Dianne Jacob's Blog, page 8

How I Kept My Sanity Blogging For Over a Decade

A guest post by Nicole Hunn

When I read Dianne’s post about blogging for 10 years (Happy aluminum anniversary, Dianne!), I realized that I ‘ve reached that milestone, too. And I’ve learned a few things about blogging for over a decade — successfully and sustainably.

After 10 years, there’s lots to celebrate. Most importantly, blogging works with my lifestyle, which includes raising three now-teenage kids. Second, I’m grateful to make a living while working from home. And third, I’m rarely bored because food blogging is so multi-faceted.

Luckily, I started with a big bang. The New York Times mentioned my blog when it was only six months old, in a news article about the cost of celiac disease. I got a literary agent and a cookbook deal in short order. And this was long before the plethora of blogger cookbooks.

Paleo chocolate cake. (Photo courtesy of Nicole Hunn.)

I was so overwhelmed at the time that I let the blog wither as I wrote that first book. But since then I’ve always returned to it. My blog is the engine that drives everything else I’ve done, including writing five traditionally-published cookbooks, self-published books and online courses; plus creating a thriving email list that I cherish.

Algorithms may change, but I work hard to make good, necessary content and to create an atmosphere of encouragement and possibility. If you’re gluten free, you need that and it’s still in oddly short supply. 

There are so many things I wish I knew. But just because I learned them the hard way doesn’t mean you have to! These are my top five lessons from a decade+ of blogging.

5 Lessons on Blogging For Over a Decade, Successfully and Sustainably:
1. Don’t bother doing every part of your work as well as humanly possible.

I have to repeatedly remind myself of this lesson, since I want to learn everything and be the very best at it. But at a certain point, my efforts bring diminishing returns. Going down the rabbit hole of perfecting your food photography and videography, for example, means something else will suffer, without any further benefit to your web traffic or reader engagement. 

The trick is to learn when your skills are good enough. Because blog readers seem to accept and even expect a certain level of amateurism, I share work I’ve produced even as I build competency. Once I reach the point where I can enjoy and learn from my own content, and find it pleasant, I move on. That’s usually where the presentation is beautiful enough for readers to enjoy. They can still imagine themselves creating a dish that looks a lot like the one in the photo or video, but it’s still beautiful enough to aspire to.

There are always areas where I could improve, but I resist the urge by turning to another aspect or project. When I started in 2009, I was truly awful at food photography, but we all were. Yes, the threshold of minimum competency in photography on the Internet has increased over time. Now, after blogging for more than a decade, I take passable photos. If you aren’t there yet, hire someone else to do it until you reach an acceptable skill level. 

2. You do need a working knowledge of every aspect of your work, though.

Enough, at least, to help you hire the right people for the job. I learned that principle many years ago from The E Myth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber. Do the work yourself, no matter how menial, and decide upon the minimum degree of competency you’re willing to accept for that task.

Easy No Rise Gluten Free Bagels. (Photo courtesy of Nicole Hunn.)

This principle breaks down as the tasks become more complex, like with website design and coding. But I’ve achieved enough competence in even those areas to ask educated, intelligent questions of my coder. That way, I ensure that I get what I want, and I’m more likely to want what’s actually possible.

3. Write at the intersection of what interests you and what your readers want to read.

Many food bloggers say that they began their websites as a way to share their lives and talents with far-away friends and family. I’ve always thought of my blog as a service, not a journal. I never had to shift perspective to make it a business that serves my readers. 

If you’re having trouble understanding who your readers are, you may have things backwards. First, define your intended audience. Then, serve them. It’s analagous to “write what you know.” Create content you’re skilled at for people who will benefit. Then evaluate your success on a regular basis. 

The first indicator of whether your readers find your content engaging is likely to be their level of engagement when you share it on instant-feedback social media, like Facebook or Instagram. Once the content has aged, your website analytics (viewed through free tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, paid tools like SEM Rush, and through the analytics of slow-burn social media like Pinterest) can help you gauge success. Tweak, and repeat.  

4. Be accessible, but your life is still your own.

Readers sometimes feel raw and reactive when they’re new to gluten-free baking. They can be demanding of my time and attention. They’re having a hard time, and I want to help. But that’s a very high-touch, private service for a single individual. I’ve learned that I simply can’t sustain it.

If you’re providing so much personal feedback to your readers that you’re resentful, it’s time to course-correct. Only take on tasks you can continue for the life of your blog. For example, I have an email address that I share on my Contact page. My assistant responds to emails there, and only loops me in when she’s not sure how to respond.

I do respond personally to all emails I receive in response to a weekly email to readers. I also respond personally to each question asked in a comment on the blog, because that content remains visible to all readers as a permanent part of the blog. 

Another example of accessibility is Instagram Stories. I don’t want to feel pressured to do them, as it’s not my nature. I’ve never once taken selfies, much less published them. And I don’t want to invade my children’s privacy. So I don’t do Instagram Stories, even though it might be a business mistake. 

5. Diversify your income as best you can, but don’t do things that make you uncomfortable.

Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake Donuts. (Photo courtesy of Nicole Hunn.)

That’s because you won’t do them well and your discomfort will come through in the execution. 

