Food writing is a

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

that focuses on the cultural and historical significance of

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. It encompasses various forms, including

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a dish (food), dish of prepared food. A sub-recipe or subrecipe is a recipe for an ingredient that will be called for in the instructions for the main r ...

s, journalism,

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

s, and travelogues, and can be found in both fiction and non-fiction works. Food writers explore food and its overlap with

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

, culture, politics, and personal memories. Food writing is not limited to communicating information about food but often aims to offer an aesthetic experience. M. F. K. Fisher, a famous American food writer, described her work as an exploration of hunger, love, and the satisfaction of basic human needs. Another American food writer, Adam Gopnik, divides food writing into two categories: the "mock epic," which humorously elevates the subject of food, and the "mystical microcosmic," which poetically delves into the deeper meanings of food experiences. Food writing emerged as a recognized term in the 1990s and includes historical works that have shaped its meaning, such as Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's " The Physiology of Taste." The field includes food criticism, food journalism, and food history. Food journalism, in particular, has evolved to address broader issues like

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

, expanding beyond traditional food criticism.

Definition

Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food writer, explains how writers in the genre view its topic:

Food is essential to life. It's arguably our nation's biggest industry. Food, not sex, is our most frequently indulged pleasure. Food—too much, not enough, the wrong kind, the wrong frequency—is one of our society's greatest causes of disease and death.

Another American food writer, Mark Kurlansky, links this vision of food directly to food writing, giving the genre's scope and range when he observes:

Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man's relationship with nature, about the climate, about nation-building, cultural struggles, friends and enemies, alliances, wars, religion. It is about memory and tradition and, at times, even about sex.

Because food writing is topic centered, it is not a

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

in itself, but a writing that uses a wide range of traditional genres, including

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

, and travelogues. Food writing can refer to poetry and fiction, such as Marcel Proust's '' À la recherche du temps perdu'' (''In Search of Lost Time''), with its famous passage where the narrator recollects his childhood memories as a result of sipping tea and eating a madeleine; or Robert Burns' poem " Address to a Haggis", 1787.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

, a notable novelist wrote memorably about food, e.g., in his ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...

'' (1843). Often, food writing is used to specify writing that takes a more literary approach to food, such as that of the famous American food writer M. F. K. Fisher, who describes her writing about food as follows:

It seems to me our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied ... and it is all one.

In this literary sense, food writing aspires toward more than merely communicating information about food; it also aims to provide readers with an aesthetic experience. Another American food writer, Adam Gopnik, divides food writing into two categories, "the mock epic and the mystical microcosmic," and provides examples of their most noted practitioners:

The mock epic ( A. J. Liebling, Calvin Trillin, the French writer Robert Courtine, and any good restaurant critic) is essentially comic and treats the small ambitions of the greedy eater as though they were big and noble, spoofing the idea of the heroic while raising the minor subject to at least temporary greatness. The mystical microcosmic, of which Elizabeth David and M. F. K. Fisher are the masters, is essentially poetic, and turns every remembered recipe into a meditation on hunger and the transience of its fulfillment. Contemporary food writers working in this mode include Ruth Reichl, Betty MacDonald, and Jim Harrison.

As a term, "food writing" is a relatively new descriptor. It came into wide use in the 1990s and, unlike "sports writing", or " nature writing", it has yet to be included in the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

''. Consequently, definitions of food writing when applied to historical works are retrospective. Classics of food writing, such as the 18th century French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's '' La physiologie du goût'' (''The Physiology of Taste''), pre-date the term and have helped to shape its meaning.

Fields of practice

Food criticism

Food journalism

Food history

History

People have been writing about food for centuries. Some of the earliest recipes we have found were carved into stone in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

nearly 4,000 years ago. The

ancient Romans The Roman people was the ethnicity and the body of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens (; ) during the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. This concept underwent considerable changes throughout the long history of the Roman ...

also wrote about their grand feasts and fancy meals held by emperors of the time. Although the modern cookbook like we see today was not invented until much later and measurements were not standardized until the 20th century.

