IMPACT OF FOOD JOURNALISM

PROJECT WORK

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF ARTS

in

ENGLISH

BY

VARUN RAJ. H

213311101037

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Dr.M.G.R EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE

(University with Graded Autonomy Status)

CHENNAI 600 095

MARCH 2024
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that VARUN RAJ. H (Reg No. 213311101037 ) is a bonafide student of the III

B.A. English, Dr. M.G.R EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE (University with Graded

Autonomy Status) Chennai – 600 095 during 2021 – 2024 and his/her project work entitled IMPACT

OF FOOD JOURNALISM is done by her.

Head of the Department

Submitted for Viva Voce Examination held on ____________

Project Co-ordinator External Examiner

Acknowledgement

CHAPTER I – Introduction 01

CHAPTER II – Research of Food Journalism 08

CHAPTER III – Conclusion 28

Bibliography 29
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I thank the Lord Almighty for giving me the strength to complete this project.

I would like to thank our beloved Chancellor Thiru.A.C.Shanmugam, and honourable President

Er.A.C.S.Arunkumar for giving this opportunity to do B.A. (English) program in the esteemed Dr

M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute (University Graded with Autonomy Status), Chennai – 600

095.

I would like to thank Dr. S. Geethalakshmi Vice-Chancellor, Dr C.B. Palanivel, Registrar, Dr.

Merlin Sathyaraj, Joint Registrar, H&S for their support.

I thank Dr. Mary Thomas, Dean, Department of English, Dr. Chandrasena Rajeswaran, Dean,

Department of English and Dr A. Anitha, Head, Department of English for their support and

encouragement in completing the project work.

I sincerely thank my supervisor Ms. K. Jaya Soundarya Assistant Professor, Dept. of English for

her guidance throughout the project.

I take this opportunity to thank all the Faculty of the Department of English for their

encouragement.

Signature
 CHAPTER – 1
INTRODUCTION

As a term, “food journalism” is relatively young. When I tell people that I’m working on a
study about food journalism, mostly people think about restaurant reviews. And yes, a review can be a great
journalistic piece of work. Besides giving information about a restaurant and the food they serve, it can tell
about a certain food trend, or about a certain time or society, it can explain a certain feature of food culture
or cover an ethnological or a historicalstory. It can explain a certain cooking method or tell about the people
behind the food. Or it can tell you what not to eat, as the restaurant review of Hudson Cafeteria in The New
York Times, written by William Grimes:

The Jell-O arrives in a large Coke glass, topped with a cloud of whipped cream and dotted with
a cherry. After several moments devoted to admiration, someone, inevitably, dips in with a long-
handled spoon and actually tastes the thing. That's when ooh and aah turns into ugh. I don't know what
toxic waste tastes like, but I am prepared to say that serving it chilled would not improve the flavor. A
lot of the food is like that at Hudson Cafeteria. The Cherry Coke Jell-O is less a dessert than a text,
packed with enough signs to keep a moderately competent cultural critic fully employed for months.
You can eat it, if you like. But it's much more profitable to read it, to tease out its implicit challenge to
the socially constructed notion of ''good'' food.

No one can order chop suey in the 21st century and not ponder deep questions. Why is this being
served? Why did I order it? As a cultural gesture, does it truly exist if no one observes it? It's one thing
to announce that you intend to buy the complete recorded works of the Carpenters, another thing
entirely to listen to it by yourself. Similarly, the chop suey, once ordered, eventually arrives at the table
like any other dish, at which point another question arises: Can anyone possibly eat it? (2000)

But food journalism is much more than just restaurant reviews. It’s about researching food and
seeing how everything is connected. It can be hard news and investigative journalism, about how horse or
rat meat is sold as beef, about poisonous milk powder, “mad cow disease”, or old food sold with new labels
and foul ingredients in cheap fast food stores. With a wide range of topics such as food industrialism,
legislation and politics – the buffet is open for investigative food journalists.

One of the big fields of food journalism is the health. Nutrition has clearly become a huge topic; you
can’t avoid it in any media. And media is the reason why the low-carb diet spread over the world and
suddenly even my mother is talking about carbs and proteins, instead of talking about bread and meat. And
she is not the only one avoiding wheat after this trend filled the magazines. So the media really has an impact
on what and eat.

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 One big field nowadays is how food impacts our health. Nutrition has clearly become a huge topic in
food journalism. Let’s take the low-carb diet for example: because of the media and the widespread “news”
about the advantages of a low-carb diet, now even my mother is talking about carbs and proteins, instead of
talking about bread and meat. So the media really has animpact on what we eat.

Food journalism is also storytelling. During the 10 months of my study, I’ve been touched by a story
about a family who lives with food stamps, an American system that provides food assistance for poor
people. I’ve laughed while reading the recipe for boiling water. I’ve been impressed after reading a story
that reviewed all the 26 courses that one of the best restaurants in the world, Noma, is serving. I’ve been
disgusted while reading an article about the last meals of murderers and rapists, I’ve been concerned while
reading about food being produced completely artificial and I’ve smiled while reading a story about a couple
who opened a restaurant after their “Cut the cheese” –cheese and wine nights became crazy popular in their
home city. They spent all their money on cheese. And it turned out that the other one didn’t actually like
cheese, he was just in love.

There are a lot of good stories. And there are also gastronomical trends and phenomenons to cover.
Why everybody was raving about kale two years ago? And why everybody is now doing craft beer and
kimchi? What is the next ramen burger, pulled pork or seitan?

Food journalism can also be marketing, service journalism or blogging. It can be fiction or a first
person essay, a memoir, a cookbook, a recipe or a photo. Or it can just feed curiosity. Where is the best fish
soup in this city? What can you do with a waffle iron? How was the donut invented? How does it feel to live
a month without supermarkets or multinational brands? Where does the black color in cola come from?
What is inside of a nugget? How does the most expensive food in the world taste? What is the right way to
eat pizza? These questions, for example, could be the ones that food journalism gives answers to. It all starts
with the same questions that every good piece of journalism. What? Why? Who? Where?

Mainly there are two ways that people usually end up writing about food: through a culinary school
or through a journalism school. I’ve also heard stories about people who just have been so determined with
their passion andhave had a witty pen, who have made it in the food journalism field. But either one of these
educations, culinary or within journalism, is the standard.

There is no special degree program for food journalism available, but there are some universities in
the world that offers courses about the theme. The most recognized is the University of California,
Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, that is offering food related lectures and workshops in their
Science and Environment department. One of the professors there is MichaelPollan, an awarded author and a
journalist, who made his name through conscious critiques and reportages of the food industry.

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 If Berkeley is far away and you want to get to know food journalism better, there are also some
online courses and some literature about the theme, like Dianne Jacob’s Will Write For Food. It tells a lot
about starting a food blog buthas also great advices for other kinds of food writing.

The old-fashion way – like Julia Child did it – is to get into the field from a culinary school. If you
want to write recipes, you need to know what kinds of flours work best for cakes, how is the temperature of
boiling water affecting an egg being boiled, what is the problem if your bread isn’t rising and which
vegetables or fruits pair up well with goat cheese and what the heck is a sous vide?

For us a degree in house economics is not a must, but we have a lot of people with that
background. Because our magazine has plenty of recipes, our writers need to have good skills to create
a recipe and have a wide understanding about ingredients. So background with culinary or house
economic studies definitely helps. (2015)

But it depends on where you work. If you are not expected to write recipes daily and you are doing
more news and reporting, then a journalism school is the right background for you. Besides that, you need to
have a huge interest and strong acknowledgment about food. You need to build your own special know-how.
It’s all about when a passion turns into expertise. You need to follow the food field in general: restaurant
business and public discussion concerning food topics, food trends and food medias.