For example, I hardly ever do sponsored posts. As a consumer of web content, I don’t mind sponsored content when it’s organic and well-produced. But I just don’t enjoy doing the work. I also find that the return on investment of my time is too low. I can make more money, over time, by continuing to create more of my own content. 

Each of these lessons I learned the hard way. But these are just some common-sense guidelines that I wish I had learned more easily. So use your previous life experience to guide you as you create content, treat your readers with respect but don’t forget to take care of yourself, and work hard. 

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Nicole Hunn is the author of the Gluten Free on a Shoestring food blog and cookbook series, which has been featured in the New York Times and MSN Money. Her work has appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, Parents magazine, Parade magazine, and Epicurious. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, three children, three dogs, and two cats. 

 (Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.)

The post How I Kept My Sanity Blogging For Over a Decade appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

An Ireland Writing Workshop and Food Tour in October 2020

I’m thrilled to announce a new event: a four-day writing workshop and food tour in West Cork, Ireland in October, 2020.

West Cork leads Ireland in artisan food production. The BBC called it the “food capital of Ireland,” and the Irish Times named the area the “top foodie destination” in the country. In 2017, West Cork was named the Restaurants Association of Ireland’s No. 1 Foodie Destination. What better place to hold a food writing workshop and tour, right?

For this event I’ll partner with Kate Ryan, a food writer and food tour guide who lives and works in West Cork. In the morning you’ll get instruction from me on such topics as  first-person essays and the power of a strong voice. In the afternoons we’ll have writing workshops inspired by the sights and tastes of the day. 

Seafood is a focus in West Cork, due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean. Here are fresh oysters with a seaweed and rhubarb reduction.

With Kate you’ll learn about the farms, artisan produce and top restaurants (including a Michelin-starred one). Kate, a member of the Irish Food Writing Guild, wrote the Artisan Food Guide, described as the Bible of West Cork food. 

Here’s more about our Irish writing workshop and food tour:

Name: Food With a Story to Tell

Date: October 8-11, 2020

Where: The Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery, West Cork, Republic of Ireland

Price: €1300 until March 31, 2020, €1500 after March 31, 2020

Price: Limit of 15 participants

In addition to my daily writing instruction and workshops, and a private consultation with both me and Kate, the event includes:

A private dinner on our first evening, complete with a drinks pairing
A visit to a dairy farm with an orchard and beehives, where we will enjoy lunch made with produce and artisan foods from the farm
Dinner in a local restaurant that regularly wins plaudits for its hyper-local food ethos and minimal waste
A visit to one of the greatest of all Irish food producers for a private tour of its award-winning cheese and charcuterie production, organic vegetables, drinks and knife-making, with a smorgasbord lunch
Dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant where head chef Rob Krawczyk takes us on a seasonal culinary journey with a multiple-course tasting menu.

A double room at our host hotel in the town of Rosscarbery. Many rooms feature an ocean view and tons of natural light.

Not included in the event fee are accommodation and your personal travel costs. The town of Rosscarbery, our base, is about an hour’s drive from Shannon Airport. Our family-run hotel, the Celtic Ross, has a pool, or you can walk along the beach and enjoy a view of the Atlantic Ocean. Prices are extremely reasonable: €65-85 per person with breakfast, based on single or double occupancy. 

How you’ll dine at our Irish workshop

A cheeseboard offered by a master Irish cheesemaker at Gubbeen Farm & Smokehouse, one of the artisan farms we’ll visit on our tour.

As always at my workshops, my co-hosts make sure we dine extremely well on local, seasonal foods. If you stay in the retreat hotel, expect a robust breakfast. You’ll find  meats and cheeses, comforting bowls of warming Irish oatmeal and locally smoked fish. There’s a traditional cooked breakfast of local bacon, sausages, and black and white pudding with all the trimmings. Lunch takes place on artisan farms, with freshly-picked produce, smoked foods, cheeses and charcuterie; and dinners will be at restaurants known for their expertly-crafted dishes, including a meal at Restaurant Chestnut, a Michelin award winner.

There’s a plan to visit hostelries  and music houses one night in the tiny town of Ballydehob. And one of the tours features a famous knifemaker whose products are highly coveted. 

Kate is reaching out to food writers and bloggers in the UK, and we hope they will join us. We have done our best to make the price reasonable to entice you. We can take only 15 people for this intimate workshop, so please book now to avoid disappointment. I know it seems far away, but you’ll get our Early Bird pricing by booking early.

So for now I’ll just say “Feicfidh mé go luath thú,” or see you soon in Ireland.

* * *

You might also like:

More about the food scene: 5 Reasons Cork Tastes Amazing
Years ago I went to Ireland for an unforgettable series of workshops and events

The post An Ireland Writing Workshop and Food Tour in October 2020 appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

7 Ways to Deal with Negative Feedback on Your Writing

Negative feedback on your writing is hard, even when someone delivers it with sensitivity. I got negative feedback regularly from my writing group, but it was rarely as bad as it sounds.

Most of the time, the members were complimentary. When I got negative feedback, I tried to see it from their point of view. Because sometimes I get so wrapped up in my topic that I forget that readers are not as excited.

My first response is always the same, though. I try to keep it in my head: “It’s so obvious!” I shriek to myself. “Why don’t you get it?”

