January: What I'm Reading

Plus: A change to my newsletter and why

The other day I was on a Zoom call with other Substack writers who write food-based newsletters. I told them about a new free newsletter I subscribed to that arrives every day (unrelated to food).

Meanwhile, I send you this free newsletter once a month. That’s at least 29 times less than this other newsletter.

Then a person on the call said that if she only got one free newsletter per month from someone like me, she’d feel like she didn’t have a connection to that person. She would unsubscribe, she said.

That stunned me. Here I was, thinking I shouldn’t clutter up your inbox.

But the daily newsletter clutters up mine. Now I’m used to it. I expect to hear from her. And it’s okay. I’m getting to know her.

I decided the Zoom commenter had a point. I’m going to shear off the essays that begin at the top of this free newsletter, like this one. I will make them free self-standing essays that I send separately.

This newsletter was too long anyway! So I’ll see how it works to send an essay later in the month.

Meanwhile, welcome to the start of the year. I won’t give you some lecture about how you should set goals or start your diet (the two most traditional pieces of advice in January). Instead, read these posts from years past:

• 3 Things to Stop Worrying About in 2022

• 4 Ways to Increase Your Productivity This Year

I hope you enjoyed your New Year’s celebrations and that you look forward to the year ahead, filled with tempting newsletters in your inbox. I plan to help with that.

Help me out: How do you want a newsletter in your inbox? How often is too often? Is once a month not enough?

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What I’m eating:

diannemjacob

A post shared by Food writing coach (@diannemjacob)

A neighbor’s tree produced hundreds of giant Fuyu persimmons this year. She gave me dozens. I made persimmon cookies, gave away several, and stuck bags of puree in the freezer. I also made smoothies with yogurt, blueberries and cinnamon, which were surprisingly good. Persimmons were everywhere in my San Francisco East Bay neighborhood until about a month ago.

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Appearances and Consults

January 21, 2023, 1 p.m.
In Conversation with Deb Perelman (SOLD OUT. Tickets are still available for the virtual Zoom version.)
Book Passage Bookstore, Corte Madera, CA

Come hear my conversation with this amiable, funny blogger as we talk about recipes, cooking, writing, and her new cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers.

Private Consult
Through a partner, Delicious Experiences
One-hour consult: $250

For years I've had a five-hour minimum for consulting. But now, through Delicious Experiences, you can book a Zoom call with me for just 1 hour or more. If you’ve wanted to start your cookbook, get your book published, or get better freelance assignments, let’s move you forward. I’ve talked with writers at all levels about a variety of food-writing topics.

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What I'm Reading

• Bon Appétit Serves Up a Hot Rebrand for Their Print Magazine. The article only applies to design, not editorial, but it’s worth seeing what they’re up to.

• Behind the Scenes: Making the Cookbook! Woks of Life stars detail the photo strategy for their cookbook.

• A new writer tweeted about a low book signing turnout, and famous authors commiserated. I’ve had this experience as well, and if you’re an author, I bet you have too.

• Finding Comfort and Escape in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Reflections on reading and using the cookbook.

• The Silver Palate Cookbook Changed Home Cooking (and Pesto Consumption) as We Know It. “Bold flavors, fresh herbs, and the joys of improvisation.”

• Sara Moulton’s Long-Overdue Autopsy of 1990s Food Culture. As you will see in this interview, she deserves much more attention than the media has given her.

• In Defense of Recipes. Why we still need them, despite the hype that we don’t.

• Diasporican’s Illyanna Maisonet on Her Journey From Artist to Cookbook Author. A good interview on what it takes to get a cookbook published.

• Reflecting on A Year of Teaching. Julia Turshen discusses cooking from home to promote her book and why she’s going to keep at it.

• Ina Garten: Cooking Is Hard. An interview on The New Yorker Radio Hour.

• Not Just How, But Why: Recipes That Teach. New York University writing professor Cammie Kim Lin discusses the difference between recipes that instruct and recipes that teach on Stained Page News. (I sent this to you earlier. But here it is again, in case you missed it.)

• Cara De Silva In Memoriam. She was the author of In Memory’s Kitchen: A Legacy from The Women of Terezín.

• ​7 Food Photography Tips for Beginners​. Great tips in this post from Food Blogger Pro.

Stained Page News gathered this list of The Best Cookbooks of 2022 for paid subscribers in a recent newsletter. If you’re not a paid subscriber, you should be! Here they are:

Tasting Table, Delicious (UK), Irish Times, Daily Hive (Canada), Globe and Mail (Canada), Guardian (UK), National Post (Canada), Inside Hook, Independent (UK), Vice, Smithsonian, SF Chronicle, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Times (UK), Financial Times (UK), Gourmet Traveller (Aus), and NPR.

Check out these lists too: The Best Cookbooks of the Century So Far (the New Yorker), The 27 Best Cookbooks of 2022 (Bon Appétit), The Best Cookbooks of 2022 from the New York Times (unlocked) and this list from the Library Journal.

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News About Clients and Students

• Saveur published Majed Ali’s recipe for Date-Pecan Cookies.

• TV food personality Monti Carlo, a bicultural Latina, started a Substack newsletter called Spanglish. (I coached her on a book proposal.)

• The Washington Post published Taffy Elder’s recipe: Luxe chocolate raspberry truffle sandwich cookies make a great gift. (I coached her on the freelance writing life.)

• Former student Giulia Scarpaleggia announced the publication of her cookbook, Cocina Povera: The Italian Way of Transforming Humble Ingredients Into Unforgettable Meals.

• Taste listed Nico Vera’s article, This Tamales Story Is Still Being Written, as one of its Top Stories of 2022. (I coached him on pitching freelance articles.)

I like to brag about food writing accomplishments here. Send me an email: dj@diannej.com.

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Thanks for Reading

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Dianne Jacob
Editor, Writer and Coach
Email: dj@diannej.com
Website: http://diannej.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/diannej
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foodwriting
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diannemjacob/

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My Books

The United States of Pizza

Grilled PIzzas & Piadinas

Will Write for Food: 2021 4th Edition

Disclosures: I am an affiliate of Food Blogger Pro, Amazon and Bookshop.org.