Have you ever considered writing about food? Perhaps you have some special, unique family recipes you can share with the world. Or an underused food that might spark some interest. Or you just love to eat and want to share the passion of enjoying a wide variety of good food. There are markets out there for food writers, but it’s not as easy as you think. You can’t just randomly throw together a recipe and hope it’ll sell your story. But you can learn the tricks of the trade and make your niche as a food writer. I did. I often thought, in my younger years, that it would be an easy thing to be a writer. I had the ideas; I had the imagination. All I had to do was put pen to paper, as one would say in the early 1980’s pre-computer era. And why not? Others did it. Some authors pushed out novels, bestselling novels at that, at an amazing rate.

My first attempts were futile and didn’t amount to anything. I was in a hurry, frustrated with my attempts to keep up with the progression of ideas flowing through my mind. I changed focus, countless times, until, surprisingly, I considered writing food stories, particularly recipe articles. Why not! I could cook. I loved to cook. Why not write some stories around my recipes? I dashed off my first piece and sent it to the then very popular Canadian recipe magazine, Recipes Only. Imagine my surprise when, after years of rejection letters, I actually received an encouraging letter from the editor. Would I consider working on the piece I had submitted? Would I ever! Little did I know what I was really in for. This is how it began:

I remember with some amusement my introduction to pizza mixes. I was about seven and my teenage brother and sister were enthralled with the pizza craze of the late ‘60s. Alternately reading the instructions and arguing over the procedure, they struggled with a sticky pizza dough that left its mark on every corner of the kitchen. Unimpressed, I didn’t wait around to try the finished disaster. I settled for a scrambled egg instead.

Quite different from my original thought of being a bestselling novelist. It certainly didn’t have that ring to it, that sense of anticipation, the hook to draw me in. Neither was it an informative piece for National Geographic. It was what it was; an opening hook for a food story, one of my first published articles, written in 1988 for Recipes Only Magazine (it appeared in the Feb/Mar 1988 issue). I say 1988, but it really began long before that, with a query to Carroll Allen, editor of the magazine. Her first response was in June 1987, “I don’t see a long feature piece about pizza… The writing would have to be very tight with every word counting.” The story was the introduction to a collection of recipes for pizza. My food writing career had been launched, or so I thought. I was now a food writer. Or was I?

It wasn’t easy. The above pizza article had me endure fifteen re-writes and my frustration was to the point that I wondered if the article would ever be published. Carroll led me through the fine art of food writing. There were discouraging comments like “I’m sending this back because I couldn’t use it in its present form” and “Perhaps I’m doing you a disservice by encouraging you in a pursuit where the competition is very stiff and the requirements are for superlative knowledge of food combined with a bright writing style.” The final decision was to use my ‘quirky’ introduction and substitute their own recipes for mine, which the food testers at Recipes Only dubbed as “somewhat lacking”. The final laugh was mine, though, when their recipes, the ones they used in the final publication, didn’t work and the readers started to complain.

Regardless of the final laugh, I was well on the way to a successful career as a food writer. Thanks to Carroll, I was well-groomed under her tutelage and patience to become a solid writer, no matter what subject or theme I chose to write. I wrote several pieces for Recipes Only Magazine over the years and it was the insistence on a combination of tight and interesting writing that helped launch my success in other writing venues as well. Carroll had been my mentor and I’m forever grateful for her patience and for her seeing the potential in me to help me fine-tune my writing craft.

