creative writing for food

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Journal Buddies Jill | August 15, 2023 May 28, 2023 | Creative Writing

19 Creative Writing about Food Topics (Tasty!)

Creative Writing about Food Prompts for Kids — Food! Who does not like to talk about their favorite or their not-so-favorite food? Food is an interesting topic and one that may just encourage and motivate kids to write some amazing new stories or journal entries. Now…

We know writers will find some great inspiration with these 19 writing ideas about food.

That’s because fun and tasty writing prompts can help make creative writing more enjoyable for kids (and writers of all ages for that matter!).Plus, our list of food-themed writing topics and food writing prompts may make them hungry to boot!

So get to it and…

Encourage your writers to use the writing ideas outlined below to write a story, a poem, or a journal entry. Ask your writer to describe in great detail how the food they are writing about looks, smells, tastes (good or bad), feels (soft, hard), and sounds (sound of cubes in a glass or fizzy sounds of a drink).

19 Creative Writing about Food Prompts for Kids

• Write about your favorite food. What is it?  Where do you eat it? What makes it your favorite?
• Describe the kind(s) of food you can cook — or food you enjoy cooking with your parents. Describe the way it is prepared and if your family members enjoy it.
• Write about fruits. The yummy and colorful fruits that you like or even about the ones you dislike and why.
• Invent your very own unique recipe.
• What is your favorite sandwich?  Explain how to make it starting from the bottom to the top layer.
• Describe the worst meal you ever had in your life and try to include as many details as you can straight through to your last bite.

• Write about your favorite restaurant and what exactly it is about it that makes it your favorite.
• What are your very favorite and your least favorite fruit and vegetable? Why?
• Imagine and write about: What if the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” became real?
• Write all about your favorite dish that your mom or dad cooks. What ingredients are in it and what makes it your favorite?
• Describe a trip to the supermarket. What kind of food do you find there? What would you buy? How much would you buy and why?
• Get creative and plan a menu for your imaginary restaurant.
• Do you love sweets? Which are your favorite desserts? Why?
• Do you have any food-related family traditions? What are they and what makes them special to you and your family?
• If you had to eat one food forever, what food would you choose and why?
• You are making popsicles today… Which flavor(s) will you make? Who will you share them with and why?
• Write a story with a potato as the superhero.
• Ice-cream: chocolate, strawberry, or vanilla? Soft serve or hard ice cream? Describe your ice cream choices in vivid detail.

I hope you enjoyed these food writing topics.

163 More Fun Food Related Writing Ideas & Resources

• 50 National Ice Cream Month Journal Prompts
• 53 Good Nutrition Writing Prompts
• 60 Wonderful Wellness Journal Prompts

Food Words and Phrases to Inspire You to Write

Now, in case the 19 food writing topics outlined above weren’t enough to inspire you, here’s a food item list of words to get you inspired to write about

• Comfort food
• Food memories
• Food as medicine
• Unhealthy foods
• Healthy food
• Street food
• Childhood favorite food
• Good food, bad food, yummy food, gross foods

Food is a subject that can be approached from many different angles.

A Few Final Food Thoughts

Whether you’re interested in exploring the cultural significance of food and food traditions, the environmental impact of our food choices and lifestyle, the connection between junk food and obesity, or the nutritional implications of various diets, there’s plenty of room to explore.

From food production, food safety, and the fast food industry to food poisoning, food security or insecurity, and hunger, food essay topics are a valuable resource for students exploring research papers, looking for new essay topics, or just writing about the love of food.

Plus…

Writing about food may inspire so-called picky eaters to try a new cuisine, inspire junk food junkies to adopt healthier eating habits, or encourage someone to continue on with their preference for healthy eating!

Food-themed writing prompts can take you on a delicious journey, with limitless possibilities. So, get your pen and paper ready and get cooking up some scrumptious stories!

We offer you loads of blog posts with thousands of free prompts. So be sure to stick around and check out more great writing ideas.

Until next time, write on…

If you enjoyed these Creative Writing Food Prompts for Kids , please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. I appreciate it!

Sincerely, Jill journalbuddies.com creator and curator

PS Check out these excellent resource –> Tasty Creative Writing Prompts

Tap to See Prompts 30 Fun and Yummy Pizza Writing Prompts 53 Great Nutrition Topics to Write About 50 Delicious Ice Cream Writing Prompt Ideas Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7-8 Grade 9-12 All Ages ------------End of Om Added --------- Tags All Ages , Creative Writing , Creative Writing for children , Creative Writing for Kids , creative writing ideas , creative writing prompts , Food , food and drink , Food Related , Food Related Writing Prompts , Food Writing Ideas , Food Writing Prompts , journal entry , kids to write , list of creative writing ideas , write a story , writer , writing ideas , writing prompts for kids div#postbottom { margin-top: 12px; } Search Now Offering You 18,000+ Prompts!

55 Writing Prompts About Food: Food Journaling Ideas

• April 13, 2023

Writing about food can be a fun and creative way to explore the world of writing prompts . Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, there are plenty of ways to use food as inspiration for your writing . From describing your favorite meal to imagining a world where food is scarce, the possibilities are endless.  In this article, I will share with you 55 writing prompts about food to encourage exploration of the diverse aspects of food, including cultural significance, personal memories, and imaginative scenarios related to culinary experiences.

One way to get started with writing prompts about food is to think about your own experiences with food. What are some of your favorite foods, and why? Have you ever had a particularly memorable meal, either for good or bad reasons? What are some of the cultural or family traditions that revolve around food for you?

Exploring the Senses in Food Writing

Food writing can be a sensory experience that engages all five senses. By exploring the sensory aspects of food, writers can create vivid descriptions that transport readers to the world of the dish.

Taste and Smell: The Flavorful Duo

Taste and smell are the two senses most closely linked to food. A dish’s flavor is a combination of its taste and aroma, and both can be described in detail to bring a dish to life. In food writing, it is important to use descriptive language to convey the flavors of a dish. Words like “sweet,” “salty,” “savory,” and “spicy” can help readers imagine the taste of the dish, while words like “earthy,” “floral,” and “citrusy” can describe its aroma.

Visual Feasts: The Role of Sight

The appearance of a dish can also be an important aspect of food writing. Food presentation can be described in detail, including the colors, shapes, and textures of the ingredients. In food writing, it is important to use vivid language to describe the visual aspects of a dish. Words like “crispy,” “juicy,” “golden-brown,” and “fluffy” can help readers imagine the texture of the dish, while words like “vibrant,” “rich,” and “colorful” can describe its appearance.

Textures and Touch: The Feel of Food

Texture and touch are also important sensory aspects of food. The texture of a dish can be described in detail, including its crunchiness, creaminess, or chewiness. In food writing, it is important to use descriptive language to convey the texture of a dish. Words like “smooth,” “crunchy,” “silky,” and “velvety” can help readers imagine the feel of the dish in their mouths.

Hearing the Kitchen: Sounds of Cooking

The sounds of cooking can also be an important aspect of food writing. The sizzling of a pan, the bubbling of a pot, and the clanging of utensils can all be described in detail to create a sensory experience for readers. In food writing, it is important to use descriptive language to convey the sounds of cooking. Words like “sizzle,” “bubble,” “crackle,” and “whisk” can help readers imagine the sounds of the kitchen.

Journaling and Food

Journaling can be a useful tool for exploring the sensory aspects of food. By keeping a food journal , writers can record their experiences with different dishes and ingredients, including their taste, aroma, appearance, and texture. This can help writers develop their descriptive skills and create more vivid food writing.

Exploring the sensory aspects of food can be a powerful tool for food writers. By using descriptive language to convey the taste, aroma, appearance, texture, and sounds of a dish, writers can create a sensory experience for readers that transports them to the world of the dish.

55 Writing prompts about food

Here are 55 writing prompts about food:

• Describe your most memorable meal and why it stands out.
• Write about the role of food in your family’s traditions.
• Imagine a world where one food is currency. What food is it and why?
• Describe the process of learning to cook your favorite dish.
• Write about a time you tried a new cuisine and your reaction to it.
• Create a story where food has magical properties.
• Describe your ultimate comfort food and what makes it comforting.
• Write a poem about the sensory experience of eating your favorite fruit.
• Imagine you’re opening a restaurant. What’s on the menu?
• Write about a food that reminds you of home.
• Describe a cooking disaster and what you learned from it.
• Write about the first time you cooked for someone else.
• Create a fictional culture based on their unique cuisine.
• Describe a food that you dislike and why.
• Write about the experience of dining in complete darkness.
• Imagine a day where you can only eat sweet foods. What would it be like?
• Describe a memorable experience you had at a food market.
• Write about the connection between food and community in your area.
• Create a story about a chef with a secret ingredient.
• Describe the perfect picnic and what foods you’d bring.
• Write about a time when food brought people together.
• Imagine a future where food is synthesized. What is lost or gained?
• Describe an heirloom recipe and its history in your family.
• Write about the experience of cooking over an open fire.
• Create a character whose mood is influenced by what they eat.
• Describe the most unusual food you’ve ever eaten.
• Write about the role of food in a holiday celebration.
• Imagine a society where certain foods are banned. What are the consequences?
• Describe the experience of baking with someone you love.
• Write about a food that evokes a strong memory.
• Create a story where a meal has life-changing effects.
• Describe a time when you had to eat something out of politeness.
• Write about the challenge of cooking a meal for a large group.
• Imagine discovering a new fruit. What does it taste like?
• Describe the experience of eating a dish from your heritage for the first time.
• Write about a food that represents your personality.
• Create a story about a food critic with a big secret.
• Describe the experience of growing your own food.
• Write about the complexities of being a vegetarian or vegan in a meat-eating society.
• Imagine a potion made from various foods. What does it do?
• Describe a time when you indulged in a guilty pleasure food.
• Write about the cultural significance of a particular dish in your community.
• Create a story about a lost recipe that is found.
• Describe the experience of eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
• Write about the role of food in a work of fiction you enjoyed.
• Imagine a cooking competition with a high-stakes prize.
• Describe the art of plating and presentation in fine dining.
• Write about the experience of eating something for the last time.
• Create a story about a family-owned restaurant’s legacy.
• Describe the perfect food to eat on a rainy day.
• Write about the connection between food and health .
• Imagine a character who can taste emotions in food.
• Describe the experience of teaching someone to cook.
• Write about the tradition of a potluck dinner and what it signifies.
• Create a story about a secret supper club with an exclusive menu.

These prompts encourage exploration of the diverse aspects of food, including cultural significance, personal memories, and imaginative scenarios related to culinary experiences.

Cultural and Personal Connections to Food

Food is a powerful medium that can evoke strong emotions and memories. People often associate food with cultural and personal experiences, which can inspire creativity and connection. In this section, we will explore how food can be used as a writing prompt to explore one’s cultural and personal connections to food.

Memory Lane: Food and Recollection

Food memories are often some of the most vivid and nostalgic memories that people have. Whether it’s the aroma of a favorite dish or the taste of a childhood treat, food can transport people back in time. Writing prompts that focus on food memories can be a great way to explore one’s personal history and reflect on the role that food has played in their life.

Global Cuisine: Exploring Cultures Through Dishes

Food is an essential part of cultural identity, and exploring different cuisines can be a great way to learn about different cultures and traditions. Writing prompts that focus on global cuisine can encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone and try new dishes. Whether it’s a favorite restaurant or a street food vendor, there are endless possibilities for exploring different cuisines.

Community and Sharing: Food as Connection

Food has the power to bring people together and create a sense of community. Writing prompts that focus on food as a means of connection can encourage people to explore the social and cultural aspects of food. Whether it’s a potluck dinner or a family gathering, food can be a way to share stories, traditions, and experiences with others.

Writing prompts about food can be a powerful way to explore one’s cultural and personal connections to food. By focusing on food memories, global cuisine, and food as a means of connection, people can use food as a medium to reflect on their personal history, learn about different cultures, and connect with others.

Creative Writing Prompts for Food Lovers

Food lovers who also enjoy creative writing can combine their passions with these writing prompts . These prompts can help writers explore their imagination and create vivid descriptions of their favorite dishes or dream up new flavors. Here are three prompts to get started:

Describing Your Favorite Dish

One way to get started with food writing is to describe a favorite dish. Writers can use sensory language to describe the taste, texture, and aroma of the dish. They can also write about the memories or emotions associated with the dish. For example, a writer might describe the warmth and comfort of a bowl of chicken noodle soup on a cold winter day or the excitement of biting into a juicy cheeseburger at a summer barbecue.

Imagining New Flavors: A Creative Exercise

Another way to explore food writing is to imagine new flavors and dishes. Writers can brainstorm ingredients and combinations to create unique flavors. They can also write about the cultural or historical significance of certain ingredients or dishes. For example, a writer might imagine a fusion dish that combines the flavors of Mexican and Korean cuisine or write about the history of chocolate and its use in traditional Mexican cuisine.

The Restaurant Review Scenario

A popular scenario for food writing is the restaurant review. Writers can visit a restaurant and write a review of the menu and dishes. They can use descriptive language to convey the taste and presentation of the dishes. They can also write about the atmosphere and service of the restaurant. Alternatively, writers can imagine a restaurant and create a menu and dishes for it. They can also write a review of their own imaginary restaurant.

These creative writing prompts can help food lovers explore their passion for food and writing. By using sensory language and imagination, writers can create vivid descriptions of dishes and explore new flavors and scenarios.

From Ingredients to Meals: A Writer’s Journey

Writing about food can be one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences for writers. It allows them to explore the different dimensions of food, from the ingredients to the meals, and everything in between. In this section, we will take a closer look at some of the aspects of food writing that can help writers create compelling and engaging content.

The Story of an Ingredient

Every dish has a story, and every ingredient has a history. Writing about the story of an ingredient can be a great way to engage readers and provide context for the dish. For example, a writer might explore the history of sourdough bread, tracing its origins back to ancient Egypt and following its journey through Europe and the United States. By exploring the history of an ingredient, writers can provide readers with a deeper understanding of the dish and its cultural significance.

Crafting a Menu: A Writing Challenge

Crafting a menu can be a challenging task for any chef, but it can also be a great writing challenge for food writers. A writer might create a menu for a fictional restaurant, exploring different themes and flavor profiles. By crafting a menu, writers can also explore different food choices and showcase their creativity and culinary knowledge.

Food Security and Hunger: Opinion Pieces

Food security and hunger are important issues that affect millions of people around the world. Writing opinion pieces about these issues can help raise awareness and inspire action. A writer might explore the impact of food insecurity on different communities or examine the role of supermarkets in addressing hunger. By writing about these issues, writers can help create a more just and equitable food system.

Food writing can be a fascinating and rewarding experience for writers. By exploring the different dimensions of food, from the ingredients to the meals, writers can create compelling and engaging content that informs and inspires readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can you describe a memorable meal you’ve had in a way that transports the reader to the table with you.

To describe a memorable meal in a way that transports the reader to the table with you, it is important to use sensory details that appeal to all the senses. Describe the aroma of the food, the texture, the colors, and the flavors. Use descriptive adjectives, metaphors, and similes to paint a vivid picture of the meal. The goal is to make the reader feel like they are sitting at the table with you, experiencing the meal firsthand.

What are some engaging prompts to inspire students to write about their cultural food traditions?

To inspire students to write about their cultural food traditions, you can ask them to describe a traditional dish from their culture, how it is prepared, and what it means to them. You can also ask them to write about a family recipe that has been passed down through generations and how it has evolved over time. Another prompt could be to write about a special occasion or celebration that involves food in their culture.

What narrative can you create about a character’s relationship with food during a significant life event?

A narrative about a character’s relationship with food during a significant life event could be about how food plays a role in their emotional state. For example, a character going through a breakup might find solace in comfort foods, or a character celebrating a milestone might splurge on a fancy meal. The food choices can reveal a lot about the character’s personality, values, and emotions.

How would you compare and contrast two favorite dishes to highlight their unique flavors and textures?

To compare and contrast two favorite dishes, it is important to focus on the unique flavors and textures of each dish. Describe the ingredients, the cooking methods, and the presentation. Compare and contrast the flavors and textures of each dish, highlighting what makes them unique. Use sensory details to make the reader understand the differences between the two dishes.

What are effective ways to incorporate sensory details into a food-related story?

Effective ways to incorporate sensory details into a food-related story include describing the aroma, texture, colors, and flavors of the food. Use descriptive adjectives, metaphors, and similes to paint a vivid picture of the food. You can also describe the sounds of the kitchen, the heat of the stove, and the hustle and bustle of the restaurant. The goal is to make the reader feel like they are part of the story.

Can you devise a scenario where food plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot of a short story?

Yes, a scenario where food plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot of a short story could be about a chef who is competing in a cooking competition. The chef’s signature dish is stolen by a rival competitor, and the chef must come up with a new dish on the spot to win the competition. The dish that the chef creates could reveal something about their personality or values, and it could also lead to a surprising plot twist.

I'm Ben, a data engineer who adores journaling. My passion for recording life experiences inspired me to develop Otto's Journal, an online diary app. Join me as I blend data and storytelling in the ever-changing tech world, making journaling more accessible and exciting.

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• Oct 9, 2021

So you want to be a food writer? Here’s a BIG list of what all you can write

In the second post of my #FoodWritingFestival series, I list out 170+ ideas and writing prompts that will make food content writing a feast

Image: Heather Ford | Unsplash

We understand why you want to be a food writer or blogger. (Or a food YouTuber or content creator for that matter.)

It’s a colourful, scrumptious, and tempting world, with the opportunity to taste a host of treats along the way (because why not).

Besides, food brings the world on your plate when travel takes a backseat. Who doesn’t like being the person who sums up these mouthwatering experiences in the most delicious words and sends them straight to everyone’s reading devices? Even as a fiction writer, you’d want to be able to describe the sensory aspects of the culinary world like a pro. (If you’d like to see how I’ve done my food scenes in fiction, check them out in my book PiKu & ViRu . Buy/download, read, and review it here ; it’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited. Do post a review on how you found the book and its foodie moments.)

And if you can get paid to write about food, it’s like the proverbial cherry on the icing.

Recipes and long-form stories have always been the most popular and sought-after avenues for food content writing. But not only are you going to need a huge bank of ideas for your pitching process. You should also keep your options open for other lesser-known but equally rewarding avenues.

That’s where this big list of food content ideas, formats, templates, and writing prompts comes in. Take whatever you need, mix and match, or make some tweaks to come up with something on your own. Or use more than one format to conjure multiple story angles for the same idea. You can also give one of your previously published stories a fresh lease of life by adapting it to a different template. In short, there are several ways of using this list. It’s a neverending one, as I’ll update it with more ideas as and when they strike me. Do share your ideas, too, in the comments.

So, here it is, without further ado. Let me know in the comments how it works out for you. In any case, food writing will become a piece of cake for you if you follow this one.

001. Essay spotlighting a particular dish

002. Essay spotlighting a particular ingredient

003. Essay spotlighting a particular cuisine

004. Feature on a particular restaurant

005. Essay spotlighting a cooking technique

006. Essay spotlighting a cooking equipment

007. Essay spotlighting a cooking tradition or practice

008. Feature on a specific food career

009. Profile of a food business

010. Feature on a food/eating lifestyle

011. Chef profile

012. Chef interview

013. Chef biography

014. Food entrepreneur profile

015. Food entrepreneur interview

016. Food entrepreneur biography

017. Restaurant, café, or bar review

018. Restaurant, café, or bar preview/first look

019. Restaurant, café, or bar profile

020. Restaurant, café, or bar comparison

021. Best restaurants, cafés, bars in a particular area or destination

022. What to eat in a particular area or destination

023. Where to have a particular local food/beverage (e.g. where to eat the best biryani in Hyderabad, Mumbai’s tastiest vada pavs, best hot chocolate in Switzerland)

024. Best restaurants, cafés, bars in a particular area or destination for a particular cuisine

025. Best breakfasts in a particular area or destination

026. What to eat for breakfast in a particular area or destination

027. Food & drink pairings

028. Best street food in a particular area or destination

029. What street food to eat in a particular area or destination

030. Food product review

031. Food equipment review

032. New food products and equipment

033. Meals with a view

034. Best rooftop restaurants, cafés, bars in a particular area or destination

035. Best alfresco restaurants, cafés, bars in a particular area or destination

036. Best new restaurants, bars, cafés

037. Recipes (of course!)

038. Food tips and hacks

039. Food explainers (what is foie gras, what is sous vide, why cocktail is called so, how is latte different from a cappuccino, etc.)

040. Food memories

041. History of a dish

042. History of an ingredient

043. History of a cuisine

044. History of a restaurant

045. History of a cooking technique

046. History of a cooking equipment

047. History of a cooking tradition or practice

048. History of a specific food career

049. History of a food/eating lifestyle

050. Fun facts about a dish

051. Fun facts about an ingredient

052. Fun facts about a cuisine

053. Fun facts about a restaurant

054. Fun facts about a chef

055. Fun facts about a cooking equipment

056. Fun facts about a cooking technique

057. Fun facts about a cooking tradition or practice

058. Fun facts about a food career

059. Fun facts about a food business

060. Fun facts about a food/eating lifestyle

061. Food trivia

062. Food trivia quiz

063. Food personality quiz

064. Best books to read on a particular food or food-related topic

065. Anything about food in ‘numbers’

066. Food memes

067. Food puns

068. Food quotes (can also be used on merchandise such as mugs, plates, and coasters)

069. Food events and days (like how I’ve compiled for October 2021 )

070. Food photography tips and tricks

071. Personal experiments

072. Personal campaigns (for example, eating only one kind of food for a year to support a cause and then documenting the results in a series of articles or on your blog)

073. Photo essay

074. Food-related etiquette and dos and don’ts (for example, what to bear in mind during Japanese tea ceremonies, Russian vodka drinking, English afternoon tea, etc.)

