Celebrating Indian Food Writing Through The Month!

In my career with food, I have first and foremost been a food writer. While I revel in the joys of other forms of chronicling, be it styling and photographing food or illustrating it through my Foodles, food writing will somehow always hold a special place. Food writing is such a wonderful medium of expression, and also, for me, of chronicling. Through it, I have been able to document, preserve, teach, transport, transform, lament, celebrate and so much more!

And it is not just in the doing that I find joy, but also in consuming food writing. The number of food books I own (a whole wall of them!) and the growing selection on my desk and nightstand at any given point will tell you that food books are my lifeline. I turn to them for most things – research, reference, recipes or just inspiration – in my work and outside of it. Over the years I've devoured more books, magazines, blogs, essays, articles and social media posts on food than anything else!

And each year, at this time, when we hit the six-month mark into the year, I find myself reflecting over all the wonderful food books that make it to the shelves. With monsoons hitting, it often becomes the perfect time to dive into food and cookbooks. With the lockdown, the food book scene globally has seen a lot, but in India particularly, food books seem to be coming into their own. So I thought I would make monsoons, July - August, the quarter to celebrate food books and the craft of food writing!

To grow as a writer, I believe one has to keep reading and learning,  So each week, in this time, look forward to a round-up of books on Indian cuisine and culture by Indian authors, what makes them special, why I recommend them, what I liked about them and why you might too! I’ll be focusing on Indian food history, community cookbooks, books on regional Indian food, Ingredient forward books and of course, new releases (for the years 2020-21). 

In my career as a food writer I have seen the space of food writing evolve year on year.  This pandemic has changed so much about how we live and work, especially for those in the business of food.

I am working on launching a full fledged Culinary Chronicling Course for select hand-picked candidates.

But food writing is a very vast genre of culinary chronicling. And one kind of food writing that is imperative to anyone in the food and content space right now, is food writing for social media. And so this July I am bringing back my Food Writing workshops in an online format. The first of these will be a workshop on Food Writing in the Age of Social Media.

On a global scale, food has come into the forefront across platforms from print to social media in the last two-odd years.  And in this era of social media everyone is talking about food across blogs, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn and Clubhouse! SO how do each of us, as individuals, small brands, food businesses, or content creators make an impact? 
Make no mistake, today it is no longer enough to write and sit back waiting to be read. You are a brand, you have to market yourself. And quite frankly, I believe that good story-telling and good writing that bring it together can make all the difference to your social media. It can make all the difference to brand “YOU.” 
That's where well-curated content can make all the difference. Whatever the platform, to grow on it one needs to approach it with some level of thought to written content. A little attention to detail, use of journalistic skills, some thought into the uniqueness of topics, inquiry and research, developing a voice for your brand and you can make all the difference to your channel content. 

Food Writing in the Age of Social Media

A workshop curated for food content creators, foodpreneurs, and small businesses. Designed to get you thinking about your story in the dynamic social media arena of today. And how you can create content with impact, engagement and returns in this new age of collaboration, co-working and a post-pandemic lifestyle. 

1) Defining YOUR story
2) Planning content strategy 
3) Writing content that resonates 
4) Defining themes and topics
5) Creating impactful food content 
6) Stirring yourself in - voice and personality

Date – Saturday, 24^th of July 2021
Time – 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm IST
Price – Rs. 700

To Register:

UPDATE- Registrations for this round are now closed. 

Step 1 - Please make the payment of Rs. 700 

Step 2 - Email a screenshot of the transition details to bookings@apbcookstudio.com along with the name of the participant so we can confirm your registration. Without this, we will not be able to add you to our list of participants.

Please note, we will send the meeting link for the workshop back to the same email ID you contact us from, so do keep an eye on it.

Stay tuned for the next post in this series, about my favourite books on Indian food history - coming soon! In the meanwhile, do tell me some of your favourite Indian food books in the comments.