A food journalist? A food critic? Does a blogger write about food? How to practice gastronomy professionally? There are several activities and topics that can bring people closer together more than the joy of eating. Food symbolizes much more than just a biological necessity. It is part of our social, cultural, religious and national identity. If you love food and writing and would like to share your experience with the rest of the world, perhaps food and gastronomy writing is for you?
Writing about gastronomy sounds magical. Regular visits to restaurants, tastings gourmet menus, travel with the gastronomic destinations of the dream world. Such the stereotype functions in general terms. What does reality look like?
Write about food
First of all, we must understand very clearly that writing about gastronomy is a very vague concept. Often, to simplify things, we refer to this activity simply as a food review. However, it is quite another thing to write, for example, about the history of food, publish recipes, and quite another-reviews of restaurant visits. A completely different category also writes about the industry and for the food service industry. For example, the "restaurant" magazine that I have in my bake shop is the signature of the food service industry. You won't find any recipes here, because our reader is a chef who knows exactly how to cook and what to do. Our range of topics includes more technical issues of restaurant management, legal, tax, logistics aspects, professional equipment, etc. Although the topic of food is close to almost everyone-more or less everyone thinks something about food, likes something, dislikes something, etc., it does not have at the moment excessively extended culinary press. The focus of writing about food has shifted to the Internet. Now is not the time to devote yourself to writing in the press and live peacefully, especially since the names of the lifestyle and industry magazines you read are disappearing. Today, in addition, we are facing a very real replacement of people who write about anything with artificial intelligence, which with amazing speed and with the progress of algorithms is able to generate text, which we only dream of. Those titles that remain are very rarely hired full-time, but rather choose to cooperate and pay for the so-called rhymes from the text. Consequently, many journalists work on many fronts, sometimes also on the margins of journalism as a copywriter or public relations specialist, etc. These are great places to hone your workshop, gain experience, and explore the industry. However, on the other hand, it is true that everyone needs food, and not everyone manages to eat and cook good food. High-quality cuisine is a subtle art that goes beyond the simple need to feed your family. From home cooking to the best restaurants in cities like Paris or New York, food and cooking can be a lot more than that. Writing about food is a way to capture people's love of food and turn it into a money-making enterprise.
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What then?
If you really like to write about food, then you can only use social networks, web portals and blogs – and in the future, you may become the author of books on this topic. There are hundreds, not thousands, of food blogs in all the languages of the world. Some are typically recipe-based, others are a kind of diary of the creator with his taste discoveries and experiences. Sometimes it's a combination of both, like Julie Powell's famous blog about her adventure with Julia Child's recipes in the context of her life in a New York apartment and the vicissitudes with her husband and cats. There are also restaurant review sites. The authors visit restaurants and share their subjective assessment of the establishment in terms of food quality, service, and prices. Food lovers, in turn, rely on these restaurant reviews to make informed decisions about where the best food experience is provided. Restaurant owners also rely on restaurant reviews to get information and reviews that will help them improve the quality of food and services. Some authors focus on the history of food, focusing on the cultural, environmental, economic, and sociological impact of food on our lives. While there are cookbook authors who have advanced degrees in this field, others simply write about their culinary heritage. One of the most important to be successful in writing culinary articles, you need to have a deep knowledge of what you're writing about. There are different types of food history writing, including food history, diet history, food history, nutrition history, and food history. An iconic character who writes about food and connotations with various fields American author Michael Pollan.
Critic or influencer?
