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The Future of Food Writing
Posted on Fri, January 08, 2010 by Jerusha Klemperer
4 Comments | Categories: Books, Events, Farms and Farming, Uncategorized,
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Last night a local NYC bookstore convened some local-grown (but nationally known) food writers to discuss the state of online food writing. The panelists were:
- Ed Levine, of Serious Eats
- Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, of Food52
- Cathy Erway, of Not Eating Out in NY
- Julie Powell, of “Julie and Julia,” and the new “Cleaving”
- and moderator Lynn Andrianni of Publisher’s Weekly
Each of these panelists came to online food writing from different places—with Julie P. almost the young grandmommy of the movement. Looking at her old Salon blog, one has to smile—only 6 years old or so and it looks like an ancient artifact, a sepia-toned e-photograph of a simpler time. Fast forward to the lively, media rich sites like Serious Eats and Food52 and one is amazed at how far we’ve come. Conversation was lively, exploring how online food writing and real live books and newspapers can work together, even complement each other; what the demise of Gourmet meant, if anything; how online writing is exciting because it lacks the doubting gatekeepers of old institutions (who like to pigeonhole writers into their specific beats and who sometimes can’t think outside the box); how online writing can be used to form food communities (like Food52).
Interestingly not mentioned was how each of these folks use twitter—which most of them do!
One highlight: when Civil Eats editor Paula Crossfield asking about the transition we’ve all seen from food writing focusing solely on pleasure to food writing exploring provenance and politics. An extremely important point that hit home for this writer, certainly, as well as for Powell—now writing about whole animal butchery—and Erway—a regular on the NYC sustainable food scene.
Another highlight: a high school teacher in the audience got up and explained that he teaches a course called “Food and NYC” and asked the panelists for their suggestions on where to take a 16 year old for the afternoon in order to “enliven their relationship with food.” What lucky high schoolers! What a great questions! Most of the panelists seem to agree that meeting producers like bakers, pizzaiolos, farmers at the market etc. would be a great start. Also agreed upon were the ethnic culinary riches of Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Jackson Heights, Queens. Then the conversation veered towards the idea of bringing kids to high end French restaurants and my frustration grew….then, Cathy Erway to the rescue: “bring them to an urban farm!”
Phew, all was not lost.
Member Comments
From Anna on Fri, January 08, 2010
I was there, and I loved this event, too—-but I think you’re misrepresenting Amanda Hesser’s point about bringing kids to a fancy French restaurant. All the panelists seemed to assume the kids in question were Manhattan-private-school types. Those kids probably have a lot of exposure to food as high art, but little to food production or to what’s happening on, say, Main Street in Flushing. In a sense, Hesser’s answer was more democratic. She was imagining that said kids perhaps wouldn’t have exposure to how seriously the business of making food could be taken. It was a great point, and I think the answer to where to take a kid to learn about food should consider what sort of background that kid has and how to broaden their horizons.
From Amy Blogs Chow on Sat, January 09, 2010
I attended this event as well and enjoyed it immensely. However, not one panelist was able to offer his/her take on the final, or even the next, destination of food writing. At one point the moderator mused cookbooks will always be relevant because she couldn’t imagine using a Kindle in the kitchen for fear of spilling on it. As a kitchen amateur whose interest in cooking was piqued by food blogs, I found her justification for perpetuating print recipes feeble. Ed Levine was and is still ahead of the times, but even he was unable to articulate where “this” is all going.
That said, it was a satisfying way to spend two hours. Like you guys, I would have loved to hear about twitter. Also, I wonder whether they should have named the event “The State of Food Writing Now”.
From Jerusha on Sun, January 10, 2010
Anna: I see your point. I really let my bias show through there, which is that I don’t find those fancy restaurants “enliven my relationship with food.” More than anything I feel distanced by the formality of it all and very aware of it being fancier than I am, which could be a bad feeling for a kid, maybe. I definitely have a bias towards shortening the distance between us and the food…
Amy Blogs Chow: I totally agree! I still don’t feel any closer to understanding how books and internet will work together…do you still use cookbooks? Do you buy the books put out by internet cooks (Clotilde, Pim, etc.)?
From Anna on Mon, January 11, 2010
I think the event confirmed what we already knew: people who love food love to read about it in all different ways. i read blogs, but i still buy cookbooks, as do most of the home cooks i know.
