A Taste of Food Writing by Ann Evans
How
do you like to relax when you're not writing? I love watching the
cookery programmes on telly. Masterchef has just started again, James
Martin's Saturday Morning programme gets recorded so I can watch it
at some point on a Sunday; and the Great British Bake Off and the
Great British Menu are all compelling programmes as far as I'm
concerned.
The
amount of cooking programmes I watch you'd think would be turning me
into a super adventurous cook, but no, I just like watching and
seeing how the experts can mess up just like me.
But
watching these programmes has certainly improved my knowledge of food
and ingredients, which is pretty important if you're going to write
about food. My 13 years at the Coventry Telegraph as a feature writer
included being the Food and Drink writer. This really used to make friends and family laugh, because there was a saying in my
house that you knew when dinner was ready because the smoke alarm
would go off. And at work they'd laugh because I'd be off out talking
about fancy food with skilled chefs and come back to my favourite
lunch of cheese and crisp sandwiches.
When
I first got the job of being the food and drink writer I admit to not
knowing very much at all about culinary matters. My lack of knowledge
at the time led to one or two awkward situations which I thought I'd
share with you.
 |
| Queenie scallops |
These
days I know that scallops are a shellfish delicacy which, when
lightly pan fried are raved about. However, my introduction to them
was whilst doing my first ever restaurant review. It was quite an
exclusive restaurant and I as scanned the menu for something I
understood, I saw scallops. Great! I love potato scallops
in batter from the chippy, so having them at a posh restaurant,
they'd be ultra delicious! But then out came what looked to me like white
chunks of fat! I didn't fancy them at all. No doubt
the poor chef wondered what he'd done wrong when the expensive
scallops I'd asked for went back untouched. Sorry chef!
Sadly,
it gets worse. Writing about a small restaurant another time, the
very lovely restaurant owner brought my companion and I two plates of
fresh smoked salmon – a real mountain of it. She'd asked if I liked
smoked salmon. Never having tasted it, but liking tinned salmon I
told her that I loved it. So she kindly heaped loads of this
expensive fish onto our plates.
My friend did like it, and did his best to eat mine as well as his own,
but there was so much left on my plate it was embarrassing, and I
didn't want to upset our generous hostess. So I did what any grateful
diner would do rather than offend the host. I hid it in my handbag!
So
I left with a handbag full of smoked salmon. My dog thought it was
her birthday when I got home. And the handbag was okay once it had
been thoroughly washed and left to air on the washing line for a few
days.
Funnily
enough I was served a little piece of smoked salmon on a tiny Scotch
pancake last week as an amuse bouche, and it was really nice. One day
I'm going to order scallops again – and eat them!
I've
been fortunate enough to go on a few foodie press trips. In my early
naive (dumb) days at the Coventry Telegraph they sent me on my
very first press trip. It was for Lunch in Lille. So off I went all
on my own, meeting up with other journalists from other newspapers.
We were flown to Lille, picked up from the airport, taken all around
the quaint old streets of Lille in France, had a lovely lunch, talked
to chefs and food growers and flown home. Fab!
A week or two later,
my features editor said, “So when are we having your copy (article)
on Lille?”
“Oh!”
I remember gasping. “You want me to write about it as well?”
Well
how was I to know?
I'd
got the hang of press trip by the time I went to the Champagne
region, and I really did my utmost to sample every type of champagne
that was put before me. It was a hard job but it was my duty! And at
least I wrote lots about that trip. In fact I got a romantic novel
out of it as well. Champagne Harvest, published by People's
Friend in a Pocket Novel and then in large print as a Lindford
Romance.
But
champagne went to my head at the Good Food Show at the NEC one year.
I'd gone along with a colleague from the Cov Telegraph, and it was
in the days when the show was a lot more generous with giving away
freebies and samples than they are now. We'd been sampling a whole
lot of drinks and nibbles as we wandered around the stalls. And then
we spotted a champagne stall with two champagne flutes filled with
champagne, so we simply picked them up and raised them to our lips.
Suddenly two women standing nearby got all irate. Seems they'd just
paid £6 each for them. Woops sorry ladies!
There
have been a few interviews with well known chefs too. Such as the
Hairy Bikers, who are as nice and down to earth as they seem when you
see them on TV. James Martin was part of a press trip to Coors
Brewery when he cooked a 5 or 7 course meal (can't quite remember)
for a group of us, matching the food with different beers. The chap I
sat next to loved me, as I'm not a beer drinker, so he had double
helpings every time.
Forgive
the name dropping but a year or two later I got the chance to
interview James Martin at the Good Food Show and he was lovely. Then
there was Lloyd Grossman – a real gentleman and so easy to talk to.
Greg Wallace who I interviewed over the phone, and he had me in
stitches from start to finish. Raymond Blanc was another interesting
chef I had chance to interview. I write in shorthand – based on the
sounds of words, rather than spelling. And as I was transcribing my
notes later, I saw that I'd written the shorthand with a French
accent!
And
then came Gordon Ramsay – whose cookery programmes I'm not so keen
on. All that shouting and upset would give you indigestion. But
invited to interview him, well who wouldn't jump at the chance?
Another writer and I sat at the Birmingham College of Food, where he
was presenting an award to a winner of his Gordon Ramsay Scholarship
Award. Our time slot was booked. We waited like a couple of nervous
school kids, and when he finally arrived with his entourage, the
charisma just surrounded him like an aura. He was amazing to talk to,
very honest and yes, he did use a bit of that language that he's
famous for, but not with any anger, and he really had got the charm
and charisma to get away with it.
One
of my most recent foodie jobs was a trip to York, where I discovered
York's Sweet Story, and of all the rotten jobs I had to do was make
my own chocolate lollipop. I don't know, it's a hard life!
So
have you found that writing has brought you any nice perks of the job
that you can share?
Please
visit my website: http://www.annevansbooks.co.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/annevansauthor
Thank you Rob Tysall of Tysall's Photography for the photos.
http://www.tysallsphotography.org.uk
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