Food Writing or Recipe Lists

9/09/2012 tringel 1 Comments

I love food. I love to taste it, smell it, look at it, and read about it. Because of this, I thought it would be a quick find to locate out a sample of good food writing. However, after searching through my archive of  food articles, whether it be, magazine pages I have dog eared or blog posts I have bookmarked, I came to realize that most of these pieces are simply recipes, all with the same general format: the title of the dish, prep time, cooking time, a picture of the dish, a list of ingredients, and an ordered list of the steps to make the dish. On the blogs, some people also chose to include commentary about how they found the recipe or how much fun it was to make with their kids, but is this really food writing?

When I initially thought of food writing I thought I would find articles describing the food in depth. Sentences with words such as succulent, flavorful, and infused. Not sentences that could be interchanged into a parenting or preschool magazine/blog, like the kids had a great time getting messy. Maybe I just have an fondness for childish food (I do have a weakness for cookies and speghetti)? But still, even without these mature words, I thought the actual writing about food would be a bit more...about the food itself.

I started to search my brain of actual articles I had read about food that I had throughly enjoyed. I have read so much, there had to be one. But all I came up with were more recipe blogs, informational food lists, and food critic reviews. Its not that these pieces weren't good, but they weren't interesting either. I only read them to gain specific knowledge. If the food dish didn't sound good, I would have skipped over reading the rest, I have done it plenty of times when looking for dinner or lunch ideas. And that is same with the nutritional information or critiques. If I didn't have an interest in that food item or restaurant I probably would not have continued to read it. The actual writing did not draw mw in at all.

So I began to search online, and again I found the above to be true. But I also found some other, more intriguing posts. The one I have chosen to display as my good food writing sample is from a blog on food52.com from the Sunday Dinners feature by Tom Hirschfeld. It can be viewed by clicking the following link: http://food52.com/blog/4098_heart_and_soul.

What I think is great about his piece is that he jumps write into the post with ingredients from the recipe and he is very descriptive in the way he talks about the food. While he throws in some background on the food, and himself, it does not seem to deviate from the article, rather it enhances it with a personal touch. He takes us through the preparation of the meal as if we are there, hearing the simmer of the chicken thighs, smelling the bacon fat-and-cornmeal crust, and tasting the potatoes, just as he describes. By the end I feel like I have in a way gone through this process with Hirschfeld and I am ready to make and eat this dish. And what makes it even better is that it is a dish I would typically pass over, especially  if it had been written in the way I have been accustomed to seeing. After all, while the picture is not horrible, does a bowl of corn with a few beans and scallions look like it would be a very intriguing article or difficult recipe?