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 CHAPTER -2

RESEARCH ON FOOD JOURNALISM

Also you learn a great deal by travelling, by getting to know different food cultures, working in a
restaurant and by tasting and cooking a lot – without prejudices. You don’t have to be a good cook, but
cooking definitely helps. Here is what a food writer Monica Bhide says about the theme in her online food
writing class: What if I don't like to cook? Do I need to cook to be a food writer? Or is it food writing if I
don't cook? The answer is yes and no! It depends on the kind of food writing that you want to do. If you
want to develop recipes, write pieces on how to use ingredients/cooking methods, etc., then you definitely
need to cook. If you prefer to focus on, say, writing about wine, focusing on chef profiles or reviewing
restaurants, or writing a book on the best fast-food joints in Bali, then you don't really need to, although I
have found that I write better when I know more about the recipe/ingredient/ etc. that I am reviewing. It is
more effective to write about how a steak should be cooked at a restaurant if in fact I have spent the time
cooking steaks and know the difference between the various levels of doneness. My main point is this: You
don't have to be a gourmet chef to be a good food writer.

Internet is taking the field into the direction that you need to have strong writing skills. You need to
know how to make selling headlines; the recipe is not enough anymore. If you want that people will click
your article, you need to present a tip or a story that hooks the reader, for example: “Can you believe that
you can make a dish in 5 minutes?” Skills in storytelling are highlighted, but you need to have the skills to
develop and write a recipe. And you also need to know how to develop the picture and style a dish. It really
is multitasking nowadays.

A good writer is a good writer, simple as that. And to become a better writer, there are lots of writing
courses and literature to develop your writing. Reading is also very important. And to read different kinds of
food stories, read the restaurant reviews from The New York Times, Washington Post or Chicago Tribune.
Read the memoirs of chef Anthony Bourdain or restaurant critic Ruth Reichl. Read the food related novels
by M.F.K. Fishers or Bill Buford and the books of food professor Michael Pollan or cookbook author and
teacher James Beard. Whatever you read, read regularly and follow the food medias.

By reading, you’ll learn a lot, but when it comes to your own writing, there are some skills that are
very important when writing about food. First of all, you need to be good at describing things. No matter if
it’s a piece about a new restaurant, milk processing plant or a piece about the history of a Club Sandwich,
you need to be able to describe it. Dianne Jacob writes in her guidebook Will Write For Food, that you need
to use “show, not tell”.

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 Don’t tell readers you didn’t like sitting at the table with your dad. Show them what it was like. Put
them at the table with you. One great example of this is Bill Buford's book Heat. Buford, a writer and an
enthusiastic home cook, was writing a profile about Mario Batali, one of the best-known chefs in America.
To do that, he wanted to work for one of the Batali’s restaurants. Batali took him in for his “kitchen slave”
and Buford wrote a book about the whole experience. Here’s Buford describing the first day he arrived to
the restaurant:

At seven a.m. I presented myself to the prep chef, a handsome, athletic woman in her forties named
Elisa Sarno. I was eager, hopeful, utterly ready. But Elisa didn’t seem all that happy to see me.
I put on an apron and jacket, and was given a tour. One corner of the kitchen was taken up by the “walk-in”,
a refrigerated closet about the size of a small truck with floor-to-ceiling shelves. That week’s New York
Times restaurant review was pasted on the door, as was the custom – a reminder of the competition and of
the importance of Babbo’s three stars (very few restaurants, you learned, got even two). Another corner was
given over to dishwashing. Pots, pans, and various plastic containers were stored overhead. Elisa was
describing each one according to its size, but I was distracted by the dishwasher, a young angry man (I
wasn’t introduced but later discovered his name was Alejandro) who was assaulting a pot the size of a urban
trash can with a high-pressured gadget that was spraying water powerfully in unpredictable directions.

You need to be the eyes, the ears and also the mouth for your reader. Bring the person inside the
scene. In her food writing classes Monica Bhide encourages to add depth as much as you can: You are
writing about your grandmother making meatloaf: where are you? What does it smell like? What year is it?
What is playing on the radio? What can you hear? What is she wearing? Close your eyes and visualize as
much detail as you can. Scan the room – what do you see? Every single thing you recall and write will make
the essay richer. You can cut out things that don't belong later but at this time, just write it out.

Words also run out quickly. If everything is good or delicious, you are in trouble. You need to have a
large palette of tastes but just as wide palette of adjectives. Words to describe - not just the taste - but the
whole feeling that you get from a dish or an ingredient, the texture of it, the looks, the smell and the touch.
To be a good food writer, you also need to be curious - the basic and maybe the most important skill of a
journalist. New things don’t always just pop up on your way, you need to find them. Here is what Bhide
says about curiosity: This is what leads to creativity and innovation in a field that can be easily dulled with
repetition. Think about it, if we all made everything with the same recipe each time, how boring would it be?

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 A curious writer will swap his mayo for jalapeno to chocolate cream sauce and see what that does to
his turkey sandwich; a curious writer will wander into his backyard to catch cicadas to see if there is a way
to deep-fry the insects to make them delicious; a curious writer will spend hours in the
library/bookstore/people watching to learn about new trends in food and drink and more. Being a good
researcher and being able to find ideas where none exist are the trademarks of any good writer, not just food
writers.
It is also important not to be ashamed to ask if you don’t know or understand something, especially if
you don’t have a background from culinary school or working in a restaurant. Just the simple question “How
is this made?” can open the whole dish or ingredient with a new perspective. And that is also being honest
with your reader. If you don’t know something, they probably don’t either.

Be pedant. Fact checking is a procedure that just cannot be passed. For example if you are doing a
story about the Chinese fortune cookies, you can first start by telling that they are not Chinese. A typical
false fact based on the fact that in many cheap Chinese restaurants you’ll be given a fortune cookie. So don’t
assume anything, always check. And don’t rely just on Wikipedia. It will take some time to find the right
person to answer your questions or the right source to your story but it’s always worth it. You’ll end up
having much more information about your topic than you were looking for. Most probably you don’t end up
writing about all of it, but it will reflect from your story that you know what you are talking about. And there
will always be a person to spot it if you haven’t done your homework.

I just read in the food section of a daily paper that Julia Child dropped a chicken on the floor during a
television show, picked it up, and says it’s fine to serve because no one will know. I’ve seen that episode.
She was transferring a potato-based dish from the stove onto a plate and dropped some of it on the stovetop.
No chickens were involved, but the writer of the newspaper story just took what she read somewhere and
ran with it. In a perfect situation she would have been suspicious of that outrageous-sounding story, and she
would have found a way to check it.

In food journalism, the investigative journalism concentrates mainly on food industrialism. And it
should. Food industrialism is an extremely huge field of industrialism as food is vital to us. We need it and
the industry wants to find all the possible ways to answer our needs – even the ones we didn’t know we had.
And because the industry stands for business, it means a lot of people who want to make money, and
apparently more money. And to make more money, you need to increase the volume of your industry output
and keep the costs of the production low. It’s as simple as that. But when you start cutting the production
costs, it usually means that the quality of ingredients decrease and/or people get less salary. This is where
investigative journalism comes in, if there is something suspicious, about how the business rolls and where
the cuts are made.

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 Yet it’s nothing new for investigative journalists to take on food as an issue. In 1906, Upton Sinclair,
novelist and muckraker, revealed the unsanitary practices of a Chicago meat packing company in his book
The Jungle. It was a huge scandal and the book became a bestseller. And it also had an impact: meat
consumption decreased and new food hygiene laws were introduced. Still today the health issues are a big
theme for investigative food journalism.

