A Literary Culinary Journal
by Jonell Galloway
There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.–Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, when India was still under the British Empire.
More commonly known as “Mahatma,” he “pioneered a belief in resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, based on total nonviolence. This concept helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.”
|
|
by Simón de SwaanAll cooks, like all great artists, must have an audience worth cooking for.–André Simon
André Louis Simon (1877 – 1970), born in France but married to an English woman, was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century. He became the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years.
His most distinguished book was The History of the Wine Trade in England from Roman Times to the End of the 17th Century, in three volumes (1906, 1907 and 1909).
|
|
“Everyone knows that a plausible candidate for a wife must have kitchentuition,” says the Urban Dictionary.
“Kitchentuition” refers to someone who is a wonder in the kitchen, and has that magic touch when it comes to using knives, cutting boards and just about every other kitchen utensil, i.e. kitchen intuition.
The term “kitchentuition, not to be confused with ‘kitchen tuition,’ “is a bit sexist, but at least it’s not offensive in any other ways, like many urban dictionary terms,” says the Urban Dictionary.
|
|
by Simón de Swaan
Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cook-book cooks…–John Thorne
John Thorne is a culinary writer born in Quincy, Massachusetts, who has written a number of best-selling books on food history and culture, including The Outlaw and Pot on the Fire: Further Exploits of a Renegade Cook.
A graduate of Amherst College, he began to teach himself to cook frugally while living briefly in New York City’s Lower East Side, where he sought to become a writer of some sort as a very young man during the 1960s.
|
|
by Renu Chhabra
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.–Albert Einstein
In spring, I look forward to visiting farmers markets and produce stands. Spring vegetables are piled high in abundance everywhere — fresh, clean and inviting. Slender stalks of asparagus, colorful varieties of artichokes, vibrant radishes, and tender leaves of greens are just a few to name. In fact, produce speaks for itself. Just simple preparation and a few good ingredients are all it takes to make it shine.
Keeping simplicity in mind, I made this sandwich with fresh vegetables and mint hummus. The hummus packed with flavor and freshness of mint was good enough to complement the vegetables. Even though authentic hummus is not combined with any additional vegetables, the American version contains several of them: roasted eggplant, red pepper, sun dried tomato, and more. I decided to incorporate some mint to the original version to add a refreshing element to it. Another reason for this minty addition was my new herb pot from farmers market. Sitting at my kitchen window, it was gazing at me as if it wanted to remind me of its presence. And I couldn’t ignore the fragrant mint leaves, calling out for my attention. Adding them to the hummus gave it a light touch of color and a subtle minty hint.
|
|
|
|
For those of you who haven’t participated in live chats, here are a few basic guidelines. It’s much simpler than you might think.
If you use Tweet Chat (it can be used online without downloading), you can create columns or “streams”, as they call them by clicking on the +Add Stream button at the top left of the screen. You can then create a stream for #futurefoodwriting and @RamblingEpicure (and your Twitter handle). Any questions or replies meant for you should also come in to your own Twitter stream through the addition of your Twitter handle. You can also follow the hashtag on Tweet Chat by simply typing in the hashtag. You can set the time delay, the minimum being 5 seconds.
To summarize, if you seriously want to take part in the conversation, it is wise to have both windows open at the same time so that you won’t miss anything. There will be a lot of participants, and there are a lot of panelists, so it might be lively and fast.
To ask or reply to a question, simply send a Tweet, as usual, but make sure to include:
For example, if you want to ask here @ZesterDaily a question, it should look like this:
@ZesterDaily Is funded food reporting the only way of maintaining investigative food journalism in the future? #futurefoodwriting
As a panelist, if you’re answering a question from @JonellGalloway, from your own Twitter address, your Twitter reply should look like this:
@JonellGalloway I believe funded food reporting is only one way of dealing with the problem. #futurefoodwriting
Another important point is that you should prepare your questions ahead of time to ensure that they contain no more than 140 characters. You also risk losing track of the conversation if you haven’t done this ahead of time.
|
|
by Simón de Swaan
Worrying about calories and cholesterol takes the fun out of food.–Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, written in conjunction with written by Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.
|
|
John Birdsall has just confirmed that he will be on board as a panelist tomorrow, Friday, April 20, 2012, for our Future of Food Writing live Twitter chat, at 2 p.m. EST / 8 p.m. Paris time @RamblingEpicure #futurefoodwriting.
Birdsall is Senior Editor for the online magazine CHOW.
If you have questions prepared for him, please tweet them on @RamblingEpicure to @John_Birdsall with the hashtag #futurefoodwriting during the live chat to indicate that your question is for him.
Birdsall wrote the amazing rebuttal to Amanda Hesser’s article “Advice for Future Food Writers” on Food 52.
|
|
by Alice DeLuca
Would you like to buy a few metric tons of tomato paste? For only $786 per metric ton you may purchase a minimum of 20 metric tons in 238 kilogram drums. That’s one of the interesting business opportunities that are dropped in the email box of a food blogger these days.
Food bloggers also receive lots of offers for coupons. The scheme goes like this: if the blogger will just agree to write nice things about Company X, the company will provide coupons to offer to blog readers as enticements for them to visit, thereby driving up the blog’s popularity as measured by page visits.
Instead of money and real compensation, manufacturers and marketers offer the food writing community coupons in exchange for the virtual currency of “visits”. Using coupons of very little value, and shamelessly taking advantage of blogger vanity, the company receives “exposure” without having to spend a single honest dollar for advertising. The problem is that this currency of “visits” and coupons is coinage that the blogger cannot spend or barter for things of real value.
Also common is the “free sample” offered so the hapless food blogger will “tweet’ about the product or perhaps “like” the product on Facebook, thereby starting a viral marketing event that companies dream about. I have found entire Styrofoam containers of frozen food products shipped to my doorstep, sent by a startup company hoping I will write favorably about their product and start a stampede of customers. Few of these products have been even as tasty as hospital food. In addition, since 2009, if a blogger receives a product in exchange for a review, the Federal Trade Commission requires the blogger to disclose the gift.[i]
|
|
Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
