Career

5 Tasks Every Food Blogger Should Outsource to a VA

April 3, 2018 by diannejacob 9 Comments

A guest post by Maggie Zhu

If you are working nonstop and feeling overwhelmed, maybe it’s time to outsource to a VA or virtual assistant.

Doing so helps you focus on the most important work and grow your businesse. A VA is a member of your team, performing work remotely. Whether you’re hiring a programmer from India or a work-at-home mom in the US, you might be able to pay a reasonable or even low hourly rate, such as $5 to $10 per hour. [Read more…] about 5 Tasks Every Food Blogger Should Outsource to a VA

The Hidden Life of Grace Young

March 20, 2018 by diannejacob 16 Comments

Everyone knows Grace Young is a Chinese food writer. She’s won national awards for each of her three Chinese cookboooks. But as with most successful people, there’s much more to her than that.

Recently she took a subversive turn, mixing traditional and Western dishes to cook in a wok. In this video, newly nominated for a Jame Beard award, she uses a wok to make French fries, steak, and even popcorn.

Is this mixing of cultures a new thing for Grace Young? For us, yes. For her, no. Does she feel [Read more…] about The Hidden Life of Grace Young

A Self-published Cookbook Author Gets Her Own Magazine

December 5, 2017 by diannejacob 12 Comments

Melissa Joulwan has always done things her own way. Now she gets her own magazine! She started a blog, built a following, wrote three award-winning self-published cookbooks, and recently, moved to Prague with Dave, her husband and photographer.

I’ve written about her success as a self-published cookbook author: 5 Things I learned from Selling Almost 300,000 Cookbooks, and Self-publishing Success wth a Paleo Cookbook.

But this! She gets her own magazine?

I didn’t find out about Melissa’s latest venture until a friend showed me [Read more…] about A Self-published Cookbook Author Gets Her Own Magazine

3 Reasons Food Writing Doesn’t Pay

August 22, 2017 by diannejacob 18 Comments

Actually there’s only one reason food writing doesn’t pay: Mostly women do it, and most do it as a hobby or on the side. As a result, they are amateurs or consider themselves as such, even after years of work or accomplishments.

Most of us don’t ask to be paid what we’re worth. So publications and websites can get away with paying very little, compared to [Read more…] about 3 Reasons Food Writing Doesn’t Pay

Raghavan Iyer Moves Beyond Indian Cookbooks

August 1, 2017 by diannejacob 29 Comments

After four Indian cookbooks and a book on Asian flavors, including Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking (“Talk about gender-bender! That book is still in print!” he enthuses), Raghavan Iyer branched out. As a chef who, for the last 16 years, has trained other chefs for Bon Appetit Management company about Indian and vegetarian world cuisines, Raghavan wrote a cookbook about potatoes.

Until Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked–and Fried, Too!: A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Irresistible Recipes came out last fall, pretty much everything Raghavan did had an Indian bent. That includes his [Read more…] about Raghavan Iyer Moves Beyond Indian Cookbooks

Activist Sandra Gutierrez: On Speaking Out Through Writing

July 5, 2017 by diannejacob 4 Comments

Q&A with activist Sandra Gutierrez on speaking out through writing Writer and activist Sandra Gutierrez knows what it feels like to be a stereotype, and to break through barriers. She is speaking out through writing — first about food, and now about stereotypes. She did it slowly, but with a belief that her story as a Latina, and the story of Southern Latino food could be told.

Now she’s a nationally recognized food personality, cookbook author, freelance food writer, and cooking instructor. Her articles and recipes have appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world.

The Smithsonian Institution recognized Sandra’s contribution to American culture through an example of community change. Sandra defined the New Southern-Latino culinary movement more than 20 years ago, after she convinced [Read more…] about Activist Sandra Gutierrez: On Speaking Out Through Writing

Food Bloggers Who Help Others

May 16, 2017 by diannejacob 29 Comments

Mega-food blogger Aimee Wimbush-Bourque of Simple Bites emailed me recently to say that, after meeting with another big blogger, they decided “blogging isn’t enough anymore. We want to use our platforms to help others, to do some good, to make a difference.”