075. Food souvenirs to bring back from your trips

076. Foods to take on your trips

077. F&B (food and beverage) industry news & updates

078. Best farm-to-table/eco-friendly meal experiences

079. Food-related quirks and oddities

080. A food-related problem you’ve been facing and how you’re solving it (or have solved it)

081. First-hand narration of a food-related lifestyle (e.g. searching for vegan food in a predominantly non-vegetarian place)

082. Food trends

083. Opinion on a food trend or news development

084. Column or diary based on your personal food experiences

085. Food fiction

086. Food poems

087. Food-focused travelogues

088. Tracing the timeline of a food

089. Tracing the timeline of an ingredient

090. Tracing the timeline of a cuisine

091. Tracing the timeline of an heirloom recipe

092. Tracing the timeline of a restaurant

093. Tracing the timeline of a cooking equipment

094. Tracing the timeline of a cooking technique

095. Tracing the timeline of a cooking tradition or practice

096. Tracing the timeline of a food career

097. Tracing the timeline of a food business

098. Tracing the timeline of a food/eating lifestyle

099. How-to articles

100. Food-related case studies, white papers, or research

101. Food-themed blog campaigns

102. Food-themed SM posts and campaigns

103. Obituaries and ‘In Memoriam’ stories

104. Scenarios—predictions of future events based on current trends or developments

105. Food tech

106. Food app review

107. Food app preview/first look

108. Food app profile

109. Food app comparison

110. Food polls

111. Food contests

112. Food show or video—concept, research, script

113. Food event—concept, research, script

114. ‘A to Z’ food stories

115. Press releases

116. Teaching stories for food techniques

117. Teaching stories for food equipment operation

118. Ad & product copy

119. Advertorials

120. Translations

121. Infographics

122. Tables, charts, diagrams

123. Transcripts of commentaries, event panels, talk shows, podcasts, etc.

124. Website & app content

126. Catalogues, brochures, manuals, and other promotional materials

127. Mission, vision, and purpose statements for a food business

128. The first, last, best, worst, smallest, largest in food

129. Shopping lists

130. Pantry & kitchen showcases

131. Celebrity food experiences & recos

132. Food experiences and recos by chefs or any other food expert

133. Exploring the science behind a dish, equipment, cooking tradition, or technique

134. Food farming stories

135. Health & nutrition

136. Best (and worst) cooking shows

137. Cooking show review

138. Interview with the team of a cooking show

139. Dream breakfast, lunch, and dinner

140. Most memorable breakfast, lunch, or dinner

141. Dream kitchen and pantry

142. Bucket list of restaurants

143. Bucket list of foods

144. Wish list of food and cooking products

145. Your diet plan

146. Cooking and eating routine

147. Favourite (and least favourite) cookbooks

148. Cookbook reviews

149. Cookbook author interviews

150. Face-off between two foods

151. Best foods for a given season

152. Best foods for a given reason (such as heartbreak, grief, exams)

153. Foods for specific kinds of travel (for example, treks, picnics, camping)

154. If you could have only food for a year or lifetime

155. Weird, unusual foods

156. Your dream wedding spread

157. Nutritional profile of a dish

158. Breaking convention (for example, having dessert as your first course, eating Maggi with dahi or pickle, ordering a mac-and-cheese ice cream)

159. Word clouds

160. Tasting notes

161. Review of a tasting session

162. Nutritional pros and cons of a dish, ingredient, cuisine, technique, equipment, or lifestyle

163. Best restaurants, cafés, bars in a particular area or destination within a specific budget

164. BTS of an iconic restaurant dish

165. Tracing the birthplace of an iconic dish (and if possible, interviewing its inventor)

166. The best cameras and/or smartphones for food photography

167. Camera/smartphone review for food photography

168. Best food scenes in movies and TV shows

169. The most expensive food experiences

170. The cheapest food experiences

171. Comparing the cheapest, mid-priced, and most expensive versions of the same food

172. Food-themed newsletter

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Top 10 Mouthwatering Food Writing Examples That Will Leave You Hungry for More

Discover our guide with mouthwatering food writing examples that will make you want to lick the page as you imagine the tantalizing flavors the writers describe.

Have you ever read something and felt you could taste what the writer described? If so, then you’ve read a great example of food writing. This particular writing style covers many specific genres and voices, but at its heart, it’s about making you want to eat and enjoy your food. But what makes a food writer stand out from other types of authors? What makes one restaurant reviewer a better read than another?

Food writing is unlike other types of copywriting, where you can write how you think. There are many popular articles about eating healthy food . Food writing must make the people who read the work desire to eat the food. It has to leave them with mouths watering and stomachs grumbling.

This type of writing is a very creative nonfiction genre, and if you’re ready to dabble in it, one of the best ways to learn what to do is to look at examples of great food writers. This list will showcase some of the best examples of food writing that you can learn about as you work toward becoming a food writer. You might also be interested in our tips for writing about food .

• 1. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
• 2. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• 3. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
• 4. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
• 5. Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl
• 6. How to Cook a Wolf by M.F.K. Fisher
• 7. Heat by Bill Buford
• 8. Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
• 9. My Life in France by Julia Child
• 10. Feast: Food to Celebrate Life by Nigella Lawson

Start Reading About Food to Become a Food Writer

1. the art of eating  by m.f.k. fisher.

The Art of Eating  deserves a top spot on the list because its author, M.F.K. Fisher, was one of the first food writers to be published. This book combines five of her works into one volume:  Serve it Forth, Consider the Oyster, How to Cook a Wolf, The Gastronomical Me  and  An Alphabet of Gourmets . In this book, Fisher uses wit to give her opinion about food, how to best prepare and how to eat it.

Interestingly, even though the book was first published in 1954 and the first work it contains was published in 1937, her descriptive language makes it applicable to modern readers. After all, we all must eat, and Fisher believes we might as well enjoy doing so. Here are some examples of Fisher’s descriptive, witty language as she describes good food.

• “[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.”
• “You may feel that you have eaten too much…But this pastry is like feathers – it is like snow. It is in fact good for you, a digestive!”
• “It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others.”

• Used Book in Good Condition
• M.F.K. Fisher (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 784 Pages - 02/20/2004 (Publication Date) - Harvest (Publisher)

2. The Omnivore’s Dilemma  by Michael Pollan

In   The Omnivore’s Dilemma , Michael Pollan investigates the environmental effects of the foods humans consume. He delves into the dilemmas created by the food industry. Pollan opens the book by following a calf from birth to slaughter, exploring everything the animal eats and the overall environmental effect of raising it. Next, he takes his investigative journalism to the organic food world, discovering that going “organic” or “free range” may not be as beneficial as the labels make one think.

Finally, he explores sustainable options, such as multi-species farms with practical cycles that support the growth of multiple types of food or the option to revert to hunter-gatherer style eating. The Omnivore’s Dilemma uses investigative journalism to explore the realities of the food industry. Below are some examples of Pollan’s writing:

• “The Omnivore’s Dilemma is about the three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. Different as they are, all three food chains are systems for doing more or less the same thing: linking us, through what we eat, to the fertility of the earth and the energy of the sun.”
• “Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a link in a food chain that begins with a particular plant growing in a specific patch of soil (or, more seldom, stretch of sea) somewhere on earth.”
• “You are what you eat, it’s often said, and if that is true, then what we mostly are is corn – or, more precisely, processed corn.”

• Pollan, Michael (Author)
• 450 Pages - 08/28/2007 (Publication Date) - Penguin (Publisher)

3. Kitchen Confidential  by Anthony Bourdain

Kitchen Confidential  is a food memoir by Chef Anthony Bourdain. In the book, he explores not only his cooking but also his sordid past. The book is filled with humor and explores some of the tricks of the trade of the world’s most elite chefs. This memoir made Anthony Bourdain a well-known name in the food world long before he created his television shows. Below are examples of Bourdain’s writing:

• “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans … are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.”
• “Garlic is divine. Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don’t deserve to eat garlic.”
• “At the base of my right forefinger is an inch-and-a-half diagonal callus, yellowish-brown in color, where the heels of all the knives I’ve ever owned have rested, the skin softened by constant immersion in water. It distinguishes me immediately as a cook, as someone who’s been on the job a long time. You can feel it when I shake my hand, just as I feel it on others of my profession. It’s a secret sign, a sort of Masonic handshake without the silliness.”

4. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat  by Samin Nosrat

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat  is a  New York Times  bestselling book by Samin Nosrat. The work shows the author’s approachable writing style as she discusses how to cook with the style of a calm, clear teacher. This writing style is not surprising because Nosrat is a teacher who has educated some of the world’s top chefs.

The book’s writing style is narrative, even though the author’s teaching people how to cook, and it has over 150 illustrations that help people understand how to implement the techniques she shares. It has 100 essential recipes and variations, making it a modern home chef’s go-to cookbook. Below are examples of  Samin Nosrat’s writing

• “Let all meats—except for the thinnest cuts—come to room temperature before you cook them. The larger the roast, the earlier you can pull it out of the fridge. A rib roast should sit out for several hours, while a chicken needs only a couple,”
• “Though we typically turn to sugar to balance out bitter flavors in a sauce or soup, it turns out that salt masks bitterness much more effectively than sugar. See for yourself with a little tonic water, Campari, or grapefruit juice, all of which are both bitter and sweet. Taste a spoonful, then add a pinch of salt and taste again. You’ll be surprised by how much bitterness subsides.”
• “Beef When solid, it’s called suet. Liquid, it’s called tallow.”

• More than 1 million copies sold * New York Times bestseller * Winner of the James Beard Award and multiple IACP Cookbook Awards * Available as a Netflix series *
• Hardcover Book
• Nosrat, Samin (Author)
• 480 Pages - 04/25/2017 (Publication Date) - Simon and Schuster (Publisher)

5. Tender at the Bone  by Ruth Reichl

Another food memoir,  Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table  by Ruth Reichl, recalls what life was like for a culinary legend who grew up in New York City and Connecticut in the 1950s. A master storyteller, Reichl can tell the familiar stories of life as a child and adolescent while tying these tales to the food she was surrounded by at the time. The book takes a linear approach to telling the story of Reichl’s childhood.

In many ways, she found her life defined by food, and through the retelling of the story, she weaves in plenty of humor and some of her favorite food recipes. This book is a  New York Times  bestseller, and reading it shows clearly why the author is one of the top writers for today’s best food magazines and essay columns. Below are examples of   Ruth Reichl’s writing:

• “We waited, eating resilient, deeply satisfying bread dipped in spicy oil that tasted exactly like fresh olives. Doug reached out and stroked my knee and I had a sudden conscious thought that I was happy.”
• “I was slowly discovering that if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.”
• “It was Mac who first made me think about the way food brought people together — and kept them apart.”

• Reichl, Ruth (Author)
• 320 Pages - 05/25/2010 (Publication Date) - Random House Trade Paperbacks (Publisher)

6.  How to Cook a Wolf  by M.F.K. Fisher

At its surface,   How to Cook a Wolf   is a cookbook. Yet it’s much more than that when you look a little closer. This book was published during World War II, and its many tips and tricks are about being resourceful and creative in the kitchen when supplies are scarce. In the book, she gives readers a “chin-up” attitude toward shortages, writing about foods that were available rather than ranting about those that weren’t.

The author believes that food, even when sparse, should still taste good and look appealing, and she provides practical tips on how to do this. The “wolf” in the title is the imaginary wolf at the door in times of scarcity, not a real wolf in someone’s kitchen. Here are some examples of M.F.K. Fisher’s writing:

• “All men are hungry. They always have been. They must eat, and when they deny themselves the pleasures of carrying out that need, they are cutting off part of their possible fullness, their natural realization of life, whether they are poor or rich.”
• “And any kitchen idiot would know enough to core the apples.”
• “I think soup-pots should be made fresh now and then, like people’s minds at the New Year. They should be emptied and scrubbed and started over again, with clean water, a few peppercorns, whatever little scraps are left from yesterday, and then today’s bones and lettuce leaves and cold toast and such. Set at the back of the stove and left to summer, with an occasional stir from the cook, they can make a fine, clear stock for sauces as well as a heartening broth.”

• 224 Pages - 10/01/1988 (Publication Date) - North Point Press (Publisher)

7. Heat  by Bill Buford

Author  Bill Buford  thought of himself as a decent cook, yet he always wondered what kind of cook he would be if he were working in a professional kitchen. When Mario Batali’s three-star restaurant in New York, Babbo, offered him training, he took it. Buford quickly found himself under the management of Batali, and it was not long before he ended up in an apprenticeship in Italy with some of the top culinary masters in the world.

  Heat  follows him on this journey. It serves as a memoir of the time in the kitchen while also chronicling Buford’s rise to fame in the world of food. The book also explores why food and food writing matters. It stands out among food writing because it shares personal experiences and shows behind-the-scenes looks at the world of food, all with plenty of passion woven in. Below are some examples of Buford’s writing style:

• “A dish was a failure because it hadn’t been cooked with love. A dish was a success because the love was so obvious. If you’re cooking with love, every plate is a unique event—you never allow yourself to forget that a person is waiting to eat it: your food, made with your hands, arranged with your fingers, tasted with your tongue.”
• “Cooked fat is delicious. Uncooked fat is not. Why do you stuff a goose or duck? Chefs today don’t know because they don’t learn the basics anymore. You stuff the bird so it cooks more slowly. With the empty cavity, you let in the heat, and the bird is cooked inside and out, and the meat is done before your fat is rendered. Stuff your bird with apple and sage, and the fat is rendered first.”
• “I found, cooking on the line, that I got a quiet buzz every time I made a plate of food that looked exactly and aesthetically correct and then handed it over the pass to Andy. If, on a busy night, I made, say, fifty good-looking plates, I had fifty little buzz moments, and by the end of service I felt pretty good.”

• Buford, Bill (Author)
• 336 Pages - 06/26/2007 (Publication Date) - Vintage (Publisher)

8. Blood, Bones & Butter  by Gabrielle Hamilton

Gabrielle Hamilton owns an acclaimed New York restaurant named Prune, and   Blood, Bones & Butter  is her memoir of how she journeyed through various kitchens to land her way in the ranks of the world’s top chefs. The book opens in the rural kitchen of her childhood home, then moves to her time exploring Europe, where she dined with strangers. Finally, she lands in Prune, where she faces many challenges in getting the restaurant off the ground. Throughout the book, she is raw and honest in her storytelling and weaves in many food topics. Below are some examples of Hamilton’s writing style:

• “It’s hard to cook for kids, and when something doesn’t appeal to them, instead of saying a polite no thank you, they instead break into a giant yuk face and shriek “eewww” right in front of you, as if you had no feelings at all.”
• “Because so much starving on that trip led to such an enormous amount of time fantasizing about food, each craving became fanatically particular. Hunger was not general, ever, for just something, anything, to eat. My hunger grew so specific I could name every corner and fold of it. Salty, warm, brothy, starchy, fatty, sweet, clean and crunchy, crisp and water, and so on.”
• “No future graduate-level feminism seminar would ever come within a mile of the force of that first paycheck. The conviction was instant and forever: If I pay my own way, I go my own way.”

• Great product!
• Hamilton, Gabrielle (Author)
• 320 Pages - 01/24/2012 (Publication Date) - Random House Trade Paperbacks (Publisher)

9. My Life in France  by Julia Child

Chef  Julia Child  is known for her cookbook  Mastering the Art of French Cooking  and her television show  The French Chef,  but her book  My Life in France  is more of a memoir exploring her time living in France and what it taught her about French cuisine and cooking. This period spent living in France gave her a passion for cooking and teaching about cooking. It explores the spirit Julia had to embrace as she honed her cooking and writing skills to become one of America’s top cooking personalities. Below are some examples of Julia Child’s writing:

• “Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you’ll have a marvelous time!”
• “Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, ‘scientific’ though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”
• “Good French cooking cannot be produced by a zombie cook.”

• julia child, french school,
• true life story, strong female personality
• inspiration
• Love for life, love for food
• humor, determination, discovery of one's self, true calling

10. Feast: Food to Celebrate Life  by Nigella Lawson

A list of the best food writing examples would not be complete without a cookbook making the ranks, and this one is a great choice. Food essay writer  Nigella Lawson  is known for her columns in well-known print publications, but she also has several bestselling cookbooks to her name, and  Feast: Food to Celebrate Life  is one of them.

In the book, Lawson pulls together step-by-step recipes and tips to pull off holiday celebratory feasts, but the meals are good enough to use year-round. Unlike many cookbooks, it brings plenty of humor into the recipes, and you can tell they’re written by someone who is a self-proclaimed food critic.

Below are examples of Nigella Lawson’s writing:

• “In which case, take off the foil, and add the golden paneer cubes, warm them through and revel in the glorious Bollywood brightness of the dish.”
• “Put the oil into a large skillet–one big enough to take all the ingredients later–and while it’s heating up, cut the paneer into 1/2-inch cubes. Tumble half of them into the hot oil, and fry until they are golden, removing to a double thickness of paper towel.”
• “We use food to mark occasions that are important to us in life.”

• Lawson, Nigella (Author)
• 480 Pages - 10/27/2004 (Publication Date) - Hyperion (Publisher)

Whether you’re considering a freelancing career as a food critic or want to learn more about your favorite foods, the best place to start is with these food writing examples. From cookbooks to memoirs to investigative journalism, these examples show that there are many ways to write about food, and you can use a variety of voices to do so too.

This also means there is room for a new voice in the food writing world. Studying them carefully will show you what it takes to write about food, and they may inspire you to find your own food writer’s voice. If you’re a foodie and a writer, consider transforming that into a lucrative career or side gig as a food writer.

Reading to begin writing? Check out our guide to self-publising on Amazon !

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

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15 Creative Food Writing Approaches

April 17, 2024

Food writing is not just about sharing recipes or reviewing restaurants. It's about capturing the essence of food and making it come alive through words.

Good food writing should be descriptive, engaging, and creative. It should make readers feel like they can taste the food, smell the aromas, and experience the pleasure of eating.

In this blog post, we'll discuss ten creative approaches to writing mouth-watering food content that will help you connect with your audience and bring your food writing to life.

Importance of Creative Writing in Food Content

Food writing is a highly competitive field; to stand out, you must be creative. The more unique and imaginative your writing is, the more likely it is to capture your audience's attention.

Creative writing can help you create an emotional connection with your readers, which is essential for building a loyal following.

By using creative approaches , you can make your food writing more interesting, engaging, and memorable.

15 Creative Approaches to Writing Mouth-watering Food Content

1. using descriptive language.

One of the most important aspects of good food writing is describing the food's flavors, textures, and aromas. Use sensory language to paint a picture for your readers.

For example, instead of saying, "This cake is delicious," say, "The rich chocolate flavor melts in your mouth, and the velvety texture is like a hug from a dear friend."

Therefore, as a food writer, it's essential to use language that describes the food and captures the essence of the experience.

2. Telling a Story

Food is often associated with memories and emotions. Use this to your advantage by telling a story about the food.

For example, if you're writing about a family recipe, share the history behind it or talk about the memories it brings up.

This will make your writing more personal and relatable., and will help your readers connect with the food on a deeper level.

3. Creating a Sense of Urgency

Use language that creates a sense of urgency to make your readers crave the food.

Use phrases like "Don't miss out on this limited-time dish" or "Get it while it's hot" to make your readers want to try the food as soon as possible.

4. Highlighting Unique Ingredients

If the food has unique ingredients, highlight them in your writing.

Talk about where they come from, how they're grown or harvested, and what makes them special. This will make your writing more informative and interesting.

5. Adding Humor

Food is often associated with joy and happiness. Use humor to add a light-hearted touch to your writing.

For example, you could say, "This burger is so big, you'll need to unhinge your jaw like a snake to take a bite."

6. Including Personal Experiences

Share your personal experiences with the food. Talk about where you first tried it or what it means to you.

This will make your writing more authentic and relatable.

7. Presenting Food as an Experience

Food is not just about sustenance; it's about the experience. Present the food as an experience rather than just a dish.

For example, if you're writing about a seafood restaurant, talk about the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore or the salty sea air in the breeze.

8. Incorporating Cultural References

Food is often tied to culture and tradition. Incorporate cultural references in your writing to add depth and significance.

For example, if you're writing about a Mexican dish, talk about the history behind it or what it represents in Mexican culture.

9. Using Analogies and Metaphors

Use analogies and metaphors to create vivid images in your reader's minds.

For example, you could say, "The sauce was as spicy as a volcano erupting," or "The cheese was like a warm blanket on a cold day."

10. Creating a Theme

Create a theme for your writing to tie everything together.

For example, if you're writing about comfort food, talk about how the dishes make you feel cozy and content. This will give your writing more structure and cohesiveness.

11. Sharing Tips and Techniques

Sharing cooking tips and techniques can be a great way to engage your readers and provide value.

For example, if you're writing about a complicated recipe, share some tips for making it easier or suggest alternative ingredients for those with dietary restrictions.

12. Interviewing Experts

Interviewing chefs, food bloggers, or other experts in the food industry can add credibility to your writing and provide unique insights.

Ask them about their favorite recipes, cooking techniques, or food trends they're excited about.

13. Creating a Food Tour Guide

If you're writing about a specific city or region, creating a food tour guide can be a fun and informative way to showcase the local cuisine.

Highlight the best restaurants, street vendors, and food markets, and include insider tips and recommendations.

14. Writing Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant reviews are a staple of food writing, but they don't have to be boring.

Use descriptive language to paint a picture of the restaurant's atmosphere, service, and of course, the food. Be honest in your assessment, but also provide constructive criticism.

15. Experimenting with Different Formats

Food writing doesn't have to be limited to blog posts or articles.

You can experiment with different formats like videos, podcasts, or social media posts. This can help you reach a wider audience and showcase your creativity.

Optimizing Your Food Blog for the Web

While the art of writing delectable food content does much of the heavy lifting, accounting for about 80% of your blog's appeal, it's the final 20% that involves fine-tuning your posts for the web that really amplifies your reach.

In today’s digital age, especially on platforms like Google, semantic SEO plays a critical role.

Following the SEO best practises focuses on the meaning behind the words, ensuring that the content not only resonates with human readers but also aligns with search engine algorithms, providing the best experience for users searching for culinary insights.

To make the most out of your food writing, leveraging tools such as LongShot AI can be a game-changer. This AI-powered assistant doesn't just assist with crafting engaging content but also enhances your blog's performance by evaluating and optimizing the semantic SEO score of your content.

With just a few clicks, it can fine-tune your post to ensure that it stands out in search engine results, potentially increasing your visibility and attracting more food enthusiasts to your blog. This strategic 20% effort in SEO can dramatically boost the impact of your blog, drawing more readers to relish the flavors you describe so vividly.

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Writing

Q1: what is food writing and why is it important.

Ans: Food writing is more than just sharing recipes or reviewing restaurants; it's about conveying the rich tapestry of experiences, emotions, and cultural significances that food embodies. It plays a crucial role in educating, entertaining, and connecting people through universal experiences of eating and enjoyment.

Q2: How can I make my food writing more engaging?

Ans: To captivate your audience, use vivid descriptive language that evokes the senses, share personal anecdotes or stories linked to the dishes, and include unique cultural or historical insights. Humor and creating a strong sense of place or atmosphere can also add to the engagement.

Q3: What are some tips for beginners in food writing?

‍ Ans: Start by writing about what you love and know best. Focus on describing your sensory experiences in detail and don't shy away from using vivid, evocative language. Reading widely in the genre can also provide inspiration and insight into various styles and techniques.

Q4: How can I differentiate my food blog from others?

Ans: Find a niche or a unique angle that sets your content apart, whether it's focusing on a specific cuisine, dietary preference, or the intersection of food and travel. Consistency in voice and perspective, along with high-quality, original photography, can also make your blog stand out.

Q5: How important is SEO for food writing online?

Ans: SEO is crucial for making your food content discoverable. By targeting specific keywords related to your content and following best SEO practices, you can increase the visibility of your blog on search engines, thereby attracting more readers.

Q6: Can using AI tools help improve my food writing?

Ans:  Yes, AI tools like LongShot AI can assist in not only generating creative content but also optimizing it for SEO. These tools can suggest keywords, check for SEO friendliness, and help craft content that is both engaging and likely to perform well in search engine rankings.

Q7: What is semantic SEO and how does it apply to food writing?

Ans: Semantic SEO involves understanding the intent and contextual meaning behind search queries. For food writing, this means creating content that not only includes keywords but also provides comprehensive information that answers potential questions readers might have about a topic.

Food writing is an art form that requires creativity, imagination, and skill. By using these ten creative approaches, you can make your food writing more engaging, interesting, and memorable. Experiment with storytelling, infuse your personality and explore different angles to spice up your food-related pieces.