One food product can contain ingredients from even tens of different countries. Also the health risks
from food moving across the borders as bacteria and contagious diseases spread more easily from country to
another, not just between people but also between animals. We’ve seen the increase of vulnerability in
global food industry lately, after the different food catastrophes that mostly are attached to factory farming
of animals and processing meat products.

The legislation is also a big theme and it plays a significant role concerning the global movability of
food and how the food is processed and farmed. Processing the food is yet another big theme. A professor, a
food writer, an author and the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at
UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, Michael Pollan, has written several articles and books about
food. In his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma he follows the food chains that sustain us—industrial food,
organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal. The book
contains a great deal of information how the food industry works and about the history of the food
industrialism.

The dream of liberating food from nature is as old as eating. People began processing food to keep
nature from taking it back: What is spoilage, after all, if not nature, operating through her proxy
microorganisms, repossessing our hard-won lunch? So we learned to salt and dry and cure and pickle in the
first age of food processing, and to can, freeze, and vacuum-pack in the second.

In the third age of food processing, which begins with the end of World War II, merely preserving
the fruits of nature was deemed too modest: The goal now was to improve the nature. The twentieth- century
prestige of technology and convenience combined with advances in marketing to push aside butter to make
shelf space for margarine, replace the fruit juice with juice drinks like Tang, cheese with Cheez Whiz, and
whipped cream with Cool Whip.

Many products we see in the supermarket on cheese shelves or milk shelves are not cheese or milk.
They are products that resemble cheese or milk, maybe contain some as well. Processing food increases the
profit as you can turn a cheap ingredient with help of additives, aromas and manufacturing methods to
functional groceries which stand up for the health requirements and which can be modified endlessly to
respond the newest food trends.

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 This transferable skill to modify ingredients is one of the strangest features of food today. Food can
be deconstructed into particles and then build in a new form. You can leave out all the ingredients that are
stigmatized to be harmful and add all the ingredients that are at that time told to be beneficial, such as fibres,
vitamins, probiotics and protein.

And processing food has a lot to do with chemical additives. They are vital for making it possible to
storage and to move ingredients around the world and keep them “fresh”. Without the additives and new
technologies in industrial farming, it would be really difficult for us to eat a tomato in the winter. And it’s
good for the business to have the tomatoes in the supermarket around the year. And as Michael Pollan
presents in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, that is the way to keep your nuggets “fresh”:

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or
TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of
the box it comes to “help the freshness”. According to A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ
is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can
comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that
ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause “nausea, vomiting, ringing of ears, delirium, a sense of
suffocation, and collapse.” Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.

There also are questions of human rights, animal rights, natural resources and other environmental
issues that are big themes inside the food industrialism. If you just start to follow one product that you find
from your kitchen, starting by reading the ingredient list, then finding out where it is made and sold, what
kind of journey it has made before ending up in your local supermarket, in which shelf it is to be found and
why the shopkeeper has placed it there, how it is marketed to us, and where the costs come from – then you
have a story. And not to forget the current news themes. In Europe, for example, one topic could be how
Belarus is importing EU-products to Russia, despite the food sanctions or the poor quality of hospital food in
the UK.

People taking pictures of their food is nowadays such a typical sight that it’s already something you
don’t pay that much attention to anymore. Yes, my mother is doing it as well. Some find it comic, but for me
it’s like taking a picture of anything – a memory of a place or time. But it also reveals how important the
outlook of food is. I also believe that Instagram has made restaurants and cafés to put more effort into the
visual part of dishes – as they know these will be photographed. Just recently a cook in a small kebab stall
said to me while giving me my order: “Guten Appetit – but first you take a picture of it!”

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 But of course the way food looks has always been important. If it’s appealing, you want to have it or
do it. And this is why photos are such a vital part of the recipes. Also if you are planning to have a food
blog, you need to have good pictures. That is how the first impression of a blog is made and the pictures
need to be so good that they’ll make the visitor to want to read the text as well.

A Finnish food photographer Sami Repo told me he has noticed that more visual food stories are
now appreciated in food magazines as well as photographer originated food stories. It depends on the skills
of the photographer but when dealing with top food photographers, the whole story might be made based on
a photo. Normally a food photo is made so that first the editor contacts the photographer and he will do the
shooting with help of the person who has written the recipe or/and with a help of an art director or a food
stylist. It all depends on the budget as well. Repo says that in Finland there usually is no budget for the food
stylist. And sometimes the photographer might work totally on his own.

A photographer Silvio Knezevic, who is one of the two food photographers for ZEITmagazin food
section Wochenmarkt tells that he often cook the dishes himself. Before studying photography he was
working as a chef for several years. For Knezevic the process starts as he goes buying the ingredients for the
picture on the market. If he sees one or some ingredients from the recipe that look very interesting (e.g.
lemons with leafs) he might make the picture from the preparations step of the dish. Or he might decide to
show the completed dish. “Then I / we start cooking and preparing the set, which means choosing the
underground, the props and setting up the light.

No, we never use stuff like hairspray. The food itself looks already great, why destroying it with
chemistry? In the past most of the food photographers were still life photographers who were seeking
perfection. But the perfection of a T-bone steak or bean is its imperfection. It will never look like a light
bulb, but they tried with hairspray, color and wire. In my studio there are only different brushes on the set,
which you can moisten the stuff that dries out.

So there are no tricks, but Knezevic says to make the food look better some fresh herbs, good salt
and grounded pepper on top always look good – “But not on creme brulee!” Storytelling in food photos is a
phenomenon that has been trending. “Yes, they want stories. Couple years ago even more, but it’s still there.
Urban city, earthy things, design and own vision – these are the trends now,” says Repo. Also Knezevic is
talking about storytelling:

I also think that nowadays the food pictures have more of a narrative, especially the props. It shall
look very cosy and vintage. You could think that most food bloggers are flea market traders (or living in
their grandparents house).

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 But I hope this trend has its peak right now and I think that it’s going in two directions. First, more
in a subtle, ingenious narrative way of showing food, and on the other way a very reduced, sharp graphic
look. But you can’t tell, nowadays all looks and trends co-exist; we lack a zeitgeist.

Few years ago there was the fear that there won’t be that much work for food photographers
anymore, but professionals are professionals – the ones who really are. The “amateurs” have shaken things a
bit as stepping into our territory, but I see it as a good thing.

Food journalism can be mainly found in food magazines, newspapers and online. There are also
some radio programs, food related radio stories and a lot of food related documentaries, and TV-shows, but
in this guide the focus is on written food journalism. The types of appearance are diverse. Will Write for
Food – guidebook divides the food stories in 13 categories:

o Recipes. For many publications, recipe based stories are a huge focus. Most of these stories comprise a
short introduction followed by three to five recipes. The feature article might include small bits of side
information for example on technique, a guide to choosing unfamiliar ingredient, and information about its
history, where to buy it, how to serve it.
o Trend. Usually articles on trends are reported, meaning you interview and quote experts and sources, and
to come conclusions based on their expertise. Or your own observation.
o Guide. Here you’ll educate readers on how to make choices about a particular subject, such as how to buy
organic, select winter greens, or brew exotic teas.
o News. In news reporting, you would interview several people and piece together their comments for an
article on a breaking development.
o Personality profile. Based on an interview with one person, such as a chef, restaurateur, food producer,
retailer, or food personality, the focus is on an interviewee who has achieved recognition, made a
significant contribution, or performs unusual work.
o Interview. Similar to a personality profile, interviews take the form of questions and answers that follow an
introduction and brief biography of the interviewee.
o Roundup. Usually a comparison or list, roundups help readers to choose from a group, such as five kinds of
Indian spices, or ten great Italian restaurants.
o How-to. Teach readers how to solve a problem or do something better. These articles can be technique
based, such as how to make great mashed potatoes, how to find vegan restaurants in New York, or how to
choose the right kitchen equipment.
o Human interest. There are stories about warm hearted people who do good deeds, such as soup kitchen
cooks who feed 350 homeless people every day or a group that sells baked goods for a cause.
o Historical background. Pique an editor’s interest by combining history with other forms listed here, such as
destination or service writing.

