A sizzling food writing event kicked off the first in a new series of food literary events presented by Housing Works bookstore in Soho.
Food writing pros Ed Levine (Serious Eats.com), Julie Powell (Julie & Julia), Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs (Food52.com) and Cathy Erwin (Not Eating Out in New York.com) wrangled themselves up to discuss the present and future of online food writing with moderator Lynn Andriani of Publishers Weekly and its “Cooking the Books” e-newsletter.
Discussions centered around big questions including:
How has online food media impacted food writing?
What does the death of Gourmet magazine mean for the future of food writing?
Can online and print food media successfully coexist today?
Long time food writer Ed Levine delved into the “old days” when food writing was controlled by a dozen or so gatekeepers at powerhouse publications such as The New York Times, Gourmet, and Food & Wine. What makes today’s food writing so exciting and terrifying to Ed, is anyone can be a food writer. He also acknowledged that his writers starting out at Serious Eats.com are incredibly talented and passionate about food writing for being as young as they are.
Former food editor for The New York Times Magazine, Amanda Hesser addressed the pro’s & cons of online food writing including no word counts (a Pro) and that your words never die (a potential Con). Amanda’s Food52.com partner Merrill Stubbs chimed in on the immediacy of online writing today (which can be a pro or con).
Cathy Erwin and Julie Powell discussed the different paths they took as food bloggers to reach the same end point - a book deal. Back in 2002, when blogging was in its infancy, Julie had no idea that her blog would lead her to become a famous writer. In contrast, Cathy intentionally her blog to her advantage and leveraged herself into professional food writing.
When debating whether online and print media can peacefully coexist, Ed Levine pointed out that Ree Drummond aka “Pioneer Woman”, the wildly popular blogger and cookbook author, is the ultimate success story. Both her blog and her cookbook have given her a cult-like following with each form of media reinforcing the other.
To Cathy Erwin, the future of food writing is exemplified by Food52.com’s social networking features which allows for conversation among participants online with the end result of the food recipe contest being a published cookbook.
In the case of Pioneer Woman and Food52.com, both connect the reader to the authors and give readers a crucial, and much appreciated voice.
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