Writing

Who Qualifies as a Beard Finalist, and What They Wrote

March 22, 2010 by diannejacob 34 Comments

Today 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

Food Trends — Should You Pay Attention?

February 3, 2010 by diannejacob

It’s the start of the new year, and everyone has predictions.

The Fancy Food Show just released a list of the top five food trends for 2010, according to a panel of “food critics and food writer experts” on location. They are:

“good-for-you” foods
coconut
gluten-free foods
exotic citrus, and
“nostalgic” foods.”

Then, adding to the list are are the usual Top Food Trend stories that appear every January. Nani Steele sent me a whole passel of ’em from Market Watch, the Food Channel, Slashfood, Epicurious, Yahoo Lifestyle, and Eating Well. I’ve boiled the trends down to:

Comfort food cooking with basic ingredients — lamb and pork are particularly trendy
Budget-friendly recipes are still in style
Regional ethnic food, particularly those of Korea, Morocco and Japan
Good-for-you foods, based on allergies and building immunity.

I’m sure magazine and cookbook editors and literary agents pay attention to these forecasts. Aaron Wehner, publisher of Ten Speed Press, told me they’re drowning in budget-friendly cookbook proposals right now.

Trend stories make me wonder: should food writers jump on these trends and suddenly pitch articles and cookbooks on coconut and exotic citrus, or other trends mentioned in these stories? If you’re a blogger, will you write blog posts with recipes based on these trends? How do these trends guide you, or do they? What will you do with this information?

(Photo thanks to Stephanie Stiavetti of The Culinary Life)

Apple's iPad = Less Money for Writers?

January 28, 2010 by diannejacob

First there was print, where all we needed was the written word. Then blogs, where writers learned to become publishers, photographers and marketers. Now there’s the new iPad from Apple, where publishers are salivating over a new way to [Read more…] about Apple's iPad = Less Money for Writers?

What's the Right Length for a Recipe?

January 26, 2010 by diannejacob 39 Comments

Just read 5 Second Rule’s excellent post about whether recipes are boring, and it generated some thoughts about recipe length. (Isn’t it fantastic when an blog post idea arrives on a platter? Thank you, Cheryl.)

Now, some writers like to go long. They like to hold the reader’s hand and explain. Sometimes I’m surprised about how much handholding, though.

I edited a recipe recently that said: “If necessary, [Read more…] about What's the Right Length for a Recipe?

Winner of the Sensuous Writing Contest

January 24, 2010 by diannejacob 2 Comments

Thanks to everyone brave enough to enter my sensuous writing contest, which ended a week ago tonight. It takes courage to post a piece of writing and to have it examined by all who read it. I appreciate the work of every single one of you, and found delightful writing in each.

I was swept away by evocative images from all over the world, including: the pudding-like consistency of ricotta, a spoon that smelled like the cedars of Lebanon, plump twists of pasta, rhythmic plunges and dips of a paddle, pebble-sized pieces of pork fat, almond meal as fine as sand, a pillow of hot dough burning through paper, the first burst of peach juice, a jade fringe of lettuce, chai in a fragile clay cup, soup the color of Georgia O’Keefe’s desert…I could go on and on, but why not read the samples yourself and find your own favorites?

To select the winner, I printed out the writing samples and highlighted [Read more…] about Winner of the Sensuous Writing Contest

Sensuous Writing with Corn Pops

January 15, 2010 by diannejacob

Brooke Burton of Foodwoolf puts her food writing chops to use.

Yesterday at breakfast here at Club Med Ixtapa Food Blogger Camp, I cast around for the perfect food on which to base a food writing exercise using all the senses.

(You remember which senses I mean, right? Let’s review:

Touch
Taste
Sound
Sight
Smell.)

Then I saw individual boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Pops at the cereal station. Perfect! They would trigger childhood memories, make us laugh, or inspire [Read more…] about Sensuous Writing with Corn Pops

Writing Contest: How Sensuous Can You Be?

January 7, 2010 by diannejacob

In the wee hours on Saturday, I’m taking off for the first Food Blogger Camp at Club Med Ixtapa Pacific, Mexico. I’ll be teaching a class on Writing with the Senses, and looking for a few good laughs if people write over-the-top pornographic examples.

There might also be magical prose like this:

“The crust is as crunchy as a butter cookie, so brittle that it cracks audibly when you press it with your fork; grains of cinnamon sugar bounce off the [Read more…] about Writing Contest: How Sensuous Can You Be?