But these readers are just responding to what they saw on the page. They don’t know what’s in my head, or what I was intending. That’s why they didn’t get it. I wasn’t clear enough, or maybe not entertaining enough.

There’s anxiety involved with showing someone your work, of course. You’re vulnerable. You don’t want to hear anything painful. It’s one of the hardest parts about being a writer, but also the most worthwhile.

So seek out negative feedback. You need to hear that your work is not perfect, because perfection is unattainable anyway. And you’ll be a better writer for it. Because writing is mostly rewriting, and feedback is a gift: it helps you get to a better next draft.

Here are 7 ways to deal with negative feedback:
1. Only show your work to someone you trust.

Be careful about this. Some people are competitive, envious or harsh in their feedback. No one needs that. Start with a small piece of writing and see if you get a constructive response.

2. Try to get verbal feedback, and listen.

Verbal comments can be better because we miss so many clues in written feedback. Email and edits may have no emotion or judgement, but it’s easy to interpret otherwise. If the person is in front of you, you get their non-verbal clues as well.

Even in person,  I get anxious and I want to interrupt and explain. But if possible, keep quiet and take in the negative feedback.

3. Don’t take it personally.

Years ago I got harsh feedback on a book proposal, and I took it as failure. I stopped writing for years, other than on this blog. It took so long to climb out from a bruised ego. I never want to go through that again!

There’s a difference between criticism of you and a criticism of your writing. Try not to decide it’s the former, like I did. 

4. Distance yourself and don’t respond.

Yes it’s your baby, and you’ve worked hard on it. I’ve found that if I wait a while to show my work to someone, I feel somewhat separated from it. It’s easier to tolerate the negative feedback.

Try not to make a face like this when someone gives you negative feedback. (Photo by Fuyong Ha on Unsplash.)

The best response is short. Simply say “thank you.” That’s all, unless you can also manage to smile.

5. Evaluate the criticism with honesty.

Is what your reader says true and useful? That kind of feedback is golden. This is why you showed it to them in the first place, right? 

Occasionally people have weird ideas about your work and how to fix it. You can just thank them and tell them you’ll think about their edits. It’s okay to decide you’re not going to use what they say.

6. Don’t go in with a swelled head.

If you think you’re work is a masterpiece, and you’re just looking for confirmation, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. 

Try to look at your work as something with potential. That way it makes sense to show it, because there’s room for improvement. 

If you only asked your mother and friends who love you, and they can’t bear to tell you anything that might hurt your feelings, that’s not going to work either.

7. Use it as an opportunity. Don’t give up.

The goal of criticism is to give you good information for your next draft. I like the idea that my next piece of writing will be clearer, brighter and better organized. It still stings when people don’t like my work, but I’m better now at harnessing their negative feedback to improve my writing.

So acknowledge that someone gave you a heartfelt opinion, and maybe it was hard for them to do so. Delivering bad news is never easy.

I’ll leave you with a thought about hearing feedback. Often people tell me positive stuff: that they loved it and they thought it was beautifully written. I tend to discount those comments. It’s good to remember the positive feedback too, and bask in it a little.

* * *

How do you deal with negative feedback? Tell me. Are you comfortable giving it?

The post 7 Ways to Deal with Negative Feedback on Your Writing appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

How to Find Inspiration in Recipe Development

A guest post by Kathryn Pauline 

“Do you ever worry you’ll run out of ideas?” was one of the most stressful things people asked me about blogging when I first started. Now that I’ve been doing recipe development for  years, I have developed over 200 recipes that I love. That anxiety has more or less gone away.

Fortunately, it’s actually pretty easy to set yourself up for creative success with recipe development, and to make sure that your success is meaningful and has a positive effect on the recipe writing community.

Here are 5 tips to help you find inspiration in recipe development:
1. Keep a big list of good and bad recipe ideas on hand.

Most creative people will tell you that the secret to generating a decent number of good ideas is generating a ridiculous number of bad ones. I keep a spreadsheet of all my ideas for future blog posts, and each one gets promoted or demoted as I work on it. 

Only the really good ones make it to the blog. But the bad ones are important in their own behind-the-scenes way. About 50% of my initial ideas are absolutely awful, 40% of them are pretty good but need some serious revision, and 10% are actual fully formed good ideas.

2. Find inspiration in what doesn’t work.

It doesn’t matter how many bad ideas you come up with, as long as you don’t thoughtlessly chase after them, without ever identifying the ones worth pursuing.

When I first started recipe developing, I spent too much time (and energy, and ingredients) in the kitchen just experimenting and hoping something would gel. Eventually something would. But success was always hard-won. While I learned so much, it was honestly mostly exhausting and stressful.

Beating yourself up over bad ideas, while sometimes inevitable, is never productive. When something sucks, be proud of yourself for knowing it. Figure out why it sucked, and then move on. Maybe you try again the next day or next year, and maybe you scrap the idea forever.

Now, what to do with the long list of bad ideas? Use it for inspiration! There’s always a reason you thought of it to begin with. Sometimes reading over my list of bad ideas inspires another better idea that I never would have had otherwise.

3. Plan ahead to help your recipe development stay creative.

Whenever bloggers ask me for advice about posting consistently, I feel like my advice comes across as completely unattainable, as if it requires a crazy amount of planning.