In academia

Food writer Michael Pollan holds the Knight Professorship of Science and Environmental Journalism at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and since 2013 has directed the 11th Hour Food and Farming Journalism Fellowship Program. In 2013, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg began a graduate certificate program in Food Writing and Photography, created by longtime ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...

'' food and travel editor Janet K. Keeler.''Food Writing and Photography: A graduate certificate from USF St. Petersburg''.
Retrieved on December 16, 2015.

Notable food writers and books

Authors

This is a list of some prominent writers on

cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

dining A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in a ...

, and cultural history related to food. * Jay Rayner * Karen Anand * Robert Appelbaum * Archestratus *

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

* James Beard * Maggie Beer * Mrs Beeton * Edward Behr * Raymond Blanc *

Anthony Bourdain Anthony Michael Bourdain ( ; June 25, 1956 – June 8, 2018) was an American celebrity chef, author and Travel documentary, travel documentarian. He starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the huma ...

* Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin * Jane Brody * Alton Brown * Robert Farrar Capon * Julia Child * Mei Chin * Craig Claiborne * Brendan Connell * Shirley Corriher * Fanny Cradock * Elizabeth Craig * Curnonsky * Tarla Dalal * Elizabeth David * Alan Davidson * Emiko Davies * Giada De Laurentiis * Avis DeVoto * Andrew Dornenburg * Escoffier * Judith Lynn Ferguson * Susie Fishbein * M. F. K. Fisher * Carol Lee Flinders * Alexandros Giotis * Adam Gopnik * Gael Greene * Jane Grigson * Tim Hayward * Marcella Hazan * Karen Hess * Amanda Hesser * Kate Heyhoe * Alison Holst * Gil Hovav * Judith Jones * Jonathan Kauffman * Diana Kennedy * Christopher Kimball * Mark Kurlansky * Kylie Kwong * Nigella Lawson * David Leite * Paul Levy * A. J. Liebling * Manju Malhi * Ginette Mathiot *

Harold McGee Harold James McGee (born October 3, 1951) is an American author who writes about the chemistry and history of food science and cooking. He is best known for his seminal book '' On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen'', first ...

* Zora Mintalová - Zubercová * Prosper Montagné * Massimo Montanari * Joan Nathan * Marion Nestle * Jamie Oliver * Richard Olney * Clementine Paddleford * Karen A. Page * Jean Paré * Angelo Pellegrini * Elizabeth Robins Pennell * Jacques Pépin * Michael Pollan * Edouard de Pomiane * Wolfgang Puck *

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur, television presenter, and writer. His restaurant group, List of restaurants owned or operated by Gordon Ramsay, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has ...

* Rachael Ray * Ruth Reichl * Gary Rhodes * Claudia Roden * Waverley Root * Marcel Rouff * Michael Ruhlman * Eric Schlosser * Nigel Slater * Delia Smith * Raymond Sokolov * Jeffrey Steingarten * Joanne Stepaniak * Martha Stewart * John Thorne * Raquel Torres Cerdán * Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec * Alice Waters * Anne Willan * Martin Yan * Joe Yonan

Important texts in the genre (not easily attributable to an author)

* '' Larousse Gastronomique'' (1938; 1961; 1988; 2001: four editions, the first of which describes French cuisine; the last of the three English editions also includes coverage of cuisines other than French; the original editor was Prosper Montagné) * '' The Forme of Cury'' (compiled by the chief master cooks of King Richard II of England) *'' Le Viandier'' (a French cookery book of the 14th century)

References

External links

Books for Cooks
An online exhibit of historical cookbooks at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

.
"Dining Out: The Food Critic at Table"
A review of food writing and writers by Adam Gopnik that examines the genre.

A defense of the genre by Eric LeMay based on Michael Pollan's '' In Defense of Food''.
"On Food Writing"
Advice about the craft of food writing from Michael Ruhlman.
"Between the Lines: Picnic in the Democrative Forest"
An argument that food writing should take on "a democratic way of looking at our food culture."
"Interview with Jonathan Gold"
Appears in '' The Believer'', September 2012. {{cuisine *Food writing Food-related literary genres