I finally finished hop reading the book, and I have to say, it gave me a plateful of food for thought! (Pun intended). Jacob stated in the introduction that she would be a friendly guide throughout the book, and that she has been. The book begins with a chapter titled ‘What Exactly is Food Writing?’, which I have to say is a very apt first chapter, especially for someone like me who is quite new to the scene.
The information presented in each chapter includes interviews of experts in the field of food writing, which I think, adds interactiveness to the reading experience. The list of resources; books, magazines, newspapers, etc is very valuable, and I intend to scour those titles in the online library catalog once I’m done with this post.
I hop read the book, thus not reading the chapters in consecutive order, and I completely skipped the chapter on restaurant reviewing, because of all the areas in food writing, that is the one I would be least likely to plunge in, though I do keep an open mind about this, as you never know. Nevertheless, as she mentioned in the beginning, it could be read in that manner, though it would make more sense to read it consecutively.
Writing exercises are provided at the end of each chapter, which is one aspect I love about writing books. Nevertheless, I have yet to utilize them. For someone new to the world of food writing, I have really gleaned a lot about it, and the many sub-areas in it. A book I’d recommend to anyone interested in reading up about food writing.
