Food Writing: Finding Your Niche
 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 www.food-writing.com and The Writing Parent at www.thewritingparent.net. Her writing classes and writing books are available at the above websites.

© 2006 Pamela White