Food Media

Amanda Hesser was the Internet’s Debbie Downer Tuesday in a post that aimed to get real with aspiring food writers. Hesser’s advice went something like this: Get out now. After a decade of magazine fails, newspaper food section budgets drying up, and a mounting crapload of free content on the Web, Hesser solemnly announced that food writing—the paid, professional kind—is now officially dead.

If anybody should be qualified to call the time of death, it’s Hesser. She was a New York Times food staffer, wrote the foodie chick-lit epic Cooking for Mr. Latte, and cofounded the influential food site food52. Hesser says she used to give thoughtful career advice to strangers pinging her for help on how to walk a career path like hers, but those days are over. Nowadays, Hesser responds with the tough-love message she shared with everybody on Tuesday: “I can no longer responsibly recommend that you drop everything to try to become a food writer. Except for a very small group of people … it’s nearly impossible to make a living as a food writer, and I think it’s only going to get worse.”

On Twitter, people responded as if Hesser had announced that Thanksgiving, Mardi Gras, and the Aspen Food & Wine Classic had all been canceled this year. Kim Severson, the New York Times Atlanta bureau chief who used to write about food full-time, tweeted for every past, present, and wannabe food writer in America: “Today's Buzzkill Award goes to .... @amandahesser, who argues that food writing as a career is dead.” READ MORE