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Food writing

{{short description|Literature about food}}

Food writing is a literary genre that focuses on the cultural and historical significance of food. It encompasses various forms, including recipes, journalism, memoirs, and travelogues, and can be found in both fiction and non-fiction works. Food writers explore food and its overlap with agriculture, ecology, culture, politics, and personal memories.

Food writing is not limited to communicating information about food but often aims to offer an aesthetic experience. M. F. K. Fisher, a famous American food writer, described her work as an exploration of hunger, love, and the satisfaction of basic human needs. Another American food writer, Adam Gopnik, divides food writing into two categories: the "mock epic," which humorously elevates the subject of food, and the "mystical microcosmic," which poetically delves into the deeper meanings of food experiences.

Food writing emerged as a recognized term in the 1990s and includes historical works that have shaped its meaning, such as Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's "The Physiology of Taste." The field includes food criticism, food journalism, and food history. Food journalism, in particular, has evolved to address broader issues like climate change and public health, expanding beyond traditional food criticism.

Definition

Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food writer, explains how writers in the genre view its topic:

Food is essential to life. It's arguably our nation's biggest industry. Food, not sex, is our most frequently indulged pleasure. Food—too much, not enough, the wrong kind, the wrong frequency—is one of our society's greatest causes of disease and death.Edge, John T. [http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/articles/issue41/edge.html "Between the Lines: Picnic in the Democrative Forest," Creative Nonfiction; Issue 41, 2011.] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120723214346/http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/articles/issue41/edge.html |date=2012-07-23 }} Retrieved on April 25, 2012.
Another American food writer, Mark Kurlansky, links this vision of food directly to food writing, giving the genre's scope and range when he observes:
Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man's relationship with nature, about the climate, about nation-building, cultural struggles, friends and enemies, alliances, wars, religion. It is about memory and tradition and, at times, even about sex.Kurlansky, Mark. Choice Cuts: a Savory Selection of Food Writing from around the World and throughout History. New York: Penguin, 2002, p. 1.
Because food writing is topic centered, it is not a genre in itself, but a writing that uses a wide range of traditional genres, including recipes, journalism, memoir, and travelogues. Food writing can refer to poetry and fiction, such as Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), with its famous passage where the narrator recollects his childhood memories as a result of sipping tea and eating a madeleine; or Robert Burns' poem "Address to a Haggis", 1787. Charles Dickens, a notable novelist wrote memorably about food, e.g., in his A Christmas Carol (1843).

Often, food writing is used to specify writing that takes a more literary approach to food, such as that of the famous American food writer M. F. K. Fisher, who describes her writing about food as follows:

It seems to me our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied ... and it is all one.Fisher, M. F. K. The Gastronomical Me. New York: North Point, 1989, p. ix.

In this literary sense, food writing aspires toward more than merely communicating information about food; it also aims to provide readers with an aesthetic experience. Another American food writer, Adam Gopnik, divides food writing into two categories, "the mock epic and the mystical microcosmic," and provides examples of their most noted practitioners:

The mock epic (A. J. Liebling, Calvin Trillin, the French writer Robert Courtine, and any good restaurant critic) is essentially comic and treats the small ambitions of the greedy eater as though they were big and noble, spoofing the idea of the heroic while raising the minor subject to at least temporary greatness. The mystical microcosmic, of which Elizabeth David and M. F. K. Fisher are the masters, is essentially poetic, and turns every remembered recipe into a meditation on hunger and the transience of its fulfillment.Gopnik, Adam. [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/04/050404crbo_books "Dining Out: The Food Critic at Table," The New Yorker April 4, 2005.] Retrieved on October 1, 2011. Contemporary food writers working in this mode include Ruth Reichl, Betty MacDonald, and Jim Harrison.

As a term, "food writing" is a relatively new descriptor. It came into wide use in the 1990s and, unlike "sports writing", or "nature writing", it has yet to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary.[http://www.oed.com/ Oxford English Dictionary.] Retrieved on June 20, 2011. Consequently, definitions of food writing when applied to historical works are retrospective. Classics of food writing, such as the 18th century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's La physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste), pre-date the term and have helped to shape its meaning.

Fields of practice

= Food criticism =

{{Excerpt|Food critic}}

= Food journalism =

{{Excerpt|Food journalism}}

= Food history =

{{Excerpt|Food history}}

History

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.{{Cite news |last=Mishan |first=Ligaya |date=2022-02-18 |title=What We Write About When We Write About Food |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/t-magazine/food-writing-journalism-criticism.html |access-date=2024-05-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Skinner |first=Dr. Julia |title=Culinary Memory: The History of Food Writing |url=https://soar.kennesaw.edu/bitstream/handle/11360/2046/CM%20catalog%2010217.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}}

In academia

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.[http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/foodfellows/ The UC Berkeley-11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship.] Retrieved on December 16, 2015.

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.[http://foodwriting.usfsp.edu/ Food Writing and Photography: A graduate certificate from USF St. Petersburg.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604024902/http://foodwriting.usfsp.edu/ |date=2016-06-04 }} Retrieved on December 16, 2015.

Notable food writers and books

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=Authors=

This is a list of some prominent writers on food, cooking, dining, and cultural history related to food.

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=Important texts in the genre (not easily attributable to an author)=

See also

References

Further reading

External links

  • [http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/booksforcooks.html Books for Cooks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110424014115/http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/booksforcooks.html |date=2011-04-24 }} An online exhibit of historical cookbooks at the British Library.
  • [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/04/04/dining-out-3 "Dining Out: The Food Critic at Table"] A review of food writing and writers by Adam Gopnik that examines the genre.
  • [http://ericlemay.org/indefenseoffoodwriting.html "In Defense of Food Writing: A Reader's Manifesto"] A defense of the genre by Eric LeMay based on Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
  • [http://ruhlman.com/2009/04/on-food-writing/ "On Food Writing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721001007/http://ruhlman.com/2009/04/on-food-writing/ |date=2011-07-21 }} Advice about the craft of food writing from Michael Ruhlman.
  • [https://archive.today/20120723214346/http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/articles/issue41/edge.html "Between the Lines: Picnic in the Democrative Forest"] An argument that food writing should take on "a democratic way of looking at our food culture."
  • [http://www.believermag.com/issues/201209/?read=interview_gold "Interview with Jonathan Gold"] Appears in The Believer, September 2012.

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*Food writing

Category:Food-related literary genres