Cake or Death?

I discussed videogames in my last post as a growing field for writers, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts about another field that's become increasingly popular and even profitable: food writing.  This field has begun to evolve beyond the traditional, stale cookbook.  Back in the old days (I'm intentionally leaving that vague so as to lower my risk of being skewered by age-sensitive readers), aspiring cooks would clip recipes from newspapers and magazines or even from the labels of popular food products.  After all, there's more than one way to enjoy Campbell's cream of mushroom soup.  I prefer it straight out of the can, but that's a disgusting story for another day.

Recipes were just a set of instructions for a person to follow.  There wasn't any sort of excitement to go along with it.  Fast forward to the 90's, and the birth of the "foodie" culture, and recipes have evolved into more of an experience than a mere process.  It wasn't uncommon to find cooks and chefs hosting TV shows prior to the 90's, but with the launch of the Food Network, cooking and its close cousins (i.e. baking) received more exposure than ever before.  Follow that up with the internet where information is freely shared (i.e. food blogs) and people come to realize how much they appreciate good food.  Food writing has really picked up, especially within the last few years.  Have you picked up a cookbook recently? A lot of them now feature stories about the history behind the recipes, information on cooking techniques, and I've even seen a few experimental books that combine fiction with recipes sprinkled throughout the story.  Food writing has grown into a huge field, encompassing more than just recipes.  You've got restaurant reviews, recipe reviews, food blogs, novels with food as a central focus, etc.  Not to be outdone, traditional cookbooks still do incredibly well with the general public.  Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust by Ina Garten was #22 on Amazon.com's list of best selling books of 2012.

What's awesome about this field is that anyone can enter food writing with relative ease.  I'm sure you've heard of Yelp.com.  Posting restaurant reviews is a great way to get into the field and create a following.  Using that site as jumping off point to make your own food blog isn't that far of a stretch.

If you're very passionate about food, this field might be worth getting into.  Personally, I love all kinds of food and happily give restaurant recommendations to friends and family.  However, I don't think food writing is for me.  I've always enjoyed writing speculative fiction above all else.  You might be a different story, though.  Give it a try sometime.  Maybe you'll find a passion for writing that you didn't know you had.