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Destination and travel. Food-based travel pieces might take you to a food festival, a region known for artisan
foods, or a city famous for its restaurants. First-person essays. Personal stories related to food, a wide list of
possible subjects such as telling your experiences on doing something for the first time, such as served as an
apprentice in a restaurant, having a funny cooking story or cook unusual holiday dishes.

In newspapers, the restaurant critics are considered as the first form of food journalism. Of course
there has always been food related news, but the restaurant critics are often considered as the starting point,
the point when eating well and restaurant culture started to interest people in a bigger scale. In Germany, the
first restaurant critics were published in the early 1970’s. Not that many people were interested about
Michelin stars at that time, but when a restaurant called Tantris got two Michelin stars in 1974 (there had
been one-star-restaurant since 1960’s but that was the first time a German restaurant got two stars), things
changed. This is how a long-term restaurant critic Bernd Matthies from Der Tagesspiegel reminisces those
times:

That was the big bang. Suddenly there was good food in Germany and we needed to write about it.
This is how it started. After the Wirtschaftswunder (the economical rise after the Second World War) you
started to find better ingredients in Germany, like lobsters and cognac. With better ingredients it was
possible to make better food. The men who wrote the first restaurant reviews were Wolfram Siebeck and
Gert von Paczensky. Paczensky invented the food writing in Germany. He had humor in his reviews, he had
his own voice.

The reviews were more of lists about what was on the plate and whether it was good or bad, without
explanations why something was good or bad. But the dishes were also very simple, with only a few
ingredients. Nouvelle cuisine has just arrived and it was exciting. And there was a lot of crying about how
can someone combine fruits and seafood in one dish – how is it possible! (2015)

Matthies wrote his first review in Der Tagesspiegel in 1988. He was the first one in Berlin to write
about food and has done it ever since. Der Tagesspiegel has a very typical approach to food when it comes
to food journalism in newspapers. They have a food page once a week and it usually includes a review and
small news or articles about food topics. This is how it’s done in most of the newspapers today. Some might
give the whole spread, but it’s very common that the space is given once a week. Normally food journalism
in newspapers means a recipe or/and a restaurant review. It could be followed by smaller news about new
restaurants or cafés or other food related news and current topics. Naturally there are also other pages
covering food related topics in their normal newsfeed.

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 A common way also seems to be that newspapers with a weekly food page have a producer, but the
writers, especially restaurant critics, are journalists who cover mainly other fields, but also have a passion
for food. A full-time food journalists are quite rare and a newspaper with it’s own food department is very
rare. It’s also common that the food writers are freelancers. When staff writers exist, they are often migrated
from another section of the newspaper. The biggest newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, is putting a
lot of effort to the food content:

We have two full-time journalists who make the food content with a help of freelancers. There are 5-
10 food pages per week (includes the adds), in the Thursday annex. The pages have recipes, wine of the
week, a longer story about a person or a trend and a series about two flavors that are perfect for each other.
We also produce every evening one recipe for the online evening edition and two daily food articles
(news and phenomenons) for the online. Top of this we also make videos, publish a cookbook a year and
make extra pull outs for the subscribers and for the marketing.

In Helsingin Sanomat, the restaurant reviews are in another annex, the Nyt annex that is a more of a
guide for the weekend with information about upcoming events. In Germany, Die Zeit has put all their food
content in their weekly magazine, ZEITmagazin, from the beginning – over 40 years now. The produced and
writer of the food pages, Elisabeth Raether, tells that they do time to time food reportages and investigative
food journalism:

We have food theme issues twice a year and we raise food topics that people talk about. For example
eating meat. Vegetarian food is such a big issue in this country, but so is meat. Germany produces a great
deal of cheap meat and people buy it just because of the price. This is something we need to talk about. I
want to believe that in the future people would buy their food in other basis than price, but the change is
slow. Like it was with tobacco industrial.

In ZEITmagazin the weekly content is one page with a recipe and a story connected to that. Raether
tells that the recipes are simple and healthy: “But I don’t mention it. A lot of vegetarian food and a lot of
ethical choices, but I don’t say it. People want to have fun and eating is supposed to be fun.”

In ZEITmagazin, the pictures are very important. They invest a lot in them and have a big visual
department. The magazine uses two photographers; one of them is German and other one is from London –
because they couldn’t find a person with right style from Germany. Raether says that the pictures are so
important that they won’t publish a story if there are no photos that match their quality standards.

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 Four years ago ZEITmagazin gave up restaurant critics, Raether tells that it was a big decision:
We had a living legend Wolfram Siebeck. He was the person with whom people learned how to cook. He
was a pioneer, also with restaurant critics in Germany. Michelin stars are still important and there is a place
and time for the fancy restaurants, but the times have changed and people don’t want this anymore. They
don’t want to be told where to go. The expensive restaurants are not part of everyday life, they want ideas
what to cook in the evening. We show them the ideas what we are cooking and they are welcome to join us.

In general you could say that the restaurant reviews are still highly valued in American newspapers:
many newspapers have their own restaurant critic and the reviews are long. Many European newspapers are
giving up the restaurant critics and have reviews done with freelancers, but the reviews are still there – in
one way or another. A restaurant review could be replaced by a food column. Berliner Zeitung, for example,
has a food column where a food journalist Tina Hüttl goes into a restaurant once a week and tells about her
experience. It’s not always a fancy restaurant; it can be a hot dog stand, an older restaurant, or it can be a
new and hyped restaurant, a tiny lunch café or a Michelin star restaurant (Hüttl, 2015). The format is not that
structured as it usually is with restaurant reviews. She also has a very personal touch, as it is a column, so
she shares more than just thoughts about the food and the place, she tells about her life or about the person
she is dining with, in a chatty approach.

One reason why the newspapers are cutting down the restaurant critics or/and reviews is, like in Die
Zeit, that some think that it‘s an old fashion style to tell about restaurants. But the bigger problem has to do
with money. To send a critic to test a fine restaurant a couple of times every now and then in order to get a
good understanding about the quality of restaurants, costs a lot of money, and to do this weekly, is really
expensive.

For this study I interviewed food writers from Finland and Germany and I’ve also followed
American food publications for along time. When talking about the food magazine’s contents, it’s really
important to remember the dimensions. The variety of publications has a lot to do with the size of the
country. It determines the content because you need to think about the whole food magazine scene in that
particular country. In Finland there are seven food magazines (Wikipedia 2015b), whereas in Germany I can
find in Berlin from my nearest magazine kiosk over 30 food magazines and there are more.

So in Finland it’s impossible to publish a niche food magazine. A magazine that goes around one
certain diet or ingredient, at least one that could make a profit or break-even. As in Germany or America you
can find a magazine that is about beef, cupcakes, vegan baking or low-carb recipes. Well, several magazines
about these topics and so many more with even more specific audiences.

13
 One could wonder how all of these magazines manage to stay alive and how there can be so many of
them. A German food critic and a journalist Bernd Matthies told to me that in Germany there are magazines
that are paid by the owner: “They don’t make money but they are good for the imago. But no one is making
money in this field, I would say.”

