Food writing may be an entirely new genre to you, or one that you want to gain more experience writing in! To help young writers get inspired, we spoke to food and travel writer Nastasha Alli, Guest Judge for our Food Writing Competition, about her tips on how to write about food.
Read on for advice about how to choose an interesting topic and capture all the important details of your food story.
Food writing is a lens through which one can explore everything from culture and history to the environment and social justice. In particular, you focus on the intersection of food and communities who have dispersed from their homeland, referred to as diaspora. What advice do you have for young writers in picking a topic and approach?
It’s advice that’s often repeated, but writing about what you know is the most powerful thing! Also, please make the time to speak with elders – the stories they share contain much deeper wisdom than we realize. Ask them to talk about their experiences, and record them in writing or digital mediums. As a member of the Filipino diaspora living in Canada, listening to stories from earlier waves of immigrant communities greatly shaped my approach to storytelling. They shared their challenges with integrating into a society often starkly different from what they knew, and how they overcame those hurdles. Their stories humbled me and forced me to check the privileges I previously hadn’t questioned. As immigrants, we have all faced hardships, seen and unseen. I eventually found that some of my greatest personal struggles, which I thought were unique to my “own” story, were ones that so many others universally shared – including among cultures starkly different from my own.
What are you looking for in a winning entry? Any tips for our young writers?
Write about the little things that may not seem to be particularly important when you first hear about them. Details are everything, especially when writing about the foods we eat! As always: show, don’t tell. Gather as much information as you can about how a food or drink product is grown, harvested, processed, distributed, sold, cooked and consumed, at home and in communal settings such as restaurants or community gatherings. In journalism, the 5 Ws are a guiding light to collecting this information: Ask the What, Where, When, Who, Why, and How questions about the food or drink that you wish to write about. Once you have this information, it becomes a lot easier to think about how you want to tell a story. Often, I’ve found that the story starts to tell itself this way.
Interviewing someone who inspires you or can serve as the “main character” in your story also helps anchor your food writing. People are essential to the process of turning raw ingredients into the dishes and foods we love, so naturally, they are an integral part of any story related to food.
What is your favorite thing to cook right now? To eat?
Over the past eight months, I have been travelling across the Philippines to research and document regional culinary tourism experiences. It’s something I’ve dreamt of doing for a very long time and I strive to make the most of every day, experience, and conversation with the people I meet! I’ve been gifted with incredible opportunities to witness aspects of Filipino life interpreted through food and sharing meals with others. That said, when I have days to myself, I really like making simple omelettes - I try to use ingredients that are local to the region I’m in, folded into fluffy eggs with slightly crisp edges. And because fresh seafood is a rarity in my daily life in Toronto, I enjoy all the opportunities to sample local delicacies when I can. Grilled fish and squid are my favourites, and I will never turn down a dish that’s “guinataan,” or cooked with freshly squeezed coconut milk – simple yet delicious ways to experience the best of the Philippines.
About the Guest Judge: Nastasha Alli is a writer & tourism professional born and raised in Manila, Philippines. Now based in Toronto, Canada, she writes about food and diaspora communities. Nastasha has received a Food Sustainability Media Award from the Thomson Reuters Foundation for an article she wrote on how the climate crisis has affected a staple breakfast food in the Philippines. Her work has been featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio, Toronto Star, The Filipino Channel (TFC), Inquirer Lifestyle, Rappler, and in The New Filipino Kitchen, a San Francisco Chronicle “top cookbook of 2018.” Nastasha’s interest in the history, traditions, and culture surrounding the foods of the Philippines led her to creating Exploring Filipino Kitchens, an award-winning podcast where she interviews chefs, farmers, authors and home cooks about their culinary experiences.
