her use of a “what’s special” box at the top of each recipe, telling readers what makes this recipe great in one quick line!
Take a page from Maddie’s cookbook
- Use a Recipe Plugin: To achieve that professional recipe site feel, Munchin’ With Maddie uses a plugin called WP Recipe Maker, a WordPress plugin designed specifically for recipe sites. This plugin adds recipe blocks to the WordPress drag-and-drop blog editor so that you can easily add step-by-step directions, shoppable ingredient blocks, videos, and buttons to jump to or print recipes.
- Divide your content into categories: Follow Maddie’s lead and create relevant content categories for your site. Like Maddie, you should take some time to consider what overarching categories will be most relevant across your recipes/content and create a simple schema that is intuitive to your readers.
2. Flavoury
Flavoury is a fully vegetarian recipe site created by Marvin, a freelance editor, hobby cook, and aspiring vegetarian.
While this site is recipe-focused, Flavoury addresses common questions at the end of each recipe post.
He covers topics like how to adapt the recipe for specific diets, sharing related recipes in the archive, and discussing the pros and cons of different ingredients.
Like Munchin’ with Maddie, Flavoury also uses the Tiny Salt WP Theme and the WP Recipe Maker plugin.
You can see how different color palettes, fonts, and varying uses of drag-and-drop page elements make these two sites visually distinct.
Take a page from Flavoury’s cookbook
- Add a Newsletter block: Flavoury includes a newsletter signup at the bottom of each recipe post, making it easy for readers to subscribe while they’re already engaged. Adding the option to subscribe to a newsletter at strategic places across your site increases the odds that readers will continue engaging with your content.
- Engage your readers through comments: At the end of each post, Flavoury poses a question to its readers, encouraging them to comment and engage with the recipe and content. Enabling commenting and posing direct questions to your readers can help you build an active and dedicated community.
3. A Hundred Years Ago
A Hundred Years Ago is a unique project bringing recipes from the early 1900s to modern cooks.
Each week, Sheryl photocopies a “new” 100-year-old recipe from an old cookbook and discusses terms and verbiage that may be unfamiliar today.
At the bottom of each post, she translates the original recipe into a modernized version for today’s chefs.
Take a page from Sheryl’s cookbook
- Make something old new again: Part of what makes A Hundred Years Ago so successful is that it archives and digitizes recipes and cookbooks that are likely not online elsewhere. An archival focus can help your blog stand out in this highly digitized space and guide content creation.
- Keep a content schedule: Posting on a regular cadence can help keep your audience engaged and keep you accountable. For example, in addition to a weekly recipe every Sunday, Sheryl posts more general musings about food from the early 1900s each Thursday.
4. Smitten Kitchen
Deb from Smitten Kitchen has spent the last 16 years capturing hearts (and stomachs) from her tiny New York City kitchen.
Today, Smitten Kitchen is a bona fide food media empire, with NYT bestselling books, food show appearances, and branded tools (goals!).
Despite Deb’s growing online presence, she still keeps things warm, fuss-free, and casual.
Take a page from Deb’s cookbook
- Utilize tags: While categories can be used to organize your content into a simple, manageable system, tags offer a more free-flowing method. Smitten Kitchen uses tags for cuisine regions, common ingredients, occasions, seasons, and more. It’s a good rule of thumb to start tagging from your first post, so that by the time you have a huge collection like Smitten Kitchen, it’s easy for readers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
5. Bread.blog
Professional baker Karen Man’s Bread.blog is an ode to breadmaking and bread eating.
This blog only has a small collection of staple recipes, and Man notes the site is not to be a recipe center, but rather “to give pause and allow for space to lead from your own intuition.”
Bread.blog is a quirky collection, focusing on both aspects of the craft alongside bread-related musings, photos, and even a few Spotify playlists like this one.
While Bread.blog is text-heavy, Man mixes whimsy and mindfulness into her posts, reminding readers to breathe and set intentions as they start the journey of breadmaking.
Take a page from Bread.blog’s cookbook
- Pick a hyper-specific niche: Part of what makes Bread.blog’s variety of posts cohesive is its hyperfocus: the unique combination of “bread+mindfulness” and Man’s engaging writing style makes this seemingly random group of posts (a picture of buttered toast or a hip-hop heavy playlist for breadmaking) feel curated.
- Add an equipment list: We love Karen’s baking equipment page, which allows readers to outfit their kitchen with professional-approved baking gear. Blog-approved gear can be a great opportunity to use affiliate links to make commissions on products and ingredients.
6. Broma Bakery
Broma Bakery is a dessert lover’s paradise, featuring indulgent treats from cookies and cakes to seasonal baked goods.
The site’s clean, modern design puts the focus on beautiful sweets, with detailed instructions and tons of process photos that help home bakers bake with confidence.
Take a page from Broma’s cookbook
- Add a robust search option: Broma Bakery includes a search function in its header, making it easy for readers to find recipes. Broma uses a plugin called Slickstream to offer suggestions to searchers, like related and trending recipes.
