Cathy Erway on Finding Better Ways to Teach Cooking

In Chapter 17 of 17 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, writer and healthy food advocate Cathy Erway answers "How Are You Becoming a Better Teacher?"  Erway shares how she is getting more relaxed and confident the more she teaches cooking classes from her home.  Feedback teaches Erway to focus on a specific topic and do so in the casual, loose style she enjoys. 

Cathy Erway is a Brooklyn-based author, part-time cook, freelance writer, radio host and teacher focused on healthy food advocacy.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Cathy Erway on What Gets Easier and What Gets Harder

In Chapter 1 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What is Getting Easier and What is Getting Harder in Your Life?"  Erway shares that with age she finds it easier to say no and to be more selective with what projects she pursues. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What is getting easier and what is getting harder in your life?

Cathy Erway:  It's easy, it's really easy to dive into so many projects when you're young, and just do it endlessly, tirelessly. But it's hard to say no to a lot of things too. So right now I'm finding it easier to say no, and trying to whittle it down into what's-- what I wanna focus on, what's most important. And, you know, I love doing side projects too. But, you know, you have to be a little more selective about it, so, I think I'm getting better at that.

How to Get Started Managing Creative Teams

In Chapter 2 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How are You Learning to Better Manage Creative Projects?"  Erway shares how her projects now involve larger teams and what she has learned about the role effective communication plays in successful project team efforts. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are you learning to better manage creative projects?

Cathy Erway:  You know what? That's something that I like to compartmentalize because I have a lot of different creative projects. And when somebody else is depending on me, then I realize that there really needs to be better management here, not just my own, like things that I have on the back burner, right?

So, when there's other people involved, I feel like an order must be established. So first you have to define the roles--or maybe you define the goal, figure out who's doing what, then keep communicating with each other, because I feel like a lot of times you forget to mention some aspect of what you're doing and then there's overlap... So I feel like communication is really, really, really key and I've been in situations where there wasn't enough and, it's like, "Why?" I mean, if you can just, if you have the time to do something and just -- I don't know, just keep whoever's involved in the loop, why not? It never hurts to over-tell something.

How to Deepen a Friendship by Doing a Project Together

In Chapter 3 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What Do You Finding Most Rewarding About Collaborating With Others on Projects?"  She notes how she is able to deepen her friendships by collaborating with friends on projects.  She notes how it adds a different dimension to the relationship. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What do you find most rewarding about collaborating with others on projects?

Cathy Erway:  I like to see people from a different point of view than I have encountered before. A lot of times I go into a project with a friend because it seems like a good idea and all of a sudden you get to know how they operate in a group situation or in maybe a stress situation and, or in a fun -- when you're like, "Yes! We did it. We're done," situation.

All these things that you don't really get to have when you're hanging out and, you know, there's no project, there's no like fight, I guess.  So, I just, I love entering projects with people that I know and I have a good feeling that we’ll, you know, we could work together well.

Erik Michielsen:  You find ways to give that relationship more depth?

Cathy Erway:  Yeah, basically.

Erik Michielsen:  And you find some surprises along the way I'm sure.

Cathy Erway:  Yeah, sure. Definitely but I think it only gives one another more respect for each other in the end, because you feel closer to them, you get to know so much more about them.

Erik Michielsen:  You get to know more about them over time too.

Why to Try Cooking at a Pop-Up Restaurant

In Chapter 4 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What Made You Create a Pop-Up Restaurant and What Did You Learn from the Experience?"  Erway creates a pop-up restaurant at Milk Bar restaurant in Brooklyn to try cooking for larger audiences at night.  The pop-up setting allows her to personalize a dining experience using a restaurant rather than supper club model. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What made you create a pop-up restaurant and what did you learn from the experience?

Cathy Erway:  Oh that was a fun project. So I ran a pop-up restaurant in a restaurant that a new acquaintance, new friend, was the chef at for a while. And it was really fun, it was a collaboration with somebody I'd never worked with before. I'm always up for that kind of challenge and it's funny because I think he'd heard of my pop-up dinners with the Hapa Kitchen or something else, some functions that I was doing, and he just approached me and asked, "Hey, I really want to do some -- I'm really inspired. I wanna do pop-ups at this restaurant," because they were actually a cafe and they were open during the day, they close at 6. So it's like free real estate for a dinner, so it's a perfect--I think it's a perfect situation. You take over this tiny cafe, and turn it into an occasional restaurant. So I highly encourage anyone to try that.

