Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

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Who Qualifies as a Beard Finalist, and What They Wrote

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james beard awardToday the James Beard Association announced its finalists for the annual awards. I’m particularly interested in the Journalism Awards category: who the authors are and what they wrote.

The first thing I noticed is that most of the nominees are white men. They are full-time writers, reporters or editors at their publications. A few are freelance writers and long-time contributers to their publications. Some have already won awards. Some are book authors. Almost all seem based in the mid-west or the East Coast.

The few freelance writers nominated have a relationship with their publication. Translation: They didn’t write one piece for a magazine once.

Now, you can see the list of nominees on many other websites, but  so far I haven’t found any sites offering links to  the actual articles. It took me a couple of hours, and I didn’t find them all. But in service to you, who might wonder if you could ever write an award-winning article, here are [Read more…] about Who Qualifies as a Beard Finalist, and What They Wrote

Adapting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours

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iage of burrito for post on how adapting a recipe doesn't make it yours “My wife was browsing for a good burrito recipe and stumbled on a blog that posted a recipe strikingly similar to one on Food & Wine without giving any credit,” said my friend Ethan in a recent email. He didn’t know that we call it “adapting a recipe.”

“The blogger had modified the recipe a bit,” he continued, “but clearly a lot of the recipe was cut and pasted.”  “I made a comment, as polite as I could, asking the blogger about it, but I suspect she won’t approve it.”

(I’m not providing a link because I don’t want  you to tear this food [Read more…] about Adapting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours

21 Ways to Get Comments on Your Blog

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Recently I asked food bloggers to tell me which posts received the most comments and why. I’ve analyzed the responses (thanks to everyone who commented) and created this simple list.

The next time you’re wracking your brain to come up with a blog post idea, choose a number below and see what develops. Or try one of the strategies to draw more people to your blog and increase your chances of comments.The suggestions are in no particular order.

  1. Ask a question: “How do you use this vegetable?”
  2. Write an essay that expresses your passion for cooking, such as how cooking connects you to your past, [Read more…] about 21 Ways to Get Comments on Your Blog

Book Giveaway: Tips Cooks Love

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TipsCooksLovePlease help me celebrate my first book giveaway by signing up to win Tips Cooks Love: Over 500 Tips, Techniques, and Shortcuts That Will Make You a Better Cook! 

I thought this cookbook reference companion might be a timely choice, based on the arguments in my most popular post, The Top 10 Terms to Avoid in Recipes. You’ll find no assumptions here about how to cook and bake, only helpful, knowledgeable information. In fact, on p. 57 is an explanation of the term “blanch,” one of the words in my list.

While I assumed Tips Cooks Love targets novice cooks, I found lots to interest me. Regarding the age-old debate about whether to lower the temperature when using glass baking dishes [Read more…] about Book Giveaway: Tips Cooks Love

Why Authors Need a Platform More than Ever

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I’ve spoken to three hopeful memoirists recently who were convinced that the strength of their writing alone will be enough to sell their book. They don’t need to work on their platforms, they said.

Now, this would be interesting if these people were famous or rich. But they’re not. They have either a small blog or have never been published. And in the world of memoir, being famous helps. In fact, it’s the first question my agent asks when I mention I’m working with someone who’s hoping to publish a memoir.

Since most of us are not ever going to be famous, the best we can do is build a platform. A platform is [Read more…] about Why Authors Need a Platform More than Ever

The Top 10 Terms to Avoid in Recipes

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While the public seems obsessed with cooking right now, their understanding of the craft has not improved. Here’s an example from cookbook author David Leite: He told me a reader questioned his use of the term “separate the eggs.” She asked if he meant to move the eggs further apart.

Editors say people know less about cooking than ever before, so recipe writers have to explain more or use terms that everyone understands, [Read more…] about The Top 10 Terms to Avoid in Recipes

Help! My Gourmet is Now Bon Appetit

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march_10_cover_vThe postcard inside the plastic-wrapped package advised “…we will be sending you Bon Appetit for the duration of your remaining Gourmet subscription term.”

And there it was, my non-Gourmet. First I got sad about Gourmet’s passing all over again. I like the way Elissa Altman summed up its demise: “Gourmet folded because it had a direct competitor under the same roof in the same genre geared to more practical and commercial endeavors, it made more money, and one of them had to go…End of discussion.”

Once I got over the fact that it was not Gourmet, I was curious to see how Bon Appetit was different. Content, for one thing. Bon Appetit is all about entertaining. Tone, for another. It’s all about ease: world-class dining made simple.

Yet most of the recipes didn’t look that easy. In fact, I got the biggest laugh from [Read more…] about Help! My Gourmet is Now Bon Appetit