David Leite Hates Being Google’s Bitch

It's his 25-year anniversary at Leite’s Culinaria, a recipe website, but David feels exhausted by Google's demands. Good thing he recently launched a Substack.

David Leite looking pleased, despite exhaustion from dealing with Google.

I met my friend David Leite almost 20 years ago, while writing the first edition of Will Write for Food. My agent, Carole Bidnick, suggested that I contact David, because he was the brains behind a successful recipe website called Leite’s Culinaria.

Since then David and I have become great friends, meeting in my Oakland home, in Connecticut at his home, in New York and in Canada at conferences, and even in Paris most recently to share his favorite pastries (pastel de nata) at a Portuguese bakery. But mostly, we’ve had lots of phone calls and emails, since we’re across the country from each other. And I’ve interviewed him about his memoir and about being out online as a gay man.

While running his recipe website, David has freelanced articles, written a cookbook and memoir, and conducted a podcast. (Read more about his long career on his About page.) His chocolate cookie recipe on The New York Times’ Cooking section (unlocked) is extremely popular. He tested it extensively, so maybe you should try it. Or get his cookie mix based on it. No judgement!

David launched a cookie mix based on his popular New York Times recipe.

Here’s David on what it’s been like to run a recipe site for 25 years, and why he hates Google:

Q. Congratulations on 25 years at Leite’s Culinaria. What’s the biggest think you have learned about running a recipe website?

A. The only constant is change. Almost every month there are new challenges, new Google rules and algorhythm updates, and software updates.

I learned that you have to be on top of it. You gotta be a polymath. Don’t fight it. Lean into it and adapt.

In the beginning, in 1999, I was just throwing up pictures and comments. There was no Wordpress. Now you have to be a great photographer, a great writer, technically proficient, interested in graphs and charts and a number cruncher, a marketer and social media guru.

Over 25 years, I went from being an artist to being a businessperson. For years I cared about what I was putting up online, and how I wrote it. Now all that takes a back seat to the Google requirements. All of us who care about what we do have become Google’s bitches. And I’m exhausted by it. And I’ve lost so much passion for what I do because of that.

Q. So you launched a Substack newsletter recently! Does that help?

A. Because Substack is a closed environment with no ads, I feel a rekindling of my love of words and images. It’s a relief to write a newsletter the way I want. I don’t have to worry about keywords.