mizchef

Archive for the ‘Food Writing’ Category

This year’s FoodBlogSouth conference in Birmingham, Alabama, will be my first bloggers’ conference. The first FoodBlogSouth was in 2011 and I wish I’d known about it then because I certainly could have used some help in building my blog site. I think I have refined it substantially since I first launched it in 2009, but it still could use improvement. In fact, I’m in the process of migrating my site to a different platform but that’s going to take a while. In the meantime, I have resources like FoodBlogSouth to glean from to make my content more appealing to readers.

I’m really looking forward to meeting others in the field—some of whom I’ve admired for some time—and figuring out just how I’m going to use my publishing experience and culinary degree going forward.

Although only a day in length, the agenda seems robust with some useful sessions. This is what the agenda looks like:

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Hi, kids. I’m having a hectic week working on two different cookbooks at two different stages. First, let me talk about the first book. What, No Meat? is finally close to being finished. Not just yet, but close. My publisher, Rogue Books (an imprint of Bedazzled Ink) fell way behind schedule and even though I contracted with them last summer, I’m only now seeing the proof. The fact that it took so long in and of itself doesn’t upset me. What upsets me is that we missed the Christmas shopping season. Christmas is THE prime buying season for cookbooks because people buy them as gifts. I take partial responsibility for this because this is Bedazzled’s first cookbook and I knew about the Christmas season thing, yet didn’t say anything. Honestly, I didn’t think I needed to say anything because I kept thinking that it would be out by that time. By the time it dawned on me that it wouldn’t, it was too late to say anything. Don’t get me wrong, I did keep checking in from time to time, but I should have been more aggressive about it.

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Hi, kids. It’s been a really rough week for me. I’ve had to deal with a broken sink, bad news from various friends and, worst of all, a malicious virus on my computer. It’s the Malware Defense, and if any of you have had to deal with it, you know how heinous it is. My entire week was taken up with combating this vicious thing and in the end, I had to wipe out my computer and reload my OS. It’s going to take me days to reload all my programs. A couple of programs I lost altogether because I no longer have the installation disks. <huge sigh> The people who created this obviously have knowledge and skill—why can’t they use their powers for good? I hope the proper karma is in store for the people who sit around and come up with this stuff. People like that are a waste of humanity.

Anyway, on with the show.

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I was stunned when I heard the news that Gourmet magazine is shutting its doors. It has been a staple of the culinary world since 1940. We’ve suffered a lot of losses this past year, and companies that have been around for decades (or longer) have said their goodbyes.

But, as shocked as I was, if any foodie magazine was going fall prey to economic hard times, I’m not really surprised that it was Gourmet.

And here’s why.

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Hi, all. To celebrate the impending re-issue of What, No Meat? Traditional Italian Cooking the Vegetarian Way, I’m giving away a free copy. This is the original edition published at Booklocker, usually going for $22-24. Here’s the description:
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Hi, gang.  Still working on getting that KHEN interview  audio track up here. DJ Andi downloaded it to a CD for me, but when you take something off a CD, it’s a “cda” file, which nothing but a CD or DVD player can read. (I’m so not up on this audio technology stuff.) I can upload the file to the WordPress server, but it won’t recognize the file and I can’t seem to convert the file to something else. If anyone out there knows how I can get around this, I’d appreciate a suggestion from you.

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Hi, gang. A lot going on for me right now so I’m spending some time catching up on stuff. The biggest news is this: My cookbook has been been picked up by a traditional publisher!! For those of you who don’t know the back story, I self-published my cookbook early last year because every agent and publisher I hit up told me the same thing, which is that they really liked the book, I’m a good writer, the recipes sound delicious, yadda, yadda, yadda, BUT…I didn’t have a “platform.”  So, everyone passed on it.

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For those of you who have considered writing a cookbook, I can tell you from experience that it is hard work. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun, challenging, and when all is said and done, very satisfying. But I’m one who believes in having all the facts before going into something. I believe in being prepared for a challenge.

Many people believe that writing a cookbook is a cinch. After all, what is there involved? Writing down some ingredients, scratching out a few instructions, and slapping it together neatly for a publisher, right? Wrong. Very, very wrong. Writing a cookbook is a very specific process.

What to find out more about it?

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I call this “my world” of food because I believe that food is a very personal thing: How we eat it, how we interact with it, and what we like/don’t like. We all look at food differently. The taste, feel, and smell of every bit of food we consume is experienced differently by each and every person.

For example, the same orange can produce two completely different responses in two people. It might repulse one person, maybe because they got violently ill one day after eating an orange and now s/he can’t stand looking at one. For the other person, maybe it triggers memories of fragrant orange groves in Seville during a honeymoon or a stint as a bright-eyed exchange student. When I think of oranges, I think back to when I was 9 years old and on a trip with my mother and aunt to visit famiily in Venezuela. I have a vivid memory of looking out at the mountains at night and seeing all these orange lights glowing, and, to my 9-year-old eyes, it looked like a giant orange grove.

But one thing remains true: No matter how different our languages, clothing, customs, culture, religions, etc., the one thing every person on the planet has in common is that we must eat. That is why dining is a communal affair, to be shared with friends and loved ones. Even our pets get a little something special from our plates, don’t they?

So, with this blog, I hope to share my views on food and our relationship with it. I’ll be sharing recipes, tips, links, and all kinds of goodies. Hope you like it.