Erik Michielsen:  How'd you handle the experience, kinda cooking for a larger crowd and a faster changing crowd?

Cathy Erway:  Yeah that was a new experience because we didn't have everyone sit down at once and then serve them at once. So the chef I was working with, Josh, he just wanted to do it like a regular restaurant. So people walk in, you can take reservations too, you try to turn over as many covers as you can within the course of the night, you make as many ingredients. It was like a regular restaurant. So I've never--I was like, "Oh, this is totally novel to me. " And I was describing how I did it, and he was like, "Oh, that's totally novel to me." Like the whole supper club way, everyone sits and eats at once. So I tried it--we tried it his way and that was a new learning experience for me. And then I realized, oh, it’s about volume and making people leave sooner. I mean, not that we did, of course, but you know, in theory, that's how a restaurant works, is you gotta turn it over.

Erik Michielsen:  And how did that compare and contrast with say the Hapa Kitchen supper club?

Cathy Erway:  Hapa kitchen supper club is more of like a wandering salon of totally different, unique experiences, and one of the things we did was always--it was always in a different atmosphere. Like, atmosphere was pretty important so our first dinner was out in a farm in Queens County Farm Museum. We had two big huge events. That were at the Gowanus Yard, or the Brooklyn Yard it used to be called. And that was pretty cool. Then we did other intimate dinners that were in people's houses, and we kind of really decked it all out in a certain way, like, for this one Shanghai and French dinner, Paris of the East. And we got all dressed up in chipaos. Yeah, so I mean, it was--that was the theme for that club, but having it always in the same place with different menus, that was the pop-up concept for Milk Bar, which is a restaurant we used. 

Learning Cooking Skills Staging in Restaurant Kitchens

In Chapter 5 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Did You Decide to Stage in California Restaurant Kitchens and What Did the Experience Teach You?"  Erway finds it highly educational immersing herself in kitchens, be they restaurants or supper clubs.  She takes a trip to California, where she stages, or interns, at several restaurant kitchens, including Tartine Bakery and Chez Panisse. 

“I like the idea of being silent and being told what to do and just doing something manually for a long time. I think that’s a good intern at a restaurant—just listen, just zone out and like listen to everything that’s going on. ”

— Cathy Erway

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you decide to stage in California restaurant kitchens, and what did the experiences teach you?

Cathy Erway:  Oh, man, I love staging, so I just love butting into kitchens, no matter if it's a real restaurant or a supper club production of some sort, or my friend's dinner party. So I was in San Francisco for a month and I really wanted to stage at Tartine Bakery. And they were doing some renovations. They were like, "Yeah, come back tomorrow." "Okay, yeah, I'll come back to tomorrow." I was like, "Shoot."

So I went around town asking to stage other places, and in one case, it was actually like a no-brainer. I was sitting at a bar, having a beer, and then somebody walked in wearing a chef's coat and sat down and like drank a beer in like 5 seconds and then got up and was about to leave to go back to cook. And I was like, "Oh, what restaurant?" He's like, "Oh, this place in SoMa district and," you know, he described it, and I was like, "Can I come cook sometime?" He's like, "Yeah, sure." And it was great. And then I made some friends or I had some friends in the area, who very graciously -- I think that it's a small world or in the food scenes, I don't know, but he knew everybody. So he hooked me up with a stage opportunity at Chez Panisse, which was pretty amazing. Loved it.

Erik Michielsen:  What did you learn?

Cathy Erway:  Well, I feel like I have a good sense of the differences of California cuisine and New York cuisine. They use so many herbs, it's insane. Like going into their walk-in, there's like a whole walk-in just for herbs. And there's like drawers of like every single kind of herb. Chervil? Who uses chervil in New York City? I don't know of too many. But they all have this. And sometimes salads are just like simply a pile of beautifully fluffy fresh herbs. And I mean, they're lucky they can grow it anywhere. It's temperate. They have it all year round, you know, kind of spoiled, right? But, yeah, I mean, that's -- and that's naturally what they cook with, you know, all these--you know, sometimes wild fennel because it grows everywhere, we used that -- and oh, Chez Panisse, there was a great dish where they pounded the wild fennel in this mortar and pestle.

