Can you write about food within a genre? Food is food right? I am currently doing the Good Food Institute’s online course New Meat: the science behind scalable alternatives to animal products and was struck by the tone of the course as being quite clinical. The other approaches by GFI are far more casual and chatty, such as their podcast series Feeding 10 Billion. It got me thinking about food and how we talk about it.
It’s true that even the average cookbook has a genre, a tone, a feel to it. The Great British Bake Off is all soothing, comforting pastels, which must in part contribute to its appeal. Without going on in detail about the genre of food, here are some images that show just how many there are. From historical to avant-garde, rebellious to passionate, angry to cool, young and fun to old and serious, stern and self-important. If you are working with or writing about food, what is your preferred genre and tone?
TESSA DITNER AMOROSI 