Food writing tips

Which would you prefer to eat? A recipe called Guava ice cream or Gulnaz’s Gorgeous Guava Glory? Here are more tips to help you name your recipes and make them more appealing to the visitors to your blog. Consider the pleasure the recipe gives and what someone might say or do while eating your dish. Imam bayaldi (a Turkish dish where aubergine is stuffed with mince) means ‘the priest fainted’ – with pleasure. Shoofly Pie is an evocative name for a pie so sweet and sticky you have to shoo the flies off it. Perhaps your carrot cake is so full of texture and flavour, your friends andRead More →

Bad restaurant reviews contain more clichés than any other genre of food writing. What is a cliché anyway? It is a phrase so familiar to your ears, you don’t hear it any more. It makes your writing stale when you want it to be fresh. ‘Glorious sunshine’ ‘Right up my street’ ‘Pretty as a picture’ Examples from food writing are: burgers have taken the capital by storm; the roasted apricots were so smooth, they just ‘melted in the mouth’. In her book Get Started in Food Writing, Kerstin Rodgers advises avoiding the following terms and expressions my companion, to refer to your friend, partner or family memberRead More →

Which would you prefer to eat? Fridge tart or Key lime pie? Good names make your recipes memorable, original and more appealing to both editors and the people who’re going to cook and eat them. Here are five tricks to help you make your recipes sound more appealing. Name it after the person who inspired it. Victoria sponge, Peach Melba. In Jack Monroe’s A Year in 120 recipes cookbook, the thrift blogger remembers holidays with Aunty Helen, the highlight of which were hot potato sandwiches. Aunty Helen’s potato sandwiches sound more exciting than potato sandwiches because there’s a story that goes with them. Isa Chandra Moskowitz called her vegan pizza Mom’s Marinara. IfRead More →