In the world of food magazines, there are also food related custom and trade magazines, inflight
magazines and corporation magazines. But in this chapter we’ll focus on traditional food magazines. I would
say that the food magazines could be divided in three groups: the recipe magazines, the lifestyle food
magazines and the niche food magazines. A good example of a magazine where the content is based on
recipes is Essen & Trinken, the oldest food magazine in Germany started in 1972. Editor Claudia Muir from
Essen & Trinken says that it was like Germany was waiting for it: “Everybody who
wanted to learn cooking bought the magazine. The content hasn’t changed that much during these years. It’s
still about recipes and inspiration.”

In a magazine that is based on recipes, the editorial staff is based on chefs. The corporation (Gruner
+ Jahr) that owns Essen & Trinken, has all in all five food magazines, and there are eight chefs making the
recipes. In an issue of Essen & Trinken there is 43-52 recipes in an issue.

An example of a lifestyle food magazine is the Finnish magazine Glorian Ruoka & Viini. Their
audience is mostly 40-50 years old educated women who have an active relationship with food, according to
them, even passionate. Their reader is a good eater but don’t necessarily cook herself. She values good tips
in the kitchen and things need to be fast and easy.

It can be divided in four: First section is food, recipes and the people behind the food. Second section
is drinks: wines, beers, cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks. All drinks. Third section contains traveling,
producers and restaurants, including restaurant reviews. The fourth section covers food trends and current
food topics, lifestyle and utensils. But the main focus is on recipes. Weather the reader is going to try the
recipes or not, they are important. Once we cut the amount of recipes from 60 to 30 and we got instant
demands from readers to bring back the wider scale of recipes. Even they wouldn’t necessary cook from the
recipes, they want to read them. Imagine them.

Readers want things to be easy. Less dishes, less ingredients. Simple and insightful recipes that make
you feel that yes I can and yes, I have time for this and yes, it will work out. A typical niche food magazine
could be a magazine that is devoted to one diet or an ingredient, but there is also a new wave of food
magazines that is mostly based on long stories and food writing, not so much on recipes, if at all. The editor
in chief Vijay Sapre, told me that he wanted to do his food magazine Effilee without recipes at all. He says
that readers ask for them, so they took in a few. For Sapre, the magazine is all about stories.

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 I like good stories. But because it’s difficult to promote a magazine that is about “good stories”, you
need a theme. And as I love food, it was a natural theme for me. Writers often ask from me how long the
story should be. My answer is: usually the story knows how long it should be. If there is a good author with
a good story, I’ll find the room for a long piece. But I also do heavy editing. I’m also a big refuser; I often
think that there must be better stories out there. And I will look for them. Every month I’ve been offered a
story about guy who has left his job and start farming or making beer. I’ve heard this too many times, not
interested. But sometimes, a really modest or ordinary topic can turn into great story in hands of talented
writer. So Effilee is about good stories.

Long stories are something that many writers dream about: to have the time to really concentrate on
one subject. But long stories are expensive and inhouse journalists don’t often have time to do them. Also
Effilee have had to cut down the expenses:

We started out big. There were almost ten people but now there is my wife, an editor and me. It’s
more organic now, but we cannot afford more. I would love to do more fact checking. Proofreading we do,
it’s old-school but I want to have it.We are paying our bills. The dream would be that the magazine would
not have any ads. Like Art of Eating. So it would be based just for subscription.

Food journalism is always about business. A good review of a restaurant can have a huge impact on
its income. The story of a newly-opened cafe, whose owner has overcome hardships, can attract sympathetic
customers. Praising a new organic, local bio-burger in an article could have a greater economic impact than
paid advertising. Food journalists have an ethical responsibility to be objective and readers rely on their
honesty. And nobody wants to risk their reputation. Readers also are clever; they know when a story is
missing a point of view, say, if it’s just a presentation of a new product.

In a recipe, when a brand is being mentioned, it is usually for the reason that it will help the reader to
find the right kinds of products, for instance a right sized product or to help them realize that a certain brand
represents a certain ingredient. Here’s how Sanna Maskulin from Glorian Ruoka & Viini explains it:

We sometimes do mention product names in recipes, but it’s never sponsored. For us it’s more about
service journalism. For example if we talk about a almond liqueur and have after it written “(for example
Amaretto)”, it can help people to recognize the almond liqueur and maybe to remember if they have it at
home. It’s our own profit to keep ads and other material separated. We need to be trustworthy and reliable.
In food blogs these rules might become a bit blur, but for us it’s all about our reputation.

15
 The advertisers always want new ways to be involved with consumers. Boundaries between
advertisements and journalistic content are being stretched: in some magazines it’s already possible to
buy sponsored articles. In food magazines, the most common way to do commercial co-operation is by
doing advertorials. An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term
“advertorial” is a blend of the words "advertisement" and "editorial."

In printed publications, the advertisement is usually written in the form of an objective article
and designed to look like a legitimate and independent news story In some magazines, advertorials are
made by the magazine’s own content producers. If sponsors want to promote a new product, Maskulin
says, their own content producers in Glorian Ruoka & Viini will develop the recipe for it and make the
picture.

That way we can do the advertorials. And it will fit in our other content. These content
producers are different people than our writers, we keep these separately; our journalists won’t do these
pieces. And they are always marked as “adverts”. In some magazines the same people who do the
content for magazine do the editorials as well, like in Essen & Trinken:

We do advertorials where our chefs make the recipes for the ads. It’s always titled as anzeige,
an advert. We don’t tell in the ad, who has made the recipe. But we want to do them ourselves as a
guarantee of the quality. Readers are really clever; they know that we wouldn’t put a brand in a recipe
unless there would be a reason for it. And the reason would never be advertising. We need to think about
our reputation. We put a brand name in a recipe only if it will help to success with the recipe. (Muir,
2015)

Newspapers and food magazines are dependent on advertisers. You need to keep the advertiser
happy, yet to still write critically and objectively about food. A warning example from Finland in the
1960’s: A magazine called Uusi Kuvalehti published an article that claimed the fat in Margarine comes
from dead animals.

In Finland, if the biggest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat for example praises a cheap sparkling
wine, you can be sure that it’s sold out in every wine store in the whole country, as the market is so small.
And the wine importers obviously want to advertise in Helsingin Sanomat, as it’s a really important
source for the consumers to find new wines. It is a double-edged sword, though, since the newspaper does
not always give praise, though, and that is the risk the advertisers take. It also has happened that there has
been an ad for a restaurant and next to it a review that totally puts the restaurant off.

16
 The rules of commercial co-operations are very clear to everyone. Nobody wants to lose their
reputation by doing something that is against the ethics of a journalist. But still, the lines are stretched
sometimes. The editor in chief of Effilee, Vijay Sapre told me that he does, what he calls dirty deals:

If there is a potential advertiser, I could do a story about them. On the next edition, the might
have an ad. Sometimes readers spot it write and ask about it, and I say yes, we did it. I’m surprised that
we still have so good reputation! But when advertiser wants to be able to control the content, we say that
then it will be marked as an ad.

If there is a travel story, yes, it could be paid. Our agreement with the restaurant critics are, that
they are paid themselves, but truth is, I don’t want to know. As mentioned earlier, food journalism is
always about business. The topics are related to somebody's business but it’s also about the business of
the publisher. All the magazines and newspapers are dealing with a difficult economic situation and are
wondering where to get the money from and how to find the advertisers. And when dealing with food
brands, it can be even more difficult than one might think.