I started writing food stories for other publications. BackHome Magazine is a grassroots publication that features stories about country living and getting back to nature. I have published some food stories in this publication, including Basil Your Kitchen (July/Aug 2012). This is not a publication that focuses on recipes, so the recipes are almost secondary to the story. People reading this magazine are looking for something informative. I started my basil story with an interesting list of possible curatives for this herb:

A curative for diseases like cancer? A restorative oil for the treatment of asthma, diabetes, or even stress? Also a common cure for stomach cramps, vomiting, constipation, headache, and even as an antispasmodic for whooping cough? It’s definitely one of those multi-purpose miracle herbs. There are certainly many rituals surrounding this sweet-smelling herb. Basil, commonly known as sweet basil, common basil, or even St. Josephwort, is also dubbed in France as ‘l’herbe royale’. Jewish folklore suggests that basil builds one’s strength during periods of fasting. Or, perhaps it is the herb of love. On the feasts of Saint John and Saint Anthony, Portuguese would-be suitors will present a pot of the dwarf bush basil, along with a poem, to sweethearts. Or, contrary to this superstition, perhaps it is a symbol of Satan as European folklore suggests. Could it really protect one against scorpion attacks as African legend suggests? Or, was Hilarius, yes that was his name, a French physician, correct in stating that smelling too much basil would breed scorpions in the brain? Seventeenth-century English botanist, Nicholas Culpeper seemed to agree.

I followed with some historical background on the herb’s uses, how to cultivate it, and how best to use it. The article finished with five of my basil recipes. Another publication, Home Cooking Magazine featured my story, Sensational Citrus in its March/April 2005 issue. Since this is a cooking magazine, my story was directed to interest cooks and bakers alike:

When cold season hits, the first thing I think about is stocking up on fresh lemons and honey. I like to have these two ingredients handy for making Mom’s age-old cold remedy, the one that always seems to work better than the over-the-counter drugs. But I don’t really need to wait until I’m sick to enjoy a hot (or cold) lemon drink. Lemonade and lemon tea (hot or cold) are popular beverages in our household at any time of the year. Baking with lemons adds variety, too, for the sweet tooth. Lemon loaf and lemon cookies add the much-needed extra vitamin C to our daily diets.

The more personal approach of writing in the first person makes the reader of a cooking/baking magazine feel connected to the author and the author’s recipes. The third-person approach to the more technical/informative piece in BackHome makes the reader confident that you know what you’re writing about. I had learned early on in my writing career to know my audience and to adhere to the style of the magazines for which I wrote. As I ventured into creative nonfiction and fiction, I continued to be cognizant of my audience and to keep my writing tight. Food still appears in my stories. In Personal Notes (Moosehide Books, 2008), my grandmother’s story, I used family recipes to tie together significant elements of each chapter, as the story continually revolved around the family connection to food.

You may ask why I took this sharp turn in my writing career. I have to admit that there were many people along the way who turned their noses up at my success as a food writer. When my husband introduced me at various gatherings, I was frequently asked what I did. I said that I was a writer. “Oh. How interesting! What books have you published?” Until the dawn of the twenty-first century, I hadn’t written or published any books. Consequently, the feigned interest in my writing career was downplayed. Apparently, to many people, if you haven’t published a book, you’re not a writer. I took that realization rather hard and actually started to deny my writing career for a while. With the publication of my first book, I started to reinstate myself as a writer. In so doing, I also made a point of encouraging other writers, young and old, to be proud of their writing accomplishments, even without published clips to prove it.

 People still ask me how many books I’ve published. To me, it’s irrelevant. I’m a writer. I know it and I’m no longer hesitant to confess my accomplishments, big or small. We all feel a certain amount of insecurity when we put ourselves ‘out there’ as a creative individual. Are we good enough? Do we have what it takes to be a writer? Are we successful? If you write, then you are a writer and if you believe in yourself, then you are good enough. We are our own worst critics, but we can also be our best advocates. One would not think that a food writer would become an author of multiple books, only one of which was a recipe book: Still Delicious (Baico Publishing, 2013). However, the discipline of writing food stories taught me the importance of order, capturing the reader’s interest, and the ongoing need to be concise and to the point. This can be learned in any form of disciplined writing. Choose an area of expertise and/or personal interest and start writing for that audience. Aren’t we, as writers, always told to start by writing about what we know best? The key is to write, to shoulder the discipline and the criticism, and to keep on writing. Carroll taught me that and much more.