My Cardamom Rose Gingerbread Cake. It is loosely adapted from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. There was no cardamom or rose in that recipe. I also subbed buttermilk for coffee, left out a couple of flavorings, and changed the frosting and decorations.

I suggest they get a few posts ready in advance. Doing so takes the pressure off. Without this buffer, when a recipe goes wrong, I end up vacillating between wishful thinking (“I guess this is good enough to post, because I need something to post.”) and self-loathing (“Everything I do is terrible, and I’ll never have another good idea ever again.”). Mindlessly hating yourself is neither self-reflective nor productive, but of course, neither is thinking everything you do is brilliant.

By regularly working a little bit in the future, I have a little more objectivity when assessing my work. If I’ve planned ahead, when recipe development goes wrong, I can take a step back, acknowledge it, and learn from it. All without beating myself up.

4. Take inspiration from others, and give more credit than you think.

While recognizing your own contribution is important to your growth as a recipe developer, it’s also okay to find inspiration in other people’s recipes. I find a lot of comfort in the idea that we can all inspire each other, and that I’m not just doing this by myself.

So actively take inspiration and actively give credit. David Lebovitz wrote a wonderful article about recipe attribution a few years back. The bottom line? You can legally get away with a lot, but if someone else inspired your recipe, give them the credit. And if you adapted or borrowed someone else’s recipe, attribution is crucial.

5. Use this flow chart to find inspiration and develop recipes. 

When you have an idea for a recipe, do a search on it to find out whether someone else already had your idea. If so, you can either scratch it off your list or modify it and give credit to the originator. This flow chart might help you with the process:

So must you develop recipes 100% from scratch, without ever using anyone else’s recipe? Absolutely not! You can still put your own unique take on a recipe, and give credit appropriately.

And do you have to come up with a million brilliant ideas? Definitely not! Just learn from the challenges and keep going.

* * *

Kathryn Pauline is the creator of the Saveur magazine award-winning food blog Cardamom and Tea. She writes about her family’s traditional Assyrian food, as well as her own takes on Middle Eastern flavors, ingredients and cooking techniques. 

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University Acquires Papers of Cookbook Author Nathalie Dupree

Are you a collector of food memorabililia and person of some consequence? Good. Maybe a university that aquires papers will be interested in your collection.

Nathalie Dupree, the esteemed author of 13 cookbooks and the host of more than 300 cooking shows for The Food Network, PBS and The Learning Channel, sold hers recently. The University of South Carolina, The Libraries, which acquires papers, bought them.

It’s different than donating your cookbook collection or other items. Several people in our food world have done that, including Jacqueline Newman’s 4000 Chinese cookbooks. 

And while none of us has had Nathalie’s impact on the world of cooking, some of us might be wondering what to do with all our clippings, cookbook collections, menus, and other memorablia. 

Here’s how a university acquires papers, and what was involved in Nathalie Dupree’s case: 
Q. How did this sale occur?

A. I was Pat Conroy’s cooking teacher and he had written about me in Chapter 1 of his cookbook. The university had purchased his papers for $1 million. 

So when Pat sold his papers, I spoke to a friend, Cliff Graubart, who had kept all of Pat’s papers intact: all his handwritten books and journals. He took care of them and kept them in a moisture-free place. When Pat was dying and the university came forward, they wanted his notebooks.

Q. Did Cliff know what you had?

A. At one point Cliff lived above me. I was going on a trip and I didn’t want to keep my notebooks in the house. I didn’t want anyone reading them. So I put them in a suitcase and asked him to put them in the back of his car until I got back. A few weeks later he didn’t remember and took a screwdriver to the suitcase and saw my notebooks. So when the university procured Pat’s papers, Cliff approached them about the fact that I had all of these notebooks.

Q. What exactly is in “papers?”

A. Journals, menus, photographs of food, manuscripts of cookbooks, notes written on recipes for when I’m testing recipes. notes from different organizations I’ve been part of, and minutes. I have journals going back all the way to the founding of IACP. Articles from food magazines. Reference materials.

An accountant said if I wrote down the meals in a restaurant, it was deductable as research. So I started doing so in journals and notebooks. In restaurants, I made diagrams of how the food was arranged on the plate, and what was on the plate. Then that information became valuable to me for other reasons. I refered to it when I was writing a book to see what the dish was – was it a restaurant dish or a home dish, and how popular was it? I wrote down who I was with, what we ate, and I stole menus with abandon during the era of beautiful menus. Particularly during the 3-star era in France. I wanted the menus to have a nice home.

They took the masters of my TV shows too.

These collections are important for posterity. My papers will help define when Southern food became important, and help define the changes and influences. And they will be preserved.

Q. How many boxes did you have?

A. One hundred, by the time we were through.

Q. Wow. Did you have to get everything together?

Cliff organized my papers and numbered things. He received a commission from The Libraries, and negotiated the procurement of Pat’s papers and mine. He owned a bookstore and I introduced him to Cynthia Graubart, my co-author, whom he married.

Q. What will the university library do with all those boxes?

A. They catalog and digitize the contents. Eventually they’ll be available to anyone who wants to do research. 

Q. Do you feel any sense of loss?

A. Oh yes. I really want to look at those journals, and I want to have them here in my bedroom to look up what it was like to go to a 3-star or country restaurant, or what someone looked like. But I don’t want them to go up in a fire or have my stepchildren toss them because they don’t know what to do with them.

