A Response to Food Writing

            After reading several articles from food writers from the New York Times, the L.A. Times and others I found myself more intrigued than I have been with any other reading thus far in this course.  That was really surprising for me because truth be told, I hardly ever read newspaper articles of any sort and I am constantly reading novels.  But as much as I’ve loved the other readings, the brutal honesty and incredible talent put into these articles was inspiring and enticing.

            One thing that I had never thought about before reading the articles is the health of a food critic.  It of course seems very obvious that that would be a concern but for some reason I had never considered it.  This topic was most thoroughly dealt with in the series of articles by NYT writer Sam Sifton where he provides a list of the food and caloric intake he has for a day as well as his exercise regimen with the calories lost.  I was disgusted.  I am not sure what I was expecting but it definitely was not the massive amounts of fattening foods from start to finish of every single day.  This really should not have come as a shock to me, I realize, but it did.

            The odd thing is, despite the sickeningly large quantities of food he takes in, Sam’s weight compared to his height is not bad, especially considering the fact that he said most of that weight comes from muscle.  The amount of exercising one has to do to maintain that lifestyle and not be insanely obese is incomprehensible to me.  This made me think about how food critics must have a very strong ability to avoid addictions.  Food is addictive and so is exercise.  To live a life where that is pretty much all you do and not suffer the mental effects of an addiction takes a special kind of person.  Or maybe it is the opposite, maybe to be a food critic you must have an addictive personality in order to continue that lifestyle.  Or maybe I am completely off and this has nothing to do with addictions.  Either way, my perfect vision of a life where all you do is eat delicious food and write was significantly altered.  While being able to have the experiences people like Sam Sifton has would undoubtedly be incredible, it is not as easy as one might expect it to be.  Or at least, what I expected it to be.

            Not only is the life of a food critic more difficult than I expected in terms of their unconventional diet, it requires a raw talent uncommon for most people.  In my personal experience with creative writing, I may be able to produce something I am proud of, but not in the incredibly short amount of time food critics do.  I was blown away by their ability to recreate the sensations they experienced without using cliché terms or ambiguous descriptions.  It takes a certain kind of person and it is fascinating to follow.