To elevate your writing game even further, consider using LongShot AI, an exceptional AI writing assistant. LongShot AI combines the power of artificial intelligence with the nuances of human creativity, helping you craft compelling food content effortlessly. With features like recipe generation, ingredient suggestions, and SEO optimization, this tool is a game-changer for food writers and bloggers alike. Discover the possibilities and take your food content writing to new heights with LongShot AI .

Remember, the world of food is a vibrant tapestry of flavors and stories waiting to be shared. Embrace creativity, leverage the right tools, and let your words tantalize the taste buds of your readers.

Happy writing!

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28 Writing Prompts About Food

We’re all about food here – not just the yummy stuff, but also the stories and memories it cooks up.

Foodies, writers, anyone who loves a good bite (and a good read !), this is for you.

We’ve got some fun writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

Whether you’re a fancy food critic, a future bestseller author, or just someone who likes to describe food in a way that makes people drool, these prompts are your launchpad.

So grab a pen, fire up your computer, and get ready to write something delicious.

We’re about to embark on a flavor-filled adventure together, and trust us, it’s gonna be good!

Writing Prompts About Food

• Exploring the Memory Lane with Food : Reflect upon a dish from your childhood that left a lasting impression on you. It could be something that was cooked at home , or a dish that you tried in a restaurant. Remember the smells, tastes, and the emotions tied to that memory. What were the circumstances under which you ate it? Why does this dish hold a special place in your heart? Dive deep into the description, such that readers can almost taste the dish as they read your words.
• An Unexpected Food Adventure : Write about a time when you tried a cuisine or a dish you knew nothing about. How did the unknown elements ignite your curiosity? How did the food taste, and how did the experience change your perception about that cuisine or dish? Was it a pleasant surprise or a disappointment? Your task is to take readers on this unexpected culinary journey with you.
• Food as a Bridge Between Cultures : Consider a specific dish that originates from a culture different from your own. Research about its history , the traditional way of preparing it, and its cultural significance. Try cooking it yourself , if possible. How does understanding and experiencing this dish build a bridge between you and the foreign culture?
• The Recipe of Love : Explore the narrative of a family recipe passed down from generation to generation. What is the story behind it, and how has it evolved over the years? What memories are associated with it, and how does it feel to keep the tradition alive? Focus on the emotion and connection that the recipe embodies.
• The Science in your Kitchen : Choose a cooking method (like baking, grilling, fermenting, etc.) and write about the science behind it. How do these chemical reactions affect the taste, texture, and appearance of the food? Explain the transformation of raw ingredients into a culinary masterpiece using science.
• A Gastronomic Time Machine : Imagine if you had a chance to dine in any historical period. Where would you go, and what would you like to eat? It could be a royal feast during the Renaissance or a simple meal with the early humans. Describe the dishes, the ambiance, and the company. Detail the culinary aspects of the chosen historical period .
• The Life of a Cheesemaker : Step into the shoes of a traditional cheesemaker. What does a day in their life look like? Write about the process of making cheese, the hard work involved, and the satisfaction of crafting a product loved by many. Bring alive the nuances and challenges of cheesemaking .
• Food as a Medium of Protest : Over history, food has been used as a medium of protest, like the Boston Tea Party or the Salt March in India. Write about a hypothetical situation in the modern context where food becomes a symbol of resistance. How does this event unfold, and what changes does it bring about? Emphasize on how food becomes an instrument of change .
• Global Warming and Our Plates : In light of the growing concerns about global warming, write a piece about how it could potentially impact our food sources. Discuss the possible implications for agriculture, fisheries, and livestock, and how these changes could transform our diets in the future. Highlight the interconnection between climate change and our food system .
• A Culinary Voyage Around the World : Embark on a virtual culinary tour around the world. Pick a dish from each continent and describe them in depth – their origin , the traditional way of making them, their unique ingredients and how they taste. Your aim is to let the readers experience global flavors through your words .
• The Art of Food Presentation : Write about the importance of presentation in culinary art. How does the way food is plated and presented enhance its appeal and change our perception of taste? To illustrate, describe an experience where the presentation of a dish truly enhanced your dining experience. Focus on the visual allure of food.
• The Ethics of Eating : Reflect upon the ethical dimensions of eating in the modern world. This could include topics like veganism, organic farming, food waste, or fair trade. Choose one or more of these topics and discuss your perspective on it. Delve into the ethical considerations related to our food choices .
• Fusion Food – A Melting Pot of Cultures : Explore the concept of fusion food – dishes that combine elements of different culinary traditions. Have you ever created or tried a fusion dish? What were the challenges in balancing flavors, and what was the outcome? Express the creativity and innovation behind fusion cooking .
• Food and Fiction : Choose a book you’ve read where food plays a significant role . Discuss how the author uses food to enhance the story, build characters , or set the scene. How does this add to your reading experience? Analyze the relationship between food and literature .
• Food Therapy : Reflect on an experience where food has served as a comfort or therapy in a difficult time. It could be a simple homemade soup when you were unwell, or a favorite dish that uplifted your spirits during tough times. Describe the healing power of food .
• The Local Food Movement : Write about the local food movement in your community . Who are the farmers, artisans, and chefs involved in bringing locally grown food to the tables? How does this contribute to the economy, environment, and health of the community? Shed light on the importance of supporting local food .
• Revolutionizing Fast Food : Imagine you’ve been tasked with revolutionizing the fast-food industry to make it healthier while still maintaining its convenience and taste appeal. Describe your approach, the challenges you might face, and the outcome you envision. Focus on creating a balanced fusion of health and convenience in the fast-food industry .
• Future of Food – Insects as Protein : As the world grapples with feeding an ever-growing population, insects are being proposed as a sustainable source of protein. Write a piece exploring your thoughts on this. How would you introduce and market this concept to a reluctant audience? Discuss the potential of insects as a viable food source in the future .
• Feeding the World – Food Security in the 21st Century : Dive into the topic of food security. How does it impact different countries, and what are the underlying reasons for food insecurity? Imagine a feasible solution to this global issue, incorporating elements of technology , policy changes, or community efforts. Highlight the importance of ensuring food security for all .
• The Magic of Fermentation : Write about the process of fermentation in food. Pick a fermented food item you enjoy, such as yogurt, kimchi, or sourdough bread. Describe the process of making it, the science behind it, and why it appeals to your palate. Emphasize on the unique transformation brought about by fermentation .
• A World without Bees : Explore the hypothetical scenario of a world without bees and the implications it would have on our food system, particularly in regard to pollination and honey production. How would this change our diets and agricultural practices? Explore the vital role of bees in our food ecosystem .
• The Power of Spices : Pick a spice and delve into its history, uses, and the flavors it imparts. It could be a common spice like pepper, or something more exotic. What cuisines prominently feature this spice, and what dishes would be incomplete without it? Dive deep into the world of flavors and aromas encapsulated in spices .
• Foraging – A Step Back to Nature : Write about the practice of foraging for food. This could be based on a personal experience, or a well-researched imagination of a foraging trip. Discuss the types of foods you could gather, and the survival skills you might need. Capture the essence of sourcing food directly from nature .
• Edible Art – The Rise of Gourmet Desserts : Explore the world of gourmet desserts. Discuss the creativity, precision, and skill required to create visually stunning and palate-pleasing desserts. Describe an experience of crafting or tasting such a dessert. Highlight the artistic side of creating gourmet desserts .
• Food in Space : Imagine the future of food for astronauts as space travel becomes more common. How would meals be prepared and consumed in zero gravity? What would be the challenges in providing nutritionally balanced, appetizing meals? Consider current technologies and potential future developments. Your task is to envision the future of gastronomy in space .
• The Impact of Covid-19 on Food Habits : Write about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected our relationship with food. Did it change the way we cook, shop for groceries, or eat out? How did it impact food businesses and delivery services? Reflect on your own experiences and the wider societal implications. Focus on the long-lasting changes brought about by the pandemic on our food habits .
• Food in Social Media : Social media platforms are filled with food-related content, from photos of beautifully plated dishes to recipe videos. How does this visibility of food affect our eating habits, cooking practices, and perceptions about food? Discuss the positive and negative aspects. Analyze the influence of social media on our food culture .
• Food Waste Challenge : Consider the issue of food waste in our society. Propose a creative and practical solution to minimize food waste at a household level. It could be a unique composting method, an innovative app, or a community initiative. Your task is to design a feasible strategy to tackle food waste .

Founder and Chief Content Curator @ Digital Phrases

I'm a writer, words are my superpower, and storytelling is my kryptonite.

Food Writing: Tips and Examples for Success

by Kaelyn Barron

If you have a passion for food and a way with words, food writing might be an excellent way for you to combine your two loves while growing your skill set.

From cookbooks to memoirs, food writing offers countless opportunities for writers to express themselves and their love for a good meal.

In this post, we’ll show you some of the best examples of food writing, along with tips for how you can get started.

What Is Food Writing?

Food writing is a nonfiction category of writing that focuses on the topic of food. It often takes the form of creative nonfiction in memoirs and essays, but it can also include histories and scientific explanations.

Food writing is topic-centered, and not considered a genre in itself. Rather, it can encompass or borrow from a wide range of genres, including journalism, recipe books, memoirs, or travelogues.

Examples of Food Writing

Here are some exemplary works of food writing that show how diverse the field can be.

“The Modern Hunter-Gatherer” by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan is best known for his writings that explore the socio-cultural impacts of food.

In “ The Modern Hunter-Gatherer ,” Pollan describes his first experience hunting, offering his perspective of the entire process, from the kill to the presentation at the table.

“ Hers is, by the standards of animal death, a good one. But could I really say that yet? What if it turned out I couldn’t eat this meat? Her death then will have been pointless, a waste. I realized then that the drama of the hunt doesn’t end until the animal arrives at the table.”

“Home Cooking Can Be a Feminist Act” by Nigella Lawson

In this essay , food writer Nigella Lawson insists that she’s not a chef; rather, she takes pride in being a home cook, and encourages others to stop saying they’re “just” a home cook.

Lawson explains that home cooking is often devalued because “traditionally, chefs [have] been male and paid; home cooking was ‘women’s work,’ unwaged and taken for granted, sentimentally prized but not essentially valued or respected.”

But women can reclaim the title of home cook by taking pride in the work they do to maintain kitchens, whether they do so professionally or in their own homes.

“Cooking is also, supremely, a creative act. By that I mean not an art but a craft. I leave the Art with a capital A to chefs. For the home cook, or for this home cook in particular, there is something less lofty and more physical: the feel of the dough in my fingers, the scent of a lemon as I zest the skin and the aromatic oils spritz in the air, the sizzle of onions in a pan, the darkly gleaming beauty of an eggplant. Cooking provides deep aesthetic pleasure though it is manual work.”

“Don’t Eat Before Reading This” by Anthony Bourdain

This 1999 article in The New Yorker is what led to Anthony Bourdain’s breakout book, Kitchen Confidential .

The title pretty much says it all—Bourdain spills trade secrets from the food and restaurant industry, including why you probably don’t want to order fish on a Monday.

The article was a shocking exposé that opened readers’ eyes to some not-so-pleasant realities of their favorite restaurants, but it also introduced Bourdain as a writer with unparalleled talent.

“ Good food, good eating, is all about blood and organs, cruelty and decay. “

How to Write About Food

These 7 tips will help you become a more effective food writer, whether you write columns, books, or blog posts.

1. Don’t be picky.

This may seem obvious, but you probably shouldn’t set out to be a food writer if you’re not willing to try a whole lot of foods.

If you’re a culinary expert, then you’ll be expected to have a wide range of knowledge across different cuisines—that’s a knowledge you can only acquire if you aren’t afraid to try new things.

And even if you aren’t an expert and your writing focuses more on a layperson’s experiences with food, you’ll still need to be open to more “adventurous” plates. After all, your audience likely wants to read about dishes or techniques they’ve never tried before—not the same thing they have for dinner every Tuesday.

2. Capture the experience.

Look for multi-sensory ways to describe food and the experience of eating. When you eat, you often engage multiple senses, so don’t just talk about what your tastebuds are experiencing.

A fun way to challenge yourself is to ban the words “taste” and “flavor” from your writing. Write about what the food is or does . Think about what you’re also seeing, smelling, touching, and even hearing.

The goal of most food writing is to tell your readers what the food experience is like, or will be like for them should they ever try that dish or travel to the region you’re covering.

That said, expand your scope to include more than just the food. You can write about the environment and atmosphere around you to create a truly multi-sensory experience for your readers. Make them feel that they’re in the room with you, even if they never get to visit the exact same place.

3. Don’t forget the people.

On the surface, food writing is about food. But if you look deeper, you’ll see that it’s really about people and their land, culture, history, and traditions.

Consider who was involved in making the meal, as well as the dish’s history. How did it start, and where is it now? Has it been modified, adapted, or appropriated by other cultures?

Talk to the people who prepared the food, as well as those who eat it regularly. Food writing offers unique opportunities for storytelling, so unless your writing is strictly academic or expository, try to weave context into your coverage of the cuisine. Don’t forget the human element!

4. What’s new to you isn’t necessarily “strange.”

There are some words you just shouldn’t use in your food writing. A certain dish may seem “odd,” “strange,” or “weird” to you, but it might be a common, even central part of other cultures.

Avoid words like those listed above in your food writing. Even if your intentions are good, these words carry negative connotations and indicate to a limited worldview on your part.

Similarly, you should use terms like “cheap” or even “inexpensive” with caution, Just because something seems affordable to you doesn’t mean it is for locals.

These are just some ethical tips regarding your word choice in food writing. However, you should also keep an eye out for words that are overused in the food writing world. These include “authentic,” “elevated,” and “hidden gem,” just to name a few. Always keep a thesaurus handy!

5. Consult experts or locals.

If you’re exploring a food territory that’s new to you, it’s a good idea to consult experts or locals who can provide feedback and make sure your coverage is accurate, but also respectful of the local culture.

They can help you with the proper terminology and spelling, provide helpful context, and offer insights that will make your piece more engaging and inspiring for your readers.

Do as much research as you can about the food you’re covering, its history, the region it comes from, how it’s prepared, and how it’s eaten. Failing to do your research will inevitably show in your writing and make you look like an amateur at best, careless and possibly offensive at worst.

6. Try a variety of writing styles.

The world of food writing offers endless possibilities, so don’t pigeonhole yourself into just writing reviews.

Branching out into other styles will not only build your repertoire, but also challenge you to think about food in different ways.

You may specialize in a certain type of food writing, but try writing a mix of reviews, recipes, features, or history pieces.

Mixing it up will also help keep you from growing bored or jaded. Being a food critic might sound like a thrilling job title, but after you’ve written your fifteenth piece on the best burgers in your city, it might be time to take a break or try something new (for your mind and your stomach’s sake!).

7. Embrace different forms of media.

Yes, this is an article about food writing , but if you’re trying to build your platform and break out as an authoritative voice on food, you should embrace social media and other outlets.

Since so much of the food experience is visual, create content for Instagram and challenge yourself to write about food with a restricted word count. You can even turn your reviews or feature pieces into TikTok videos!

Become a Food Writer

Like sports writing or nature writing , food writing can be a very interesting and exciting path for writers of creative nonfiction.

If you’re not sure where to start, try starting your own blog or social media channel that showcases your work. This is a great way to practice your food writing skills while also growing an audience.

Have you ever tried food writing? Tell us what you think of this niche in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• Sports Writing: Types, Examples, and Tips for Better Reporting
• Exploring Nature Writing: Examples and Tips for Writing About the Wild
• What Is Creative Nonfiction? Definitions, Examples, and Guidelines
• The Best Books About Cooking: 14 Must-Reads for Aspiring Chefs and Foodies

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

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Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food

Useful Tips, Interviews, and Stories to Inspire Food Writers and Bloggers

10 Food Writing Prompts to Try

April 14, 2020 by diannejacob 4 Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my free newsletter . Thanks for visiting!

People love food writing prompts. Readers give me good feedback about my food writing exercises in each chapter of Will Write for Food . And when I give out a prompt during a live class, students get going. They hunch over their paper and scribble away, absorbed in their task. Many want to keep writing when I say it’s time to stop. 

So now it’s your turn. I found these prompts below in a file drawer I cleaned out. I’d give credit if I knew who created them! These questions are interesting to me because they’re not the usual. They create emotion in the writer. Provoking emotion in readers is a sign of good writing — maybe that will be a natural consequence of your experience? 

Memories are some of the most rewarding subjects to write about, regardless of whether they’re good or bad. That’s because we love to write about ourselves. We are experts on our own behavior and back story. We have endless fascinating material. Now’s your chance to get some of it down.

So pick one or two of these. Allow yourself to write whatever comes up. Remember that food writing can be sensuous. Try to engage touch, taste, hear, see and smell. Set a timer if you like, for maybe 10 minutes. 

Need a reason to write? Try a few of these food writing prompts:

• What do you eat to remember?
• What do you eat to forget?
• Which food is your enemy?
• Which food is a symbol of your childhood? 
• What must you consume in a ritualized manner?
• Which food have you forbidden yourself from eating and why?
• Which food defines you?
• What do you eat to bring up bittersweet memories?
• What do you eat too much of, every time?
• Which food gives you the strength to go on?

If you tried this, did something unexpected come up? Let me know about your experience.

You might also like:

• Q&A: How Pie guru Kate McDermott Found her Voice
• Speaking Your Truth
• Molly Wizenberg: “Let Your Writing Speak for Itself, and Be Proud of It”

(Photo by Aaron Burden  on  Unsplash.)

Reader Interactions

April 14, 2020 at 8:13 pm

Thanks Dianne, I’ve put these prompts in my diary starting tomorrow to do one every day. I have a feeling I’ll be asking for more at the end of 10 days. Brilliant idea.

April 19, 2020 at 1:23 pm

I’m so impressed, Sally! I hope it leads to something useful.

April 15, 2020 at 9:33 am

Dianne, I love that first paragraph! I haven’t bought a single roll of toilet paper since all this started because I already had some. And I’ve baked bread, including wild yeast sourdough, all my life. But oddly enough, just yesterday my husband asked for a bread lesson! So today I will have him at my side, duplicating everything I do, to make a large loaf of classic white sandwich bread. I was stunned! Must try a few of these intriguing prompts.

April 16, 2020 at 10:45 am

At last, Jean, you’re joining the crowd. I’m sure there will be a photo on Instagram, right? I put mine up the other day, except I purchased my loaf.

Yes I hope you will try the prompts. They are not the usual.

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Writing prompts | Creative Writing 101

9 food-related writing prompts, from good nights to food fights..

The Fiction Writer’s Den

Hi there, writers! Time for another list of writing prompts . I share one every Monday, hoping to help a few sparks of inspiration come your way.

If you are doing the 💯 Story Challenge, or just want to increase your output of short stories or…

Written by JF Danskin

Writing fiction (fantasy especially) and poetry, enthusiast for creativity, collaboration, community. An Editor at the Fiction Writer's Den (he/him)

Text to speech

Delicious Writing: Food Writing Examples from Students

by Michael Lydon

How does writing work? Why is it that if we arrange the graphic symbols we call letters into words, each word containing one, two, three, five or more of these letters, we end up with a group of graphic symbols that may mean something to ourselves or other humans, that communicate an emotion , an idea , a picture , a sound , a smell , a memory , a taste , or a touch ? Like so:

The boy threw a ball to his friend.

Those twenty-seven letters, plus the spaces that define where the words begin, and the period that marks where the sentence ends, communicate a picture of human life that we can easily see and understand. Write the same letters divided by the same spaces but in a different order, and you may get a brief bit of meaningless gobbledeegook:

Eht oyb wrhet a blal ot sih efidnr.

What’s the difference between the two? Simply this: the first means something, the second means nothing. What does mean mean ? Mean means containing and communicating some small aspect of life—like the two children playing catch. The bare meaning of the first sentence—a boy throwing a ball to another child—is thin and flat—but my imagination has no difficulty enriching it by adding details: sunshine and clouds, green grass and leafy trees, a barking dog, a honking car horn.

This is the goal of nearly all writing: to use words to show us what life is truly like. Words can show how writing can capture any aspect of life, but after reading your scrumptious pieces on the joys of eating, I thought, why not, for this column, focus on food, mm, mm yummy-in-the-tummy good food!

Food Writing Examples

Let’s let Kylieinwonderland from New Zealand get us started on the first course:

…a lasagna oozing with cheese and still warm from the oven, freshly picked plums with juice that runs down our chins as we take the first bite, fish and chips wrapped up in paper…

Note the six specific taste words—lasagna, cheese, plums, juice, fish, chips—and the five words that suggest food—oozing, warm, oven, chins, bite—for a total of eleven food-related words out of thirty four.

Fond food memories awaken Daisy’s childhood:

   A colorful salad, artfully arranged on a plate. The feel of sticky bread dough in your hands. The crunch of a chip, perfectly thin that just snaps when you bite it.  The scent of cinnamon wafting through the air. The taste of warm chocolate, as you dig in to a fresh chocolate chip cookie. This is my childhood.

—memories well supported by Daisy’s visual, sound, taste, texture, and smell words:  colorful, sticky, crunch, scent, cinnamon, chocolate, cookie.

Like Daisy’s cookies, food takes HannahC. deep into memories of childhood, in her case drooling over the grilled cheese sandwiches her Dad used to make every Saturday afternoon—she liked them “the cheesier the better”

When I was little, every Saturday afternoon, my Dad would make grilled cheese sandwiches. But at the time I couldn’t say grilled cheese, so I would say “girled cheese sandwiches” But no matter how wrong I pronounced it, my Dad made the best. It was amazing how he timed the bread on the heated side, so perfectly that both sides were equally golden brown and the cheese was the perfect melted point.

Jeylan wants us to taste the spicy gumbos he loved as a boy on a Louisiana shrimp boat:

It’s warm. Not like a soup, but like a bubble bath. Smooth stock runs down my throat and the fragrance of a fisherman’s blazing afternoon in a shrimp boat on the bayou envelops my nose. If you tried gumbo from a Black grandmother, you would know what I mean. With a kitchen cabinet overflowing with Cajun seasonings and spices growing up, I never knew how good I had it.

Lincoln W, from the US, wants us to see and taste crickets as stalwart soldiers in the green revolution:

People often think of crickets as nasty and inedible altogether. This is factually incorrect. Crickets are nutritious and will provide a great source of protein for future generations. Crickets are also easy to cultivate and farm. The most important factor is that they will help us cut back on emissions.

Seba from New Zealand looks back to baking bread as an ancient tradition:

There is an art to making bread. It’s in the flour and the water. It’s in the yeast and the honey. It’s in the push and pull of how you knead the dough, in the waiting for the bread to rise, in the patience required for such a simple skill. It is an art I learned from my mother, and one that she learned from her mother, learned from her mother. One of my earliest memories is baking.

Red Cat from Singapore loves his grandmother’s rich fish stew.

I stared into the gold liquid steaming before me, a fish head sticking out, mouth agape and eyeball barely attached to the socket. I breathed in deeply and the memories flooded back instantly. Images of my grandmother—my Nenek—bringing in a white bowl full of pindang to the dining table materialized before me and I began to dive in. I sifted through the lemongrass and asam and scooped up a chunk of soft red snapper flesh…

Tiff.any remembers learning on her first day in kindergarten that the stuffed grape leaves she loved, her classmates found icky:

“What is that?” I hear a girl from across the table say. I look over to see that she is asking me.   “It smells gross.”   I go to respond when another kid seems to take interest in my lunch too. “Yeah, what is that?” they ask with disgusted faces.   I look at them in partial confusion. It is my first day of kindergarten, sitting in my assigned seat at lunch. How do they not know what grape leaves are?

