Stir the Pots – Stirring talk about chefs, bakers, and food
Overview
Stir the Pots is a culinary blog and media platform created by Chef Jeremy Shapiro and writer Jonathan Field. The site explores the world of professional kitchens, featuring interviews with renowned chefs and bakers, stories about the food industry, and detailed explorations of bread-making, sourdough, and European baking traditions. Since launching in 2005, the blog has built a dedicated following among food enthusiasts and culinary professionals alike.
Jonathan approached me in early 2023 with a significant challenge: their beloved blog had been running on Typepad for nearly two decades, accumulating over 2,000 posts covering everything from baguette techniques to chef interviews. They needed to migrate this extensive archive to a modern WordPress platform while preserving the rich history and ensuring the site would be easier to manage and discover in the years ahead.
Key Accomplishments and Contributions
Massive Blog Migration from Typepad to WordPress
The cornerstone of this project was migrating over 2,000 blog posts divided into nearly 300 Categories from Typepad to WordPress. This wasn’t a simple export-import operation—each post needed to be carefully transferred with its images, formatting, categories, and tags preserved. The migration included chef interviews, bread recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal stories spanning nearly two decades of culinary exploration. I worked methodically through the content to ensure nothing was lost in the transition, maintaining the chronological archive that represents Jeremy’s culinary journey.
Divi Theme Design and Custom Layout
Using the Divi theme, I designed a layout that honors the site’s established voice while providing a clean, modern reading experience. The design emphasizes the photography that accompanies Jeremy’s posts—images of sourdough crumbs, croissant layers, and restaurant dishes deserve to be showcased prominently. I created a visual hierarchy that makes it easy for visitors to browse by category (Bread, Chefs, Recipes, Restaurants), find specific interviews, or simply scroll through the latest posts. The responsive design ensures the site looks equally beautiful on desktop and mobile devices.
SEO Setup with Google Search Console and Analytics
A blog with 2,000+ posts represents an enormous SEO opportunity, but only if properly configured. I implemented comprehensive SEO setup including Google Search Console integration to monitor indexing and search performance, Google Analytics for tracking visitor behavior and content engagement, proper sitemap generation to help search engines discover all the archived content, and structured data optimization for recipe and article content. This foundation helps the site’s extensive archive of culinary content get discovered by food enthusiasts searching for topics like sourdough techniques, chef interviews, or New York bakeries.
Host Migration to Hostinger
As part of modernizing the site’s infrastructure, I migrated the hosting to Hostinger, providing reliable performance, improved loading speeds, and professional-grade hosting at a reasonable cost. The migration was coordinated carefully with the site owners to ensure the site stayed available to the regular readers.
The migration took several hours as the a database with that many posts and images is quite large. With careful planning and coordination, the migration was a great success and the owners are happier with the improved performance and reduced cost.
Customer Feedback
Related Links
After nearly 20 years on Typepad, I was nervous about moving Stir the Pots to a new platform. I had thousands of posts representing my life’s work as a chef and baker—interviews with legendary bakers, recipes I’d perfected over years, stories from kitchens around the world. Ernie handled the migration with incredible care, preserving every post, every image, every category. The new WordPress site not only looks more professional, but it’s so much easier to manage. My readers can now find content more easily, and I’m already seeing new visitors discovering old posts through search. It’s like my archive has been given new life
About the Site
The website stirthepots.com represents Stir the Pots, a culinary blog and media platform created by Chef Jeremy Shapiro. Based in New York City, the site explores the stories, passions, and challenges of professional chefs and bakers, offering readers an intimate look at life in professional kitchens alongside detailed explorations of artisan bread-making and global food traditions.
Content Offered:
- Chef and Baker Interviews: In-depth conversations with culinary professionals, from Michelin-starred chefs to artisan bread bakers, exploring their techniques, philosophies, and career journeys.
- Bread and Baking Content: Extensive coverage of sourdough, baguettes, croissants, and traditional European baking methods, complete with technique breakdowns and beautiful photography.
- Restaurant Reviews and Food Stories: Personal explorations of restaurants, food markets, and culinary destinations, primarily in New York City and Europe.
- Recipe Collection: Selected recipes developed over decades of professional cooking and home baking experimentation.
- Fermentation and Techniques: Deep dives into fermentation science, starter maintenance, and the craft behind artisan bread production.
- Industry Insights: Stories capturing the dramas, challenges, and triumphs of life in professional food service.
Approach:
Stir the Pots takes an intimate, story-driven approach to food content. Rather than simply publishing recipes, the site focuses on the people behind the food—their motivations, struggles, and triumphs. Chef Jeremy Shapiro draws from his own experience as a professional chef and passionate home baker to connect with his subjects and readers authentically. The blog values depth over breadth, featuring detailed explorations of single topics rather than quick tips, and celebrates the craft traditions that make artisan baking and professional cooking meaningful.
Audience Experience:
Readers discover Stir the Pots through searches for specific baking techniques, chef interviews, or restaurant recommendations, and stay for the authentic voice and passionate storytelling. The site has built a loyal community of home bakers, culinary students, and food enthusiasts who appreciate the detailed, craft-focused content. Comments on posts often spark extended conversations about technique, ingredients, and shared culinary experiences, creating an engaged community around the love of good food.
For culinary inspiration, in-depth baker interviews, and a window into professional kitchens, visit stirthepots.com.
