History
Chowhound was a popular online food community founded by jazz trombonist and food writer Jim Leff and Bob Okumura in 1997, known for its user base of food fanatics. Chowhound was formed in a very different cultural era, before Americans had a mainstream interest in seeking out regional delicacies and local favorites. As such, Chowhound served a very particular user base that was seeking delicious, regional and hard to find foods outside of the mainstream culture. It had an early influence in steering America's influence towards regional delicacies, as the future trailblazing food critics Jonathan Gold and Robert Sietsema were early contributors. In 2006, Leff and Okumura sold the site to CNET Networks, which redesigned it and merged it with ''CHOW'' magazine, keeping its forums, grouped by locale, and dropping chowhound.com in favour of the magazine's chow.com domain. After CNET was merged into CBS Interactive in 2008, the original chowhound.com domain was restored and ''CHOW'' was eliminated. The website was bought by Red Ventures, in 2020. In March, 2022, Red Ventures announced the site would close after 25 years online. Its closure was covered by the ''Book series
Penguin USA published two Chowhound restaurant guides, ''The Chowhound's Guide to the San Francisco Bay Area,'' and ''The Chowhound's Guide to the New York Tristate Area''.See also
* List of websites about food and drinkReferences
External links
*