Food blogging

20 Terms For Selling (I Mean Writing) Recipes

April 26, 2011 by diannejacob

Are his wares "Perfect for any occasion?"

Yes, recipe writers have to make readers want to rush into the kitchen. And readers need convincing. But must we sell, sell, sell?

I found these 20 terms below in a cookbook I edited recently.

What’s wrong with them? They’re generic. They’re overused. And I feel like I’m getting a sales pitch.

I put my least favorite term (no, not delicious) first. But “Perfect for any occasion” is delicious’s equivalent in value and vagueness. What exactly does it mean? Perfect for a funeral and your kid’s lunchbox? For a wedding or an after-school snack?

I bet the guy in the photo would use this term, if he thought it would work. It’s his job to snow you. But is it your job to snow readers?

Here’s my list of 20 tired sales pitches:

Perfect for any occasion
Minimum of time and effort
You’ll rely on these recipes day in [Read more…] about 20 Terms For Selling (I Mean Writing) Recipes

Post About Dog’s Birthday Cake Wins Humor Writing Contest

April 20, 2011 by diannejacob

I smiled, I giggled, I chuckled and I marveled at all the clever writing. Many thanks to all 41 people brave enough to enter my humor writing contest.

One post made me laugh out loud. It’s from Sharon Graves of Cheesy Pennies, who wins a copy of The Sweet Life in Paris:

“Most of my favorite funny posts are about my dog…here’s an original recipe posted on the occasion of his 3rd birthday.

Peanut Butter Bonanza Bowser Birthday Extravaganza
An original recipe by my daughter

4 Trader Joe’s Natural Dog Treats, Peanut Butter Flavor
1/4 jar of peanut butter of your choice
1 birthday candle

Slather 1/2 of peanut butter between 2 treats to form sloppy, sticky sandwich. Set on counter without a plate, then turn around and touch a lot of other things [Read more…] about Post About Dog’s Birthday Cake Wins Humor Writing Contest

When Someone Dumps My Blog: The 7 Signs of Grieving

April 18, 2011 by diannejacob 109 Comments

The email announces, “Unsubscribe Notification.”

When I open it, it says only that “(email address) has unsubscribed from Will Write for Food.”

There is no checking of boxes. I want more clues. I want “I am dumping you because:

You suck
I’m too busy to waste time reading your blog
Both of the above.”

That would help me. Really. Instead, an unsubscribe notice sends me through the Seven Signs of Grieving:

1. Shock: Who dumped me? The email address is undecipherable. Fortunately for the reader, I have no idea, even though I sometimes try to figure it out.

2. Denial: I decide not to read email for the rest of the day. It feels great! I spend my spare time cutting out paper snowflakes and looking for four-leaf clovers.

3. Bargaining. One time I recognized the email. It was a famous food writer. I considered [Read more…] about When Someone Dumps My Blog: The 7 Signs of Grieving

New Google Recipe Search Means Extra Coding for Food Bloggers

February 28, 2011 by diannejacob 154 Comments

According to the Chicago Tribune, a year ago Google started asking big food websites to add code to their recipes so search results would reveal time and servings info, plus reader reviews and other information. What the article didn’t mention is that food bloggers weren’t involved.

Now it’s up to you to add the code to be part of Google’s new recipe search.

Google, you see, gets 10 million searches per day for recipes. In an effort to become more efficient, the company wants people to be able to search more narrowly for everything from ingredients to cook time. That means you, as a food blogger, will have to hand edit your recipes, until a new editor or templates show up to make it easier.

How much coding are we talking about? Google has added a term called “itemprop,” where the HTML must specify property values for each part of the recipe. There are 14 different values.

Here’s an excerpt from Google’s example for an ingredients list. The first box shows [Read more…] about New Google Recipe Search Means Extra Coding for Food Bloggers

Do Blog Photos Always Require Credits?

February 17, 2011 by diannejacob

My Korean bibimbap lunch at a New York restaurant last summer, during BlogHer.

Recently a writer challenged me on my occasional lack of photo credits. Here’s what she said in her email:

“I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time now and really appreciate your thought-provoking posts – not to mention ensuing discussions from all the food bloggers!

One thing that has always struck me as odd, however, is that I notice that you don’t always give the source credit for the photos you use on your blog. I write for [websites], and making sure to give proper photo credit is a huge deal for us.

Whether we take the photos ourselves, find them on Creative Commons, borrow them from personal blogs, or even just lift them from Amazon.com, we make sure to give credit, link back to the original, and of course, ask permission when necessary. I’ve also been burned before when I [Read more…] about Do Blog Photos Always Require Credits?

Styling Pro's Secrets to Gorgeous Food Photos

February 2, 2011 by diannejacob

Food Stylist Denise Vivaldo

For every food blog with gorgeous photos, 10 others need work.

So I’ve asked Denise Vivaldo, founder of Food Fanatics, a catering, recipe development and food styling firm based in Los Angeles, to come to the rescue. She has styled food for television shows including The Tonight Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Inside Dish with Rachel Ray.

She helps authors with their cookbooks, including Mariel’s Kitchen by Mariel Hemingway, cookbooks by Suzanne Somers, and The Date Night Cookbook by Meredith Phillips.

She also teaches food styling (sometimes with photographer Matt Amendariz), and is the author, most recently, of The Food Stylist’s Handbook, based on her decades of food styling experience.

Q. What is the definition of a food stylist?

A. It’s the food stylist’s job to prepare food for the camera. The food is not necessarily consumed but prepared just for the camera. The majority of tricks we use are to manipulate the food so it’s still edible.

Now that’s different for food bloggers. You develop issues about food when your family’s going to eat it. You want it to still be hot, to make sure nothing gets into it to contaminate it, and you don’t want to waste it.

So if I were making strawberry ice cream, I would pick out a quart of strawberry ice cream at the grocery store and shoot that. That way I might not feel panicked about working with it.

Q. Where do food bloggers go wrong about food styling?

"We put the green beans going in different directions. It's a platter like my mother would have brought to the table. We blanched the onions first, then sautéed them to preserve their color. We undercook everything."

A. A blogger in a class I was teaching once said to me, “I just throw it on the plate. I have four kids to feed.” You need to understand composition.

I’ve found that bloggers don’t read the instruction book that comes with the camera. I tell them to take off the automatic setting and learn to focus the camera themselves. Take the automatic flash off and learn how to harness light.

They don’t get close enough to the food. You want to be able to lick that photograph! Props and food trends come and go, but less is more in photographs.

Q. What if I don’t have a whole cabinet full of pretty plates and dish towels?

A. Then get close to that food!

Also, food needs color. Get gorgeous colored napkins: vibrant blues, pinks and orange. Then [Read more…] about Styling Pro's Secrets to Gorgeous Food Photos