Chez Panisse is really into using archaic instruments too. At one point, we were pounding roasted red peppers with the mortar and pestle and I was like, "Why aren't we using a food processor?" But that's -- you know... It's all about doing things by hand.

Erik Michielsen:  And what questions did you ask?

Cathy Erway:  Aside from "Why don't we use a food processor?"  I don't -- I didn't really want to ask too many questions. I like the idea of being silent and being told what to do and just doing something manually for a long time. I think that's a good intern at a restaurant--just listen, just zone out and like listen to everything that's going on. 

Cathy Erway on Testing New Ideas and Committing to Projects

In Chapter 6 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Balance Experimentation and Commitment in the Projects You Pursue?"  Erway notes how she will try anything once, using a pop-up supper club as an example.  Over time, she learns to whittle down her pursuits around her core competencies or strengths. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you balance experimentation and commitment in the projects you pursue?

Cathy Erway:  I should probably be better at that. But experimentation, I--that's something I can't live without. So I definitely experiment and I try at least once--anything, anything you throw at me, I will try it. So like this new supper club or pop-up at Milk Bar, sure I will give it a try. Or this recipe idea in my head that doesn't yet exist, I'll give that a try. You know, commitment means you found that it's a great recipe and you wanna keep making it, maybe you wanna hone it, and, you know, so it comes to whittling down all these things that you try, so I think it can't hurt to keep trying as many things as possible.

Erik Michielsen: And when is it time to narrow that focus because you can only afford so many things on the table at the same time?

Cathy Erway:  Probably now. It's wise to whittle things down to what you're the best at, so--what you're core competencies are. So, "Should I give up this blog? Or should I give up this documentary film series that I co-host? " Well, you know, this is more in line with my career, so, the writing, that is, the blog. So maybe that's something I should keep.

Erik Michielsen:  Those choices can be hard, huh?

Cathy Erway:  Yeah, they can be hard, and you always think, like, "Maybe I can do everything." Well, you can try that, too and see how it goes, but probably not as often as you’d like.

Why Not to Kill Your Creative Project

In Chapter 7 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Evaluate When to Continue a Project and When to Kill It?"  Erway notes she is less about killing projects and more about putting them on the back burner or shelf so she can return to them down the road. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you evaluate when to continue a project and when to kill it?

Cathy Erway:  Ooh. When to kill a project? It doesn't sit right with me to kill projects. I always like to think that, you know, they're on the back burner and that you can return to them but always change them up and shape them, and they'll evolve too. So in that sense, I don't think, you know--I had this idea of writing an essay collection a while ago. I didn't so much kill it but put it off and, you know, I think it'll probably be better in the long run that I did that. If I ever get to finishing it, that is. So if you start something, you're never--you're not gonna kill it, I just don't think, it's still with you somehow unfinished in its own, you know, kind of caught in the, just caught in that moment...

Erik Michielsen: File it away. Shelve it but always know that that shelf is accessible.

Cathy Erway: Right, right. Yeah.

The Rewards of Teaching a Cooking Class

In Chapter 8 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What Have You Found Most Rewarding About Teaching?  Erway shares how she has embraced a hands-on approach in teaching cooking.  She finds how she learns instructs how she teaches. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What have you found most rewarding about teaching?

Cathy Erway:  Ooh. I really like teaching because it's kind of like a party where you just hang out, and that's my style of teaching. So, of course, I'm not like a very strict teacher with a... whatever they're holding there, pointer. So, yeah, I recently taught a class, where I had my uncle help out and just like hang out and it was about basic Chinese for foodies, hilarious. I mean, we just had the best time ever.

And that -- I mean, you know, my cooking classes are all hands-on, I would never have it not that way. So everyone has to get dirty, has to lose--you know, their, kind of like come out of their shell a little bit. And everyone gets to know each other, you can bring beer if you want. I got some stuff in the fridge, you can improvise with whatever sauces I have, feel free. So, that's my way of teaching, and that's the way I like to learn, so I figure if that's how I learned to cook, then this is how I teach. 

