Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is in ...

and includes works by food critics, food

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

, chefs and

food historian Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is considered distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, ...

Definition

Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon.

John T. Edge John T. Edge (born December 22, 1962) is a writer, commentator, and, since its founding in 1999, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. He has wr ...

, 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 form or type 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 f ...

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

recipe A recipe is a set of instructions that describes how to prepare or make something, especially a 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 recipe. His ...

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. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in 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 autobiog ...

, and

travelogues Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or t ...

. Food writing can refer to poetry and fiction, such as Marcel Proust’s ''

À la recherche du temps perdu ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'' (''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 Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

' poem " Address to a Haggis", 1787.

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, 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. ''A Christmas ...

'' (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 Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He is the author of nine books ...

, 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 Calvin Marshall Trillin (born 5 December 1935) is an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist. He is a winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor (2012) and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts ...
, 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 Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...
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 Ruth Reichl (; born 1948), is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...
, Betty MacDonald, and
Jim Harrison James Harrison (December 11, 1937 – March 26, 2016) was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children’s ...
.

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 Nature writing is nonfiction or fiction prose or poetry about the natural environment. Nature writing encompasses a wide variety of works, ranging from those that place primary emphasis on natural history facts (such as field guides) to those in w ...

", it has yet to be included in the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

''. 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 Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (; 1 April 1755, Belley, Ain – 2 February 1826, Paris) was a French lawyer and politician, who, as the author of ''The Physiology of Taste'' (''Physiologie du Goût''), gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: ...

's '' La physiologie du goût'' (''The Physiology of Taste''), pre-date the term and have helped to shape its meaning.

In academia

Food writer

Michael Pollan Michael Kevin Pollan (; born February 6, 1955) is an American author and journalist, who is currently Professor of the Practice Non-Fiction and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Concurrently, he is the Knight Professo ...

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 land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

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'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' 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, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric stoves, to baking in vario ...

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

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of ...

James Beard James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...

* Maggie Beer *

Mrs Beeton Isabella Mary Beeton ( Mayson; 14 March 1836 – 6 February 1865), known as Mrs Beeton, was an English journalist, editor and writer. Her name is particularly associated with her first book, the 1861 work ''Mrs Beeton's Book of Household ...

* Edward Behr *

Raymond Blanc Raymond Blanc OBE (born 19 November 1949) is a French chef. Blanc is the chef patron at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a hotel-restaurant in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, England. The restaurant has two Michelin stars and scored 9/10 in the '' Good ...

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

* Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *

Alton Brown Alton Crawford Brown Jr. (born July 30, 1962) is an American television personality, food show presenter, chef, author, voice actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show '' Good Eats'' that ran for ...

* Robert Farrar Capon *

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

* Mei Chin *

Craig Claiborne Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 January 22, 2000) was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for ''The New York Times'', he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and ...

* Brendan Connell *

Shirley Corriher Shirley O. Corriher (born February 23, 1935) is an American biochemist and author of ''CookWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking'', winner of a James Beard Foundation award, and ''BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking.'' ''CookWi ...

Fanny Cradock Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television chef and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with h ...

* Elizabeth Craig *

Curnonsky Maurice Edmond Sailland (October 12, 1872, Angers, France – July 22, 1956, Paris), better known by his pen-name Curnonsky (nicknamed 'Cur'), and dubbed the Prince of Gastronomy, was one of the most celebrated writers on gastronomy in Fran ...

Tarla Dalal Tarla Dalal (3 June 1936 – 6 November 2013) was an Indian food writer, chef, cookbook author and host of cooking shows. Her first cook book, ''The Pleasures of Vegetarian Cooking'', was published in 1974. Since then, she wrote over 100 books ...

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and bo ...

* Alan Davidson * Emiko Davies *

Giada De Laurentiis Giada Pamela De Laurentiis (; born August 22, 1970) is an Italian-American chef, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's ''Giada at Home''. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's ...

* Avis DeVoto *

Andrew Dornenburg Andrew Dornenburg (born December 18, 1958, in Concord, California) along with his wife Karen A. Page, is a James Beard Award-winning author of a number of culinary-themed books. Among their books are ''Becoming a Chef'' (1995; 2003, 2nd ed.), ''C ...

Escoffier Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...

* Judith Lynn Ferguson * Susie Fishbein * M. F. K. Fisher * Alexandros Giotis *

Gael Greene Gael Greene (December 22, 1933 – November 1, 2022) was an American restaurant critic, author, and novelist. She became ''New York'' magazine's restaurant critic in fall 1968, at a time when most New Yorkers were unsophisticated about food and ...

