Food Writing 101

My adventures in learning about food writing, with book recommendations for my fellow food lovers. And maybe a class?

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash

Last year, I decided to create a class for myself about Food Writing. I was inspired by Roni Lauren’s post about creating a syllabus to meet your goals. I love to cook and it’s always been in the back of my mind that I might write a cookbook or maybe a cozy romance that has a lot of kitchen scenes and food descriptions.

I created a reading list of books, both fiction and non-fiction, with a focus on food and created a little syllabus for myself. I stayed on track with my lesson plan until the holidays hit but I’m determined to get back to it. So today, I thought I would share my reading list in case you want to learn alongside me.

The first thing any good course needs is a basic textbook. For my Food Writing 101: Memoir, Essays, Cookbooks, and Food in Fiction class, I chose these books:

• Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Memoir, Recipes and More by Dianne Jacob. (Dianne has a wonderful Substack-check it out!)

• Best American Food Writing 2023, Edited by Mark Bittman

Then I divided the class into themes, Food Essays, Food & Feminism, Food as Memoir, Food Writing in Fiction and picked books for each week’s themes. Here’s the book list I decided on.

• How to Cook a Wolf by MFK Fisher

• Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

• My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life: A Cookbook by Ruth Reichel

• Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen by Rebecca May Johnson

• Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan

• Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong

• The Recipe Box by Nicola Shipman

• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Gamus

• Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

• The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

• Delicious by Ruth Reichl

After picking the books I wanted to read, I created a ten week plan for studying the books. As a writer, it’s not good enough to just read the books, I needed to give them some real thought and see what I could learn from them. So I assigned myself homework like comparing Jane Wong’s Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (a memoir about her immigrant family’s Chinese restaurant) to Lillian Li’s Number One Chinese Restaurant (a book of fiction about an immigrant family’s Chinese restaurant).

It’s been a great experience. If you are interested in taking the class I created, please let me know and, if I get enough interest, I can offer the class here, to my paid subscribers, as a bonus. I’ll share my syllabus and we can meet regularly to discuss our progress and the books. Just leave a comment and I’ll add you to the interest list. I’d also love to know if you have any other book suggestions for me to add to my reading list.

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At the Check-out Desk….

It’s been a very blustery week here in the PNW. We have had snow and sleet and freezing rain (we’re under an Ice Storm Warning as I write this). We live on a steep hill so we’ve been home bound for almost a week now.

I knew the storm was coming, so we stocked up on food, books, and I made a list of movies and TV shows to watch. I can’t say I’m too sad we’re locked up here, being forced to eat delicious things like this comforting Cheesy White Bean Tomato Bake, with homemade bread and read books like The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, or watch The Offer.

I feel immensely lucky that my husband and I work from home and have a warm and safe place to wait out the storm. I hope you have the same.

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