Cathy Erway on Finding Purpose Writing Healthy Food Recipes

In Chapter 9 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Create Hope and Dispel Fear When Introducing New Recipes and Foods to Others?"  Erway embraces the challenge of showing foods and ingredients in new recipes.  She finds the visual and written elements of her food blog help her more effectively communicate that message to her audience. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you create hope and dispel fear when introducing new recipes and foods to others?

Cathy Erway:  Well, I like to always challenge the conventional by having somewhat strange or unusual combinations maybe or techniques or just ingredients that are less commonly used. And I like to show them in a new light by just, you know, doing a delicious recipe that hopefully comes through in the instructions and in the photos.

Basically, that's the best I can do, and I think that that's always actually a huge mission of mine because I would make these things and tell people about how great they were, but without the evidence of like a photo or like the written recipe that you can wrap your head around, it doesn't go through, so this is really one of the reasons why I write my blog, is to showcase it. 

How Recipe Writing Teaches You to Be More Creative

In Chapter 10 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Has Recipe Writing Taught You to Be More Creative?"  Erway notes the two aspects of the recipe writing process - experimenting and testing the recipe and then meticulously writing out the recipe.  She finds the former, the testing, pushes her to experiment and iterate on what she has tasted before. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How has recipe writing taught you to be more creative?

Cathy Erway:  Ooh. The ingredients are kind of like my paint, and the pan is my canvas, so recipe writing, I guess there's two facets of it. It's actually doing the recipe with ingredients and tools and so forth, but having to go back and write it is actually much, much less creative. It's actually kind of a pain to make it because you want it to be as accurate as possible, and sometimes you did things in the moment that you might forget, and it just takes a long time.

So, I mean, I guess if we're talking about the former, which is recipe writing as you're doing it, yes, it absolutely is a great outlet for creativity, and it teaches me to be more creative because I'm always--like my palate is constantly wanting something different, so I have to come up with something different.

So it's a good natural way to be forced into being a little more creative or doing something a little more differently because I don't want to have the same thing that I’ve had before.

Cathy Erway on How to Find a Food Writer Mentor

In Chapter 11 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?"  Erway details how she is learning from experienced food writer mentors and the steps she has taken to build relationships with them over time. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Cathy Erway:  At this moment, I am seeking advice and coaching from veteran food writers. I love to talk to them, hang out with them, eat with them. As well as I found that older, you know, food writers really like to hear what's going on with the youth culture, so it's a win-win. I have a few friends that had been doing cookbooks for decades and, we don't really, like, so much talk about cookbooks all the time. We kind of just hang out and maybe we will talk about the Super Bowl and just other stuff, you know, our families, what's going on in politics, but, you know, if we ever need each other's advice--like I've been helping a certain older food writer friend get into Twitter and do more social media and stuff like that, and figure all that stuff out. And I'm sure I will go back to him if I ever need a contact at The New York Times or something.

Erik Michielsen:  And do you find there’s just inspiration that comes from being in that group's presence independent of what specific thing you're talking about?

Cathy Erway:  Well, for me, definitely. Because the older, the more experienced you are, the more foods you know about, I think. I mean it's really a learning experience, the more places they've probably been around the world, so, yeah, I love hearing about that kind of thing and I will ask them endlessly and they're like, "Oh, and then in Barcelona, we went and had these snails..." you know, so I just love hearing about it I was like, "I wanna go."

Erik Michielsen:  Have you ever been intimidated asking, you know, to be part of that conversation, be part of those gatherings, and if so, how did you overcome that, you know, trepidation and push yourself in there?

Cathy Erway: No. No, I don't think so. I mean I will, like if I see a food critic at a party, say we're at the same event, and it's a public event, right? And some people are shy to walk up to people. I'm not, you know? Or email them out of the blue, because a lot of times they'll respond and they're really awesome. I try to do that to people that email me out of the blue. Maybe I don't get to all of them, I don't know, I think I do. If anyone's listening. I don't know, I mean, I think that it's, you know, if you wanna talk to them, they'll probably be happy to talk to you, too. 