Q. What if you want to see something that’s in them?

I can go anytime.

But I’m collecting papers all the time! They come from time to time to unearth me. They drag boxes out and they find more boxes and more articles.

Q. Was it hard to see them go?

Yeah, like anything, like a child off to college. I’m 80 years old! What’s going to happen to this stuff? Now I know.

Q. How does someone figure out the right place for their papers?

A. You have to do your footwork, which means you have to figure out who the people are who are interested in what you’re doing. You might find out about an organization and volunteer there or do a talk,. If the organization has money or a donor, they might aquire papers, or use your collection to raise money to pay for someone to digitize it.

It’s our time now to make sure that the information for the time we have lived in is living on after us. And to make universities aware of the importance of the food culture. Look at the Smithsonian! Julia was wonderful, but she cannot be the only one who leaves a legacy about food in this century.

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You might also like:

Culinary Maven Nathalie Dupree Writes About Sexual Assault
Barbara Haber brought books and cooks to Schlesinger Library

(This post includes an affiliate link.)

The post University Acquires Papers of Cookbook Author Nathalie Dupree appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

5 Tips for Hosting a Food Blogging Retreat

A guest post by Jasmine Lukuku

A few years ago, I felt restless about blogging. I’d poured a lot of time into developing a niche community for Black Food Bloggers Club on Facebook. The group had grown organically, but I was eager to connect with members face-to-face at a blogging retreat.

After polling the group to gauge interest, I decided to host a blogging retreat in New Orleans. We would spend mornings improving our blogging skills and evenings exploring the city. I wanted professional development with a healthy dose of fun.

I’d never planned a retreat before, but I knew I could pull it off. I set a personal goal of 15 attendees. That was the size of group I felt I could comfortably manage as a solo organizer.

I believe that once you get the right group of people together with a well-crafted itinerary, everyone will have a good time. And we had an amazing time. Attendees learned valuable blogging skills while building real-life friendships with their blogging peers. I fell short of my attendance goals due to a couple of last minute cancellations. But I secured an event sponsor to help offset the costs.

The blogging retreat was exactly what I needed to feel reconnected to my work and my online community.

If you want to host your own niche food blogging retreat, here are 5 tips for a successful event:
1. Give yourself more time than you think you need.

A great retreat that must be planned well in advance. Your dream hotel might fill up if you don’t put a deposit down in advance. That perfect guest speaker might book another gig. That ideal corporate partner might run out of sponsorship dollars. Avoid disappointment by giving yourself plenty of runway.

The earlier you book your hotels, venues, caterers, speakers and other vendors — the more room you have to negotiate fees. Plus, your attendees will need time to save for the trip, secure affordable flights and book vacation days with their employers. They will appreciate the long lead time.

I recommend 6-9 months for smaller, local or domestic retreats. If your event is large, or requires international travel, give yourself 9-12 months.

2. Connect with the local tourism boards and businesses that are aligned with your vision.

Local tourism boards are a gold mine of information and resources for the retreat organizer. If you’ve never been to the city where you are hosting your retreat, they can help you navigate the city and make sure you get the most out of your stay.

When I decided to host the blogging retreat in New Orleans, my first step was to reach out to the city’s official tourism and convention bureau. The bureau connected me directly with a selection of hotels suitable for a small group. I secured an affordable group rate at a stylish hotel without having to spend hours researching options.

Welcome gifts and program for the first Black Food Bloggers Club retreat in New Orleans.

Local tourism boards can connect you with local businesses and institutions aligned with your retreat vision and values. I also connected with local businesses to get welcome gifts for attendees. Some companies offered free product for gift bags, while others offered group discounts on events. It all helped me keep costs down while adding value to the retreat.

3. Give attendees plenty of downtime.

As you plan your itinerary, you will be tempted to fill every hour of the day with irresistible activities. This is a mistake. A well-crafted itinerary should include plenty of down time. Some people will want to explore the city on their own, others may want to nap or spend some quiet time at the pool. Give people space to recharge between activities.

I scheduled my retreat days so that every day had a 2-hour break in the middle. This was enough time for people to grab lunch and refresh before our afternoon workshops and events. I also left the evenings unscripted to leave room for spontaneity. It is in these unplanned hours that magic happens and attendees form authentic connections.

4. Factor in inclusivity and accessibility.

Every person who attends your retreat deserves to be treated with respect. This is a non-negotiable rule that you and all of your attendees should acknowledge BEFORE they attend the event.

I recommend that you ask all your attendees to agree to a code of conduct when they register. This doesn’t have to be a long, formal contract. It can be a simple statement on your event webpage that says something like this: “I understand that this is an inclusive event with a diverse group of attendees. I agree to treat all attendees with respect.”

Lead by example by reaching out to your attendees and asking them if they need any special accommodation. Some attendees may have dietary restrictions, while others may need special seating or help with mobility issues. Make sure that your itinerary considers these needs.

Also consider financial accessibility. Offering a needs-based scholarship to one or more attendees is a great way to practice inclusivity. Even partial scholarships or reduced registration fees can help. Try to bake this right into your planned event budget.