- Create weekly menus: Broma’s weekly dessert menu is a clever way to encourage readers to keep baking (and engaging!) daily. Regardless of the type of food you offer, finding ways to keep readers coming back is paramount for blogging success.
7. Bruno Barbieri
Bruno Barbieri is an Italian 7-Michelin-star chef and WordPress blogger.
His site is part blog and part career portfolio: it includes his books, some of his recipes, a travel blog, and links to his active social media.
Since Bruno is a professional chef, his recipes lean toward the gourmet side, with niche ingredients and advanced cooking techniques.
Take a page from Bruno’s cookbook
- Link your social media feeds: Bruno puts his active Instagram account front and center on his homepage, encouraging readers to engage across platforms. Social media integrations can be a great way to keep your audience engaged, and WordPress.com offers a suite of social media integrations right out of the box — for example, you can add social media icons to your site.
- Build your professional portfolio: If you are a professional chef, your blog can act as a digital resume for potential customers and employers. Alongside personal stories and recipes, your website is a great place to list accolades, publications, and awards.
8. History and Wine
History and Wine is a wine review blog by sommelier and Biscayne Times “Vino” columnist Jacqueline Coleman. History and Wine offers both reviews and lists of seasonal wines alongside wine tour itineraries and wine guides.
While some posts are standalone blog posts created specifically for History and Wine, the site also acts as a writing portfolio.
Jacqueline shares blurbs with links to her monthly columns in the Biscayne Times and other publications, creating a central hub for all of her work across the web.
Take a page from History and Wine’s tasting menu
- Keep it Local: As the Biscayne Times reporter, much of the coverage on History and Wine is centered around the Miami area (with occasional guides to national wineries). A local focus can be a great way to build a dedicated following and increase your chances of showing up in local-specific Google searches.
- Create a Content Hub: If you write for paid publications, creating a centralized hub of your content is an important way to own and manage your content. Your site can show off your portfolio and create a forever home for your stories.
9. Food and Mood
Theme: Custom
Food and Mood is run by Mateja, who considers herself a videographer, photographer, and recipe developer.
With a huge focus on photography, her images are as much of a treat as her recipes, featuring colorful textiles, textures, and stunning closeups of her creations.
The blog focuses on natural, seasonal recipes elevated through exceptional visual storytelling.
Take a page from Mateja’s cookbook
- Invest in high-quality photographs: Good photography can make or break a food blog. Even if you’re not a professional like Gabi, invest time in learning basic food photography principles: use natural light when possible, keep backgrounds simple, and maintain a consistent style across all of your images.
- Get reader support: At the end of each recipe, Mateja has a section asking readers to fuel her creativity with a small $3 donation. Many food bloggers rely on reader contributions to help cover the costs of recipe testing, ingredients, and photography equipment. With WordPress.com, you can use various plugins to manage donations or add a donation form block directly.
10. Marco Bianchi
Marco Bianchi is a scientist working in biochemical research and oncology, so his blog focuses on food and recipes as a part of disease prevention.
In addition to recipes, he publishes health-related articles explaining the properties and nutritional value of different ingredients.
By combining scientific expertise with practical cooking advice, Marco has created a unique, nutrition-forward site for health-conscious cooks.
Take a page from Marco’s cookbook
- Bring in your professional expertise: Marco’s background in biochemistry and oncology sets his food blog apart from typical recipe sites. Consider how your own professional expertise or education might inform your content in unexpected ways.
- Tie content types to specific days: Marco features recurring content series called “Small Snacks,” a Tuesday post series where he creates nutritious snacks for his daughter Vivienne. Having regular themed content on specific days gives readers something to anticipate and helps you establish a posting rhythm.
11. Vintage Kitchen
Theme: Custom
Vintage Kitchen is run by Dorothy, a former newspaper and magazine writer who opened an old Victorian inn with her husband in Northern Vermont.
Through her blog, she chronicles tried-and-true recipes she’s developed and served to her guests using seasonal items from her on-site garden.
Inspired by the food her mother used to make for a household of six, her recipes are no-frills, homey, and hearty.
Take a page from Dorothy’s cookbook
- Make it Personal: In addition to the recipe itself, Dorothy discusses the weather that day, shares stories of making these recipes in her childhood and with her family, and provides updates on her large garden. These personal touches differentiate a blog from a generic recipe site, allowing readers to connect with you on a deeper level.
- Use images to elevate the blog layout: For example, Vintage Kitchen uses a split-page layout for each recipe, with a “sticky” recipe photo on the left and the recipe on the right. The benefit of this layout is that your image will stay on the screen no matter how long your post is. For new bloggers without ample photography skills or who don’t love taking step-by-step process photos, this approach can help you get up and running in no time.
Ready to Get Cooking?
Looking at other successful food blogs is one of the best ways to engage and learn about blogging.
From building relationships with other bloggers to discovering new ideas for your own blog and content, being a regular reader of food content is a great habit.
For step-by-step directions for starting your food blog, check out our companion posts:
Or, if you’re ready to jump into blogging, get a free domain name for your first year of hosting with WordPress.com.
