Food Writing
GUIDE TO NONFICTION COURSES
Food Writing is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
If you savor eating and drinking, food writing will suit your taste. You can write a review of a new restaurant in town, an article about the secrets of saffron, a story about helping grandma in the kitchen, or a collection of recipes for catfish. And you can experience the deliciousness of food writing without gaining a single pound.
Food writing requires a passion for food and the ability to summon its wonders in words. Here you will learn about the full spectrum of food writing—reviews, memoir, essay, articles, blogs, books—as well as writing craft and how to market your work.
Whether you seek to write about producing, preparing, or partaking of food, we’ll show you how to spice your writing just right.
A total guide for understanding the basics of food writing.
Oded Tshesly
logistics manager
Notes
Gotham only offers Food Writing at Level I. After that, if you want to continue working on food pieces, you have these options:
Memoir I or Memoir II – for food-related memoirs
Essay & Opinion I – for food-related essays and reviews
Feature Article – for food-related articles
Upcoming Classes
Syllabus
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of food writing gets you writing a short piece (or two) or a book. Course components:
Lectures
Writing exercises
Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
New York City/Zoom classes
The syllabus varies from teacher to teacher, term to term. Many topics will be similar to those covered in the Online classes.
Online classes
Week 1
Introduction to Food Writing: Appeal of food writing. Types of food writing. Angle. Timeliness. Audience. What to write about. What a food writer needs.
Week 2
Memoir/Essay: Memoir—focusing on an aspect, telling a story, scene and reflection, facts and memory, people and place. Essay—topics, structure, personality.
Week 3
Journalism: Types of food articles—features, health, roundups, advice, front of book pieces. Angles. Structural mainstays—lead, nut graf, body, kicker. Food books. Point of view.
Week 4
Cooking: Cooking articles. Cookbooks. Writing about cooking.
Week 5
Reviews: Overview of reviewing. Facts and opinion. Structure. Creativity. Ethics.
Week 6
New Media/Photography: Blogs. Social networking. Photography 101. Photographic artistry.
Week 7
Description: Using the senses. Specificity. Techniques for creativity. Finding the right words. An eye for detail. Writing tight.
Week 8
Voice: Voice defined. Exploration of the various types of voice. Understanding style—syntax, diction, and paragraph length. Tone. Tips for finding your voice. Humor.
Week 9
The Business: Selling short pieces. Selling books. Query letters. Clip files. Targeting. Making contact. Response. Contracts.
Week 10
Research/Revision: Importance of research. Food writing resources. Plagiarism and “borrowing." The research process. The revision process. Editing.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
Related Courses
Memoir Writing I
True stories about aspects of the writer’s life, whether essay or book-length.
Travel Writing
Tour the spectrum of travel writing— articles, memoir, essays, blogs, and guidebooks.
Feature Article Writing
Feature articles are the story-driven side of journalism, covering topics earth-shaking or simply interesting.