My friend has a magazine about cars. The difference in our magazines is that he can do a story
about Mini and get a load of money for the company for doing that. And people love it because they like
Mini. Many people are fans of the big brands. But in food genre, people hate the big brands. And this
makes is very difficult to survive in this field financially. The brands people love: small bakeries,
independent winemakers, guy doing a cheese in his home – they don’t have the money to buy adverts.
They are poor people. It took me few years to realize this.

When I talk with people about food journalism, during the first five minutes somebody
normally complains about the number of food blogs. It’s actually quite interesting, because it reveals that
all food writing is considered as food journalism and also the amount of food blogs is nowadays so
massive that it’s started to annoy people. And that is also a reason why it feels unfair to talk about them as
a mass: the spectrum of food blogs is huge and the level differences are colossal. Anybody can start a
blog and no writing skills are needed. This is of course also the charm of the blogs. But the variety goes
from blogs filled with typos, sponsored stuff, no point of views and scrubby pictures from funny, clever,
beautiful and witty blogs, some with stunningly great photos.

In every interview I’ve made for this study, I’ve naturally talked with people about the future
of food journalism. It’s closely attached to the question of the future of newspapers and the whole current
turmoil of the media world – as everybody is wondering what to do with online content. And how to get
money from there? For this, I don’t have an answer, none of us do. But here are a few visions for the
future from each topic that is presented in this study.

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 Health is the big theme of today and the interest in healthy food doesn't go away anytime soon.
“Well-being”, “naturalness” and “organic” are the hit words besides “healthy”. And it’s a great thing
concerning the future: together with environmental concerns, health issues have an effect on the future of
the planet. But as Sanna Maskulin from Glorian Ruoka & Viini says, when writing about these themes,
you need to find a way to present the healthiness in a way that is not too pushy or preaching.

It needs to be healthy, but the flavor comes first. Reader can’t feel that they are giving up on
something – instead they are achieving something. In the future nobody will succeed with food
journalism without thinking about health. But you need to be able to present it right – in a way that reader
gets a good feeling about it. That is the clue.

Nutrition is dominating the discussion about healthiness. We need to talk about the flavors and
the experience on eating instead of giving orders. Feeling is getting more and more important. The
importance of feelings can also been seen in the rise of storytelling in food journalism. People and their
stories are getting more space in the food pages; food related stories make us cry, smile or wonder. And
the personal approach also means that we are talking more about persons: chefs, farmers and producers,
for instance, are persons who we get to know by name. So a personal touch – either from the writer or the
subject – is trendy.

This morning, I just read about a meat allergy that is spreading in Sweden through tick bites.
Actually it would be quite positive news for the planet if the meat production would reduce because of an
allergy. But this wasn’t a quickly spreading epidemic, so that is not the case here. Food safety, though, is.
That is a theme in investigative food journalism that is really getting attention, and it should. Epidemics
spread more easily when food is being imported from around the world and if the hygiene of food is being
negligent.

Also food forgery is a big field of crime nowadays. Lying about the country’s origin, selling
hoax meat (for example selling horsemeat as beef), reducing the amount of main ingredient and replacing
some of it with a cheaper substitute, producing food in farms and factories where human rights are
stamped – these are all examples of the food crimes happening all over the world. Food as a political
weapon is a third current theme in investigative food journalism. For example, how Belarus is importing
EU-products to Russia despite the food sanctions.

The future of restaurant reviews is, as we have seen, a very interesting subject. All the
restaurant critics I’ve talked to are wondering about it as well. One thing is clear: newspapers are lacking
money and restaurant reviews cost a lot.

18
 In the future there will not be so many inhouse restaurant critics, instead, freelancers will do
them. So who is paying? The editor in chief of Effilee, Vijay Sapre said, that he doesn’t want to know.
It’s already happening that the reviews are based on fewer tests than they used to be, but almost
everybody wants to keep the distance from the restaurant and pay the dinners themselves. It’s also, as I
discussed earlier, a question of anonymity.

The New York Times legendary restaurant critic Ruth Reichl went to see an acting coach, she
used wigs and clothes that fitted her alter-egos, used characters, always paid with cash, and made a lot of
trouble to disguise. She said that when she wasn’t in disguise the steaks were bigger, and service was
faster and better. But she also had a big budget. Bethany Jean Clement, a restaurant critic for Seattle’s
alternative weekly The Stranger, wrote an article The End of Anonymity, about not being anonymous in
her work. She wrote that in a smaller city it just is impossible, at least if you also do interviews about
chefs. But she came to the conclusion that there is not that much that a restaurant can do to improve the
experience (Clement, 2012). The ingredients are the same, the chef is the same. The critic will notice if
superimposed acting will appear.

If the restaurant critic is active in social media and covers other food stories and knows the
local food people, then anonymity is almost impossible to have. One new operator in the field of
restaurant reviews is these online search services (like Yelp and Tripadvisor) that offers loads of
anonymous restaurant “reviews”. It’s quite a jungle. As a counterbalance to them, readers still value the
long, well-written reviews. But is it going to be newspapers that publish the reviews in the future or some
other publications, as Bernd Matthies from Der Tagesspiegel suggests:

You just need to find the way to make it financially successful. In the future, Michelin Guides
might be the ones who succeed. But in general I would say the printed, quality food critics are dying but
the field of food writing is crowing. I believe that there will be a need for traditional restaurant reviews in
the future as well, but there could be room for reviews that are written in a style of a column. That would
give the freedom to tell about a new restaurant without the need to visit a restaurant for several course
meals for several times (that is also economically good solution for a newspaper) and gives the possibility
to bring more of the writer's personality into the story.

In general you can say that the amount of vegetarian recipes is clearly rising, veganism is not a
strange term anymore and as I said, health issues is something that is considered more when writing
recipes. Of course there will always be room for crazy deep-fried chocolate bars, cupcakes, mudcakes and
melted marshmallow stuffings, occasionally. Health interests more than ever. But what is really changing
in the future is the whole process of writing a recipe, says Katja Bäcksbacka:

19
 Now you need to think about the selling headline already when you start making the recipe.
There are already million of soup recipes – why would this recipe get attention online and social media?
Sometimes really good recipes don’t get noticed because there just is no hook.

Since taking pictures of your food is something that almost everybody is doing, the food
pictures are playing a more important role in storytelling nowadays, and so are the videos. The newest
trend is a recipe without a recipe: you just show how the dish is done with one picture or with the help of
a short video.

“Videos, videos, videos”. That is what almost everybody who I’ve interviewed is saying.
People want videos. As YouTube has over a billion users, it’s videos are watched millions of hours every
day and the incomes from mobile watching is increasing over 100% every year (YouTube, 2015), it’s
only natural that it’s the way where people are looking. And this is happening in all food media; in the
websites of newspapers, food magazines and like Per Meurling from Berlin Food Stories -blog says, also
in food blogs:

Blog platforms are getting better, there are easy tools for make them look more nice with some
effort, the photos are getting better and it’s getting easier to make a stylish layout. So there will be more.
And video content, that’s the future, because with videos you can make money.

The online content is dividing the field because of the question of how to get money from it. As
you can sell ads in videos, video productions are raising interest within editorial staffs. It’s trendy, new,
and short well-made video clips spread in social media might achieve the wanted attention. So it’s
definitely a new way of presence in food journalism.

Another rather new phenomenon is that newspapers are publishing their own food magazines.
For example Der Tagesspiegel does it four times a year, Helsingin Sanomat have now done it twice. It’s
also a good way to sum up the restaurant reviews that have been published in the paper during the year.