Let’s look back and see how far writing about food has taken us: to tastes, of course, but also to colors and sounds and touches; to memories of childhood, family, and school; to humor and affection; to love. How did all that happen? By you Write-the-Worlders using words enriched by meaning, by using words that conjure up plain, clear, vivid pictures of human life.

And remember, we did all this with taste words about food. We could fill as many pages using sound words, picture words, touch words, smell words, emotion words.

The next time I sit down at my desk to write something, anything, I’ll remind myself to use words as rich and as packed with tasty meanings as the waffles my mother used to make Saturday mornings, me smearing them with butter, drowning them in golden maple syrup, begging for seconds, and washing them down with tall glasses of home-squeezed orange juice.

About Michael Lydon

Michael Lydon is a writer and musician who lives in New York City. Author of many books, among them Rock Folk , Boogie Lightning , Ray Charles: Man and Music, and Writing and Life . A founding editor of Rolling Stone , Lydon has written for many periodicals as well, the Atlantic Monthly , New York Times , and Village Voice . He is also a songwriter and playwright and, with Ellen Mandel, has composed an opera, Passion in Pigskin. A Yale graduate, Lydon is a member of ASCAP, AFofM local 802, and on the faculty of St. John’s University.

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41 Food Writing Prompts: Fun Ideas to Write About

Even your most reluctant writers will enjoy responding to these fun food writing prompts. 

Writing about food is a great creative writing exercise, as it often requires the writer to explain a variety of senses. 

Discussing food may involve describing its appearance, texture, smell, and taste. 

These high-interest food writing prompts help students of all ages sharpen their writing skills, stretch their imaginations, and express their thoughts. 

So use these food writing prompts for fun writing ideas and more.

Food Writing Prompts

Find here a collection of fun food writing prompts that even engage reluctant writers.

1. Describe your favorite food.

2. Write about a time that you tried a new food, and it turned out to be quite disgusting.

3. Share how to prepare a special meal.

3. What is the worst food you have eaten in your life? Describe the experience of eating the food.

4. Write an advertisement for your favorite food product.

5. Describe the ultimate ice cream sundae.

6. Tell the pros and cons of hunting for food.

7. Share about a time when you ate a special meal with your family.

8.Explain, step-by-step, how to make a sandwich.

9. Write the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables every day.

10. Describe your favorite restaurant.

11. You have been put in charge of planning a special meal for dinner. Describe your menu.

12 Without telling its name, describe your favorite dessert.

13. If you could only eat one meal or food item for the rest of your life, what would you eat and why?

14. What food would you like to try for the first time and why?

15. Write the pros and cons of cooking instead of eating out.

16. Tell the characteristics of a picky eater.

17. Compare and contrast honey and sugar.

18. Describe all your favorite Thanksgiving foods.

19. Share an art project idea that you can make out of food.

20. Compare and contrast a supermarket and a gas station.

21. Explain all the benefits of owning a garden.

22. Invent a new flavor of ice cream. Describe it.

23. Imagine you turned on the kitchen faucet one day and chocolate milk poured out. Write what happens next.

24. Provide examples and non-examples of healthy food.

25. List as many kitchen items as you can think of, and write a description of each.

26. In what ways can people with food allergies cope?

27. Imagine that you manage a restaurant. Create a menu for the restaurant. Provide a short description and a price for each item on your menu.

28. The headline reads, “Food Fight Breaks Out in Local Restaurant!” . Write the news story.

29. Create a healthy meal plan for seven days.

30. Using the five senses, describe ice cream.

31. State the similarities and differences between food from your culture vs. food from another culture.

32. In your opinion, what are the best foods and beverages to keep people energized? Why?

33. What foods should you never feed to a cat or dog and why?

34. Describe your life as a worm living inside an apple.

35. Imagine that you are preparing for a long hike through the woods. The hike will take three days to complete. What food will you bring for the trek? Include enough food for all three days.

36. What are the benefits of responding to food writing prompts?

37. Summarize the lunch break you had today.

38. Write a few similes or metaphors to describe a lollipop.

39. Give instructions for making a popcorn necklace or bracelet.

40. Describe the most delicious birthday cake you’ve ever eaten.

41. As you’re responding to one of the food writing prompts, your eraser turns into a lollipop! Write about what happens next.

42. Describe the perfect breakfast.

43. Write a grocery list for a witch.

44. Compare and contrast two fruits or two vegetables.

45. Would you rather have pepperoni pizza with licorice on top or popcorn with ketchup? Why?

46. Write a few math word problems that involve food.

47. Describe a bumper sticker to advertise being vegetarian.

48. Share the pros and cons of being a vegetarian.

49. Describe a watermelon to someone who has never seen or eaten one.

50. Convince your parents to take you to a food festival next weekend.

51. Write an article for the school newsletter convincing students why avoiding junk food is a good idea.

Final Thoughts: Writing Prompts About Food

Now you have a ready-supply of food writing prompts to use for various purposes.

As an extension activity, do a few food activities and crafts .

For more food writing prompts, see turkey writing prompts .

15 Tasty Creative Writing Prompts

by Melissa Donovan | Mar 24, 2020 | Creative Writing Prompts | 4 comments

Creative writing prompts that are good enough to eat.

Today’s post features a selection of prompts from 1200 Creative Writing Prompts . Enjoy!

We all want our writing to be compelling, even mesmerizing. One effective way to captivate readers is to engage their senses.

When you engage a reader’s sense of sight, smell, sound, touch, or taste, you illicit a physiological response to your writing, and the reader will connect with it on a deeper, sensory level.

Food is a fantastic way to stimulate readers’ senses, because food has the rare ability to affect any or all of the senses. We see food, smell it, touch it, and taste it. We even hear it. Just think about french fries sizzling in a greasy skillet. Mmm.

Creative Writing Prompts — Good Enough to Eat

Choose one of the creative writing prompts below and write a story, a poem, an essay, or a journal entry. Try to convey each of the five senses in whatever you write (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch).

• Write about a banana split: three scoops of ice cream with banana halves on either side and a big mound of whipped cream on top laced with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped nuts—all topped off with a plump red cherry.
• After a light but satisfying meal, you order dessert. It’s rich, sweet, and freshly baked. You bite into it and your taste buds explode with delight.
• Write about the smell of cheesy, doughy, saucy, spicy pizza baking in the oven.
• You dip your chip into a bowl of salsa, and when you take a bite, your mouth goes up in red-hot flames.
• Write about the fizzing sound of cola being poured into a glass full of ice cubes.
• You’re feeling under the weather, so you put the teapot on. Soon it starts to scream.
• Write about the taste of medicine: cherry-flavored cough syrup.
• Describe a grand feast: the spread of a holiday meal.
• Write about waking up to the smell of hot, freshly brewed coffee.
• It’s Halloween and you’re bobbing for apples. You stick your face in the cool water, chomp around searching for purchase, and feel the apples bumping against your face and floating away from you. Then you get a ripe little apple lodged firmly between your teeth.
• Write about the sound in your head when you munch on crispy chips or crunchy crackers.
• You’re digging your fingers through a box of hot, buttered, salted popcorn in a dark movie theater.
• Write about the squishy sensation of kneading dough between your fingers and the smooth texture of it when you pat it and roll it out.
• There’s a big bowl of chilled, fresh summer fruit in the fridge. It’s colorful, juicy, and sweet.
• You’re driving through town with your windows down, and you pass that intersection where you can smell all the fast food restaurants.

Did you find these creative writing prompts helpful or challenging? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. And keep writing!

Very motivational tips, thanks Melissa, but now I want an oven baked pizza for lunch!

Thanks, Anna. Pizza always sounds good to me!

I like that these prompts are also vegetarian-friendly 🙂

I like that someone noticed!

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Food Writing So Good You Can Taste It by Dianne Jacob

Dianne Jacob

• 22 December 2021

American author Dianne Jacob’s book, Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir, and More, is an essential reference book for food writers and food bloggers that has won two international awards from the Cordon D’Or and the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. In this piece from the Writing.ie archives, we asked Dianne what the essential ingredients for successful food writing are.

Most food writing is about eating, so your challenge is to express yourself without resorting to cliché or an endless string of adjectives. The successful food writing techniques and practices listed below give you endless ways to describe a dish or the experience of eating. Once you discover a few simple rules of the craft, you’ll feel more confident immediately. So whether you’re looking to get started, improve your skills, or expand the writing you’re already doing, put down your spatula, pull up a chair, and let’s get cooking.

Step 1. Cook up a sensuous feast.

What makes food writing different from other forms of writing is its focus on the senses and the pleasure and enjoyment that ensues. You want readers to see the colors of a ripe peach, feel its fuzzy down, smell its ripeness, hear the tearing crunch when biting into it, and taste its tangy flesh. While it’s easy to focus on taste, when combined with smell, the two senses can produce emotions, feelings of nostalgia, and involuntary memories.

This response has a name. It’s called the Proustian effect, for Marcel Proust’s wistful passage about eating a madeleine in his novel, Swann’s Way: “But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, admit the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure or recollection.”

Translation: If you remember the punch in the gut you experienced when tasting or smelling a food that takes you back to childhood, that’s what Proust means. It’s harder to communicate this effect so viscerally in writing, but it’s not necessary. He’s saying that using your senses to access food is evocative. Your goal is to transport readers to a place and time, to experience a scent or taste for themselves. That’s better than just reading about how you experienced it, which is not nearly as satisfying, and creates distance between you and them.

Here’s an example from M.F.K. Fisher, one of food writing’s most revered icons: “The first thing I remember tasting and then wanting to taste again is the grayish-pink fuzz my grandmother skimmed from a spitting kettle of strawberry jam. I suppose I was about four.” At first you may feel repelled by the notion of tasting “fuzz.” But you’re also intrigued, and transported to a kitchen from long ago, perhaps your own memory standing in for hers.

Some writers think the least important sense is sound. But consider how it enlivens the experience in Alan Richman’s essay, “The Great Texas Barbecue Secret:” Because the meat is seldom pricked during cooking, the fat accumulates, sizzling and bubbling. Slice, and the drama unfolds. Think of a bursting water pipe. Better yet, imagine a Brahman bull exploding from the gate at a rodeo.”

It might sound overdone, but you’ve got to give Richman credit for imaginative writing about what could otherwise be a dull topic. He is, after all, describing what happens when he cuts into a sausage. Yet Richman excels at translating his excitement onto the page, and has won more than a dozen national awards for his essays in magazines such as  GQ , where he is a contributing writer.

Look back at Richman’s description of the sausage. See any adjectives? I don’t. Adjectives, however, are the crack of food writing. You might be tempted to use several to describe, say, the pork tenderloin with pears and shallots you devoured at a restaurant last night. But in truth, adjectives weaken writing and cause reader fatigue.

Take note of what else happened during the meal. You want to get across your pleasure and enjoyment by telling a story about the people at the next table, rather than sentence after sentence of description. Or try Richman’s technique of using metaphor, the art of referring to something (a sausage) as something it is not (a water pipe or a Brahman bull).

You might start out with strings of adjectives in an early draft. That’s normal. Examine them all and see what happens if you select only one. You’ll find that your sentence becomes more powerful when pared back to the essence of the dish.

What if the only adjective you allowed yourself, to describe the pear, was “silky?” It reads better than “the brown buttery silky pear.” After so many adjectives, readers get confused. They have to parse all those descriptors and try to imagine what the pear tastes like, deciding which adjective is most important. “Silky,” on the other hand, gives them one clear and concise word. Less is more, when it comes to adjectives.

Step 3. Describe the dish with specifics.

Just as it’s best to be judicious with adjectives, you’ll also a huge improvement in your writing when using specific language. People who read my blog and book know that one of my pet peeves is the word “delicious.” It’s a vague way to describe what you’re eating, and tells the reader nothing, other than you really liked it. Other words in this category are “tasty” and “yummy.” Most of the time you can just edit these words out of your drafts and you’ll have a more solid piece of writing immediately.

Look for vague or general words in your draft and replace them with more specific ones, such as “kitchen” for “room.” Even when it comes to adjectives, “salty” or “velvety” gives the reader a better idea than “delicious.”

Step 4. Stir well with action verbs.

Another way to keep food writing from becoming a string of description is to go for action, just as Richman did. He didn’t focus on how the sausage tasted, but on what happened when he cut into it. If you slow down and describe what’s happening as you consume food, you create a mini movie in readers’ minds.

Here’s how authors Jane and Michael Stern describe slicing into a piece of apple pie: “The crust is as crunchy as a butter cookie, so brittle that it cracks audibly when you press it with your fork; grains of cinnamon sugar bounce off the surface as it shatters.” They’ve slowed down the action so you can picture what happens when the fork cuts into the pie. Action verbs like cracks, press, bounce, and shatters go a long way towards painting a vivid picture. The authors haven’t described how the apple pie tastes yet, but I’ll bet you’re salivating.

Step 4. Spice up the sauce with a few similes.

Since describing food is a big part of food writing, you need as many tools as possible to get the job done. Similes compare two unlike things, using “like” or “as.” They’re fun and imaginative, giving you the chance to insert images that might seem a little incongruous, but work well anyway.

Here’s an example from  New York Times  dining editor Pete Wells: “First we’ll get the grill going hotter than a blacksmith’s forge…as usual, the tongs won’t be long enough to keep my hands from scorching like bare feet on the beach parking lot.”

You might not know how hot a blacksmith’s forge gets, or even what the heck a forge is. It doesn’t matter. You understand that the forge is red hot, and that’s all Well needs to make his point. Similarly, you might not think of bare feet on a beach parking lot when grilling meat. But suddenly, you’ve got a pleasant if slightly painful memory. A simple story about grilling becomes an evocative look at a fun part a summer everyone can relate to, a little piece of our collective past.

Similes are a little different than metaphors I mentioned in Step 2. Similes compare two things (burning bare feet and grilling), as opposed to referring to the object directly as something else. In the Richman example, he says a cut sausage is a bursting water pipe, as opposed to saying it’s “like” a bursting water pipe. The pipe is the metaphor for the sausage.

No matter which technique you employ from this list, and no matter which medium you choose to tell your story, food writing is similar to other kinds of narrative writing. It focuses on evocative storytelling and context, rather than on exactly how the spaghetti sauce tasted. While that’s certainly part of the story, it’s more important to evoke an emotional response in the reader by making them imagine a bucking bull or a hot day at the beach. Think of food writing as a type of cooking: you try a little of this a little of that, and soon you have a dish. By consistently driving your story forward with the techniques I’ve outlined, you’ll find creative new ways to express your thoughts about food, and cook up an audience that can’t wait to read more.

Choose Your Style of Food Writing

Food writing is not just the provenance of national magazines like  Bon Appetit,  nor limited to the cookbook department of bookstores. It’s everywhere, appearing in thousands of blogs and websites, newspaper and magazine features, e-newsletters, recipe databases, and fiction writing.

Food writing also takes many shapes, including

• Memoir and personal essay
• Restaurant reviewing
• Recipe writing
• Food history
• Food politics
• Profiles of chefs and farmers
• Travel writing and guides
• Food reference
• Cookbook reviews.

Where might you start? Many writers want to capture their own experiences, and for that, blogs are an easy place to get published. Plus, you can experiment with any of the forms mentioned above on a blog.

Recipe Writing That Works

Recipes are a form of technical writing because of the exacting way they are written. They have four parts: the title, the headnote, the ingredients list, and the method, which explains how to make the dish.

You start in the kitchen, making a dish more than once to get the best flavor and texture combinations. Keep notes by the stove about measurements and amounts, techniques, and any other details critical to the dish’s success, then write up your recipe when you’re certain of its success.

Here are a few fail-proof rules to observe:

• Start with a descriptive, enticing title. Classic Strawberry Shortcake, for example, tells readers exactly what they’ll get: a rich biscuit with saucy fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
• Draw readers in with the headnote. Tell a personal story about how you made your first omelette, explain the perfect balance of flavors in a fruity ice cream, the history of your mother-in-law’s potato salad, or the no-fail technique you use for roasted asparagus.
• List ingredients in the order used. Your recipe might feature lamb chops, but if the first thing you do is heat olive oil in a skillet, that’s where to start.
• Do the prep in your ingredients list. The French call it  mise en place . Get all your ingredients chopped, measured and ready to go before firing up the stovetop. Use the method to explain what to do with 1 onion, sliced; or ½ cup chopped parsley.
• Test and retest your recipe to make sure it works. Make sure you’re not writing in shorthand, skipping a step, or leaving out an ingredient.

(c) Diane Jacob

Diane Jacob is the American author of the award-winning Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Reviews, Memoir and More. She is also the co-author of the cookbook Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas, and blogs on food writing at www.diannej.com/blog.

This article first appeared in  WritersDigest.com  magazine.

For more than 15 years, writing coach, editor, and blogger Dianne Jacob has taught food lovers how to take their passion from the plate to the page. Now, Jacob has revised and updated her award-winning guide. Whether you’ve been writing for years or are just starting out, Will Write for Food offers what you need to know to succeed and thrive, including:- A new chapter dedicated to making an income from food writing- Updated information about self-publishing and cookbook production- Tips on creating and sustaining an irresistible blog with gorgeous photos- The keys to successful freelancing and reviewing- Advice from award-winning writers, editors, and agents- Engaging, fun writing exercises to get the juices flowing.

Dianne’s book is a very popular reference book for food writers and food bloggers. It has won two international awards from the Cordon D’Or and the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Order your copy online here .

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In this interview, Writers.com instructor and professional food writer Jennifer Billock shares her most important advice for anyone interested in food writing.

1. Don’t Be a Picky Eater

The first thing is that you’d have to be willing to eat a lot of different things, and sometimes not super-pleasant things. For example, I was just in Vietnam and Cambodia, and I ate tarantulas. They’re street food there. They’re surprisingly good, which was nice—they taste like teriyaki. You have to take the butt end off with the stinger, because that part is supposedly very bitter. It’s fried and all hollow inside. I was concerned it was going to burst out, but it’s hollow and crispy, like when you get teriyaki chicken and there are leftover bits of burnt teriyaki in the pan: it tastes like those. So it’s pretty good. I’ve eaten a lot of bugs in my lifetime.

It’s important to know if you’re going to be a food writer that you can’t be super-picky about what you’re going to eat, because that limits what you’re going to write about and what you have to say.

Jennifer's Upcoming Courses

Food Writing: Meals And Manuscripts

October 16th, 2024

Do you love cookbooks, cooking, or reading anything about food? This food writing course is for you. With award winning writer Jennifer Billock.

2. Look for Lyrical and Multi-Sensory Ways of Writing About Food

When you’re writing, try to be creative with what you’re saying. Instead of saying something “tastes good” or “has a robust flavor,” try to say it in a different way. I like to tell my students not to use the words “taste” or “flavor” and explain it some way that’s more lyrical.

The goal is to make your writing interesting to read, and also to impart to the reader what their experience will be like. If you can really engage all your senses—smell, sight, touch, sound, mouth feel as well as taste—and try to make comparisons in your mind about what you’re eating, you can turn that into something that will give the reader a better idea of what they’re going to eat.

The best piece of food writing advice I’ve gotten is to engage all your senses—not solely with the food, but also with the atmosphere of where you are. If you’re at an event, note what all is going out of the room. At a food event I covered, I was there just to have the food, but because I was engaged with my surroundings, I noticed a woman completely smash a table of glasses on accident during a mojito demonstration. That’s something that you should probably include in your writing.

3. Don’t Expect to Only Write Food Reviews

Don’t expect to just write food reviews if you’re a food writer. There are too many food writers, and not enough restaurants, and food writing encompasses so many other things: writing recipes, editing recipes, writing articles about chefs, writing articles about the history of a certain cuisine. So there’s a whole range of different styles of food writing.

One of my favorites is food memoir, which is pulling out a special moment about food in your life and crafting a personal story about food around it, which always ends up being really touching. One of my students once wrote about eating tomatoes on cereal as a foreign exchange student. It was a really interesting story about two different cultures coming together, and brought out the point that food is universal, whether it’s the type of cuisine that you enjoy or that other people enjoy. It’s one of my all-time pieces of food writing.

4. Develop Your Analytical Ability—Without Getting Jaded

I also remember when I first started out having to do an article on “the twelve best burgers” in some city. By the third burger that day, I was just so annoyed that I was still eating burgers. But that was one of the first food articles I wrote, and the more experience you get with it, the more you’re able to separate your emotions from what the food experience is. The more you eat and write about it, the more you learn what certain things should taste like and how they should be prepared, so you can start looking at it from an analytical viewpoint instead of only emotionally.

However, you shouldn’t get jaded and less able to fully experience food. You have to watch that. One way to get around it is that if you find you’re not enjoying food anymore, or you’re not having as good a culinary experience, then try writing about food in a different way for a while. Give yourself a self-imposed break, and start writing chef profiles or pieces on unique food producers instead of going out to restaurants and eating and saying “Okay, I’ve eaten another meal.”

5. Chart Your Own Path

If you want to get started, there are a couple of different routes you can take. You could go the blogging route, start your own thing, and work on it as much as you can until it’s got a good readership, lots of views, advertising, and things like that, and then branch out from there. Or you could try and get an internship with a food publication, which could be difficult if you don’t already have writing experience or aren’t in school for writing.

My undergraduate degree is in journalism, and I always wanted to write about food because I love to eat. I’d emailed a few local food publications in Chicago, where I was going to school, and asked if they needed writers, and one of them came back and said yes. I started writing event coverage and restaurant reviews there. After that, I went to grad school, also in Chicago, and got an internship with a food and tourism magazine there, so I was able to write more food articles that way.

Realistically, the best way to start is just to start writing. Go out with your friends, have a dinner, come home, write about it in a journal or something, and see what comes up. There’s writing a ton of stuff to hone your craft, and then pounding the pavement digitally to find editors’ names and emailing them to pitch them stories. My advice for everyone who wants to write as a career is to just go for it. If that’s your passion, then do it—and don’t go into it with a mindset that you’re going to be struggling forever and you’re never going to make any money, because the instant you do that you’re giving yourself an out. Have faith in yourself and go for it.

Food reviewers and food writers come from various backgrounds. Some of them have gone to culinary school, some of them are trained journalists, and some of them have just written and eaten so much that they’re able to speak about it in an interesting way. You don’t need to be an established journalist to start writing. You don’t need a ton of clips or credits to your name. You just need to have the drive to do it, and the ability to convince an editor to let you write about it—charisma, maybe. If you can craft a good piece about food, and you can prove that, even in your query to an editor, then you’ll get work.

Read Jennifer’s piece, “ The Dark Side of the Spoon: What Astronauts Eat in Space ,” which she mentioned as a favorite piece of food writing she’s written.

Frederick Meyer

Hi I would like to ask: 1- Was Jenifer ever a Cook, or a Chef? Sorry for me they are not the same, though they can be. . 2- Does she write reviews without telling the restaurant owner, after she has eaten? I hope not before…

3- I believe that she asks the chef and staff questions. How is she received generally? is there a special approach/method for that.

