When The Forecaster began compiling restaurant news and gossip from greater Portland seven years ago, the city wasn’t widely known as a “foodie town.” There were no blogs dedicated to tracking the food scene, nor were there a half-dozen public relations firms sending press releases every time a local chef sneezed.

Dining Dish appeared when news staff decided there was enough foodie fodder to warrant a column in print. We were in no hurry because no one else was putting it out there. Bobby Flay is filming a segment on the waterfront? The news held for two weeks. When Rachel Ray featured Becky’s on her “$40 a Day” show in 2005 (or maybe it was 2004?), not a peep was heard from local publications.

That’s all changed in the past few years. Case in point: When Guy Fieri stopped by earlier this week at that same diner, the local daily ran more copy and pictures than they did when President Obama came to town. (OK, that’s an exaggeration. But barely.)

Portland’s rise in the foodie world coupled with the relative ease of covering a topic lots of people want to read about (and that restaurants are more than happy to have the free publicity for) has resulted in near-daily updates about new restaurant openings, closings, reviews and wine tastings.

So now I’ll be adding restaurant and food-related news to this blog when it comes in, or at least shortly after. Hopefully, readers will get into the habit of checking in to see what’s new, and I will send out Tweets and Facebook posts when there are updates. If you don’t already follow me on Twitter, my account is twitter.com/katebucklin. The Forecaster Facebook page is facebook.com/theforecaster.

And we’ll still be publishing a Dining Dish roundup every month or so in print for those who prefer their food news slow-cooked.