And the future of food blogs? Many people seem to think that the golden era of food blogs is
over. The field is too big and messy and blogs have become very commercial. The bloggers are still
learning the ways to make commercial co-operations in a way where they don’t start to annoy readers.
There are great food blogs that are taking the readers from food magazines, these blogs are personal and
standing out with a loud own voice, but as a whole the food blog field is very mixed, many seem to lose
their interest on following blogs. Even the bloggers are saying that they are not following blogs anymore.
The strongest, most personal and well written will live, as it is a question of quality in the end.

20
 It’s not only about cooking an artichoke, or giving the pros and cons of different gluten-free
foods, or offering feeding tips for choosey toddlers. Instead, food journalism is about life, culture, and
today’s cutting-edge issues, addressed through the lens of food. It’s characterized by a direct presentation
of facts or a description of events, as defined by Merriam Webster, without attempting interpretation. It’s
highly relevant, arguably local as well as global, and suited to many media platforms.

For nutrition communicators who are eager and able to “dig deep,” food journalism offers
opportunities to take their writing careers in new and perhaps broader directions. And that helps ensure
that evidence-based nutrition science is part of a broad food dialogue.

As just one type of food writing, food journalism has evolved to new importance in the world
of journalism, giving opportunities to more voices, with new perspectives, for a multitude of
conversations about food, on more platforms. That said, you don’t need a journalism degree to be a
valued voice in food journalism. But you do need a curious and keen mind, the ability to uncover the
untold story, and good writing skills.

Recently the James Beard Foundation brought prominent food journalists together to address
today’s state of the profession. They focused on shifts in food journalism -- now with less traditional print
media and fewer well-known voices, and more digital and inclusive content from those often left out.

There’s a new imperative, too, they noted, in current and in post-pandemic eras. The stories of
food in small towns and local restaurants, from food pantries and pack-to-go food service, and certainly
home cooks offer stories and perspectives that journalists in major media outlets, housed in major cities,
may not have access to.

What does that imply? Democratized, with a greater diversity of voices and plenty of news
angles, today’s food journalists can write about nearly everything since food is central to culture. It’s not
just about hot food trends, top chefs, and must-try restaurants, uncommon foods, and recipes. In fact,
many defining issues of our times can be – and many should be --addressed through the lens of food and
nutrition: for example, economic inequity, environmental concerns, immigration, and farm labor, cultural
diversity, sustainability and resource management, changing parenting and lifestyle norms, today’s food
insecurity even among those of means, and the list goes on.

Moreover, with today’s COVID-19 pandemic, food journalists have new -- often poignant or
remarkable -- stories to tell to make the “invisible” people in restaurants, the food supply chain, and
everyday families become visible. The pandemic has also changed our relationship to food and put food
journalists in “uncharted territory.”

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 Focuses on what’s real, relevant, and doable, rather than what’s aspirational and perhaps
unachievable. In other words, rather than stories with recipes that feature hard-to-come-by ingredients,
unique culinary skills, and pretty food pictures, of greater value may be everyday stories, about basic
ingredients and basic skills, from home cooks. Home cooks can show how people truly eat at home and
often best able to show the value of their own local ingredients.

Gives voice to those who haven’t been heard. For example, rather than focus mostly on chefs
or artisanal food producers, the stories from those without publicists, such as line cooks, food safety
inspectors, food warehousers, research chefs, fishmongers, food product scientists, and milk truck drivers,
need to be told.

Tells stories, without being exploitive. Food writing is all about people, and food is a
connector. Others may open up about their stories if you share your own pain. Step outside your comfort
zone, cover food stories of those outside your community, and embrace your discomfort. Consider
training in implicit bias. Right now, readers want to hear how others are coping with food shopping,
mealtime and family meals, and perhaps the food insecurity that has come with the pandemic.

Delves deeper. Today’s stories need more granularity, or a deeper level of detail. That, for
example, may have an important result: helping consumers understand and better respect the true
economic, human, and environmental costs of food production and the restaurant industry. To gather that
granularity as you research and interview, “listen” to all that’s around you. While you can’t expect to
learn all the answers, others expect you to ask good questions. Allow yourself to write, “We don’t know
yet.”
Start local, make it global. Food news happens in small towns and rural areas, and wherever
you live and work, and not only big cities. While more localized today, food journalism must also capture
flavors, cultures, and food supply chains in a global context. Look in your own backyard for the stories
linked to today’s critical food and nutrition issues– but fit them into a broader context, too. Reflects these
qualities: Writing that honors diversity, inclusiveness, and equity. Prepare before you interview and write,
with both homework and heart.

Over the three 3-year terms that I served on the James Beard Foundation Journalism Award
Committee, many award entries took deep dives into today’s important food and nutrition issues. That
clearly showed: The opportunities are limitless for nutrition communicators. Add your voice and
perspectives on your choice of media platforms, as you contribute your expertise to food journalism. You
too could garner a Beard award for journalism.

22
 If you think back to the early 2000s, it becomes clear how much food journalism has
changed. Kitchen Confidential (2000), Anthony Bourdain’s explosive, tell-all exposé of what goes on
behind diners’ backs, both captured the zeitgeist and played a significant role itself in exploding the
image of what food writing could be. At the turn of the last century, it was largely about fine dining;
genteel, refined, to be enjoyed and written about by the select few experts, focused almost exclusively on
the food and service as narrowly defined, the cuisine usually redigested in print format with reputable
broadsheets like the New York Times (NYT) or the Times of London.

At home, too, food writing was confined largely to the stylishly marketed recipe book, selling
an aspirational lifestyle but with little thought beyond the food itself and its local context: examples in the
UK include Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat (1998) and the early titles in the River Cottage (2001) series by
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. But by around ten years ago, this patrician style of food writing had been
exploded by several related trends. The rise of the internet and social media—and a healthily subversive
online culture with them—meant that food reviewing fast became the province of myriad blogs and
websites, such as Eater, Zagat, Yelp and Urbanspoon in the US. Over time, some local websites became
influential media entities in their own right, with Eater, originally based in New York, expanding to
multiple cities subsequently.

Chaotic and democratic, readers got instant, crowd-sourced reviews of wherever they were
tempted to eat, rather than waiting for a weekly column and then rushing for reservations. Review
websites like TripAdvisor surged in popularity. Instead of trying to see through the wig and acting lessons
of an eminent secret critic like the NYT’s Ruth Reichl and giving them extra-special service,
restauranteurs were now at the mercy of everyday diners. The collapse in print advertising revenue, in
part due to the growth of online ads, saw food websites with eye-grabbing rankings and listicles hasten
the decline of august publications like Condé Nast’s Gourmet magazine (1940-2009). Recipes went
online as well, with Chocolate and Zucchini (2003), Chez Pim (2005) and Recipe Girl (2006) among
those going on to gather tens of thousands of visitors worldwide every week, and marketing lifestyles
that, if still glamorous, differed from the cut-and-dried prescriptions of recipe books of yesteryear.

Yet a counter-revolution was brewing. In early 2015 Philadelphia-based chef and restauranteur
Marc Vetri lamented that food journalism had become “as stale as day-old bread”. Low-brow, frothy,
listicle journalism pandered to diners’ worst instincts and had done “irreparable harm to the once-elegant
business of reviewing restaurants”. Social media, he wrote, “just as much as lost advertising revenue, is
the enemy of relevant food journalism”. Some of this could be shrugged off as the wailing of an old
guard, out of step with the times, even as it spoke to a genuine public hankering for slow, considered,
informed food journalism in a hectic world.