4- Finallly (and especially) what makes writers think, they have the knowledge/the sensorial ability (something that grows with the person) to write about other Peoples/Cultures/Ethnicities, cuisines?

I never read one of Jenifer’s reviews, but I have read some others, writing about foods that I know well and I am absolutely gobsmacked. In parts they are completely out of wack.

Your answers/comment would be very much appreciated.

Syd, BACW Undergraduate.

Hi Syd! To answer your questions:

-I was a pastry chef.

-All my reviews are anonymous – the restaurants don’t know I’m coming unless there’s a specific reason they need to know.

-Asking the staff and chef questions is generally well received. No special approach; I just try to have a casual conversation or, if the situation calls for it, a formal interview. People in the food industry generally love to talk about food. 🙂

-This is an interesting question. It’s important to remember that every person has a different experience and different tastes, plus some things can only be honed with experience and the writer may have a background you’re unaware of. Otherwise, when a writer is first starting out and they’re going to write about another culture’s food, they need to put in the due diligence to research it before submitting their work (which often can and should include a diversity review or a read-through by someone who is more experienced in that culture’s food). Food writing is a continual learning experience, and a writer needs to accommodate for that in their prep and research. It’s also important to remember that someone’s food story is not necessarily yours to tell – sometimes there are better equipped writers for the job, especially when the story deals with a specific cultural experience of a specific type of food.

Thanks for asking such thoughtful questions. I hope I was able to help. Jen

It’s interesting to know that food writers would have to gain more experiences first to separate the emotion from the actual food experience. I hope I can find blogs with content like that, since it would help me find where to eat with my family every weekend. My goal is to go to various restaurants every Sunday and try good food with them as our bonding time.

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How to Describe Good Food in Writing (21 Tips + Examples)

Capturing the essence of a scrumptious meal in words is like painting a beautiful picture with your vocabulary.

Here’s how to describe good food in writing:

Describe good food in writing by using sensory language, highlighting ingredients, emphasizing texture and taste, and evoking emotions. Combine varied adjectives, metaphors, and similes for vivid, enticing descriptions.

Here’s your ultimate guide on how to describe good food in writing.

21 Elements for Describing Good Food in Writing

Table of Contents

We’ll be focusing on several elements that define a remarkable food description:

• Type of Food
• Presentation
• Flavor Spectrum
• Personal Reaction
• Cultural Context
• Memories Evoked
• Synaesthesia
• Pairing Combinations
• Ingredients
• Cooking Method
• Food’s History
• Seasonality
• Visual Appeal
• Temperature
• Emotional Response
• Time of Day

And now, let’s dig into our 21 tips on describing good food, each served with a fresh example.

1. Identify the Type of Food

Before diving into the description, let your reader know what type of food with which you’re dealing.

Is it a dessert, an appetizer, or a main course? Is it a local dish or a foreign delicacy?

Identifying the food provides a context for the reader and sets the stage for the detailed description.

It prepares the reader for what is to come and enhances their understanding of the food’s role in a meal or event.

Example: The Pad Thai, a staple of Thai cuisine, beckoned enticingly from the center of the table, promising a dance of flavors.

2. Highlight the Ingredients

The ingredients of a dish often determine its flavor profile.

Identifying the ingredients in your description allows your reader to imagine the flavors, even if they’ve never tasted the dish.

It also gives the reader an understanding of the food’s complexity and the effort that goes into preparing it.

Listing the ingredients is not just about naming them, but also about describing their attributes.

Example: The sizzling fajitas were a fiesta of bell peppers, onions, and tender chicken strips, all bathed in a zesty lime marinade.

3. Discuss the Texture

Texture plays a huge role in our enjoyment of food.

It can make the difference between a dish we love and a dish we find unpalatable. Describing the texture—whether crunchy, smooth, chewy, or soft—helps the reader imagine how the food feels in the mouth.

It contributes to the overall sensory experience and can evoke powerful reactions.

Example: The artisanal bread was a delight, its crust crackling satisfyingly under the touch, revealing a soft, airy interior.

4. Describe the Flavor Spectrum

Is the food sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami, or a combination of these tastes?

Describing the flavor spectrum gives your reader a more complete picture of what to expect when tasting the food.

It also reveals the complexity of the dish and the skill that went into balancing the flavors. Remember, a good dish often balances several tastes to create a harmonious whole.

Example: The mango salsa was a playful blend of sweet and tangy, with a hint of spice from the jalapenos.

5. Focus on the Presentation

We eat with our eyes first.

The presentation of the dish can stimulate our appetite and increase our anticipation.

By describing the presentation, you allow the reader to visualize the dish, making it more enticing. This can include the arrangement of the food, the dishware, the garnish, and even the colors in the dish.

Example: The sushi rolls were meticulously arranged in a vibrant rainbow, the pink salmon, the creamy avocado, and the stark white rice creating a feast for the eyes.

6. Convey the Aroma

The aroma of food can trigger powerful memories and emotions.

A certain smell can transport us back to our grandmother’s kitchen or a favorite restaurant. Describing the aroma can make your food writing more engaging and relatable.

It’s not just about identifying the smell but about conveying its intensity and its effect on the eater.

Example: The aroma of the slow-roasted coffee was intoxicating, filling the room with a warm, comforting scent that promised a rich, full-bodied brew.

7. Use Sensory Language

Engage all five senses in your description.

Discuss not only how the food looks, tastes, and smells, but also how it sounds and feels.

Sensory language makes your writing more vivid and engaging. It helps your reader to fully experience the food, even if they can’t taste it.

Example: The caramel popcorn was a sensory delight, the loud crunch, the sweet taste, and the buttery aroma all combining to create an irresistible treat.

8. Share the Cooking Process

The cooking process can add depth to your food description.

Discussing how the food is prepared can reveal the time, skill, and effort that goes into the dish.

It can also explain why the food tastes the way it does.

For instance, a slow-cooked stew might have more intense flavors than a quickly stir-fried dish.

Example: The brisket, slow-cooked over hickory wood for hours, was a testament to patience and skill, its smoky, rich flavors a reward for the wait.

9. Talk About the Temperature

The temperature of the food can influence its taste and texture.

Cold food can be refreshing, while hot food can be comforting. By discussing the temperature, you add another layer to your food description.

It also sets expectations for the reader about how the food should be served and enjoyed.

Example: The chilled gazpacho was a refreshing reprieve from the sweltering summer heat, its coolness amplifying the freshness of the vegetables.

10. Discuss Pairings

Food rarely exists in isolation.

It’s usually paired with other food or drinks, which can enhance or balance its taste.

Discussing pairings allows you to explore these interactions and gives the reader suggestions for how to enjoy the food.

Pairings can also reveal cultural traditions or personal preferences.

Example: The spicy Thai curry was perfectly balanced by the sweet, fragrant jasmine rice, the two dishes creating a harmonious duet.

11. Reflect Cultural Significance

Food is a window into a culture.

It reveals traditions, history, and lifestyle. Reflecting the cultural significance of a dish can give your reader a deeper appreciation of the food.

It’s not just about the food itself, but also about the people who prepare and enjoy it.

This can be particularly relevant when describing ethnic or traditional dishes.

Example: The tagine, a centerpiece of Moroccan cuisine, was a vibrant medley of spices, meat, and vegetables, its slow cooking process a reflection of the country’s unhurried pace of life.

12. Use Comparisons

Comparisons can make your food descriptions more relatable.

By comparing the food to something the reader is familiar with, you make it easier for them to imagine the taste, texture, or aroma.

This can be particularly useful when describing unfamiliar or exotic dishes.

You can use similes or metaphors to make effective comparisons.

Example: The durian, often dubbed the ‘king of fruits’, had a unique taste that was a bizarre blend of sweet custard and pungent onions.

13. Tell a Story

A story can make your food description more engaging.

It adds a personal touch and can evoke emotions. The story could be about how the food was prepared, where it was eaten, or who it was shared with.

This narrative approach can make the food more appealing and memorable.

It makes the reader part of the experience, not just a passive observer.

Example: As we sat around the campfire, roasting marshmallows and crafting gooey s’mores, the simple treat became a symbol of friendship and shared experiences.

14. Evoke Emotions

Food is more than just sustenance—it’s tied to emotions.

A certain dish can bring comfort, joy, nostalgia, or even disappointment. By evoking emotions in your food description, you connect with the reader on a deeper level.

This can make your description more powerful and engaging.

Example: The homemade apple pie, with its sweet, cinnamon-spiced filling and flaky crust, brought a wave of nostalgia, transporting me back to my childhood days at grandma’s house.

15. Play with Language

Don’t be afraid to play with language in your food description.

Use varied adjectives, play with sentence structure, and incorporate figurative language. This can make your description more vibrant and engaging.

It allows you to express your unique voice and creativity.

Example: The burger was a tower of temptation, layers of juicy beef, sharp cheddar, and crisp lettuce sandwiched between two fluffy buns, all conspiring to challenge the eater’s self-control.

16. Show, Don’t Tell

Rather than just telling your reader that the food is delicious, show them why it’s delicious.

Describe the ingredients, the flavors, the presentation, the texture.

This is a more engaging and convincing way to express the food’s appeal. It encourages the reader to reach the same conclusion, rather than simply accepting your opinion.

Example: The artisanal chocolate was a revelation, its rich, dark flavor studded with notes of red berries and a hint of vanilla, its texture smooth and velvety.

17. Describe the Intensity

The intensity of flavors, aromas, or textures can significantly influence the eating experience.

Describing this intensity allows the reader to understand how strong or subtle the food’s characteristics are.

It sets expectations and allows the reader to imagine the sensory experience more accurately.

Example: The wasabi packed a powerful punch, its fiery heat unfurling in the mouth and racing up the nose, a sharp reminder of its presence.

18. Discuss the Freshness

Freshness can greatly influence the quality and taste of food.

Discussing the freshness can give the reader a sense of the food’s quality and appeal. It can also give insights into the food’s preparation.

For instance, fresh seafood at a coastal restaurant can speak volumes about the establishment’s sourcing practices.

Example: The salad was a celebration of freshness, the lettuce crisp and vibrant, the tomatoes juicy and ripe, each ingredient seemingly picked at its prime.

19. Use Sound

The sound of food can enhance the eating experience.

Think of the sizzle of a steak, the crack of a crème brûlée, or the crunch of an apple.

Describing these sounds can make your food writing more dynamic and immersive. It engages another sense and adds depth to the description.

Example: The crackling pork belly lived up to its name, each bite producing a satisfying crunch, an audible testament to its perfectly roasted skin.

20. Touch Upon the Aftertaste

The aftertaste is the flavor that remains in the mouth after swallowing the food.

It can be a subtle echo of the initial taste or a surprise twist.

Describing the aftertaste can add a final note to your food description, leaving the reader with a lasting impression of the dish.

Example: The dark chocolate left a lingering aftertaste, its initial sweetness mellowing into a complex, slightly bitter note that begged for another bite.

21. Evoke the Setting

The setting where the food is enjoyed can influence the eating experience.

Describing this setting—be it a cozy home kitchen, a bustling street market, or a chic high-end restaurant—can add context and atmosphere to your food description.

It can also evoke emotions and associations tied to the place.

Example: The fish tacos tasted even better in the vibrant beachside shack, the salty sea breeze and the sound of crashing waves adding to the feast of flavors.

Here is a video about how to describe good food in writing:

Words to Describe Good Food (30 Words)

When it comes to describing good food, having a well-stocked pantry of words can make your writing more appetizing.

Here are 30 delicious words to savor:

• Scrumptious
• Lip-smacking
• Tantalizing

Phrases to Describe Good Food (30 Phrases)

Now that we’ve whetted your appetite with words, let’s move on to phrases.

Here are 30 phrases to help you describe good food with gusto:

• Bursting with flavor
• Melts in your mouth
• Packs a punch
• Worth every calorie
• Heaven on a plate
• A symphony of flavors
• A feast for the senses
• Like a party in your mouth
• Hits the spot
• A labor of love
• Comfort food at its finest
• Love at first bite
• Sweet and satisfying
• A culinary masterpiece
• As good as it gets
• Sinfully delicious
• Irresistibly mouth-watering
• A flavor explosion
• Comfort in every bite
• A tantalizing taste adventure
• Temptingly tasty
• Perfectly seasoned
• Savory and scrumptious
• Crispy to perfection
• Unforgettably flavorful
• Sweet tooth’s delight
• A treat for the taste buds
• Delectably decadent
• So good, it’s sinful
• A recipe for happiness

With these words and phrases at your disposal, your food writing will leave readers hungry for more.

Tips for Avoiding Common Food Description Clichés

Clichés are phrases that have been overused to the point of losing their original impact.

They can make your food writing sound stale and uninspired.

To avoid them:

• Try to think outside the box
• Vary your vocabulary
• Use your unique sensory experiences and personal reactions

Example of a cliché: The cake was as light as a feather. A fresher take: The cake was so light, it seemed to vanish on my tongue like a sweet, sugary cloud.

Different Styles of Food Writing

Different platforms call for different styles of food writing.

A blog post might be more casual and personal, sharing your experiences, thoughts, and opinions openly.

A novel might weave food descriptions into the narrative, using them to reveal character traits or set the scene. A recipe needs to be clear and precise, focusing on the ingredients and the cooking process.

A restaurant review should be balanced, discussing both the strengths and weaknesses of the food and the dining experience.

Always consider your audience and the purpose of your writing when describing food.

The Art of Writing Negative Food Reviews

Writing negative food reviews is a delicate art.

Here are some tips:

• Be honest but fair
• Focus on the food, not the chef or restaurant staff
• Describe what you didn’t like and why
• Mention any positive aspects.

Constructive criticism can be helpful for both the restaurant and potential customers.

Example: While the steak was unfortunately overcooked and lacked seasoning, the accompanying garlic mashed potatoes were creamy and full of flavor. The service was excellent, making the overall dining experience quite pleasant despite the main dish’s shortcomings.

How to Write About Food You’ve Never Eaten

Writing about food you’ve never eaten can be challenging, but it’s not impossible.

Research is your best friend here.

Read descriptions and reviews by people who have tried the food. Look at photos to get an idea of the texture and presentation.

Consider the ingredients and cooking methods, and relate them to similar foods you’ve tried.

And finally, take full advantage of your imagination.

Example: While I haven’t had the chance to try the traditional Icelandic dish hákarl (fermented shark), based on my research, it has a strong ammonia-rich smell and a fishy, cheese-like taste that leaves a lingering aftertaste—certainly an acquired taste for the adventurous food lovers.

Final Thoughts: How to Describe Good Food in Writing

One of the best ways to learn how to describe food is to read the menus from luxury restaurants like Le Gavroche in London or Aragawa in Japan.

The more you read, the more you learn.

And the more you learn, the better you become at penning your own food description masterpiece.

Related Posts:

• How to Describe Mountains in Writing (21 Tips & Examples)
• How to Describe a Car Accident in Writing (21 Best Tips)
• How to Describe a City in Writing (100+ Best Examples)
• How to Describe a Sunset in Writing: 100 Best Words & Phrases

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So you’ve decided to begin your journey as a food content writer but often find yourself struggling to find the right restaurant or food-related words .

If you’re wondering how you can write about food , don’t worry. You’re not alone 🫂

Finding the right words to write even a deliciously descriptive food paragraph can be tricky . And it’s for this purpose that I’ve prepared some useful tips to help you in your journey.

In this article, I will first be sharing some useful tips on how you can come up with your own mouth-watering description of food before sharing some of the most useful words and phrases I’ve personally used in my food description s.

Tips on how to describe delicious food

1) learn from the best.

As with learning every other skill, one of the best ways to start improving is to observe and learn from those who have already achieved success in their respective niches.

Read as many articles as you can from some of the best food blogs out there. Follow and learn from some of the best food writers out there. Take note of the words and phrases they use when describing food .

If you have no point of reference of what is considered good food content, how are you going to set your own writing standards?

2) It’s in the phrase “ descriptive food writing ”

Sometimes, the answer is right before our very eyes 👀

If I were to ask you right now to describe what you are wearing, what would you base your description on? What would you tell me?

Your answer would probably go something like this: I’m wearing a red and white striped shirt 👕, blue jeans 👖, and a pair of brown leather shoes 👞

Now, this is not about what you’re actually wearing. But what you’re basing your description on. You are describing to me what you see .

Check out some of these examples:

As you can see, the writers of these paragraphs did not use bombastic vocabulary to wow your tastebuds. All they did was describe what they saw . 

This helps readers visualise the dishes and immerses them in the writing.

3) Avoid using disrespectful adjectives to describe food

Food has a very strong cultural and historical significance . 

It is incredibly disrespectful to undermine and disregard how much the dishes of various cuisines mean to different groups of people. Doing so will have severe consequences 😱

A White-owned “clean Chinese food” restaurant in the US had shut its doors after referring to Chinese dishes as “icky” and that they will make you “bloated”. Talk about being disrespectful.

Here are some words that you should never use in your food content writing ❌❌❌

• Oriental and Occidental
• Generic location-based adjectives like Asian, Western, Arabic, African (be specific)

Best words and phrases to describe food

1) generic words and phrases.

• Sumptuous meal
• Spread of delectable dishes
• A meal fit for the gods
• It was a lavish dining experience
• A gastronomical experience like no other
• Roasted/cooked/steamed/fried to perfection
• Added a whole other dimension
• A delight to eat
• The steak was an absolute winner for me
• Grilled to medium rare perfection
• This dish hit the spot for me

2) Words and phrases to describe taste or flavour

• Symphony of flavours in my mouth
• Left a delicate sweet aftertaste
• Holy trinity of aromatics
• Flavour that packs a punch
• Savoury with hints of citrus and spice 

3) Words and phrases to describe texture

• Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside
• Melts in your mouth
• I could see the chocolate filling slowly oozing out as I cut through the layers of crispy, flaky pastry
• The cake was moist, yet was somehow able to avoid becoming soggy
• Fluffy as a pillow

Start describing food like a pro!

Putting together a descriptive piece of writing about food shouldn’t give you a headache 😵

Instead, it should stimulate the taste buds.

As the legendary Coldplay once said, “nobody said it was easy”. It takes time and practice to get to a level of finesse where you can easily pull these words and phrases right off the tip of your tongue.

Give it a shot! Use some of the words and phrases I recommended and keep at it. Soon, you’ll become a great food content writer 😋

To learn more about food content writing, check out the tips and tricks shared by WritingWildly! It has one of the best online blogs for writers out there!

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How to write an awesome & engaging blog post for a business, top 21 finance & investment blogs in singapore, 10 reasons why content writing is important for business & marketing.

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Published August 28th, 2023

Eat, Love, and Hope: A Review of "Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love" by Lara Vapnyar

Food is always absent, or at best making occasional appearances in a stealthy and unobtrusive manner, in the history of literature. Virginia Woolf has remarked on the menial role of food in literature in her essay “A Room of One’s Own”: “It is part of the novelist’s convention not to mention soup and salmon and ducklings, as if soup and salmon and ducklings were of no importance.” Yet in Russian American writer Lara Vapnyar’s second short story collection, Broccoli and Other Tales of Food and Love (2008), all her six stories are centered around the motif of food. Dream-like broccoli, rich and flavorful borscht, crispy puffed rice, juicy and sumptuous meatballs, along with the delicate and tender Sauteed spinach: they not only offer readers a memorable feast for their imaginary palates, but also weave together the bitter-sweet diasporic experiences of the East European immigrant protagonists in those stories.

Often referred to as part of the so-called Fourth Wave of Russian émigrés by literary critics of Russian American literature, Vapnyar herself moved to New York from Russia in the 1990s with her husband. She has published two collections of short stories and four novels.

In the opening story “A Bunch of Broccoli on the Third Shelf,” the title food broccoli is used as a symbol for the protagonist Nina’s love life. Originally from Russia and immigrated to the US as a computer programmer, Nina has a seemingly peculiar obsession for vegetables, especially broccoli, and her habit of hoarding vegetables begins on her second day in America. She likes their look, their touch, and how their names sound in English. The way Vapnyar describes those fruits and vegetables is poetic and imaginative: tomatoes feel “smooth and glossy like polished furniture,” “the light, feathery bunches of dill and parsley,” and broccoli that “smelled of young spring grass.” Nina buys broccolis every week, but she is too busy to cook them, so they invariably end up being tossed away into the garbage bin. Like those broccolis quietly wilting away in her refrigerator, her marriage is also hitting rock bottom without her realizing it. One day, she finds that her husband, artistic and full of charisma and to whom Nina has always felt inferior, has left her suddenly. Gradually pulling herself together, near the ending of the story she is on a cooking date with a guy she met at her friend Pavlik’s weekly party. Having bought everything, from kitchenware to aprons to olive oil and spices, Nina has left out, however, the most important thing — the vegetables. Luckily, they manage to find some still-edible “broccoli mummy” hidden between her shelves, a relic of her vegetable-hoarding habit from her previous marriage. The last scene ends with the two boiling the broccoli and Nina, filled with happiness as she is enveloped by the “warm aroma of broccoli” and hopes for a new love.

“Borscht” is a heart-warming and slightly comedic tale about Sergey, a Russian carpet installer in New York, who one morning, wakes up “with an erection and a headache.” This acute physical aching is perhaps partly due to the fact that he has been separated from his wife Lenka, who stayed  behind in Russia, for almost a year. But this is definitely also a metaphor for his yearning for his homeland, as he feels he is kind of trapped in America to earn more money for his family. Vapnyar skillfully captures the sense of displacement among emigrants. Sergey has kept a snapshot of his wife, however as time goes by, he gradually feels the woman in the snapshot “was not a picture of Lenka but of some other-strange-woman.” Not only has the image of his wife grown increasingly elusive, the idea of Russia itself is also becoming more and more hazy. When Sergey goes to Brighton Beach to visit a hooker to take care of his physical longing, he claims that this area, New York’s “Russian” Neighborhood, to be “the fake Russia, the parody of Russia, that made the real Russia seem even farther away and hopelessly unobtainable.” Sergey’s visit to the hooker, named Alla, turns out to be much more innocent than he expected it to be. They do establish a sort of connection, not on Alla’s bed, but at her dinner table. Like Sergey, Alla is also an immigrant from Russia. She invites Sergey to have freshly boiled borscht with her, and they chat like old friends. For a temporary moment, they forget about displacement and let themselves be healed by the warmth of borscht soup.

“Puffed Rice and Meatballs” is composed of framed stories, some of which are told  and others left untold by the Russian immigrant heroine Katya, about her childhood and adolescence. Like many of Vapnyar’s East European immigrant heroines, Katya is equipped with an American lover who has an almost voyeuristic curiosity towards her home country: “Tell me about your childhood. Tell me about the horrors of communism.” To please her lover, Katya carefully selects two childhood anecdotes: her stumbling upon the teacher’s two boys munching away on kindergarten kids’ lunch leftovers, which are nothing but “shrunken meatballs and pale mounds of mashed potatoes”; and her exploration of sexuality with another boy in kindergarten, which leads to her mother’s great outrage and moralistic lectures on chastity. The emphasis on poverty and sexual suppression in the Soviet Union, coupled with titillating details of her sexual encounter, leaves her American lover satisfied. Yet, Katya herself feels a pang of guilt, if not shame, of having betrayed her mother “for a strange man’s entertainment.” The story that she really wants to tell, the one that is truthfully narrated, without selling any stereotypes to the Western eyes, is told to no one but herself. It is an anti-Bildungsroman story, in which the teenager Katya, at first self-conscious of her blooming youthful beauty in her new German dress, becomes hurt and disillusioned when she is used by a store staff “as a battering ram” to push a crowd-turned-mob demanding to buy more out-of-stock puffed rice. This whole incident gives her a harsh lesson on the power of food and the fragility of feminine beauty.