Jane Grigson Jane Grigson (born Heather Mabel Jane McIntire; 13 March 1928 – 12 March 1990) was an English cookery writer. In the latter part of the 20th century she was the author of the food column for ''The Observer'' and wrote numerous books about Eu ...

Marcella Hazan Marcella Hazan (née Polini; April 15, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was an Italian cooking writer whose books were published in English. Her cookbooks are credited with introducing the public in the United States and the United Kingdom to the ...

Karen Hess Karen Loft HessThough ''New York Times'', ''Toronto Star'', and ''The Independent'' give "Lost," the ''Los Angeles Times'' correctly gives "Loft." The New York Times noted her given name was pronounced "CAR-inn" per the Scandinavian manner. (Novem ...

Amanda Hesser Amanda Hesser (born 1971) is an American food writer, editor, cookbook author and entrepreneur. Most notably, she was the food editor of '' The New York Times Magazine'', the editor of ''T Living'', a quarterly publication of '' The New York Times' ...

Kate Heyhoe Katherine Evelyn Heyhoe (born April 9, 1955) is an American editor and food writer. She is the author of numerous gourmet cookbooks. Career Heyhoe has been a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) since 1994, wh ...

Alison Holst Dame Alison Margaret Holst (née Payne, born 1938) is a best-selling New Zealand food writer and television celebrity chef. Biography Holst was born in Dunedin, and graduated from the University of Otago, then a constituent college of the Un ...

Judith Jones Judith Jones (née Bailey; March 10, 1924 – August 2, 2017) was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's ''Mastering the Art of French ...

Diana Kennedy Diana Kennedy MBE (; 3 March 1923 – 24 July 2022) was a British food writer. A primary English-language authority on Mexican cuisine, Kennedy was known for her nine books on the subject, including '' The Cuisines of Mexico'', which changed ...

Christopher Kimball Christopher Kimball is an American editor, publisher, and radio and TV personality. He is notable as one of the founders of ''America's Test Kitchen'' and '' Cook's Country'' and as the creator of '' Christopher Kimball's Milk Street''. Early ...

* Mark Kurlansky * Kylie Kwong *

Nigella Lawson Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer and television cook. She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, London. After graduating from the University of Oxford, where she was a member of Lady Margaret Hall, Lawson st ...

David Leite David Leite is a Portuguese American food writer, cookbook author, memoirist, and founder of the two-time James Beard Award-winning website Leite's Culinaria. Early life Leite was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, and raised in Swansea. ...

* Paul Levy * A. J. Liebling * Manju Malhi *

Ginette Mathiot Ginette Mathiot, Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, (23 May 1907 – 14 June 1998) was a French food writer and home economist. Mathiot wrote over 30 books including the famous ''Je sais cuisiner'' which sold over 6 million copies; she ...

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 pu ...

* Zora Mintalová - Zubercová *

Prosper Montagné Prosper Montagné (; 14 November 1865 – 22 April 1948) was one of the most renowned French chefs of the Belle Époque and author of many books and articles on food, cooking, and gastronomy, notably Larousse Gastronomique (1938), an encyclopedic ...

Massimo Montanari Massimo Montanari, currently Professor of Medieval History at Bologna University, is a scholar in Food studies. His interest in the subject stems from his researches and studies in Medieval Agrarian History. He has been invited as visiting ...

Joan Nathan Joan Nathan is an American cookbook author and newspaper journalist. She has produced TV documentaries on the subject of Jewish cuisine. She was a co-founder of New York's Ninth Avenue Food Festival under then-Mayor Abraham Beame. ''The Jerusalem ...

* Marion Nestle *

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reach ...

Richard Olney Richard Olney (September 15, 1835 – April 8, 1917) was an American statesman. He served as United States Attorney General in the cabinet of Grover Cleveland and Secretary of State under Cleveland. As attorney general, Olney used injunct ...

Clementine Paddleford Clementine Paddleford (September 27, 1898 – November 13, 1967) was an American food writer active from the 1920s through the 1960s, writing for several publications, including the New York ''Herald Tribune'', the ''New York Sun'', '' The New ...

Karen A. Page Karen A. Page (born May 8, 1962, in Warren, Michigan) along with her husband Andrew Dornenburg, is a James Beard Award-winning author of a number of culinary-themed books. Among their books are ''Becoming a Chef'' (1995; 2003, 2nd ed.), ''Culinar ...