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 More difficult to sidestep were serious concerns about the veracity and authenticity of the new
food writing. “There has never been so much writing about food as there is today”, food journalist
Pauliina Siniauer wrote in a review of the industry in 2015. “And there is a lot of bad food writing: stories
made with weak backgrounds, stolen recipes, controversial health studies published with too little
research if any, nice and vague restaurant reviews that are not telling anything, blogs that are written just
to get free stuff.”
Even some bloggers and authors that tapped into the vogue for sustainability and healthy living
were soon discredited. The epitome of the backlash came in 2017, when a prominent wellness blogger
was found guilty of lying about having terminal cancer—and having beaten it through “clean eating” and
natural remedies. Changes in tech and social media also shook up the blogosphere, notably the so-called
pivot to video, with Buzzfeed Tasty (launched 2015) gathering some 1.5bn video views, mostly via
Facebook, every month.

The food journalism that has survived and thrived in this competitive environment—squeezed
by high-tech pressures on the one hand, and a yearning for old-style values on the other—is that which
can provide authentic, trusted content in an accessible way. Mr Bourdain’s Roads and Kingdoms platform
(launched in 2012), in delivering a food journalism based on experiential travel writing of place and
culture, has won plaudits, including the 2017 James Beard Publication of the Year award.

MSN and Hearst’s Delish, founded as a recipe database in 2008, combated falling advertising
revenue and reader numbers by transforming into a social video heavyweight in 2015. And one of the
most enduring food writers, the UK’s Jack Monroe, has gone from blogging to writing a regular column
for the Guardian and a series of so-called austerity cookbooks like A Girl Called Jack (2014) and Cooking
on a Bootstrap (2018), which speak to contemporary economic and political sensibilities, and make a
point of not lecturing cash-strapped shoppers about always buying expensive organic produce. Even some
old-style gastronomy magazines have bounced back, with Conde Nast’s La Cucina Italiana (founded
1929) returning to print in the US in 2017.

The signs point to a combination of the above trends, with a media landscape that can capture
the simultaneously local and global contexts of contemporary food, examining supply chains and
sustainability while celebrating flavours, palates and cultures in deeply written and visually arresting
formats. Embracing data and a systemic view will inform this process, as in the Food Sustainability
Index (FSI), developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the Fondazione Barilla. The FSI
analyses, ranks and maps 34 countries worldwide on a range of indicators, from the number of fast food
restaurants per head to agricultural biodiversity, to determine the sustainability of their food systems.

24
 “Food journalism is revelling in a golden era,” writes Ms Siniauer, “but in the future it’s more
about the bigger themes, the bigger picture—everything that food is attached with will be on the plate.”

Food is a universal language that transcends borders and cultures. It has the power to bring
people together, evoke emotions, and tell stories. And that’s where food journalism comes in. Food
journalists play a vital role in uncovering the culinary worlds that exist all around us. They are the
storytellers who bring the flavors, traditions, and histories of different cuisines to life.

Food journalism goes beyond simply writing about recipes or restaurant reviews. It is about
digging deeper and unraveling the stories behind the food. Food journalists are like detectives, uncovering
the origins of ingredients, tracing the evolution of recipes, and shedding light on the cultural significance
of different cuisines. They provide readers with a window into the culinary worlds they may have never
experienced before.

To excel in food journalism, one must possess a unique set of skills. First and foremost, a
passion for food is essential. Food journalists must have a genuine love for exploring new flavors, trying
different dishes, and understanding the intricacies of various cuisines. They should also have excellent
writing skills, as they need to be able to articulate their experiences and findings in a compelling and
engaging manner.

Research is another crucial aspect of food journalism. Journalists need to be skilled at conducting
in-depth research to gather information about the history, culture, and traditions associated with different
foods. They must be able to interview chefs, farmers, and food experts to gain insights and perspectives
that will enrich their stories. Attention to detail is also vital, as accuracy is key when writing about food.

In terms of career paths, food journalism offers a wide range of opportunities. One can choose
to work for traditional media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, or television networks, where they
can write articles, produce documentaries, or host food-related shows. With the rise of digital media, there
is also a growing demand for food journalists in the online sphere. Many food bloggers, influencers, and
online publications are dedicated solely to exploring the culinary world and sharing their discoveries with
a global audience.

In recent years, social media platforms have become powerful tools for food journalists.
Instagram, in particular, has become a hub for food enthusiasts and professionals alike. Food journalists
can use platforms like Instagram to showcase their culinary adventures, share recipes, and connect with
fellow foodies. It is a great way to build an online presence and attract a dedicated following.

25
 If you are passionate about food journalism and want to pursue a career in this field, there are
various educational opportunities available. Institutions like New York University (NYU) offer programs
in journalism, food studies, and media that can provide you with the necessary knowledge and skills.
Additionally, online courses like those offered by Yellowbrick can help you gain a deeper understanding
of food journalism and its nuances.

Food journalism is an exciting and rewarding field that allows you to uncover the culinary
worlds that exist around us. Through their stories, food journalists provide a glimpse into different
cultures, traditions, and flavors, allowing readers to embark on a culinary journey without leaving their
homes. If you have a love for food and a passion for storytelling, consider pursuing a career in food
journalism and become a part of this fascinating world.

Food journalism is a captivating field that brings the flavors, traditions, and histories of
different cuisines to life. Successful food journalists possess a genuine passion for food, excellent writing
skills, and the ability to conduct thorough research. Food journalism offers diverse career paths, including
opportunities in traditional media outlets and the ever-expanding digital landscape. Social media
platforms like Instagram provide food journalists with a powerful tool to showcase their culinary
adventures and connect with a global audience.

Institutions like New York University (NYU) and online courses like those offered by
Yellowbrick can provide aspiring food journalists with the necessary knowledge and skills to excel in the
field.
If you are eager to embark on a journey into the world of food journalism, consider exploring
the “NYU Modern Journalism” online course and certificate program offered by Yellowbrick. This
comprehensive program can equip you with the essential skills and insights needed to thrive in this
exciting industry. Start your culinary storytelling journey today and become a part of the dynamic world
of food journalism.

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 CHAPTER – 3

CONCLUSION

Food journalism is a multi-faceted beat. It covers a lot more than just restaurant reviews,
cooking recipes and beautiful Instagram grids. (Although these all have their place). You will find food
journalism in everything from news reporting to features writing and long-form investigative work, visual
reportage and reviews. These stories can be told on multiple platforms. This includes the written word,
visual media video/photograph/broadcast) and audio (radio/podcasts). Through this class, you will be
introduced to this mouth-watering world of journalistic possibilities. You will also learn to think critically
about the ingredients that make up good food reporting, through analytical thinking and the grilling of a
wide range of food-related content.

Food journalism has definitely found its place in the creative industries in the UK. It is a
creative practice, in both expression and a place where it stands opposite symbols associated with
material production: “new, dynamic, light versus old, fixed, heavy equally applicable to labor practices,
communication technologies and ways of seeing the world” (Markham, 2012, p.5). Additionally, it is
clear that gastronomic journalism shares certain traits with the creative industries, such as immateriality
due to the value in message, constant call for innovations, and variable consumption of cultural products
by individuals, as well as instability for the workers.

Thus, the future of food journalism is uncertain. Whereas the role of food journalist as an
informer will probably remain, it cannot be certainly asserted about food journalist as a taste maker and
food critic in the present state of capitalist commercialisation.

Moreover, there is an open debate whether the emergence of technologies and Internet itself is
perilous for the stability of food journalism. Some scholars criticise journalists who rush to adopt new
practices ’launching a website in the last decade, starting a Twitter feed in the present one’ for the sake of
maintaining their market value and perhaps in a genuine enthusiasm to try out new things and interact
with audiences. On the other hand, a more optimistic outlook defines journalism using online media as a
tool to enhance its voice through tweets and blogs, and exercise evolving norms of freedom and
responsibility. In this way, the work of journalism could become more responsive and responsible to its
audience.

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