Is there a difference between writing for a magazine like Gourmet and an alternative paper?
There are surprisingly few differences. Obviously, when you’re writing for a weekly, the audience is different. Writing about food for Gourmet is like writing about sports for Sports Illustrated. You can sort of mention bchamel and figure that your readers know what it is rather than having to explain it. And for Gourmet I tend to review the most expensive restaurants in the country. At the L.A. Weekly, I don’t specifically seek out cheap restaurants, but I’m more interested in the things they’re doing in Chinatown than I am in the 400th restaurant to serve an identical pseudo-Tuscan menu. So, I tend to write lower on the food chain. Other than that, not much difference at all. I had a surprising amount of freedom at Gourmet even though I had an editor who just didn’t get it when I would throw in a Fatboy Slim reference, for example. Has globalization had as much of an effect on food as everything else? It’s had an incredible effect on food. In L.A. there are super cheap trips to Asia,