5. Under promise and over deliver. Don’t end up like Fyre Fest!

Do you remember Fyre Fest? The organizers promised luxury accommodations, world-class entertainment and lavish meals. The attendees ended up fighting over tents, toilet paper, and plain cheese sandwiches.

Fyre Fest is an extreme example of what happens when organizers promises more than they can deliver. You can avoid this mistake by keeping it real.

Be honest about the scale of your retreat in all of your promotional materials. You don’t have to outline every detail of the event in advance but you can provide a sample itinerary of each day’s activities. Specify which meals and events are included with the registration fee. This information allows attendees to budget and plan for extracurricular activities during the trip.

An outing to Joy the Baker’s workshop space, the Bakehouse, where she demonstrated her cake design process and photo stying for her popular Drake on Cake Instagram page.

When you write your sample itinerary, be cautious about dropping names or specific details that you haven’t locked down. Don’t advertise those amazing speaker you have lined up until you are 100% sure they will be there.

If this is your first event, don’t be afraid to go small. A cozy group of bloggers exploring a city together can be just as rewarding as a blowout conference event. You can always increase your attendance and offerings in the years to come.

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 Jasmine Lukuku is a brand strategist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is co-owner of RXVP, a creative agency that works with small and mid-size businesses in the food, lifestyle and non-profit sectors. She is also a member of the Food Blogger Pro team where she works as an affiliate program manager and graphic designer. In 2017, she founded the Black Food Bloggers Club to help amplify underrepresented voices.

The post 5 Tips for Hosting a Food Blogging Retreat appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

My Blog About Food Writing Turns 10 (and How Blogging has Changed)

At the first-ever BlogHer conference in 2009, I announced that I had just started my blog about food writing. At the time I was on a panel, sandwiched between Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman; and Susan Russo of Food Blogga.

You might know what happened to these two since then: Drummond went on to the Food Network and became an author and entrepreneur (even then, she was a big star because of her blogs); and sadly, Russo passed away. 

And me…I’m still here, enjoying my blog about food writing. Oh, and during this time I co-wrote two cookbooks; wrote two more editions of my how-to book, Will Write for Food; won some national awards for a Lucky Peach essay; and taught food writing around the world. I still love hearing from readers, some of whom have followed me for years. And I’m thankful for all the support. 

Why I began a blog about food writing

I started this blog about food writing because I thought I had to. Procrastinating kept me at bay for at least two years. I knew it was the best way to extend the advice in Will Write for Food, and keep in touch with readers about trends and careers. But I felt intimidated by the technology and worried about the time sink. 

My first real post was to hand out all the emails of editors at Saveur. Later I interviewed the editor. He gave out his email address. Soon I got an email from Helen Rosner, who was then Saveur’s web editor. She asked if I could remove the top editor’s address because pitches from my readers had “inundated” his email! That was a good sign that I had game.

For the first two years, I blogged twice a week and had a blast. I wrote mostly short posts. And I liked to be controversial (as my husband calls it), which you can see with these posts:

Here’s what I Ate Today. Does Anyone Care?
Ajusting a Recipe Doesn’t Make it Yours (250 comments)
Is Food Blogging Too Much Work? (237 comments)

How Blogging Has Changed

1. Comments have slowed to a crawl. If you look at those posts, what’s shocking is not the subject but the number of comments. Readers not only commented but many wrote long answers. It was before there were so many kinds of social channels and Facebook groups where we can all chat with each other — sometimes endlessly, it seems. And it was before mainstream websites like Eater and Taste published pieces similar to mine, about food writing trends or writing recipes. (I now include them in my newsletter, so it’s all good). 

2. Some big bloggers stopped. Today many of the food bloggers of that era have stopped blogging or slowed way down. Shauna James Ahern of Gluten Free Girl and Molly Wienberg of Orangette are writing books. Clotilde Dusloulier of Chocolate & Zucchini is now a coach. Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes sold her business. So the message is that you don’t have to keep writing a blog forever. However, David Lebovitz is still killing it, and Kaylin Denny keeps going, as do other bloggers from the early days.

Later I slowed to one blog post per week and accepted guest posts from people whom I thought could offer insider tips and information. Now I’m down to two posts per month. I’m busy building my newsletter, which has grown steadily. 

3. Blogs have become just one way to communicate with readers. Now we have social media, YouTube, and Pinterest. It’s our job to grow our audience with them all — a big challenge. Many bloggers have staffs and assistants to help with posting, photography, answering email and other chores. But for most food bloggers, it’s still a hobby and a one-person (mostly female) show.

As for me, my blog about food writing continues to be a place where I can explore the issues that face us all as writers and communicators. Thank you for joining me over the years! I’m grateful you’re still here.

And what did I miss about how blogging — food or otherwise — has changed in the past 10 years? Let me know. 

(This post contains an affiliate link.)

The post My Blog About Food Writing Turns 10 (and How Blogging has Changed) appeared first on Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food.

A Splendid Time at the Oxford Food Symposium

For years I’ve wanted to go to England’s Oxford Food Symposium. Finally doing so gave me a chance to meet and hear from some of the great minds in food writing who don’t come to American conferences. A few observations: 

The People

Me with Claudia Roden, who has written close to 20 cookbooks about the Middle East and Mediterranean food. She lives in London and is president of the Symposium.

