It has been a while since I’ve added an entry to this site, but with a new year coming, why not? It’s a good time to revisit why I started writing a food blog.
My path to food was circuitous. I studied history in graduate school and stumbled into journalism by accident: a friend introduced me to a small-town newspaper editor at a party, we hit it off and she offered me a job as a reporter. This was long enough ago that newspapers were powerful civic instruments – I was hooked. Flash forward. I worked for a small group of publications that published weekly restaurant reviews. Every week at our managers meeting, I complained about how bad they were. Predictably, my publisher announced that going forward, David would be the food editor.
Irritability was my only qualification.
It was a challenge. Used to reporting on hard news, I suddenly had to figure out how to write about the subjective flavors of a sauce and the texture of well – or badly – cooked beef. And how to maintain a consistent tone writing about a high-end bistro one week and a mom-and-pop pasta place the next.
I loved it.
Despite knowing next to nothing about food and food prep, it was a compelling exploration. Ultimately, I wanted to know more, and when I retired I went to cooking school, learning the details and techniques required to create good and interesting food. A high point of that experience? Working with a deeply knowledgeable and talented chef to create a classic French consommé as a final exam good enough to earn my chef’s toque.
The idea of this blog is to enable me to write about recipes, cook books, restaurants – anything food related that appeals to me in this time when food is gloriously global, and restaurants are even more threatened than usual.
I can’t wait to see where it goes.
Quaker Lasagna 