Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

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5 Lessons About Stealing Recipes and Web Justice

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Blogger Monica Guadio

If you were under a rock the last few days, you missed the excitement about Cooks Source, an online and print magazine busted for stealing recipes and taken down by bloggers, online news stories, Twitterers, Facebook posters, and hackers.

It started when blogger Monica Gaudio learned that a piece on apples she wrote for Gode Cokery appeared in Cooks Source magazine with her byline. She contacted editor Judith Griggs in a pointed email. Here’s where the editor made a fatal mistake (aside from stealing the recipe in the first place): She wrote an arrogant, insulting, condescending reply (scroll down to read it).

Lesson No. 1: If you’re a jerk editor who’s going to say something you’ll regret, do it over the phone.

Gaudio, outraged, told the story on her blog November 3, and printed Griggs’ outrageous comments, which include such gems as “But honestly Monica, the web is considered ‘public domain and you should be happy we just didn’t ‘lift’ your whole [Read more…] about 5 Lessons About Stealing Recipes and Web Justice

Four Culinary Trends for Recipe Writers

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Kristine Kidd, former food editor of Bon Appetit magazine

Who better than Kristine Kidd, former food editor at Bon Appétit magazine for 20 years, to tell us what’s hot in the culinary world?

As the former food trends expert at the magazine, she collaborated with celebrity chefs and food writers including Thomas Keller, Suzanne Goin, and Nigella Lawson, helping them shape stories and recipes for the magazine. The dishes she created often appeared on the cover.

Now self-employed, Kidd is putting the finishing touches on her sixth cookbook, Williams-Sonoma’s Weeknight Fresh and Fast, available in January at W-S stores, everywhere in March.

On a recent teleconference call through the International Association of Culinary Professionals, Kidd told us first how she keeps up with trends, then detailed what she sees.

To keep up, she’s an exhaustive researcher. She reads:

  • Magazines on food, including those from England, Australia and New Zealand
  • Food sections of major American newspapers
  • The business and lifestyles sections of newspapers and newsweeklies
  • And newsletters from Jessica’s Biscuit, cooking stores, and those from supermarkets and food industries.

Then she leaves her computer and desk. She goes to the cookbook table at her local Barnes & Noble; persuses what’s hot on Amazon; talks to food-obsessed friends; and shops at regular and specialty food markets, cooking stores, and farmers’ markets. She also goes to industry conferences.

She compiles all her notes, printouts, and clippings in a letter-size file box on her desk to spark ideas for new projects.

The barometer for what’s going on with cooking and food, she said, is yourself. As food writers, she said we face the same challenges as other cooks. Here are the four [Read more…] about Four Culinary Trends for Recipe Writers

Does Truth Matter When Writers Constantly Promote?

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While at a doctor’s office last week, I read  an editor’s letter in Conde Nast Traveler, about the importance of telling readers the truth. I tore it out (sorry) and brought it to my desk to ponder.

I started out thinking her credo was noble, but then lost out to cynicism.

Editor Klara Glowczewska invoked the words of the founder in her editorial: “We are wholly independent. We pay our way. We have no hidden obligations. We have no higher obligation than the one to you: to provide truth in travel.”

This philosophy, she wrote, is even more relevant now, “with the proliferation on the Web and in other digital formats of travel advice from thousands of unexamined sources, a tide of unfiltered bits of data masquerading as reliable guidance and clamoring for our attention.” Translation: she doesn’t respect web writers.

She’s tough on freelancers. They can’t even fly at a “discounted rate.” “If we discover that a reporter has accepted favors while on assignment,” she writes, “…that person can no longer work for this magazine.” Traveler correspondents must always be anonymous, too. “If we were to accept favors, our views and recommendations would lack authority — and we pride ourselves on [Read more…] about Does Truth Matter When Writers Constantly Promote?

Who Thinks You're a Good Writer?

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How I became obsessed with food from a young age. Need I say my mother was an enthusiastic home baker? My uncle Joe (right) always pressured me to read the classics.

What makes a person a good writer? Two people emailed me this week, wanting confirmation their writing was good enough.

The first was a food blogger, who wrote after reading my Beard awards post. She wondered if her blog was “up to standard” or if she was “even remotely qualified” to enter the Beard award for best blog. In her preface, she said she believed she was a good writer and storyteller and had confidence in her talents.

The second, a student in Italy studying for her masters in gastronomy, said she had read Will Write for Food, then attached two writing samples and asked for comments. She wondered if she was good enough to pursue a career as a freelance writer.

I  thought about two replies. Neither had anything to do with their work. On one hand, I thought I should encourage these two writers and say yes, because that is what people sometimes need to hear to move forward. I put that in the “Earth Mother” category of response. On the other hand, I contemplated a different [Read more…] about Who Thinks You're a Good Writer?

Cookbook Giveaway: Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook

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Want to discover new food blogs for recipes and stories? Here’s a cookbook that shows you the passion and diversity of food bloggers who love to cook, from Vegan Visitor’s Cedar-Smoked Asparagus Soup in Toronto to The Suitcase Chef’s Orangette Tea Sandwiches in Vermont.

The folks at Foodista held a contest for the best blogger recipes and received 1500 entries in just three months. They counted votes from the Foodista community and announced the winners, compiling the top 100 into this large paperback, the Foodista Best of the Food Blogs Cookbook.

You’ll find a number of unusual recipes, such as Lovage Spritzers, Vegetarian Scotch Eggs, and Chef Wally’s Baked Papayas. While most entries are American, enthusiastic blogger recipes also come from Canada, England, Turkey and Germany. Each recipe includes a bio of the blogger and a link. Some headnotes tell you about the dish. Others tell stories about [Read more…] about Cookbook Giveaway: Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook

Beard’s Prestigious Awards Go Platform Free

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Last week the James Beard Foundation announced a change in its journalism awards: Anyone who writes a story in print or on the web will now be eligible for its journalism awards.

Before, most of it was restricted to print. Now, whether you blog, publish features on your own website, or write for a group website, you’re eligible. Even the award for the “Best Food Section of a General Interest Publication” includes the web.

Since the announcement, I’ve been mulling over the ramifications of this decision and arguing with myself:

The blogger and online writer in me thinks it’s great. Beard has entered the 21st Century and leveled the playing field. No longer do writers have to get published in a newspaper or magazine to be eligible. A quality story is a quality story, regardless of [Read more…] about Beard’s Prestigious Awards Go Platform Free

Five Good Ideas for a Cookbook/Classes Coming Up

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Last week I started teaching a class on cookbook writing at Book Passage bookstore. I begin by browsing the cookbook section (not that I need prompting), picking up books to show the class that fit my criteria of great ideas. Here are five:

1. The subject is timely and capitalizes on a trend. For this criteria I found the new Twitter cookbook, with an introduction by former New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.

Author Maureen Edwards set up a twitter account, @cookbooks, to attract recipes, and published hundreds of them in this playful book.

Yes, it’s a gimmick. Gimmicks often work.

2. It’s about your area of expertise. D-I-Y Delicious capitalizes on the trend to make your own foods from scratch, with recipes for everything from cheese to sodas to ketchup. Written by chef Vanessa Barrington, it’s aimed at people who are into urban homesteading and crafty projects.

3. You are passionate about the subject. Pastry chef Fany Gerson spent years traveling around her native Mexico [Read more…] about Five Good Ideas for a Cookbook/Classes Coming Up