Food Yumm!!

Food writing is a coveted job among culinary fanatics across the nation. I mean, who hasn’t picked up a copy ofBon Appétitor pulled up theNew York Timesfood blogs and thought,wouldn’t it be great to get to eat all the time and tell people about it—as my job?

I’ve been lucky enough to be in the business of food writing for 10 years. Currently, I work forTasting Table, a free daily email publication that delivers the best of food and drink culture to adventurous eaters across the country. I’ve worked for the company for three years, first as the Editor of the San Francisco city edition and now as Senior Editor.

My day-to-day job involves top-editing much ofthe content that our editorial staff produces—including five city editions (Miami, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles), a national edition, a spirits-focused edition, called Top Shelf, our healthy living edition, Good Taste, our Chefs’ Recipe edition, and Sous Chef Series, which focuses on up-and-coming chefs. And while it’s clearly notalleating—yes, I do a lot of hard work, too—the perks are fantastic (like getting to test amazing recipes in our New York test kitchen and eat at new restaurants on a regular basi

Work With Good People

You won’t be able to land your dream food-writing job right out of the gate, but the food industry is a huge, diverse business and there are many things you can do within it. Find companies you admire and individuals you look up to and ask them to teach you. Whether you connect with a small-scale cheesemaker with a stellar reputation, a forager with a roster of top-chef clients, or a CEO with an MBA who isstarting a food-focused startup—these personal connections are the lifeblood of the food (and writing) industry.

I was lucky to meet and work with Margo True, the food editor atSunset, when she first took the job after years working atSaveurandGourmet. She really supported me early in my career and let me do a lot of interesting stuff as an editorial assistant. My first boss out of college, Ihsan Gurdal—the owner of Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA—taught me to really appreciate food and introduced me to so many different ingredients and interesting producers. He really cared about the story behind the food, and that stuck with me.

That said, don’t work with someone solely because you want the connections. Choose people whose work you like and admire and whom you enjoy spending time with. It’s still a job, after all, and you want to get something more from it than simply a connection.

Finally, remember that food writing is a job like any other. Sure, it has its perks, but it takes hard work to get there and even harder work once you make it. But if it’s the path for you, that work is all worth it.