mechanics of food writing lab ' indulge your senses ' with monica bhide #fbc14

Agenda Welcome

Coming to our senses

Taste – Not!

When a sense is lost

Channel your inner diva

Wrap-up and Q&A time

What we write about.. •Developing recipes for different ways to cook a turkey �

•Rounding -up summer drinks in your local area �

•Conducting taste tests of vermouth in your home �

•Interviewing a chef/sommelier on spirited (!) cooking �

•Reviewing a hot-dog stand �

•Following a famous food critic around a major city!�

• Discussing six new uses for a potato peeler �

•Following a trail though Europe to document the history of clotted

cream �

•Traveling with a group of motorcycling chefs through the Rocky

Mountains �

•Reporting on the new bacteria found in tap water or the bacteria

that lurks in kids' cafeterias �

•Debating the role of mayo in a sandwich �

•Documenting 76 finger foods for toddlers

Why MFK Fisher does it best

“The first thing I remember tasting and then wanting to taste again is the grayish-pink fuzz my

grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam. I suppose I was about four.”

Words to describe this?

Summer Serenity? Cheap Summer Thrill?

Mellow Chill?

Liquefied Summer?

Size of a bird bath?

Drink is crowned with lime?

Punctuated with lime?

Don’t use Delicious

Yummy

Sinful

Tasty

Foodie

Artisanal

Exercise - See, smell, hear, feel No taste

Just a few words you cannot use

Alkaline cheesy burnt crispy vinegary buttery bland raw ripe sour spicy hearty hot tasty

sweet bittersweet gingery overripe oily fruity fishy sugary salty luscious rotten sour spoiled

peppery mellow bitter tangy greasy delicious biting burnt creamy flavorful fruity gingery grainy

hearty hot juicy mild minty nutty oily peppery salty savory smooth spicy sugary sweet tangy

tart tasteless Tasty

The magic of Tom Sietsema?

• A bumper crop of interesting new restaurants

• Crusty veal schnitzel oozes kaymak, similar to clotted cream, with every slice; the richness of the strapping dish, bedded on mashed

potatoes, is cut with caper relish

• Rosy rib-eye massaged with Old Bay rests on a pool of sweet corn and picks up delicate crunch from grilled okra

• turnips …staged around a scarlet scoop of beet sorbet.

• the artful gin and tonics

Blind Tasting

Can you do it? Tweet like Ruth?

“Magenta morning: cherry trees in bloom. Inhaling color. Blood orange juice. Warm biscuits. Sweet melting butter. Sliced

berries.”

“Huge gray clouds, moving fast. Sun shines on far mountains. Lawn bright.

Gorgeous chiaroscuro. Black beans. White rice. Salsa. Inside echo.”

Homework – BE YOU Once a day– A new word

Kill your darlings Pretend

Once a week – A new story

Once a month – A new ingredient

Once a year – Total media silence

Every minute: watch, listen, learn and observe.

You are the storytellers of today.