“Salad Olivier” is, in a way, an “American Dream” story. The star food of this story is, of course, Salad Olivier, dubbed “Russia's Thanksgiving turkey” by Vapnyar in “Roundup of Recipes” near the end of the book, where she shares homemade recipes of the dishes mentioned in these six stories. This national dish has become the binding thread that weaves through the settling experience of a Russian family in the US in this story. The narrative opens with an animated domestic dining scene back in Russia, where the protagonist Tanya and her extended family are shocked to learn that according to Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast , Salad Olivier is made without meat in Paris. Salad Olivier and the making of it have played a big role in Tanya’s childhood and there are many fond memories related with it. However, after they emigrate to the US and during their family’s first American anniversary, the same bowl of Salad Olivier is consumed in a dispirited mood: the family has failed to settle — Tanya’s jobless father holes up all day on the couch and Tanya’s mother nags about Tanya’s inability of finding a suitable boyfriend. After a string of futile and painful blind dates, Tanya miraculously meets her current boyfriend Vadim on the New York subway. Vadim becomes a new member of the family and brings life into it. The last scene of this story ends with the whole family joyfully preparing Salad Olivier together and Vadim assuring them that the salad in A Moveable Feast is not Salad Olivier, echoing with the opening.

 “Luda and Milena” is typical of Vapnyar’s stories of female rivalries. The story takes place in an English language class held in Brooklyn College. Both Luda and Milena are from Russia, single, and in their 70s, and they vie for the attention of a 79-year-old widower in the class called Aron. The weekly International Feast where students are supposed to bring to class dishes to showcase their home countries’ culinary culture, becomes the battlefield for these two women to win the love of Aron as they realize “the path to a man’s heart ran through his stomach.” The killer dish (in its literal sense for unexpectedly becoming, in a twist of irony, the cause of Aron’s gourmet death) is the Russian meatball, which Lara Vapnyar herself admits in the “Roundup of recipes” that “I like Russian meatballs so much that I always thought if I ever wrote a story about two women trying to seduce a man with a certain dish, meatballs would be the dish.”

Unlike the domestic dining scenes portrayed in the previous stories, the last story of the collection, “Slicing Sautéed Spinach,” explores the experience of eating in public. The heroine Ruena, originally from Prague, is now in the US to pursue a PhD degree in, ironically, Women’s Studies, when she is actually going out with an American guy, who unabashedly tells Ruena that he is already engaged with someone else at the start of their relationship. This imbalanced dynamics is represented in her inability to order for herself at a restaurant — intimidated by the complicated items in the menus — each time she goes out with her lover. Since her lover’s “gastronomic preferences were limited to salmon, rice, and spinach,” Ruena chooses spinach, being the only one she can eat. When her lover condescendingly confesses to her that he cannot marry her, she creates a fictitious fiancé, with the name of “Pavel,” to counterattack. The more detailed the image of the fiancé she portrays, the more power she gains in this relationship. The story culminates with Ruena using the mouth of Pavel to express her dislike towards spinach in their last dining out, when she finally finds the courage to walk out of this toxic relationship.

The book is a quick and pleasant read, filled with wry humor and vivid details. It is especially relatable to anyone who has ever lived abroad: the disorientation, the persistent sense of lacking, the longing of a homeland that could only exist in one’s mind, the anxiety of fitting in, the fear of being different, the loneliness, the sadness of being made use of because one is a foreigner, the exasperation at certain stereotypes, the pressure of unconsciously conforming to certain stereotypes and the shame of doing so. One could see oneself reflected in the thinkings, emotions, and sentiments of those characters in the book, struggling with their new life in America. And Vapnyar is kind and optimistic, for she ends each tale in a bright tone: we see families achieving their “American Dreams,” women finding their inner strength and women walking out of toxic relationships, strangers finding solace in each other’s company. This engaging collection of stories about food and love is like a steaming bowl of the iconic Russian soup borscht, cooked with great care and love, and leaves one with warmth and hope.

Nationality: Chinese

First Language(s): Chinese Second Language(s): English, Japanese

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Fully Funded MFA Programs in Creative Writing

As part of our series  How to Fully Fund Your Master’s Degree , here is a list of universities that have fully funded MFA programs in creative writing. A Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing can lead to a career as a professional writer, in academia, and more.

Fully funded MFA programs in Creative Writing offer a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission as well as an annual stipend or salary during the entire program, which for Master’s degrees is usually 1-2 years. Funding usually comes with the expectation that students will teach or complete research in their field of study. Not all universities fully fund their Master’s students, which is why researching the financial aid offerings of many different programs, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad, is essential.

In addition to listing fully funded Master’s and PhD programs, the ProFellow fellowships database also includes external funding opportunities for graduate school, including fellowships for dissertation research, fieldwork, language study, study abroad, summer work experiences, and professional development.

Would you like to receive the full list of more than 1000+ fully funded Master’s and PhD programs in 60 disciplines? Download the FREE Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards !

Here is the list of 53 universities that offer fully-funded MFA programs (Master’s of Fine Arts) in Creative Writing.

University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL): Students admitted to the MFA Program are guaranteed full financial support for up to 4-years. Assistantships include a stipend paid over nine months (currently $14,125), and full payment of up to 15 credit hours of graduate tuition.

University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ): All accepted MFA students receive full funding through a graduate teaching assistantship for 3 years. This package includes tuition remission, health insurance, and a modest stipend (in 2018 it was about $16,100 per academic year).

Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ): 3-year program. All students admitted to the MFA program who submit a complete and approved teaching assistantship application are awarded a TA by the Department of English. Each assistantship carries a three-course per year load and includes a tuition waiver and health insurance in addition to the TA stipend ($18,564 per year). In addition, students have diverse opportunities for additional financial and professional support.

University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR): Four-year program. Teaching assistantships currently carry an annual stipend of $13,500 for students with a BA. TAs also receive a waiver of all tuition costs and teach two courses each semester. Nearly all of our accepted students receive TAs. Additionally, the students compete each year for several fellowships.

Boise State University (Boise, Idaho): 3-year fully funded MFA program dedicated to poetry and fiction. All students receive a tuition waiver, health insurance, and a Teaching Assistantship with a stipend of $11,450 per year.

Bowling Green State University (Bowling Green, OH): 2-year program, graduate assistantships (including stipend and scholarship) are available for all eligible face-to-face students. 100% tuition scholarship. Graduate stipend (the 2020-21 stipend is $11,500).

Brown University (Providence, RI): All incoming MFA students received full funding. All graduate students receive a fellowship that pays a monthly stipend and provides tuition remission, the health fee, and health insurance. The stipend for the 2020-2021 academic year is $29,926. Also, students in good standing receive a summer stipend of $2,993.

Boston University (Boston, MA): Tuition costs will be covered for every admitted student for the MFA degree in the BU Creative Writing Program. In addition, admitted students will receive university health insurance while they are enrolled, and all admitted students will receive stipend support of roughly $16,000 for the academic year.

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY): All MFA degree candidates are guaranteed 2 years of funding (including a stipend, a full-tuition fellowship, and student health insurance).

University of California Irvine (Irvine, CA): 3-year program. The Department is committed to providing 3 full years of financial support to all domestic students in the MFA Programs in Writing. Financial support for MFA students is given in the form of Teaching Assistantships providing full tuition coverage as well as University health insurance. Students will earn an estimated $22,569 for the academic year.

University of California San Diego (La Jolla, CA): MFA in Writing students are eligible for financial support if they study full-time, maintain good academic standing and make timely progress toward the degree. All students are eligible for full funding, including international students provided they meet the English language certification requirement for teaching assistants.

University of California Riverside (Riverside, CA): All incoming students are granted a full fellowship and stipend for their first year. After the first year, students receive full tuition and a salary through teaching assistantships.

Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL): 3-year program. All of the MFA students qualify for a position as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. The GTA position comes with a tuition waiver and a stipend. The standard stipend is $9,000, but some enhanced stipends are available. The Graduate College offers several fellowships for current graduate students.

Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL): The majority of students receive support in the form of a teaching assistantship and are provided with a stipend, a tuition waiver, and a health-insurance subsidy. MFA students receive a three-year assistantship. For 2022-23, MA/MFA stipends will be $16,400, and typically these amounts go up each year. Also, The FSU Graduate School offers several fellowships and awards.

Georgia College & State University (Milledgeville, GA): The MFA Program offers workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and students take cross-genre workshops. All students admitted to the MFA program receive a Graduate Assistantship for all 3 years that includes a stipend and tuition remission.

University of Houston (Houston, TX): MFA students can receive a teaching assistantship for 3 years. Starting salary for MFAs is $17,935/9 months. Students in the Creative. As part of the assistantship, students are awarded either a Graduate Tuition Fellowship, which remits tuition, or a Creative Writing Program Fellowship, which covers the cost of tuition.

University of Idaho (Moscow, Idaho): All English Teaching Assistants (TA’s) are offered full tuition waivers. Teaching Assistants are given a stipend of $14,000 per year. Also offers three scholarships and three outstanding fellowships to support qualified MFA, graduate students.

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, IL): Three-year MFA program. Students accepted into the MFA program will receive full tuition waivers, guaranteed teaching assistantships.

Indiana University (Bloomington, IN): M.F.A. programs offer a generous teaching package to creative writing students. All applicants receive consideration for appropriate fellowships that will carry a stipend of about $19,000, plus tuition and fee-remission that covers roughly 90% of the cost of enrollment.

Iowa State University (Ames, IA): 3-year MFA program. Starting half-time 20 hours per week teaching assistantships for MFA students total $19,250 over 10 months and also receive a full-tuition waiver scholarship (approximate value $10,140) and health insurance coverage. The department has several resources available through which to offer fellowships and scholarships to qualifying new students.

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA): 2-year residency program. Financial assistance is available for all students enrolled in the program, in the form of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. Most fellowships and assistantships provide either tuition scholarships or full tuition remission.

John Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD): 2-year program. All students receive full tuition, health insurance, and a generous teaching fellowship, currently set at $30,500 per year. Some students work as assistant editors on The Hopkins Review. They often win prizes such as Stegner Fellowships or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

University of Maryland (College Park, MD): This 3-year program accepts 8 applicants who are fully funded by Teaching Assistantships for up to three years of graduate study. Our aid packages include a stipend of about $20,000 per academic year and 60 credit hours of tuition remission.

Miami University (Oxford, OH): All students admitted to the MFA program in Creative Writing hold generous Graduate Assistantships (which include a summer stipend). Non-teaching assistantships may also be available.

University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL): An intensive two-year study with a third year option. The James Michener Fellowships and Teaching Assistantships support all our graduate students. Awards include a full tuition waiver and annual stipend of $18,915.

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI): All MFA students accepted into the program are offered a full tuition waiver, a stipend of $23,000/yearly as well as $5,000 in summer funding, and health care benefits. Additionally, various fellowships and prizes are awarded each year to MFA students.

University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN): All admitted MFAs receive full funding, in the form of teaching assistantships or fellowships. Teaching assistantships carry a full tuition waiver, health benefits, and a stipend of about $18,600. Also, a variety of fellowships are available for graduate students.

University of Mississippi (University, MS): All of our students are fully funded.  We offer two main sources of funding, the Grisham Fellowships and Teaching Assistantships.

University of Nevada Las Vegas (Las Vegas, NV): 3-year program. All MFA students admitted to the Creative Writing International program at UNLV are offered Graduate Assistantship funding of $15,000 per year (which includes in-state tuition and provisions for health insurance).

Northwestern University (Evanston, IL): Funding is provided for 3 full years, summers included. Tuition is covered by a tuition scholarship during any quarter in which you are receiving a stipend.

University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN): Every student admitted to the MFA receives a full-tuition scholarship, a fellowship that carries a full stipend of $16,000 per year and access to a 100% health insurance subsidy.

North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC): A two-year, fully-funded program, They accept only about a dozen students each year and offer full funding in the form of a graduate teaching assistantship to all eligible admitted applicants.

Ohio State University (Columbus, OH): All admitted students are fully funded for our 3-year MFA program in Creative Writing. In addition, all students receive either a graduate teaching associateship, a Graduate School fellowship or a combination of the two. For graduate teaching associateships, the student receives a stipend of at least $17,000 for the nine-month academic year.

University of Oregon (Eugene OR): A two-year residency MFA program. All incoming MFA students funded with a teaching appointment. Student instructors receive tuition remission, monthly stipends of approximately $18,000.

Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR): All students admitted to the MFA program will automatically receive a standard teaching Graduate Teaching Assistantship contract, which provides full tuition remission and stipend of approximately $12,800 per year to cover living expenses. In addition to tuition remission, all graduate students have the option to receive 89% coverage of health insurance costs for themselves and their dependents.

University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA): 3-year MFA program. All students admitted to the program will receive Teaching Assistantships for two or three years. All Teaching Assistantships include salary, medical benefits, and tuition remission.

Rutgers University–Newark (Newark, NJ): Each full-time incoming student receives in-state Tuition Remission and a Chancellor’s Stipend of 15K per year. Students are also eligible for Teaching Assistantships, and Part-Time Lectureships teaching Comp or Creative Writing. Teaching Assistantships are $25,969 (approximate) plus health benefits.

University of South Florida (Tampa, FL): 3-year program. MFA students receive a tuition waiver, a teaching assistantship that comes with a stipend, and enrollment in group health insurance.

Southern Illinois University (Carbondale, IL): Almost all MFA students hold graduate assistantships, which provide stipends for the academic year and full remission of tuition. The annual stipend, which comes with tuition remission, ranges from $13,000 to $14,500.

Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY): Three-Year M.F.A. in Creative Writing. All students are fully funded. Each student admitted receives a full-tuition scholarship in addition to an annual stipend of $17,500.

University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC): 3-year MFA program. The MFA at Carolina is pleased to provide fellowship and/or assistantship funding to all accepted students, earning our program the designation of “fully funded” from Poets and Writers.

University of Tennessee — Knoxville (Knoxville, TN): There is no cost to apply to the MFA program. All of our PhD candidates and MFA students are fully funded, with generous opportunities for additional financial support.

University of Texas in Austin (Austin, TX): All students in the New Writers Project receive three years of full funding through a combination of teaching assistantships (TA), assistant instructorships (AI), and fellowship support. The complete package includes full tuition remission, health insurance, and a salary.

University of Texas James Michener Center (Austin, TX): A three-year, fully funded residency MFA program that provides full and equal funding to every writer. All admitted students receive a fellowship of $29,500 per academic year, plus total coverage of tuition.

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN): Each year a small, select class of talented writers of fiction and poetry enroll in Vanderbilt’s three-year, fully-funded MFA Program in Creative Writing. The University Fellowship provides full-tuition benefits, health insurance, and a stipend of $30,000/yearly. In 2nd year and third-year students have the opportunity to teach for one semester.

University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA): Three-year MFA program. Students will receive fellowship support and/or teaching income in the amount of $20,000 each academic year, as well as full funding of your tuition, enrollment fees, and the health insurance premium for single-person coverage through the university.

Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA): Three-year MFA degree offers tracks in Poetry and Fiction, and all students are fully and equally funded via GTA-ships of more than $20,000 per year.

Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, MO): Because of selectivity and size they are able to offer all the new students full and equal financial aid for both years in the program in the form of a University Fellowship, which provides a complete tuition waiver plus a stipend sufficient for students to live comfortably in our relatively inexpensive city. All MFA students receive health insurance through Washington University.

Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY): Three-year, fully-funded, residential MFA program in creative writing offering generous assistantships, which will allow MFA students to gain valuable experience tutoring and teaching.

West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV): A three-year program. All Master of Fine Arts students receive a full tuition waiver and an assistantship, which includes a stipend valued at $16,750.

Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas): Most of the MFA students are GTAs who teach two composition classes each semester. They pay no tuition, receive $4,250 each semester and may buy discounted health insurance. The MFA program also awards two $12,500 fellowships each year.

University of Wisconsin–Madison (Madison, WI): All accepted MFA candidates receive tuition remissions, teaching assistantships, generous health insurance, and other financial support. In addition to the approximately $14,680 paid to each MFA annually in exchange for teaching, every MFA candidate will receive another $9,320 in scholarships each year.

University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY): All of our full-time MFA students are fully funded with two-year graduate assistantships. Currently, assistantships include a stipend of $12,330 per academic year, a tuition and fees waiver, and student health insurance. Students also receive summer stipends of up to $2,000 for the summer.

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COACHING + PUBLISHING

FORMATTING + DESIGN

FREELANCE COMMUNITY

20 Online Gold Mines for Finding Freelance Writing Jobs

by Kelly Gurnett | Jan 8, 2024

Writing is an amazing pastime, but for many, getting paid for doing it can seem farfetched and unrealistic.

Of course, making this happen isn’t always easy. Finding good freelance writing jobs can be challenging even for experienced writers, and breaking into the business is indeed difficult.

One of the biggest obstacles for writers attempting to get paid for their work is finding legitimate, paid, online writing jobs. It’s all too easy to stumble across freelance writing “gigs” that offer little more than exposure — which doesn’t put money in the bank.

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So where should you look for online writing jobs?

Fortunately, some reliable resources for finding online writing jobs do actually pay. 

In this post, we’ll share a list of our favorites. Here are some of the best places to find freelance writing jobs online.

1. Freelance Writers Den

A great resource for freelancers, this membership site is so much more than a job board. For $40/month, you get access to more than 300 hours of “bootcamps” that teach you how to make money as a freelance writer and hundreds of forums where you can get any question answered. Whether you want to listen to expert guests on their podcast, access the 24/7 community of writers, or check out video and audio training materials, the Den has everything a freelancer needs to grow their career — all in one place. Plus, they have direct job referrals to quality writing gigs in the Den 2x program . 

If you’re serious about freelancing, this is worth considering. You can join at the links above, or read our full Freelance Writers Den review for more details.

2. FlexJobs

One of the top job boards for not just freelance writing jobs but remote work in general, FlexJobs enables you to create a custom job search profile to meet your specific needs. Select your categories (there are several under “Writing”), your preferred work schedule, your experience level and more to hone down your search results to those that best fit the freelance writer job you’re looking for. You can also set alerts so you’re notified when new jobs matching your search criteria are posted. 

A subscription is $9.95/week, $24.95/month, $39.95 for three months or $59.95/year. Here’s a search for “writer” jobs if you want to try it.

3. SolidGigs

SolidGigs is part job board, part productivity tool. Why? Because their team literally saves you hours of scouring job boards. They hand-pick the best gigs from around the web and compile them into a weekly email, including remote opportunities. 

It’s $21/month to subscribe, and they offer a free seven-day trial . Along with curated job opportunities, you’ll also get access to business training courses and hundreds of lessons on freelancing and interviews with successful freelancers .

4. Opportunities of the Week

Sonia Weiser’s bi-weekly newsletter has become a must-have for freelance writers. She gathers dozens of calls for pitches from Twitter and emails them to her community twice a week. She offers the service through Ghost, where she asks for a membership contribution of up to $10 (and also offers sponsorships for those who can’t afford it). If you can only make a one-time contribution, she provides an option for that, too.

In addition to freelance writing jobs, she includes career advice, resources on how much different outlets pay, and other helpful links.

5. Working In Content

Working In Content aims to connect organizations with passionate content professionals. As a bonus, it values diversity, equity and inclusion, and it encourages the employers it works with to do the same. 

Whether you’re a UX writer or a content strategist, this site is a great option to find work in content design, marketing, management and more. It offers full-time and contract roles that are either remote or in cities like Seattle, New York City and San Francisco.

Be sure to subscribe to its free newsletter that shares expert interviews, resources and job opportunities once a week.

6. ProBlogger Job Board

Created by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, an authority site on blogging, the ProBlogger job board features part- and full-time, contract and freelance writer jobs across a wide variety of locations, industries and writing specialties.  

Plus, given ProBlogger’s high profile in the blogosphere, it’s likely you can often find jobs posted by some big-time blogs and employers who have an idea what good writing is really worth. Besides content writing, it also lists a healthy dose of copywriting jobs.

7. Best Writing

This site is a content writing job board that includes remote, freelance, contract and full-time jobs. To peruse these hand-picked writing opportunities, visit the site online, sign up for daily job alerts or subscribe to its paid newsletter that shares brand new openings once per week for $10/month. 

Another good resource: This site offers a content writing blog that features long-form interviews with prolific content writers, authors and founders who share tips of the trade.

8. Behance Creative Jobs

Powered by Adobe, Behance is an online platform for creative professionals to showcase their work, find inspiration and connect with companies looking to hire. 

Behance allows you to upload your past projects to quickly create a visually-pleasing online portfolio, making it a great resource for writers without a website . It has its own job board which you can browse to find your next career move or freelance writing job!

9. MediaBistro

MediaBistro is a great resource for media freelancers of all stripes, offering online courses, tools and information that can help you navigate your career.

Be sure to check out the freelance job board section of the site, as well, for a wide range of jobs for all experience levels from industries like TV, PR/marketing, magazine and book publishing and social media — a little something for everyone.

10. FreelanceWriting

FreelanceWriting provides a nice compendium of freelance writing and editing jobs with competitive pay rates. 

With exclusive job opportunities as well as posts pulled from sites like Indeed and Craigslist, the job board consolidates a variety of gigs for everyone from newbie to seasoned freelancers. Save yourself the time of scouring numerous sites and let this newsletter bring the decent jobs right to your inbox.

11. Who Pays Writers?

Who Pays Writers? is a crowd-sourced list of publications that pay freelance writers — and it’s a gold mine. The list has hundreds of publications to explore; it not only shows you which publications are accepting submissions, it also tells you how much they pay per word. 

The site primarily offers writers a good research opportunity to learn how much different publications pay, but there are some online blogging opportunities as well (depending on the publication). Maintained by an anonymous volunteer collective, the list is updated monthly.

12. The Ultimate List of Better-Paid Blogging Gigs

Freelancer Sophie Lizard compiled a free ebook listing 75 blogs that pay $50 to $2,000 per post, broken down into sections like Writing Blogs, Food Blogs, etc. She also includes some good tips on how to approach these blogs, how to promote yourself once you’ve landed a post, and more. 

To get the ebook, add your email address to her newsletter list — you’ll also get free access to her money-making toolkit and more.

13. LinkedIn Jobs

If you’ve already got a LinkedIn profile (and you really should to attract new clients ), don’t let it just sit there. Networking goes a long way in the freelance world, and LinkedIn is a great resource to do some networking through common connections.

While you’re doing that networking, check out the Job s section and sign up for email alerts when jobs are posted that match your interests. Many will be location-based, but who’s to say you can’t approach these employers with a proposal for freelance writing services ? Maybe they need someone to fill the gap in the hiring interim, or maybe the job could just as easily be done remotely but they hadn’t considered that. Talk about a different kind of pitch! 

