Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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

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Of Course Food is Just like Fashion

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bacon-cupcakesTut-tutting erupted earlier this week when the soon-to-be publisher of Bon Appetit told an interviewer she didn’t see much difference between food and fashion.

In an interview in Women’s Wear Daily, Carol Smith, senior vice president and chief brand officer of Elle Group, said she was lured from her current job while having a drink with future boss Thomas A. Florio, Condé Nast’s senior vice president and publishing director:

“He said, ‘Could you ever see yourself doing for food what you did for fashion with Elle?’” Smith recalled. “I had never even thought about it….Then I started to think, you know, what’s the difference between [Read more…] about Of Course Food is Just like Fashion

Classes, Seminars Coming Up

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Man, I’ve got a busy year ahead, with lots of events to come. Here’s whats on the calendar for this month and next, from a two-hour teleconference to a week at one of the world’s finest spas. Come join me!

(If you have questions about whether these classes would be right for you, email me at dj@diannej.com, or comment below and I will answer.)

  • April 22-25, 2010
    Experts are In and Coaching Sessions (SOLD OUT)
    International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference
    Portland, Oregon
    $85-$745, depending on day pass or full pass
    If you’re a member of IACP, I hope you’ll make it to the conference. The sessions are particularly intriguing this year, and held in a food-loving city to boot. I’ll be coaching during an Experts Are In session, and hosting two evening Night Owl sessions on how food writers need to continually reinvent ourselves to stay in business. Find me and say hello.
  • April 27, 2010
    What You Need to Know to Start a Food Blog
    One Night Virtual Class, 8:45-10:45 EST
    $85
    Take this 2-hour telephone class through Leite’s Culinaria to learn about blogging: Why you should start a blog, how to begin and keep going, how to get people to care and notice. Q&A follows lecture.
  • May 1-8, 2010
    Do You Have a Book Inside You?
    Rancho La Puerta
    Tecate, Mexico
    1-week     (stay can be variable)
    $2715 to $4105 per week per person, in US dollars
    Rancho La Puerta is one of the best spas in the world and a bargain compared to many. Join me on your exploration of writing a book as I lead four 1-hour workshops over the course of a week. Take a cooking class while you’re there too, at an exquisite [Read more…] about Classes, Seminars Coming Up

Cookbook Giveaway: Seasonal Fruit Desserts

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Fruit Desserts.Madison

Six years ago Deborah Madison started working on a cookbook she called “Desserts for the Pastry Impaired.”

“Pastry chefs are exacting people who have a deep sense about measurement and clean aprons,” she explains. “Cooking is more intuitive, more relaxed, with more opportunities to taste and adjust.” She wanted to write a less rigid book about desserts.

As she wrote the book, the focus gradually changed to fruit, a natural for someone with a bent towards produce. “When you’re working on a book it talks to you in different ways over time,” she says. Apparently it talked to the editor in a different way too. Madison found out her editor regarded her title as a placeholder. “That kind of changed things,” Deborah admits good-naturedly.

She was already three years into the project when it shifted, but that was fine. Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm, and Market stayed “in the background, although I was always working on it.” 

Here’s what she was doing in the foreground. She wrote three other cookbooks: What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes; Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen; and Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen.

No stranger to working on challenging projects in tandem, Deb had opened a restaurant during the [Read more…] about Cookbook Giveaway: Seasonal Fruit Desserts

Darra Goldstein’s Magnificent Brain and My Pink Bathrobe

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GastronomicaEditor in Chief Darra Goldstein swept into town the other night to celebrate 10 years of Gastronomica magazine, her quarterly food writing journal about “sensual and intellectual nourishment.” She founded the publication in her copious spare time as a professor of Russian at Williams College.

I saw her in a wide-ranging conversation on food, culture, and identity at UC Berkeley with sociology professor Barry Glassner, author of The Gospel of Food: Why We Should Stop Worrying and Enjoy What We Eat.

The multiple award-winning Goldstein, who lived in Russia, studied in Helsinki and is the author of four cookbooks, began the conversation discussing Culinary Cultures of Europe, a book she edited where writers from 45 countries laid out views on how food could be used to encourage tolerance and diversity.

Oh, how wonderful to leave my office and computer for a few [Read more…] about Darra Goldstein’s Magnificent Brain and My Pink Bathrobe

Bloggers Fire Back on Working for Free

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Remember this guy from the movie "Network?"

Remember this guy from the movie “Network?”

Three food bloggers are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it any more.

I’m speaking of the idea put forth to them, in our social media-crazy world, they should be honored to work for nothing in exchange for exposure. (I’ve covered this subject before, from Putting the Free in Freelance to Links are the New Currency.)

In their responses, two writers use humor to get their point across, and one goes for it directly:

1. Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites made his point gently in a letter to a tire company, suggesting he [Read more…] about Bloggers Fire Back on Working for Free

Book Giveaway: Just Food

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2009-08-27-JustFoodI like a little controversy and contention. It makes the comments on this blog more interesting. James E. McWillams, author of Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly, has the same idea.

A historian and former fellow in the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, McWilliams argues that the concept of food miles (how far food travels to get to your supermarket shelves)  is flawed and makes little progress toward the ultimate goal of sustainable production. Read his New York Times Op-Ed piece for a sample of his thinking.

Those are fighting words here in the politically-correct San Francisco Bay Area. But in the book, he argues “there’s a complex story to tell about food and the distance it travels,” and he delves into his research with gusto.

McWillliams also explains why organic food is not [Read more…] about Book Giveaway: Just Food

Alan Richman, the “Most Decorated Food Writer in America”

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richman_240You might have read in my last post on James Beard nominees that Alan Richman, a contributing writer for GQ magazine since 1986, received three nomations.

That’s nothing. His bio on GQ calls him “the most decorated food writer in America.” He has already won 14 James Beard awards, with 29 nominations overall. A congratulatory post from the GQ editors compared him to Meryl Streep, who has won twice, with  16 nominations.

Richman, who started his writing career as a sports reporter in Philadelphia, eats in restaurants as his main job. In one year he might dine in Bangkok; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Paris; Beijing; Los Angeles; and New Haven, Connecticut.

He’s a master of the long form, but it must be relative. In an interview, Richman bemoans its demise.”We’re starting to lose something by stories [Read more…] about Alan Richman, the “Most Decorated Food Writer in America”