For those interested in food writing

[rgruby]

George Brown College is hosting a gathering of a bunch of TO area food writers on Dec. 6 for a chit chat.

More info here: http://www.georgebrown.ca/chefschool/eatin...ords/index.aspx

I'm hoping to attend. Anyone else interested?

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[rgruby]

Hmm. Perhaps I should have posted this in the TO board instead of food media and the news. (Is there a way to cross-post?) In any event, this is happening tomorrow, and I'm still hoping to attend. Any other egulleters planning on attending?

And, I'm assuming there'll be a Q&A - anything anybody who can't attend would like me to ask?

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[Jake]

Geoff, I read about that over the weekend and had hoped to attend but have an unfortunate previous committment. Please report back if you can.

[cherimoya]

How was it?

[rgruby]

How was it?

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It was actually a lot of fun - most of the panelists turned out to be quite witty, and were egged on by the moderator - Ian Brown from the Globe. I laughed a lot.

I'd guess there were about 200 people in the audience.

The panelists were Naomi Duguid, John Allemang, Bonnie Stern, Emily Richards, James Chatto, Gina Mallett and Marion Kane.

The format was each panelist was given 3 minutes to tell us how they got into food writing (none of them started out with food writing in mind - Naomi was a lawyer, Bonnie wanted to be a librarian, Marion owned a dress shop, etc. Several of them studied languages, and it seems that being raised, or studying in, the UK also doesn't hurt). Then they were given 5 minutes each to talk about a set topic - travel writing for Naomi, restaurant reviewing for James, feature writing for John, writing for magazines for Emily, and so on) and then the panel was given another 5 minutes to debate.

Ian asked the panel if there are less or more opportunities to write about food now than when the panelists began. Emily thought less - there are virtually no opportunities for freelancing in magazines. This seems borne out by Naomi's experience - when she was getting started no Canadian magazines were interested, so she ended up selling stories to American magazines and building from there. Gina also noted that Australia and NZ can support several food magazines, while Canada doesn't have a single magazine solely devoted to food.

At the end there was a brief Q&A session. I asked what the panelists thought were the most important food stories of 05. Gina mentioned the salmonella sprouts, Naomi picked Avian flu, and John mentioned the decimation of global fish stocks as the food story of this or any other year.

The role of the internet was raised. James didn't think it would ever totally usurp the role of the print critic - he questions the reliability of the opinions expressed on the net, but he did mention that he occassionally checks egullet and chowhound if he's travelling, and also to see if there's any commentary on his reviews.

OK, crying baby - gotta go. If I can think of anything else, I'll add more later.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[rgruby]

I'll add one more thing - John Allemang stated that he thinks the food-writing scene here is too focused on restaurants and the latest trends. I wholeheartedly agree with him. What do you think?

He also thinks our produce isn't particularly good. I'm not sure I agree with him on that one.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

[Csaville]

He also thinks our produce isn't particularly good. I'm not sure I agree with him on that one.

Cheers,

Geoff Ruby

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Leave the city - in Peterborough, we are getting quite a stock of farmer's produce, a larger focus on slow food and organic produce and there is a focus on promoting going to farmers directly to buy what you need (albeit not in January!)... This is all happening in a place that is not exactly known for food... But it's coming... Food is culture and people are realizing that it is an excellent resource for getting visitors to come and visit our area!