If you have a good appetite and a word-for-word approach, dieting may be the career choice you should consider. Not only is researching food writing one of the most enjoyable activities in freelance writing, but you will never miss the recommendations of a restaurant and food that can be free - although you may need a pair of well-fitting pants.
To be a successful freelance food writer, you will need to be able to define food well. The key to definition, at least in traditional literature, is to make deep, concrete comparisons. To find out why, ask yourself which phrase you find most appealing: “It was the most delicious shrimp I have ever eaten,” or “The finely chopped garlic clove, grilled on apple pie, had a tendency to caramelized sugar into the soft resistance of an unusual salmon file”?
The fundamental law of food writing is to make your reader wish that he or she had some of whatever delicious dish you’re writing about, to make the reader personally invested in the food. And there’s a strange quirk in the human mind: whenever we think about an object or activity, we activate the parts of our brain that turn on whenever we’re interacting with that object or engaged in that activity. In other words: if we think about throwing a baseball, the nerves in our arm twitch. Or, if we think about eating a thick steak, our stomach grumbles, and our mouth waters. When you’re writing about food, you want to activate those same parts of the brain to make your reader feel that he or she is sharing the experience of eating it. Words like “tasty,” “delicious,” or, worst of all, “really good,” won’t do anything for your reader’s emotions. Only words related to food — or words and images with strong emotional connotations — will get your readers’ mouths watering
Once you’ve written your articles, where do you market your food writing? If you live in a large city, you can write for a local newspaper or an alternative paper (i.e. the LA Weekly, the Austin Chronicle, etc.). Millions of people read these papers daily or weekly, and a good portion of those millions read the food section. When anyone in a major city needs to make restaurant reservations for a date, business dinner, party, or other social engagement, they look in the food section of the local paper for hot new restaurant reviews. Stay on top of restaurant openings and closings in your city. New restaurant openings can be your “bread and butter.” Local newspapers and online city guides are always wanting to print new restaurant reviews.
If you have a favorite local hangout that not many people know about, write an article on it. Submit your article with a proper query letter to a local newspaper. You might be the first one to write about the place, throwing needed business their way. In the end, you collect a decent paycheck from the newspaper, along with a published clip, a byline, and hopefully more work and referrals.
Another option is to write for magazines dedicated to food, dining, city nightlife, general lifestyles, or for the tourist market. If you plan to write for magazines, your choice of what to write about becomes much broader. You can write how-to articles, interview pieces, cookware reviews, and so on. If you plan to write for local tourism guides, your best bet is to write restaurant reviews. Tourists may not know about any of the well-known restaurants or diners in the area. Tourism guides provide insight and guidance on what’s hot and what’s not in the area. This means that there’s a steady flow of potential readers for your restaurant reviews and other food writing.
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