Table

Writing the Story Behind the Food

Some of the work I’m most proud of is the kind you’ll never see my name on.

It lives in menus. In recipe cards. In email newsletters. In captions beneath plated food.

It belongs to the chefs.

Over the years, I’ve worked alongside cooks and culinary creatives to help translate what they do instinctively into language that carries.

Sometimes that meant shaping a recipe story. Sometimes it meant refining a seasonal menu. Sometimes it meant sitting at a kitchen table listening to someone talk about why a dish mattered — and finding the words that felt like them.

Food is already sensory.

But when it’s paired with story, it deepens.

A simple stew becomes: A grandmother’s memory. A farmer’s field. A winter survival meal. A celebration.

My role has often been quiet:

• Listening closely

• Protecting the chef’s voice

• Refining language without erasing personality

• Making sure the food felt as alive on the page as it did on the plate

Seasonal campaigns, recipe features, and menu stories are collaborative efforts between chefs and marketing — a process that requires both structure and sensitivity.

The goal is never to center the writer.

It was to make the chef shine.

What I Learned

Culinary creatives don’t always need louder messaging.

They need translation.

The best food storytelling:

• Honors the ingredients

• Respects the labor

• Keeps the voice intact

• Invites people to the table

When language feels inflated or overly polished, it disconnects.

When it feels grounded and human, it nourishes.

What I Bring Forward

From this work, I carry forward:

• A reverence for craft

• The ability to ghostwrite in someone else’s cadence

• An instinct for drawing story out gently

• A commitment to amplifying without overshadowing

When I work with chefs and culinary founders now, I ask:

What does this dish carry?

What memory lives here?

What do you want someone to feel when they read this?

Because good food feeds the body.

But good storytelling feeds belonging.

And that is what keeps people coming back to the table.