* Jean Paré *

Angelo Pellegrini Angelo Pellegrini (1904 – 1991) was a writer of books about the pleasures of growing and making your own food and wine, and about the Italian immigrant experience. He was also a professor of English Literature at the University of Washing ...

Elizabeth Robins Pennell Elizabeth Robins Pennell (February 21, 1855 – February 7, 1936) was an American writer who, for most of her adult life, made her home in London. A recent researcher summed her up as "an adventurous, accomplished, self-assured, well-known colum ...

* Jacques Pépin *

* Edouard de Pomiane *

Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang Johannes Puck (born July 8, 1949) is an Austrian-American chef and restaurateur. Early life and career Puck was born in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. He learned cooking from his mother, who was a pastry chef. He took the surname ...

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a tot ...

Rachael Ray Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program '' Rachael Ray'', and the Food Network series ''30 Minute Meals'' ...

Ruth Reichl Ruth Reichl (; born 1948), is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...

Gary Rhodes Gary Rhodes (22 April 1960 – 26 November 2019) was an English restaurateur and television chef, known for his love of English cuisine and ingredients and for his distinctive spiked hair style. He fronted shows such as ''MasterChef'', '' Mas ...

Claudia Roden Claudia Roden (née Douek; born 1936) is an Egyptian-born British cookbook writer and cultural anthropologist of Sephardi/ Mizrahi descent. She is best known as the author of Middle Eastern cookbooks including ''A Book of Middle Eastern Food'' ...

* Waverley Root *

Marcel Rouff Marcel Rouff (May 4,1877 in Geneva – February 3, 1936 in Paris) was a prolific novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, historian, and gastronomic writer. With Curnonsky (Maurice Edmond Sailland) he wrote the multi-volume work ''La France ga ...

Michael Ruhlman Michael Carl Ruhlman (born July 28, 1963) is an American author, home cook and entrepreneur. He has written or co-authored more than two dozen books, including non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and books on cooking. He has co-authored many books w ...

Nigel Slater Nigel Slater (born 9 April 1956) is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. He has written a column for ''The Observer Magazine'' for over a decade and is the principal writer for the ''Observer Food Monthly'' supplement. Prior to ...

Delia Smith Delia Ann Smith (born 18 June 1941) is an English cook and television presenter, known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. One of the best known celebrity chefs in British popular culture, Smith has influenced viewers t ...

Raymond Sokolov Raymond Sokolov (born 1 August 1941) is a U.S. journalist who has written extensively about food. He wrote the "Eating Out" column for The Wall Street Journal's weekend edition from 2006 until March 2010. Early life and education Sokolov grew u ...

* Jeffrey Steingarten * Joanne Stepaniak *

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pu ...

* John Thorne *

Raquel Torres Cerdán Raquel Torres Cerdán, also Raquel Torres (born 19 November 1948) is a Mexican anthropologist and restauranteur, who has worked to record, preserve and showcase the cuisines of the indigenous peoples of Veracruz, through her restaurants and food ...

Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec Marie Pierre "Mapie" de Toulouse-Lautrec (1901–1972) was a French journalist and food writer, born Marie Pierre Adélaïde Lévêque de Vilmorin in Verrières-le-Buisson, scion of the Vilmorin seed company. Her horticulturalist father was Joseph ...

Anne Willan Anne Willan (born 26 January 1938 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is the founder of the École de Cuisine La Varenne, which operated in Paris and Burgundy France, from 1975 until 2007. La Varenne classes continued in Santa Monica, California, thr ...

* Martin Yan

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

* ''

Larousse Gastronomique ' () is an encyclopedia of gastronomy. The majority of the book is about French cuisine, and contains recipes for French dishes and cooking techniques. The first edition included few non-French dishes and ingredients; later editions include many ...

'' (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

) * ''

The Forme of Cury ''The Forme of Cury'' (''The Method of Cooking'', from Middle French : 'to cook') is an extensive 14th-century collection of medieval English recipes. Although the original manuscript is lost, the text appears in nine manuscripts, the most fa ...

'' (compiled by the chief master cooks of

King Richard II of England Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

) *'' 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 and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

.
"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

's ''

In Defense of Food ''In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto'' (released internationally as ''In Defence of Food'') is a 2008 book by journalist and activist Michael Pollan. It was number one on the ''New York Times'' Non-Fiction Best Seller List for six weeks. ...

''.
"On Food Writing"
Advice about the craft of food writing from

.
"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