Food writing

Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians.

History[edit]

People have been writing about food for centuries. Some of the earliest recipes we have found were carved into stone in Mesopotamia nearly 4,000 years ago.^[13] The ancient Romans also wrote about their grand feasts and fancy meals held by emperors of the time. Although the modern cookbook like we see today was not invented until much later and measurements were not standardized until the 20th century.^[14]

In academia[edit]

Food writer Michael Pollan holds the Knight Professorship of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley and since 2013 has directed the 11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship Program.^[15]

In 2013, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg began a graduate certificate program in Food Writing and Photography, created by longtime Tampa Bay Times food and travel editor Janet K. Keeler.^[16]

(1938; 1961; 1988; 2001: four editions, the first of which describes French cuisine; the last of the three English editions also includes coverage of cuisines other than French; the original editor was Prosper Montagné)

Larousse Gastronomique

(compiled by the chief master cooks of King Richard II of England)

The Forme of Cury

(a French cookery book of the 14th century)

Le Viandier

List of chefs

Cookbook

Gastronomy

Gourmet ideal

Gourmet Museum and Library

of the United Kingdom

Guild of Food Writers

Golden, Lilly, ed. (1993) A Literary Feast: an anthology. New York: ; ISBN 0-87113-558-2 (authors include V. S. Pritchett, W. Somerset Maugham, Jorge Luis Borges, M. F. K. Fisher, Ernest Hemingway, Isak Dinesen, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce)

Atlantic Monthly Press

Archived 2011-04-24 at the Wayback Machine An online exhibit of historical cookbooks at the British Library.

Books for Cooks

A review of food writing and writers by Adam Gopnik that examines the genre.

"Dining Out: The Food Critic at Table"

A defense of the genre by Eric LeMay based on Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

"In Defense of Food Writing: A Reader's Manifesto"

Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine Advice about the craft of food writing from Michael Ruhlman.

"On Food Writing"

An argument that food writing should take on "a democratic way of looking at our food culture."

"Between the Lines: Picnic in the Democrative Forest"

Appears in The Believer, September 2012.