By Pamela White
An overused bit of advice aimed at new writers is to write what you know. It's also pushed on experienced writers.
But
like other aphorisms, this one rings true. I was a writer for years
before I found my calling in food writing, yet if I had only looked
deeper into myself I would have seen the potential from the beginning.
My
background is not unique. I grew up in a middle-class family during the
60's and 70's. Instant meals and TV dinners were in vogue. Convenience
cooking using canned soups, instant rice, and boxed cake mixes was a
status symbol. Feeding children bologna and processed cheese sandwiches
on enriched white bread was the American way. My family fit right in,
except for when my parents' farm roots would push their way to the
forefront and we'd be treated to baked bread, home-made pickles, and
deep chocolate brownies from scratch.
I rebelled and avoided
learning to cook. I did have a roommate in college who would chop and
sauté, bake and broil, to relieve her stress. She eschewed recipes, yet
her rice salads and chicken curries never failed to amaze her dinner
guests. I watched with envy.
It was only after the birth of my
daughter, when money was tight, that I starting experimenting. Easily
bored with beginner-level cookbooks jammed with recipes calling for
canned soups, instant rice and boxed cake mixes, I decided to do my
taste buds a favor. I began experimenting by canning marinara sauce,
baking bread, studying nutrition and food preparation techniques. It
wasn't long before I was creating my own recipes and hosting amazed
guests at my own dinner parties.
What could I do but transfer my food passion and writing skills into a combined career?
Food
writing is a wide-open field. There are food historians who study the
diets of different time periods or trace the origin of a food or a
dish's name. Such a researcher could track down recipes from the
mid-1800's and write a magazine article or an entire book on the era,
food, recipes and today's version of those recipes.
Cookbook
writing is another option. Don't be overwhelmed by the sheer number of
cookbooks on bookstore shelves. Some, like Julia Child's THE WAY TO
COOK, Irma Rombauer's JOY OF COOKING and Rose Levy Beranbaum's THE CAKE
BIBLE, are classics. Your job, as a food writer, is to find a market
for your recipes. Chances are you've already focused your creative
efforts. Perhaps vegetarian or bean cuisine is your specialty. Consider
holiday cookies, birthday cakes, or bread baking as a theme. If you've
been a chef, you might write the insider's guide to restaurant food
preparation. You can focus on canning, or even narrow it down to just
pickling vegetables. Choose an ingredient - beans, beef or pasta - and
build your recipes and your cookbook around your choice.
If you
write cookbooks, it pays to be detail-oriented. The first step is to
stop slapping your culinary triumphs together from memory. Keep a pile
of index cards and write down the ingredients. Relearn to measure
everything. Yes, it's painful at first, but necessary. On the card's
back, write comments about how the dish turned out and ideas to remedy
problems. Include suggestions for variations and substitutions. Many
cookery readers don't actually cook the recipes. Shocking, yes, but
true. Some just enjoy reading the entertaining essays, dreaming of the
dishes and maybe trying one or two for a special occasion. Be thrilled
that some readers just want to read about food -- that is what gives
food writers such a tasty career.
Food writers are used by
magazines, regional publications, newspapers, web sites, radio and
television. Feel free to set your goal to be a writer for Food Network
Television or in faraway places for Saveur. While you do your dreaming,
you might begin by calling the editor of the local weekly paper and
offering to write an article about a local winery, brew-pub, new
restaurant, local chef, cooking classes, farmers market, anything that
is related to food. Collect some writing samples from the local weekly,
then call the daily or the special entertainment/dining out tabloid.
Keep adding to your clips and build on your food writing experience.
All
those recipes you've collected for your cookbook on soy cooking will
come in handy while you're pitching stories to magazines. What editor
could resist an article on the ten best recipes using miso paste? Think
of an angle, then approach food magazines, vegetarian magazines, health
magazines and mature women magazines (think soy to combat menopausal
symptoms.)
What have I done with my experience in the kitchen? I
review restaurants for a living. Reviewing restaurants takes you, as a
writer, beyond an opinionated passion for food and moves you into the
realm of critical writing. I experience each meal on different levels.
I consider the chef's creations and whether they are a success, just
average or a dismal failure. I cannot insist that my personal
preferences rule; I must back up my statements on each culinary arts
review with my expertise, background, knowledge of cooking trends and
evaluation of the quality of the ingredients. I also have a stomach of
steel which helps when the meat is rancid or the cheesecake is moldy.
When
searching for food writing opportunities or positions, keep in mind
that editors prefer writers with a passion for food over food lovers
who want to be writers. Prepare your resume accordingly and don't stay
away from food writing because your articles have all been on
parenting, gardening, or your village's annual Fourth of July parade.
Use your samples or clips to show your writing talents; list the
cooking classes you've taken or your food interests to illustrate the
direction you're ready to take your writing.
If food is your
passion, try food writing as a sideline or as your career. There are
new web sites and magazines devoted to the culinary arts starting up
regularly, creating new opportunities for food writers each day.
About
the Author: Pamela White is the author of "FabJob's Become a Food
Writer." She developed the first food writing online class and
continues to update it annually. She is also the publisher of two free
ezines: Food Writing at http://www.food-writing.com and The Writing Parent at http://www.thewritingparent.net Her writing classes and writing books are available at the above websites.
Copyright 2006 Pamela White