14. Freelance Writing Gigs

This invaluable resource updates daily with online writing jobs scooped from around the ‘net. It’s also got a rich archive filled with posts offering all kinds of tips and insight for beginning and experienced freelancers alike.

Along with the daily blog posts, you can also check out the Freelance Writing Gigs Board , where those in need of copy services of all sorts post jobs on the regular.

Although Upwork has a bit of a reputation for offering low-rate jobs, it’s definitely possible to find postings offering livable wages for writing jobs online. When this article was published, a job to write a finance/trading article for $500 and a ghostwriter gig for $600 were both listed. 

Plus, you get the added benefit of rate transparency: You know exactly what you’re going to get before you even put in the effort to read the full job description! If you’re curious about this platform, here’s a longer post on why one writer says U pwork is legit .

16. Where to Pitch

This last one takes a little bit of forethought and footwork; instead of simply listing online writing jobs, Where to Pitch offers a list of potential venues when you type in a topic you’re interested in working on. If you’re willing to put in that effort, you’re bound to find some new publications to pitch.

You can also sign up for the Where to Pitch newsletter,  which gets you access to five real pitches that snagged the writer bylines in the New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, and other large publications.

17. Freelance Writing Jobs for Beginners

If this list is helpful, you’ll get even more out of The Write Life’s ebook: 71 Ways to Earn as a Freelance Writer . We suggest dozens of different ways to earn income online as a writer, including information on how much each gig pays and tips for how to land those freelance writing jobs. The bulk of the jobs we suggest are ones you can do from home. 

18. JournalismJobs.com

Offering full-time, freelance and remote jobs opportunities, JournalismJobs.com can help you find writing, editing, reporting or copy editor gigs. You can also find jobs across a wide range on industries like non-profit, technology and TV, so you’ll never get bored with this website’s selections. 

Plus, while you’re here, be sure to set job alerts to know right away about new freelance writer jobs, check out its section of career advice or even peruse the fellowship listings.

19. Smart Blogger

Smart Blogger launched in 2012 and has since grown to become one of the world’s largest sites dedicated to writing and blogging.

As well as a jobs page that lists hundreds of opportunities for freelance writers, they also have a resources and tools section which provides a number of valuable insights to help freelance writers in all areas of their work.

There’s good reason that Smart Blogger has over 300 thousand subscribers to date and any aspiring freelance writers would be well placed to become one themselves.

20. Contena

Contena markets itself as an online programme and suite of tools designed to help users get started with freelance writing and remote work.

They operate through a membership scheme with prospective users invited to fill out a simple form on their website, however anyone is able to view the list of jobs available, which is impressively extensive.

Independent reviews suggest Contena is indeed a great resource, so you should definitely check it out when seeking new opportunities.

Alright, but how do you run a freelance writing business, anyway?

Even with tons of resources for finding online writing jobs, it can be hard to know exactly what it takes to get your foot in the door with those editors. After all, you don’t just fall into a job (usually); you’ve got to prove to someone that you’re the right fit.

All of that to say nothing of the fact that running a freelance writing business is its own job, once you get started. You’ll have to negotiate pay raises, deal with editorial disagreements, and even — perish the thought — figure out self-employment taxes .

If you’re eager to learn about any of those topics, check out some of these helpful posts, created to help freelancers tackle every part of the writing-for-a-living experience.

• How to Become a Freelance Writer
• How to Pitch a Story
• Tips for Raising Your Freelance Writing Rates
• Portfolio Website Options for Freelancers
• Avoid Freelance Writing Scams

We never said it was easy, but the writing life certainly is a rewarding one.

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they’re useful for our readers.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase through our links, you’re supporting The Write Life—and we thank you for that!

Articles on Creative writing

Displaying 1 - 20 of 46 articles.

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Creative writing can help improve one’s health: a South African study shows how

Dawn Garisch , University of Cape Town and Steve Reid , University of Cape Town

Boxing empowered me to express my trauma – now, I help other abuse survivors do the same, combining it with creative writing

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How a poet and professor promotes racial understanding with lessons from history

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5 ways to teach the link between grammar and imagination for better creative writing

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To succeed in an AI world, students must learn the human traits of writing

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Yannick Thoraval , RMIT University

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Top contributors

Visiting Fellow, Centre for Cultural and Creative Research, University of Canberra, University of Canberra

Adjunct assistant professor, University of New England

Associate professor, Deakin University

Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame Australia

PhD Student, School of Education, Curtin University

Executive Dean (interim) Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra

Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Southern Queensland

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Stirling

Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester

Dean of Research (Creative), University of South Australia

Honorary Associate in Creative Writing, The Open University

Lecturer of English, University of Liverpool

Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith University

Honorary Professor, The University of Queensland

Associate Professor. Associate Director of the Creative Lab., Queensland University of Technology

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Ukraine-Russia war: Latest updates

All the developments and analysis on the war in Ukraine from our specialists and live team.

Monday 10 June 2024 15:09, UK

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

• Big picture: Everything you need to know about the war right now
• Your questions answered:  Are there any signs of an underground resistance in Russia?

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. 

We're starting the week by taking a few steps back and giving an overview of where the conflict is at. 

Putin warns Russia could provide long-range weapons to attack West

Last week started with the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, at which Vladimir Putin was joined by the leaders of Russia's closest allies. 

During a session with international journalists, the Russian president warned he could provide long-range weapons to attack the West. 

He said the recent actions by the West would further undermine international security and could lead to "very serious problems".

"That would mark their direct involvement in the war against the Russian Federation, and we reserve the right to act the same way," he added. 

His warning came after Joe Biden partially lifted restrictions on how Ukraine can use military supplies provided by the US, meaning they could be used to strike inside Russia. 

Mr Putin also reaffirmed Russia's position on nuclear weapons, saying the conditions for using them were clearly spelled out in Moscow's security doctrine. 

"If somebody's actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible to use all means at our disposal," he said. 

Ukraine has right to strike 'legitimate targets in Russia', NATO chief says

It also seems Ukraine might be given the go-ahead to strike Russia, with the NATO secretary general saying it has the right to attack legitimate military targets. 

"Ukraine has the right to self defence," Jens Stoltenberg said during a news conference with Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, at a military base near Stockholm. 

"The right to self defence also includes the right to hit legitimate, military targets on the territory of the attacking party, the aggressor - in this case Russia." 

His comments came after Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, claimed that HIMARS rockets have been used since then on civilian targets.

Ukrainian warplane fires weapon at target inside Russia for first time

Following the NATO chief's comments, a military source told Sky News a Ukrainian warplane has for the first time fired a weapon that struck a target inside Russia.

The source said a "Russian command node" was hit on Sunday in the area of Belgorod, a western Russian region near the Ukraine border which has come under frequent attack.

It was not immediately clear what type of munition was used in the attack, including whether or not it had been a Western weapon.

The United States and France recently said the Ukrainian armed forces were permitted to use their arms to strike military targets inside Russia - from where Russian forces are launching attacks against Ukraine.

You can read that full story here ...

Latest 'battlefield situation'

A detailed map showing the latest situation on the ground in Ukraine has been published by the UK defence ministry.

The area in light pink is territory taken by Russia since it invaded in February 2022.

Those areas in a darker shade of pink show territory - including Crimea - seized by Russia since 2014.

White, blue and red circles represent the grouping of forces while the red arrows show likely Russian attacks.

Despite the recent heavy bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, it is not in the seized sections.

However, a couple of small areas north of Kharkiv, on the Russian border, are shaded light pink. 

Zelenskyy attends talks in Qatar

In what could be seen as a step towards progress, Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Qatar for talks with the state's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Ukrainian president discussed Qatar's participation in a process of returning Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, as well as bilateral economic and security issues.

In March, Ukraine and Russia exchanged six children via Qatari mediation.

Mr Zelenskyy also made a surprise trip to the Philippines to thank the country for agreeing to participate in the upcoming peace summit being held in Switzerland.

Thank you for reading.

We will be back soon with more updates from the war in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has said he does not see the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as set out in Russia's nuclear doctrine - but added he could not rule out a change to the doctrine.

"We have a nuclear doctrine which states that the use of nuclear arms is possible in an exceptional case, when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country is threatened," he told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"But the doctrine can be changed.

"The same applies to nuclear tests. We will carry out tests if needed, but so far there is no such need."

Russia could send weapons to adversaries of the West, Vladimir Putin has warned for a second time.

The Russian president repeated the warning from earlier this week during the St Petersburg Economic Forum.

He did not say what countries or entities he was referring to, and he stressed that Moscow is not doing it currently.

"If they supply (weapons) to the combat zone and call for using these weapons against our territory, why don't we have the right to do the same?" he told the crowds. 

"But I'm not ready to say that we will be doing it tomorrow, either."

On Wednesday, Putin told international journalists that Russia could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory.

He also reaffirmed Moscow's readiness to use nuclear weapons if it sees a threat to its sovereignty.

Joe Biden has apologised to Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the recent delay in approving new US aid for Ukraine.

Last month, following months of political disagreements, the Senate passed $95bn (£76.2bn) in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan .

"I apologise for those weeks of not knowing," the US president said.

"Some of our very conservative members [of Congress] were holding it up. 

"But we got it done, finally. We're still in - completely, totally." 

The Ukrainian president thanked his counterpart for American assistance.  

"It's very important that you stay with us," he said. 

"It's very important that in this unity, the United States of America, all American people stay with Ukraine, like it was during World War Two - how the United States helped to save human lives, to save Europe." 

The two men were speaking in Paris, the day after D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

Russia needs to boost its use of non-Western currencies, Vladimir Putin said as he addressed the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He also said his country needs to reduce imports while calling for a major expansion of its domestic financial markets.

Trade with Asia is soaring, he told delegates, adding that almost two fifths of Russian external trade is now in roubles.

The share conducted in US dollars, euros and other Western currencies has declined.

Russia will try to boost the share of settlements conducted in the currencies of BRICS countries - which include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, Mr Putin said.

"Last year, the share of payments for Russian exports in the so–called 'toxic' currencies of unfriendly states halved, while the share of the rouble in export and import transactions is growing - it is approaching 40% today," the president said.

Russia has referred to nations that imposed sanctions on it as "unfriendly".

 The session begins with an address by the Russian president. 

Vladimir Putin says there is a race among world powers to establish sovereignty. 

He speaks of the need for countries to both establish partnerships and also to look internally to tackle challenges presented by the current global economic landscape. 

Despite all the "obstacles and illegitimate sanctions", Russia remains one of the world's economic leaders, he says. 

He adds that "friendly countries" - those that have not joined sanctions against Moscow - account for three quarters of Russia's mutual trade turnover, and praises them for that. 

Countries including India and China have strengthened economic ties since Mr Putin launched his war in Ukraine. 

Vladimir Putin has taken to the stage in St Petersburg to address the International Economic Forum there.

He's joined by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwais and Bolivian President Luis Alberto Arce Catacora. 

Chairing the session is Sergey Karaganov - a Russian political scientist. 

We'll bring you any key lines here in this live blog. 

A T-shirt is on sale at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum printed with a phrase attributed to Vladimir Putin, Sky News has discovered. 

"If a fight is inevitable, throw the first punch," it says.

The Russian president reportedly said it in 2015.

He apparently explained that it was something he had learned while growing up on the streets of Leningrad - a former name of St Petersburg. 

The Russian defence ministry has accused Ukraine of injuring 20 people, including children, in a missile attack on the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, using US-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Four of five missiles were shot down by air defence systems, the ministry said in a statement.

However, one of the missiles damaged two residential apartment blocks, it added, claiming it was deliberate.

Sky News is unable to verify the allegations.

There has been no immediate comment from Ukraine. 

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

Content Editor

How we hire.

Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.

About the role

This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.

We have a flexible / hybrid approach - talk to us about part time or job share opportunities in this role, if it’s meaningful to you, it’s important to us.

What’s in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – becoming a part and playing your part. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and always evolving business built on core values.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…

• 20% Colleague discount on most things from furniture, fashion and food.
• A first-class welcome to M&S with a tailored induction and a wide range of training schemes to help with your learning and development. Having options to progress is something we’re proud of at M&S.
• Attractive annual bonus, based on company performance and personal goals.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices website. Including GymSave – that offers up to 25% off Gym Memberships and the option to become an M&S Shareholder using our ShareSave & ShareBuy Schemes
• Charity Volunteer Day – A paid day away from work to support your chosen charity.
• A very generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance
• Every colleague at M&S has access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support – this includes access to our 24/7 Virtual GP, PAM Assist to support you & your family & free access to the UnMind App as well as many other schemes

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include

• Handling the Recipe Hub editorial calendar, including overall responsibility for ensuring delivery of ~ 500 recipes per year.
• Working with category and brand marketing teams to support instore and online trading priorities, while balancing this with producing recipe content incorporating target customer, range criteria, nutritional guidelines, seasonality etc
• Working closely with CRM and Product Catalogue Teams in Food marketing to ensure strong integration across different types of Food editorial content being put online including copywriting and tone of voice
• Recipe writing for M&S Food magazine and the Online Recipe Hub, ensuring M&S recipe development gates and requirements are adhered to, recipes are rigorously tested, and appeal to M&S customers.
• Briefing online editorial shoots and seeing these through from conception to publishing, including feeding back to art directors/photographers, recipe writing, ideas generation and feature writing.
• Handling the creation of digital design assets for recipes on our website, microsites, and digital advertisements.
• Using recipe popularity, customer feedback and all other relevant data to inform recipe development
• Being responsible for the Recipe Hub editorial strategy, including presenting future plans to senior stakeholders.

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include

• Highly creative with a good eye for detail and a passion for food content and recipe development
• Excellent copy and communication skills
• Collaboration – working with multiple teams and stakeholders
• Ability to juggle multiple projects and timelines
• Passion and desire to learn new tools and techniques.

Everyone’s welcome

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact.

We’re an in-person business and have core collaboration days in our Support Centre each week. For most teams, this is 3 working days where we come together to collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers brilliantly.

We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.

Being an in-person business

We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day. To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.

We want to succeed by earning and deserving the trust of consumers. We try to do the right thing for customers, whether it’s creating healthy everyday food or delivering the small moments of joy in their lives. People rely on M&S and that’s what makes it such a privilege to work here.

What motivates me is getting to learn something new, and the best thing about buying is that you can go into any area, and you’ll become an expert in it. I started in food – ambient snacking and soft drinks – then moved into homecare, buying pet food and household products. Now I’ve been promoted to a Senior Buyer role within our Bakery team.

Make Your Mark

Opportunities to be heard

Your voice matters here. You can share your ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group). Our colleague networks are also great places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate.

Experience the business

We’re passionate about our customers and colleagues. To get closer to our customers we work in our stores 7 days per year. That way we can see how operations run and look for ways to do better each day.

Colleague Networks

We want you to feel supported, no matter what.

The Family & Carers Network

This group represents the different types of families that exist. We act as a support network and sounding board for ideas which help our colleagues as parents or carers. We also run an interactive blog, where you can write your own posts or hear about others' experiences.

The Menopause Network

Here, our colleagues can share their concerns, as well as interesting facts and articles. Our aim is to help everyone feel comfortable talking openly about the menopause - providing a listening ear and finding positives in the experience.

Forces Community Network

A community of colleagues who are affiliated with the Armed Forces in various ways. We work to support colleagues readjusting to civilian life, to be there for those who have friends or family members in the forces, and to make M&S attractive to those leaving the forces. 

The Cancer Network

This is a network driven by personal experiences, with the purpose of ensuring that anyone in the M&S family affected by Cancer feels supported and has access to the information they need.

The Culture and Heritage Network

Celebrating all faiths, cultures and ethnicities, this group promotes racial and religious equality. We create space to discuss, challenge and take action. And we mark key calendar moments  - like Black History Month - to remember the past, promote the present and build for the future. 

The LGBTQ+ Network

Open to all members of the LGBTQ+ community and spectrum (and their allies), we promote equality, celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and encourage everyone to be themselves - whatever their sexual or gender identity.

The Gender Equality Network

This group is focused on helping to create a workplace where gender-related challenges are addressed. They raise awareness of common barriers faced and offer support. They also challenge the business to act and empower individuals to ensure that everyone has equal access to opportunities.

The Health and Wellbeing Network

This network helps colleagues manage their own mental and physical health. We also support people with disabilities or health conditions throughout M&S. We're a safe place to share your personal journey, coping strategies and top tips.

• Wellbeing hub

Get access to resources to support your wellbeing, including a free virtual GP service.

• Giving back

Support your favourite charities by donating through your pay or even volunteering for them.

Earn a competitive salary.

• Colleague discount

After completing your probation period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.

Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days.

We have discretionary bonus schemes depending on your role and our business performance.

• Life assurance

Get cover for twice your salary up to age 70 (double with our Pension Plan).

• Workplace savings

We’ll help you save through our Pension Savings Plan, Share Buy and Sharesave schemes.

Save on everyday costs through discounts and offers and get access to great health benefits.

• Cycle to work

Bike/accessory hire with Cycle to Work and save on tax and national insurance.

Buy the latest technology with interest-free financing directly from your salary.

• Family friendly policy

Industry-leading maternity, paternity, adoption and neo-natal policies, providing support and flexibility for you and your family.

How to Apply

Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.

Fill in our short application form and hit submit.

We’ll invite you to take part in an online assessment. This could be before or after your interview.

We’ll invite you to an in-person assessment centre for an interview. This process may differ depending on the role you’ve applied to.

After we’ve decided, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.

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54+ Resume Objective Examples & Writing Guide

A good resume objective makes hiring managers want to keep reading your resume. We’ll teach you how to write an effective objective statement and provide resume objective examples for various jobs and situations.

As featured in *

A resume objective is a brief statement of your qualifications and career goals that’s used to start your resume . Your resume objective should be tailored to a specific job and explain how you’re qualified for the position.

When writing a resume , you should spend a few extra minutes making your introduction as compelling as possible to catch – and keep – hiring managers’ attention.

In this article, we’ll explain what a resume objective is, show you how to write one, and provide 54+ unique resume objective examples .

Our free-to-use resume builder can make you a resume in as little as 5 minutes. Just pick the template you want, and our software will format everything for you.

General resume objective examples

Here are a few examples of generic resume objectives to give you a better idea of what yours should look like:

No experience resume objective

Fast-learning high school student with a strong desire to learn. Excel in math and memorizing information. Ready to apply these skills to provide next-level customer service as a cashier at Hoppy’s Grocer.

• Resume with no experience
• Resume for your first job

Entry level resume objective

Recent graduate with a certificate in HVAC repair. Possess specialized knowledge and skills needed to diagnose and efficiently resolve mechanical issues in all types of HVAC systems. Equipped to positively affect JT Repair’s bottom line as your next Repair Technician.

• Entry-level resume

Resume objective for experienced worker

Fresh college graduate with 2 years of experience working as a part-time customer service representative. Known for quickly resolving customer issues via phone, email, and instant message. Anticipating building on this success as a Call Center Representative at Mellow May.

• Mid-career resume

How to write a good objective for your resume

To write a strong resume objective, first research the company and think about how your personal background (experience, skills, education, and interests) makes you the best fit for the role.

Once you determine what details will be most compelling to the employer, summarize it in three sentences, like this:

• First sentence: Self-introduction where you mention your years of relevant experience (if any) and degree or level of education
• Second sentence: Your most job-relevant hard and soft skills
• Third sentence: The role you’re targeting and how you plan to help the company achieve its goals

Here’s an example of a resume objective following this basic structure:

Generate a customized resume objective

The easiest way to create a good objective for your resume is to use software that’s designed specifically for that purpose.

The free resume summary generator tool below will help you quickly create a basic resume introduction. Afterward, you can tweak your summary to focus on your career objectives.

Generate a professional resume summary instantly, or use our AI-powered summary generator to customize your own in 2 minutes.

1. What word best describes the type of job seeker you are?

• Intermediate
• Entry-level

2. What work environment are you looking to work in?

• Organization
• Establishment

3. What position are you applying for?

4. What are your main responsibilities at work?

5. What word best describes you in your professional life?

• Detail-oriented
• Hard-working
• Goal-oriented
• Results-oriented
• Quality-oriented
• Experienced
• Extroverted

6. Which soft skills would your peers and/or clients praise you for?

• communication
• creative thinking
• critical thinking
• interpersonal
• multitasking
• organizational
• problem-solving
• collaboration
• negotiation
• conflict resolution
• time management
• motivational
• goal-setting

7. What are your top professional skills?

8. Do you have any relevant licenses or certifications?

Situational career objective examples

Sometimes you need to write a resume to match your situation in life (e.g., a resume for an internship ). Below are five resume objective examples for different life situations:

Career change resume objective

Friendly customer care expert with 5+ years of experience in a retail environment. Switching my career focus to the hospitality industry, bringing well-developed transferable skills such as conflict resolution, empathy, and POS expertise. Ready to thrive in a new role as Front Desk Associate at Carmichael Inn.

• Career change resume

High school student resume objective

Responsible and ambitious student (3.8/4.0 GPA) with excellent time management ability. Possess proven communication skills and a strong work ethic that will aid your company in meeting its milestones. Seeking to apply my customer service abilities and project/event planning skills to the Business Development summer internship at LT Inc.

• High school student resume

College student resume objective

Hardworking college freshman majoring in International Business. Gained communication skills as a part-time barista throughout all four years of high school. Confident I can make a positive impact on prospective students and increase enrollment as a Tour Guide at Regent University.

• College student resume

Internship resume objective

Energetic and passionate college student working toward a BS in Marketing at the University of Georgia. Aiming to use my knowledge of advertising, PR, product development, and consumer research strategies to undertake the marketing internship at MarTek.

• Internship resume
• Grad school resume

Part-time job resume objective

Dependable delivery driver with 3+ years’ experience transporting auto parts from suppliers to mechanics. Hold a perfect driving record and an intimate knowledge of navigating the Mechanicsburg area. Targeting part-time employment as Pizza Palace’s Night Delivery Driver.

• Resume for a part-time job

Job-specific resume objective examples

Administration & Office Support

Banking & finance, customer service & retail, engineering, food & food service, information technology (it), legal & law enforcement, manual labor & skilled trades, sales & marketing.

Looking for a resume objective example for an academic CV or resume? Here’s a research assistant resume objective example that you can use as inspiration:

Research Assistant Resume Objective

Recent Political Science graduate (3.8 GPA) with 6 months’ experience conducting polling research while interning at Win Yellow Strategies. Excellent understanding of neutral survey methods and quantitative analysis. Seeking to leverage my data analysis knowledge to obtain a Research Assistant position at Top Seat Consulting.

• Research assistant CV
• Teacher assistant resume
• Lab technician resume

If you’re seeking an office-based role, here are some resume objectives for inspiration.

Administrative Assistant Resume Objective

Administrative Assistant with experience preparing flawless presentations, assembling reports, and maintaining the utmost confidentiality in student government. Possess a BA in History and expertise in Microsoft Excel. Looking to leverage my knowledge and experience into a role as a Project Manager at Fleeble.

• Administrative assistant resume

Executive Assistant Resume Objective

Discreet and professional executive assistant with 2+ years of internship experience supporting the owner of a 10-employee startup with everything from scheduling to taking meeting notes. Track record of being organized and skilled at time management. 120 WPM typist and highly proficient with Microsoft Office Suite, as well as remote tools like Google Meet, Zoom, and Slack.