For most of the last century, the most prestigious were food critics who wrote for the daily press around the world, and several restaurant reviewers for influential magazines. However, as social media and online platforms have grown, the role of rating or simply showing places worth visiting has changed. Food critics have lost their status quo. Now everyone can share their culinary experiences and opinions, and culinary bloggers, vloggers, and influencers with a large following have begun to reach a wider audience. After all, the Internet isn't limited to one weekly column and dozens of lines of text about a particular restaurant. The charge that restaurant bloggers and amateur influencers sometimes make is that they lack the authority and expertise to evaluate restaurant cuisine. These arguments do not take into account the fact that there is no specific qualification in culinary criticism. Thus, knowledge in food evaluation – for both professionals and amateurs-is based on experience, rather than formal training and qualifications. Although these people are not responsible to the editor, there is still such a thing as their own ethical responsibility for reviewing the restaurant. Food influencers have found a gap that they are filling in. They visit places that critics often don't get into, use their reach expressively, and so on. they expand your audience. They know how to maximize the potential of social media. Many of them emphasize that they prefer to explore places on their own rather than be alone. because it gives them more opportunities to be objective.
Photo: Pinterest
Workshop and workshop again!
How to become a person who writes about the world of ingredients and cooking? Work on your own workshop. It's better not to write if you don't read it yourself. Refer to valuable literature about the world's cuisines, ingredients, food anthropology, etc. Look at the masters-reading at least Marcel Proust's” towards Swann " will show you what a description of food means. Your texts about food should evoke positive emotions in your readers so that they will want to experience it with you. One thing that sets successful people writing about the culinary world apart from others is their powerful descriptive skills. Unlike video content, where viewers can see what's going on, readers of essays and cooking texts depend on the author's descriptions. The experience of eating goes beyond what you can feel with your tongue and includes other senses: touch, smell, and hearing. Experts believe that the authors of culinary articles should focus on the five senses. A writer's ability to use descriptive adjectives to explain how the senses perceive food makes reading enjoyable. The author should enliven and describe to readers all the experiences associated with a particular food culture. Improving your writing skills will make it easier for readers to express your thoughts. Secondly, travel culinary, in Poland, according to the tastes of the regions, in other countries, try, see, describe. If possible, attend cooking classes and courses. What they say about being an expert at everything and a master at anything is true for writing about food. People who write about food do it from different perspectives. While there are several ways to write about food, it's best to focus on the area where you feel the most passion. For example, wine and food. Wine, in my opinion, is a lens for observing other cultures. Wine is part of European civilization, reflects the place, depicts vintage, resonates with nature, but is also an art form. This is an essential element of the Mediterranean diet-natural fermentation. According to Louis Pasteur, wine is the healthiest and most hygienic drink in the world. Identifying the area or areas you want to focus on depends on where you have a strong advantage in both interests and knowledge. Experts believe that it is best to write about this topic that you are emotionally connected to.
Focusing on writing about the food you know has many benefits. Write about food that you know and love gives you an advantage over someone who doesn't. Choosing a niche cooking that you are passionate about will make you write with great skill and pleasure. Good essays and texts about food relate to food and those behind it. That's why you shouldn't limit your writing to just food. Writing about food is fun when the author explores people's relationships and personal connections to food. Talk to chefs, learn their stories and hobbies. Successful authors of culinary articles should be knowledgeable about the subject and keep up to date with the latest food trends. If you want to become a food critic, remember that by definition, this is a person who writes and specializes in thoughtful comments about their culinary experience. They visit restaurants, sample food, and report on their experiences – not just the food itself, but everything from the atmosphere to the service.
Junior specialist in Marketing Communications and PR.
He is a graduate of the University of Warsaw and the Main School of Agriculture. We have been in the HoReCa industry for more than 10 years. For many years, he has been associated with the Trip group, Sobienie Royal Golf and Country Club, and the Florentin Restaurant in Warsaw.
She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw Technical University with a degree in Architecture for the Knowledge Society and Visual Communications at the Polytechnic University of Milan. A specialist in creating a mood. She has gained experience at home and abroad at numerous international seminars (Seville, Lisbon, Florence), fellowships at La Sapienza (Rome), etc. m.in. in Carmi e Ubertis and ADM Milano.
A manager with many years of experience in the cosmetics, food, and children's industries. During his career, he was associated with such companies as: L'Oreal, Samsung, Danone-Nutricia, Unilever. During his professional life, he was responsible, among other things, for the development of e-commerce sales and content in Poland and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. 
