24 Fascinating Food Writing Links for Writers and Bloggers

I hope it’s been a good year for you. It might have been a little harder than usual to concentrate. That’s why a list of great food writing links could be just what you need right now. As we approach the holidays,  take a break from Christmas cookie decorating to get caught up on our industry.

And some of these links are just plain fun anyway. 

If you’d like to find more terrific stories like these, they’re in my free twice-monthly newsletter on food writing. So don’t worry about tracking down these stories all by yourself. Twice a month, they’ll show up in your email.

Here’s my latest list of can’t-miss food writing links:

1. Deb Perelman is Thankful for Tacos. A New Yorker interview wonders why the Smitten Kitchen blogger is not as famous as Martha and Ina.
2.  Writer Mayukh Sen is Crafting a New Food Media Playbook. The award-winning writer discusses his process.
3. NPR’s best cookbooks of the year. A mix of familiar comfort food and the more adventurous.
4. The best cookbooks of 2020. The San Francisco Chronicle critics felt much better about what’s on offer this year compared to last.
5. The Joylessness of Cooking. Helen Rosner holds forth about a “crisis of culinary anhedonia.”
6. How a Fortuitous Email Led to Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen. Another in the series of Cherry Bombe features about how people get their cookbook deals and write their books.
7. Building a longer table: Jamila Robinson’s vision for a more socially and racially equitable restaurant world. Journalist Jamila Robinson delves into this topic and how food writing needs to change.
8. What Did Bon Appétit Do Now? Well, they stepped in it, yet again.
9. A Case for a More Regional Understanding of Food. The Western food media needs to deconstruct its monoliths, says author Bettina Makalintal.
10. Is American Dietetics a White-Bread World? These Dietitians Think So. Dieticians need to pay more attention to different diets, body types and lives. (New York Times possible paywall.)
11. Nigella Lawson stuns Cook, Eat, Repeat viewers with ‘butter facial’ remark while making mash. Much ado about nothing, but you know how social media is.
12. Which Food Publication Won the 2020 Holiday Cookie Bake-off? Eater editors dish about which package they like best.
13. Best cookbooks and food writing of 2020. The UK Guardian stakes out its winners.
14. Just How White Is the Book Industry? The New York Times analyzes publishing and bestsellers. (New York Times possible paywall.)
15. Do you know about Exploding Topics? The site’s food page tells you what’s hot right now. Vegan keto? That’s a thing.
16. How Does Ina Do It? The New York Times profiles her rise. (Possible paywall.)
17. Time to get your publisher to submit your new book to the IACP awards.
18. A food blogger turned the tables on haters by creating ‘Shirley,’ a fake customer service representative who responds to mean comments. Amanda Rettke of the I Am Baker food blog has a ball with her new character.
19. The Substackerati. Substack is a venture-backed company featuring white male writers. So is this anything new?
20. A New York City Cookbook Store Survives. An interview with Matt Sartell of Kitchen Arts & Letters, which recently set up a successful GoFundMe campaign. Read on to see what kinds of cookbooks he’d like to see more of.
21. The Ultimate Texas Tacopedia. I don’t usually post food stories, but this piece is encyclopedic! I did not know about West Indian tacos, for example.
22. Yes, Chef: Here Are the Year’s Best Cookbooks. A food critic lists his favorites for Wired magazine.
23. The Challenge and Pleasures of Elizabeth David. Just discovered this, and what a great read it is.
24. The 19 Best Cookbooks to Give the Chic Chef This Holiday Season. So says Vogue magazine, with little explanation.

I’ll be back in 2021 for my 12th year of writing blog posts. Thanks so much for your support during this challenging time. It means the world to me!

Happy holidays! Here’s to a productive 2021.