• Executive assistant resume

Office Assistant Resume Objective

New college graduate with 2+ years of student work experience handling confidential paperwork and making routine office tasks as efficient as possible. Exceptional organizational, multitasking, customer service, data entry skills, and professional-level Microsoft Office expertise. Seeking to leverage my qualifications to succeed in JK International’s open Office Assistant role.

• Office assistant resume
• Office manager resume
• Receptionist resume
• Secretary resume

Applying for a job in the banking and finance industry? Here are resume objective examples for an accountant, bank teller, and financial analyst:

Accounting Resume Objective

Newly Certified Public Accountant with 3+ years of experience volunteering and interning at major accounting firms. Comfortable with ledger processes, reconciliations, payroll, and detailed reporting. Seeking to grow my professional expertise and experience to flourish as an Accounting Assistant at KL & Associates.

• Accounting resume
• Staff accountant resume
• Accounting assistant resume

Bank Teller Resume Objective

Experienced retail cashier with a genuine love for engaging with customers on a daily basis. Fast learner able to quickly gain a deep understanding of digital systems, and proficient at accurately performing basic calculations in my head. Excited to begin a career in banking as a Teller at Middletown Credit Union.

• Bank teller resume
• Personal banker resume

Financial Analyst Resume Objective

Focused and efficient financial analyst with an MS in Accounting. Trained in developing and presenting informed analyses to guide executive-level decisions and have extensive experience in the latest financial software. Excited to improve my analytical skills to support the Gold Capital team and position myself as an invaluable contributor.

• Financial analyst resume
• Entry-level financial analyst resume
• Finance resume

To showcase your skills in the beauty industry, follow the example of these resume objectives:

Esthetician Resume Objective

Certified esthetician trained in designing care programs for various skin types. Gained hands-on experience through internships and work placements, receiving rave reviews from both supervisors and clients. Prepared to apply excellent interpersonal skills to caring for Diane Beauty’s clients.

• Esthetician resume

Cosmetology Resume Objective

Licensed Cosmetologist seeking to provide customers with a full range of hair care services. Skilled at building a strong client base and performing administrative duties. Aiming to use my natural customer service, sales, and communication skills to effectively fill the Hair Stylist position at Sally’s Salon.

• Hair stylist resume
• Cosmetologist resume

Look at the example below to get an idea of how to write a resume objective for your childcare resume:

Babysitter Resume Objective

Responsible Babysitter with experience caring for children during weekends, evenings, and summer and winter breaks. Skilled at creating fun, engaging, and educational activities, while demonstrating a priority for children’s safety. Excited to meet and care for your children.

• Babysitter resume
• Childcare resume

Below are examples of resume objectives written for customer service and retail jobs:

Customer Service Resume Objective

Hardworking high school student with strong interpersonal and management skills. Possess ability to cooperate with others and resolve conflicts. Seeking to leverage my experience in student government and theater to fulfill the duties of a Customer Service Representative at Walmart.

• Customer service resume
• Technical support resume
• Customer service resume objective examples

Call Center Resume Objective

Outgoing and enthusiastic individual with 4 years’ part-time customer service experience at various retail and food-service establishments. Achieved 99% service satisfaction ratings at every job I’ve held. Confident I can help Verizon exceed its service and sales targets as a Call Center Representative.

• Call center resume

Cashier Resume Objective

Diligent high school student (3.7/4.0 GPA) with excellent communication and research skills. I’m confident my enthusiasm to learn new skills quickly will help your company exceed its milestones. Aiming to use my abilities to successfully fulfill the cashier position at Pete’s Pets.

• Retail sales associate resume
• Grocery store cashier resume
• Retail manager resume
• Store manager resume

School hiring managers look for your teacher skills on your resume . Let employers know immediately that you can lead the classroom by listing your most relevant teaching qualifications in your resume objective like these educators do:

Preschool Teacher Resume Objective

State-licensed preschool teacher with 3 years’ experience as a tutor and student assistant. Well-trained in classroom management, child psychology, and lesson planning. Excited to prepare preschoolers for kindergarten as a Preschool Teacher at Tiny Hands Institute.

• Elementary teacher resume
• Math teacher resume
• Special education teacher resume
• Teacher resume
• Teacher resume objective examples

Substitute Teacher Resume Objective

Certified substitute teacher with proven ability to engage groups of young learners in classroom settings. Passionate about lesson planning and increasing student test scores. Skilled at implementing classroom technology (visualizers, smart displays, and learning apps) and eager to enhance Sunny Day Middle School’s educational quality as a Substitute Teacher.

• Substitute teacher resume
• Tutor resume
• Librarian resume
• Library page resume

Whether you’re a soon-to-graduate engineering student or an experienced engineer changing your industry focus, you can use these resume objective examples for inspiration:

Civil Engineer Resume Objective

A registered member of the ICE and CIOB. Capable of working independently with minimum supervision, and committed to providing high-quality service to every project. Specialize in health, safety, and environmental issues. Motivated individual who can consistently perform in challenging environments, and ready to exceed expectations for YT Group.

• Civil engineer resume
• Engineering resume

Mechanical Engineer Resume Objective

Recent graduate with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and 2+ years of internship experience. Trained in designing and maintaining tools, industrial processing systems, and equipment. Skilled at creating technical drawings and blueprints. Seeking to make an immediate impact as a Mechanical Engineer at Lockheed Martin.

• Mechanical engineer resume

Looking for work in the food and food service industry? Highlight your relevant skills like the applicants do in these resume objectives:

Bartender Resume Objective

Bartender with experience in cocktail preparation and creation. Possess a deep knowledge of local craft beers, wine, spirits, and cocktails, as well as a friendly, outgoing personality. Seeking to apply my bartending skills to fulfill the Bartender position at Draft Bar.

• Bartender resume

Food Service Resume Objective

Food service worker with excellent customer service skills and a passion for serving and preparing food. Recognized for my ability to learn quickly, memorize large numbers of wines and entrees, and use POS terminals. Looking to leverage my knowledge of the industry as a Server at Jim’s Restaurant.

• Food service resume
• Server resume

Line Cook Resume Objective

Aspiring Line Cook with 5 years of experience prepping Cajun, Creole, and Middle Eastern cuisines at home. Possess expertise in creating sauces and cooking seafood and poultry, as well as following recipes and instructions with meticulous detail. Seeking to take my talents for cooking out of my own kitchen and into the kitchen at J’s Fine Dining.

• Line cook resume
• Prep cook resume
• Chef resume

Fast Food Resume Objective

Fast food worker with a year of experience in food service. A quick learner and self-starter with strong interpersonal skills and a keen sense of quality service. I am looking to grow my expertise at the Centralia branch by contributing to the team as a Shift Manager.

• Fast food resume
• McDonalds crew member resume

Waiter Resume Objective

Enthusiastic waiter with a Certification in Food Handling and Safety. Skilled at interacting with customers and upselling. Seeking to leverage proven skills and acquired knowledge into a Waiter position to help achieve Outback Steakhouse’s goals.

• Waitress resume

Providing medical care to patients requires good carer skills. Learn how to show hiring managers you have these skills by using these resume objectives to learn how to write your own:

Medical Assistant Resume Objective

Attentive and detail-oriented medical assistant. AAMA Certified Medical Assistant and Phlebotomy Technician (CPT) since 2022, with knowledge of both administrative and clinical duties and a true passion for helping people in the health profession. Seeking to apply my range of clinical skills and experience as the new Medical Assistant at Centerville Hospital.

• Medical assistant resume
• Physician assistant resume
• Medical assistant resume objective examples
• Caregiver resume

Nursing Resume Objective

Nurse RN with experience providing quality care to a wide variety of patients. Possess a master’s qualification in nursing and currently focused on earning a doctorate degree. Aiming to leverage my experience and knowledge to effectively fill the nursing position at Hilldale Health Center.

• Nursing resume
• Nursing resume objective examples
• CNA resume objective

CNA Resume Objective

Friendly and compassionate certified nursing assistant with a passion for helping elderly patients. Comfortable bathing, dressing, and feeding physically impaired patients, as well as changing bedpans and helping medical staff respond to emergencies. Confident in my ability to enhance the medical services provided by Happy Hills Nursing Home as your new Staff CNA.

• Certified nursing assistant (CNA) resume

Phlebotomist Resume Objective

Experienced and passionate phlebotomist with training in blood sample collection and testing. Able to insert and remove IVs, administer injections and immunizations, and handle patient intake. Excited to apply extensive knowledge of phlebotomy practices to care for patients as a Phlebotomist at Johnsonville Health Clinic.

• Phlebotomist resume

If you work in IT, you already know software and hardware skills are essential. But you might not know how to write a compelling resume objective. Here are some examples to show you how:

IT Project Manager Resume Objective

Agile-certified project manager with 5+ years of experience leading hardware projects from design through to implementation. Known for motivating teams of all sizes to work efficiently. Seeking to transfer this experience to the software field as a Project Manager at Epps Technologies Inc.

• IT project manager resume

Data Entry Clerk Resume Objective

Information Processor who thrives in high-pressure and fast-paced professional environments. Possess a BSc in Computer Science. Independently motivated team player aiming to boost efficiency at BlazeBots by successfully completing projects with tight deadlines.

• Data entry resume
• Clerical resume

Software Developer Resume Objective

Recent Computer Science graduate with backend development experience. Possess more than 1 year of internship experience building and testing applications for Android, iOS, and Windows. Skilled with C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Swift. Seeking an entry-level position as a Software Developer at Jamflex Software.

• Web developer resume
• Software engineer resume

Here are resume objective examples for a paralegal and police officer:

Paralegal Resume Objective

Paralegal intern with 2+ years of experience assisting lawyers with legal research and documentation for criminal trials. Expertise in drafting legal memorandums and preparing for depositions. Motivated to contribute to Johnson & Merk Law Firm’s success as a Litigation Paralegal.

• Paralegal resume
• Lawyer resume
• Legal assistant resume
• Law school resume

Police Officer Resume Objective

Police academy graduate with high marks in physical fitness, weapons training, strategy, and team coordination. Driven to keep community residents safe and looking forward to advancing to a leadership position. Ready to take the first step in my criminal justice career as an Entry-Level Police Officer at Middlebrook Police Department.

• Police officer resume

Attention to detail and technical abilities should be at the top of your resume if you’re a blue-collar worker or skilled laborer. Learn how to showcase these skills by looking at these sample resume objectives:

Construction Worker Resume Objective

Enthusiastic laborer who is always willing to learn new skills and take on more responsibility. Possess an Associate’s in Building Construction Technology. Seeking to apply acquired academic knowledge and work experience as a Construction Worker at Ken’s Contracting.

• Construction worker resume
• Laborer resume
• Welder resume

Housekeeper Resume Objective

Housekeeper with 1 year of experience seeking to put my proven professional skills to work in a full-time housekeeping role. Won an award at my current job for being the most productive member of the cleaning staff. Possess excellent time management and cleaning skills. Looking to fill the Housekeeper position at the Hyatt in Pasadena.

• Housekeeper resume
• Hotel housekeeping resume with no experience
• Hospitality resume

Custodian Resume Objective

Conscientious cleaner with 6+ years of experience cleaning houses professionally. Able to lift 60+ lbs. and comfortable working on my feet for 10+ hours daily. Seeking to apply my high-level knowledge of OSHA cleaning standards to the open Day Custodian position at Connie’s Pro Cleaning Services.

• Custodian resume
• Janitor resume

Security Guard Resume Objective

Professional Court Security Officer looking to transition into corporate security. Possess a CPR certification and strong observation and communication skills. Eager to use my excellent security skills and experience to enhance safety at INK Tech.

• Security guard resume
• Firefighter resume

Truck Driver Resume Objective

Motivated driver with 6+ years of experience commuting from Northern Nevada to Northern California every month for both personal and professional reasons. Possess a Class A Certified Driver’s License and ME Certificate. Looking to apply my strong safety record (zero accidents and injuries in 10 years of driving) as a new Truck Driver for Swift.

• Truck driver resume
• Delivery driver resume

Warehouse Worker Resume Objective

General warehouse worker with 1 year of experience in operations and shipping at Amazon. Earned an award for my above-average efficiency. Fast learner and passionate about delivering excellent service. Seeking to put my skill set to work as a Warehouse Associate at Mansfield Industries.

• Warehouse worker resume
• Security officer resume

Marketing is an ever-changing industry, so show employers you’re adaptable and open to new ideas in your resume objective. Below are three examples of well-written sales and marketing resume objectives:

Sales Resume Objective (College Graduate)

MBA graduate with a firm grasp of the principles behind driving profitability through strategic growth, leading teams, and quality control. Fiercely competitive in my approach to acquire clients, and able to handle complex situations from a strategic and tactical perspective. Presently seeking a sales position with a market-leading, high-growth company that offers opportunities for advancement into management.

• Sales manager resume
• Operations manager resume

Sales Resume Objective (No Degree)

Enthusiastic retail sales associate with 1 year of professional experience in fashion sales. Consistently exceed average monthly sales goals by more than 12%. Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills and am seeking to fill the Entry-Level Sales Associate position at Zara.

• Sales resume

Marketing Assistant Resume Objective

Recent Business graduate (3.7 GPA) with 5 months of internship experience at Kroger. Recognized for my ability to conduct in-depth market research, create innovative marketing campaigns, and provide brand management insight. Looking to continue helping marketing teams achieve success as a Marketing Assistant at Westfield Inc.

• Marketing assistant resume
• Marketing resume

Social Media Resume Objective

Recent graduate with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, excited to begin a brand management career. Self-motivated and a fast learner, passionate about working with all social media platforms and keeping up with the latest industry trends. Aiming to apply my relevant educational background and experience to Buzz Beat’s open Social Media Marketer position.

• Social media marketing resume
• Social media manager resume

Fundraiser Resume Objective

Motivated and results-oriented individual with 1 year of fundraising experience for volunteer causes and a knack for steering others toward participating in philanthropic activities. Skilled in project management, event implementation, and public speaking. Seeking a part-time position as a Fundraising Coordinator for PETA.

• Fundraising resume

As a writer, your resume objective should show hiring managers that you have the writing skills they’re looking for. Here’s an example resume objective for a journalist resume that you can follow:

Journalism Resume Objective

Recent Journalism graduate (3.6 GPA) with strong writing and copy editing experience. Recently completed a 6-month internship at the Washington Post, where I helped cover financial news. Superb research and communication skills. Seeking to drive engagement as a Finance Reporter at BuzzFeed.

• Freelance writer resume

Copywriter resume objective

Innovative Copywriter with 4+ years of experience writing compelling copy for web content, press releases, newsletters, and advertising materials. Adept at a range of communication formats including feature articles, headlines, blogs, emails, podcasts, and social media. Seeking a full-time Copywriter position at Vinta Technologies to develop my skills further.

• Copywriter resume
• Technical writer resume

Resume Objective

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• JUN 6, 2024

Roll ON: Journaling, Creativity & Process—Plus Transformative Books, Thoughts on Regenerative Agriculture & Remembering Swimming's Greatest Coach

Mr. Adam Skolnick and I are back in the saddle for Roll On—ready to unpack all that’s transpired in our worlds and beyond!  Specific topics include the creative anxieties of book publishing (Adam finished his novel!), a recent podcast kerfuffle (i.e., Ozempic), my trip to India and meeting with the Dalai Lama, heading to Paris for the Olympics, paying respect to legends lost, book recommendations, and wading into the Sage Bistro regenerative farming debate.  Let’s make up for lost time, shall we? Put us in your earholes! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Peak Design: Get 20% OFF my favorite products 👉 PeakDesign.com/RICHROLL Inside Tracker: Enjoy 10% OFF the InsideTracker Subscription and any plan 👉 insidetracker.com/richroll On: Enter RichRoll10 at the checkout to get 10% OFF your first order   👉on.com/richroll  Eight Sleep: Use code RICHROLL to get $350 OFF Pod 4 Ultra 👉eightsleep.com/richroll Squarespace: Use code RichRoll for a FREE trial + 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain 👉BetterHelp.com/RICHROLL AG1: REE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs 👉drinkAG1.com/richroll Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange

• JUN 3, 2024

Psychiatrist Phil Stutz Knows What’s Wrong With You & Has The Tools To Fix It

Phil Stutz is a renowned psychiatrist, author, and the protagonist in the Netflix documentary “Stutz”. This conversation explores the intersection of spirituality and Phil’s iconoclastic perspective on personal growth, which emphasizes actionable tools over traditional talk therapy. We discuss Phil’s backstory, his therapeutic philosophy, the drivers of happiness, the importance of embracing reality and uncertainty, the role of faith, finding purpose through service and action, and many other topics. Along the way, Phil expertly psychoanalyzes me. Phil is a treasure. And this conversation is a gift. Enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Momentous: Save up to 36% OFF your first subscription order of Protein or Creatine + 20% OFF my favorite products 👉 livemomentous.com/richroll Bon Charge: Use code RICHROLL to save 15% OFF 👉 boncharge.com Waking Up: Get a FREE month, plus $30 OFF   👉wakingup.com/RICHROLL Brain.fm: Get 30 days FREE of science-backed sound 👉brain.fm/richroll This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp: Get 10% off your first month by visiting 👉BetterHelp.com/RICHROLL SriMu: Get 22% OFF artisanally crafted plant-rich cheeses w/ code RRP 👉SriMu.com Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange

• 1 hr 37 min
• MAY 27, 2024

Navigate Modern Dating & Create A Healthy Love Life: Relationship Coach Matthew Hussey on Breaking Destructive Cycles, Attracting Authentic Connections & More

This week, I’m joined by Matthew Hussey, the celebrated relationship expert and bestselling author, to discuss the intricacies of modern dating and to raise standards for authentic connections. With honest truths, he addresses embracing self-worth, setting boundaries, and cultivating a mindset that attracts an equal partnership based on decency, kindness, and respect. Exploring internal fears, anxieties, and the allure of chaotic relationship dynamics, Matthew discusses unreliable instincts and recognizing red, amber, and green lights. He provides a practical roadmap for breaking destructive cycles, navigating vulnerabilities, and nurturing healthy interdependence. Additionally, we examine gender differences in dating insecurities and societal pressures. Matthew emphasizes the importance of open communication, productive arguments, and empowering your partner’s growth. Please enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Bon Charge: Use code RICHROLL to save 15% OFF 👉 boncharge.com Waking Up: Get a FREE month, plus $30 OFF   👉wakingup.com/RICHROLL Roka: Unlock 20% OFF your order with code RICHROLL 👉ROKA.com/RICHROLL Go Brewing: Use code Rich Roll for 15% OFF your first purchase 👉gobrewing.com  AG1: Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs 👉drinkAG1.com/richroll SriMu: Get 22% OFF artisanally crafted plant-rich cheeses w/ code RRP 👉SriMu.com Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange

• 2 hr 20 min
• MAY 23, 2024

Ozempic: Weight Loss Miracle Drug or Something Darker? Johann Hari on The Benefits & Risks

This week, I’m joined by Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and speaker, to explore his journey into the world of the new weight loss drug phenomenon: Ozempic. Johann shares his surprising firsthand experience injecting himself weekly with the drug for over a year, leading to dramatic weight loss but also complex side effects. We discuss the staggering potential of these “magic pills” to curb the global obesity epidemic, but also the alarming risks like thyroid cancer, pancreatitis, and muscle wasting. Johann provides a nuanced look at the bigger picture—examining the role of pharmaceutical profit, societal pressures around body image, and whether medicalizing thinness addresses root causes. His investigation stretches from the science labs of Iceland to the food culture of Japan. This discussion ultimately confronts sobering philosophical questions about the ethics of pharmaceutical shortcuts versus growth through struggle. Please enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: InsideTracker: Use code RICHROLL at checkout and enjoy 10% OFF the InsideTracker Subscription and any plan 👉insidetracker.com/richroll Seed: Use code RICHROLL25 for 25% OFF your first order  👉seed.com/RichRoll  On: 10% OFF your first order of high-performance shoes and apparel w/ code RICHROLL10 👉on.com/richroll  Momentous: Save up to 36% OFF your first subscription order of Protein or Creatine, along with 20% OFF all of my favorite products 👉livemomentous.com/richroll Squarespace: Use the offer code RichRoll to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain 👉Squarespace.com/RichRoll  Peak Design: 20% OFF thoughtfully designed carry solutions 👉PeakDesign.com/RICHROLL SriMu: Get 22% OFF artisanally crafted plant-rich cheeses w/ code RRP 👉SriMu.com Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange

• 2 hr 11 min
• MAY 20, 2024

Eat Like A Legend: Chef Dan Churchill On Fueling Your Body For Peak Performance

This week, I’m joined by Dan Churchill, a performance chef redefining what it means to thrive in the culinary world. With a Master’s in Exercise Science, Dan is fueling plates and human performance. As executive chef of Osprey in Brooklyn’s 1 Hotel, a former restaurant owner, coach on Chris Hemsworth’s Centr app, and cookbook author—Dan is at the intersection of cuisine, fitness, and content creation. We talk about his unique background growing up in Sydney, how a passion for food connected his family, and his journey from appearing on MasterChef Australia to self-publishing cookbooks that launched his career in New York City. Dan shares insights from building respected brands like Charley Street, the harsh realities of the restaurant world, the importance of authentic relationships over transactional partnerships, and finding balance as an entrepreneur, athlete, and chef. We discuss his latest projects, eating with intention, properly fueling training, recovery, digestion, and more. We explore performance nutrition facts and myths, managing energy levels, and working with elite athletes like Chris Hemsworth and Lindsey Vonn. Please enjoy! Show notes + MORE Watch on YouTube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Eight Sleep: Use code RICHROLL to get $350 OFF Pod 4 Ultra 👉eightsleep.com/richroll  On: 10% OFF your first order of high-performance shoes and apparel w/ code RICHROLL10 👉on.com/richroll  AG1: get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase  👉 drinkAG1.com/richroll. Whoop: Unlock the best version of yourself👉join.whoop.com/roll Brain.fm: Listeners of the show can get 30 days FREE 👉brain.fm/richroll SriMu: Get 22% OFF artisanally crafted plant-rich cheeses w/ code RRP 👉SriMu.com This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp: Listeners get 10% off their first month 👉BetterHelp.com/RICHROLL Check out all of the amazing discounts from our Sponsors 👉richroll.com/sponsors Find out more about Voicing Change Media at voicingchange.media and follow us @voicingchange.

• 1 hr 55 min
• © 2012-2023 Rich Roll Enterprises, LLC. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

10.8K Ratings

More ROLL ON

In the name of all things glorious, please, more Roll On shows. Once a month would be a treat and standout in the landscape of noise.

My absolute favorite podcast

Listening to Rich feels like hanging out with a good friend, who has really interesting friends. His voice puts me at ease like the Calm app. I count on Rich to deliver relevant info and I trust his opinion about the products that sponsor his show. Most notable is Rich’s vocabulary- he uses diverse and articulate language, its a real treat to learn from him.

Drifted off course…

This podcast was a great source of information years ago, but this will be the last time I listen. Rich has always interrupted female guests repeatedly…or talked over them…but it has become ridiculous. The guy needs to learn how to use a period at the end of a sentence. In the ozempic episode he talks over the guy with lived experience and decries Big Pharma…and then cuts right to a plug for supplements. The hypocrisy is tangible.

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