#Our favorite recipes cookbook hudgins how to#
#Our favorite recipes cookbook hudgins free#

Other people are probably writing about that same dish or restaurant or chef who’s currently in fashion. He was happy to send it to me.Īvoid food fads or trendy topics, unless that’s the specific subject of your story. I enjoyed their chicken cooked with blueberries so much that I asked the manager for the recipe. I once wrote an entire column about a three-course meal I’d eaten at a cafeteria in France. You could come across it in a local cookbook, a supermarket, someone you talk with, or a new menu item. The trigger for that turn in the road might be something surprising. Or they might take a new, more creative approach. Writers open to new experiences might change their initial topic entirely. Be curious and open-minded.ĭon’t necessarily start with a fixed story idea in mind. Go to the big ones that are famous tourist attractions, and the neighborhood grocery stores where local residents shop every day. Eat in a variety of venues, from homes and restaurants to street stalls and food trucks. Spend enough time there to learn about the people, the history, the geography, the religions, and the food sources of that area. If you travel to someplace new, avoid being a “two-day wonder.” That’s when you drop into an unfamiliar location for a quick impression. Historical and contemporary recipes from the dining cars illustrate changes in food preferences in each culture. All were experienced travelers on that country’s trains, from North America and Europe to Africa and Asia. It doesn’t matter if they came from down the street or halfway around the world.Ī different author wrote each of the nine chapters. Respect the cultural context of the foods and recipes you’re writing about. Seek out multiple, trusted, reputable sources (books, journals, experts).

Although Google can be a good guide to getting started, it can also lead you down paths to misinformation. Read what has already been written about that place, its foods, and its people. having cooking sessions with local residents in their home kitchens.doing an interview with a farmer in another state, or.

eating at a corner café in a little town or a three-star restaurant in Tokyo.

#Our favorite recipes cookbook hudgins how to#

That way you’ll know how to approach it on site. Food and travel writing requires research.īe knowledgeable about your subject, in advance. I had plenty of firsthand experience to draw on. Today that’s enough to cause the Twittersphere to light up with cries of “ cultural appropriation.” By the time I became a writer, I had already lived in nine countries and eaten my way across dozens more. In my own career, I’ve focused on writing about the cuisines of countries far from where I grew up. Even if you’ve never been beyond the borders of your own state or country, you can find riches of local and regional cuisines wherever you live. You don’t have to go to Timbuktu to write an interesting food story. But I think it’s still a good rule to follow. Recently, certain postmodern pundits have disparaged that old maxim. They have served me from the beginning of my long career until now: 1. Here are my food and travel writing tips. Since I covered a range of culinary subjects, people often asked me, “Where do you get your ideas?” And “Where do the recipes come from?” Those two questions are fundamental to the criteria I established for myself as a food writer. All of them included one or more recipes. No longer just a column, it filled an entire page in the newspaper every Thursday.ĭuring the 7 years I worked for that paper, I wrote 350 stories about food-European, American, and Asian. First it was 1,000 words, then 2,000, counting the recipes, too.

#Our favorite recipes cookbook hudgins free#

I was completely free to choose the topic and recipes. I lived in Europe, and wrote a weekly food column for an American newspaper abroad. When I started out doing food and travel writing, I had a freelance journalist’s dream job.