I met some of my heroes and luminaries: Claudia Roden attended as the president of the symposium. Jill Norman, editor of English cookbook authors Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson was there, as was cookbook author Fuschia Dunlop.

A few American luminaries were also speakers or in the spotlight. Nutritionist Marion Nestle gave a keynote, and author Harold McGee gave out awards. Journalist and culinary historian Laura Shapiro spoke about gender and power and chaired a section on feminism. 

Canadian cookbook author Naomi Duigud chaired sessions on culinary symbolism, and I met many other Canadians. 

Add to this an enthusiastic crowd of food historians, professors, anthropologists, sociologists, independent scholars, and policy wonks. Not to mention journalists, cookbook authors, freelance writers, researchers, students and editors.

The Topics

Speaking at the Food Symposium works differently than other conferences I’ve attended. If you want to present, you write a paper. Then a committee picks the papers they want presented at the conference. 

The theme was “food and power.” It was pretty heady stuff. Authors presented  around themes such as appropriation, gastrodiplomacy, propaganda and imprisonment. I went to talks on hunger, social justice, feminism, and incarceration. Some of it was fun, some dark, but all of it made me think and taught me something new.

A Wiki-editathon at the beginning of the Food Symposium focused mostly on food and women. Organizer Roberta Wedge said that Wikipedia has 6 million articles written by volunteers who are overwhelmingly men. The ratio of pages about chefs (mostly men) to cooks (mostly women) is 4 to 1. A group worked on adding more women food writers to the mix. 

Between session, a bookstore on the premises made it easy to purchase British books that are harder to find–or more expensive–in the U.S. I bought too many.

The Food

Menus for the meals were beautifully produced, as posters and pieces of art.

I’ve never been to a conference where the attendees themselves presided over some of the meals. Artists created the most beautiful menus, each one to be kept as a memento.

On Friday night of the Food Symposium we enjoyed the foods of Puebla, Mexico. There were grasshoppers, chilies, and complimentary bottles of mescal. Members of the Hubb Community Kitchen in London, which formed after the Grenfell Tower fire, prepared lunch Saturday. Their fare included Yemeni bread with a spicy peanut dip, eggplant masala and rose petal-scented fruit salad with Indian shortbread. That evening featured a parade of Greek dishes such as snails, lamb and smoked mackerel. Lunch Sunday showcased cheeses and breads from London’s celebrated Borough Market.

An appetizer of fried grasshoppers on guacamole on corn tortillas, for the dinner on the foods of Puebla, Mexico. They didn’t have a particular taste — mostly crispiness. 

The Next One

Lots of first-timers attended the Food Symposium this year, and younger people too. This pleased the organizers, who are getting older. So maybe it’s worth your time to join them next year. The topic is “herbs and spices” for the 2020 Oxford Food Symposium, which takes place July 10 – 12. 

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15 Great Links for Food Writers and Bloggers

It’s hard to keep up with all the great links that speak to our lives as writers, bloggers, food lovers and cooks. 

So I do it for you. I scour social media, Facebook groups, newsletters and other media to find what  interests me and I hope by extension, you. Usually I put them in my twice monthly newsletter, but if you haven’t subscribed yet, today I’m putting them in my blog so you can see what you’re missing.

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read all the links. Maybe one or two will inspire you, you’ll find them relatable, they’ll give you a business or book idea, or you’ll look at something in a new way. If you like what you see, please subscribe.

You will see testimonials from fans, including David Lebovitz, who named it one of his favorite newsletters. Once you sign up and confirm you subscription, you’ll receive a copy of my free e-book, “The 15 Biggest Errors to Avoid When Writing Recipes.”

And now, here are 15 great links: 

Roasting a Chicken Like Laurie Colwin, in Memoriam. What the beloved author Laurie Colwin taught the author, over the years.
Cookbook author Grace Young is trying something new: Comedy. Watch her short Wok Therapy video.
The Queen of Eating Shellfish Online. I don’t know if you can read this story due to the paywall, but Bethany Gaskin has made over $1 million by eating for viewers. If not, watch her on YouTube. 
21 New and Noteworthy Food and Farming Books to Read This Summer. Need something new for your beach read?
Alice Feiring On Satire And Misogyny In The Wine Industry. Yep, it happens there too.
Restaurant Reviewing Needs a Revamp. Chef and author Ed Lee discusses the challenges of writing about foods we don’t really know. It inspired a huge dialogue on Twitter. 
I Tried Cooking Like An Instagram Food Blogger And Holy Crap I Learned So Much. Yes, we’ve all been there, not just with blogs but with cookbooks and magazine photos that don’t look like what me made. And this is a fun read.
And now please continue with The Instagram Aesthetic Is Over, where the author declares that Instagrammers are trying to be “messier and more unfiltered” so their photos will look more realistic. Really? 
Time To Ditch Mailchimp? Some big changes may affect whether you continue using this service. (P.S. My newsletter comes from MadMimi and they did not pay me to include this link.)
How Nigella Lawson and Ina Garten Helped Me Love My Fat, Queer Self. A love letter to women who don’t apologize for loving to eat.
Scribner to Reissue ‘Joy of Cooking’. Well of course they are, since it’s one of the top selling cookbooks of all time.
Readers Still Prefer Physical Books. Good news for those of us who are book authors.
The Poet-Explorer: An Interview with Ligaya Mishan. A revealing interview with one of my favorite food writers, who describes her search for le mot juste.
How Self-Published Cookbooks Defy Trends and Reward Cooks and Readers (with 10 Examples). I love that the Kitchen Arts & Letters bookstore wants to sell self-published books. Most don’t.
Finally, as vacation season continues, there’s Will Customs Agents Take Your Cheese? Janet Fletcher ponders your chances.

