How American Food Writing Changed After 2020

Summary

What do the stories we tell about food reveal about the moment in which they are written? ⁠Gastronomica⁠’s Melissa Fuster is joined by literary scholar turned food studies scholar ⁠Julieta Flores Jurado⁠ in a conversation about American food writing and how it has changed in recent years. They discuss key shifts in food journalism and the role of the critic, where a focus on pleasure and tastemaking has given way to new emphases on systemic and structural issues, a phenomenon accelerated in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic. Julieta sheds light on how contemporary American food writing differs from prior eras that showcased food as a platform for activism and change and explains what she takes to be distinctive about such writing in the current moment – its revisionary sentiment and the impulse to transform a field. Julieta’s research will be published⁠ in the next issue of Gastronomica (24.2)⁠, coming Summer 2024.

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