LIke what you see? Go sign up! Thank you. 

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How I Write High-Performing Recipes for Food52.com

A guest post by Emma Laperruque

In the year and a half since I joined the Food52 staff as a writer and recipe developer, I’ve developed over 200 recipes — including some high-performing recipes. Many are for my column, Big Little Recipes, which is all about big flavor and little ingredient lists. The rest are ad hoc for the site. While this number is a small drop in our bucket of almost 50,000 recipes, every one taught me something about how to write a high-performing recipe in the digital age.

Before working at Food52, I worked a lot of odd jobs, often in the same day, including line cook, baker, magazine columnist, newspaper restaurant critic, and cooking instructor. It was exciting and exhausting and just the sort of mishmash-education that readied me to join an editorial staff.

Here are five lessons I keep coming back to for creating high-performing recipes:
1. Every recipe needs a reason.

When I started a food blog in college, my ideation process went something like: Do I want to eat this? Yes. Perfect! At Food52, I need something more substantial. Sometimes my idea is SEO-related. Other times, it’s about our content (say, are we missing a cornstarch-based ice cream recipe?). Other times, it’s more personal.

A couple examples: We published this meatloaf recipe because meatloaf recipes are in-demand, easy recipes are even more in-demand, and meatloaf ingredient lists are usually long, which makes this the perfect candidate for a Big Little Recipe. We published this eggplant spread  recipe for totally different reasons. Search traffic? Basically none. But the recipe goes back generations in my family—and I wrote it for our weekly column, My Family Recipe.

2. You are not your audience.

Back to that meatloaf recipe for a minute. Between you and me, I’m not a meatloaf person. But my editor and I felt like an easy meatloaf recipe was a good fit for my weekly cooking column, and we anticipated that it would be a high-performing recipe as well.

A meatloaf recipe was a big hit for Emma’s Big Little Recipes column because of a simplified ingredient list, and because meatloaf is always in demand with Food52 readers. (Bobbi Lin for Food52.)

While food writing is increasingly personal, it doesn’t always have to be (and, honestly, it shouldn’t be). Food52’s readers might find my life interesting in bits and pieces, but they aren’t coming to Food52 for me. They’re coming to Food52 for recipes. It’s my job to figure out what they’re hoping for—and have it ready as soon as they arrive.

3. Basics are your friend.

Recipe developers always want to put their own spin on something and I’m no different. I add miso to ranch dressing for its salty-umami flavor. I skip butter in chocolate chip cookies (gasp!) because tahini works just as well.

But not everything needs a creative twist. When someone Googles ranch dressing or chocolate chip cookies, they’re usually looking for just that. I used to find this—what’s a nice way to put it?—boring. But now I look at it as a challenge: How can I develop the best version of a classic? How can I create the most flavor with the fewest steps? How can I write a recipe that most home cooks can successfully execute? When I look at basics from this perspective, they become exciting in their own right.

4. Chicken, pasta, eggs, and cookies (almost) always do well.

I’d like to think the longer I work for Food52, the better I get at working for Food52. The same is true if you’re running your own blog or freelancing for a repeat client. The more familiar you are with what your editors and audience want, the smarter the content you’ll produce.

Take these three consistently high-performing recipes for us: chicken, pasta, and cookies. It’s a running joke at our weekly traffic meetings. Which is why I know to pitch ideas like a carbonara frittata (eggs and pasta!) or cheater’s chicken schnitzel (a fuss-free take on a classic). I can take a topic that I know resonates with our readers and put my own spin on it.

5. If you hit a wall mid-development, stop developing.

On a good day, the next step in a recipe’s development is clear: needs more salt, needs more time in the oven, needs something acidic — you get the drill.

But sometimes, I have no idea what to do. Say, the cream sauce was too watery in this green bean casserole. Or the olive oil crust tasted burnt in these lemon bars. Or the crust kept falling off this latke chicken.

Whatever the problem, the solution always turns out to be the same: Stop. Put aside the project for however long the deadline allows (be it a couple days or weeks), and don’t think about it. By the time I come back to the recipe, and do another round of research, and look at it with fresh eyes, the path forward basically paves itself.

Of course, if I’ve learned anything from recipe developing for a website, it’s that digital media is always changing. What will the next 200 recipes teach me? I can’t wait to find out.

* * *

Emma Laperruque is a staff writer and recipe developer at Food52 . Her weekly cooking column, Big Little Recipes , just won Best Food-Focused Column of 2019 at IACP. Before joining the Food52 team, she worked in professional kitchens as a line cook and baker, freelance wrote for local publications in North Carolina, and taught cooking classes. She now lives in Maplewood, New Jersey with her husband and their cat, Butter. Find her on Instagram at @emmalaperruque.    

(Top photo is by Ty Mecham for Food52.)

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