Finding Food Writing Inspiration Reading Thoreau

In Chapter 12 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Have Thoreau's Words 'None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life from the vantage point of what we should call 'voluntary poverty' ' inspired your work?"  These words, from Thoreau's "Walden", inspire Erway to put herself in a place to see things from another person's shoes, which opens a creative channel that becomes her blog and, progressively, her healthy food advocacy platform. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How have Thoreau's words "None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage point of what we should call voluntary poverty," inspired your work?

Cathy Erway:  That's a very interesting quote, isn't it? I thought it was so audacious for him to say that. It's so -- You've never heard something like that. I haven't before, so I thought it was, "Wow, what a bold statement," and that's what really caught me when I saw it, and obviously if we could say it a different way it would make a lot more sense. So you could say, "Altruism is..." you know, "…the best way to get to know about life and people." But he said this kind of shocking, you know, word poverty, voluntary poverty, that's crazy, right? So it did inspire me and it made me feel brave to start a blog called, "not eating out in New York" because that sounds pretty weird, that sounds shocking, a little crazy, and I just knew that it was going to be -- it was going to work because of that, because I liked it. It just caught me.

Erik Michielsen:  And was there sacrifice?

Cathy Erway:  Was there sacrifice? I mean the whole experiment was like a big sacrifice. But I thought, you know, I thought of a lot different names that would sound nicer to you, on the ear, it would just kind of be evocative of, like fruits or something like, you know, something nice, something pleasant, something people like to hear. "Oh, you know, 'juicy tomato,' that sounds great." But that wouldn't really say anything about the blog so I was like just go ahead, just do it, just say, "not eating out in New York." "What?" You know…

Erik Michielsen:  With regard to voluntary poverty, does that come back to being surrounded by so many professionals and a lot of wealth, and choosing to kind of go against that, and then tying that into your choices from a writing and food perspective?

Cathy Erway:  Yeah, I think that that pretty much sums it up. I mean, voluntary poverty means you've taken it upon yourself to see things from another person's shoes. So, you know, going back to -- that's another way of putting that statement, right? So, yeah, I mean we live in the most cosmopolitan, arguably, city in the world. Of course there's a huge disparity of, you know, different incomes in the city, so you can see that all around you, but for the most part, I mean, yes, I mean we have everything at our fingertips, the greatest arts, the greatest food, which is what I was going to focus on, and, you know, Thoreau, his whole thing was he stepped away from society. That quote is from Walden, so he lived in the middle of the wilderness in Walden Pond actually, and survived, and learned how to survive basically on his own devices, so that's what I was comparing myself to doing by feeding myself all the time when there's so much non-need to do that.

Cathy Erway on Learning to Lead and Champion a Cause

In Chapter 13 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "What Does It Mean to Be a Leader in What You Do?"  By championing the good food movement, promoting healthy eating and encouraging people to cook at home, she finds it critical to engage people to drive action.  By allowing people to respond and take action to her words and messages, she finds her leadership actionable.  Erway goes on to share food writing and healthy eating mentoring influences, including Anna Lappe, Marion Nestle, and Alice Waters. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  What does it mean to be a leader in what you do?

Cathy Erway:  Well, there are different levels of what I do. I think that one of the things that you could say I do is champion the good food movement, healthy eating, and cooking creatively at home. So-- "What does it mean to be a leader?" means engaging people and leading people, not just by writing about it, but by getting out there and organizing activities, initiating group -- just engagement somehow, whether that be asking people just questions to answer to in a Twitter feed or getting together a bunch of people and hosting a great event for a good cause. So I think that people just need to respond to you and need to be active themselves, they need to take an action, aside from just watching or reading, in order for you to be a leader.

Erik Michielsen:  Continuing on that, what leaders have you learned from?

Cathy Erway:  I've learned from a great deal of a really good food writer mentors. Also, along those lines, there are lots of local leaders in the food world, Anna Lappé who lives down the street from here, she's great, she's always been very active. Same with Marion Nestle she's always on panels, always talking, always being at events. I don't know her personally, but Alice Waters is such a leader. It's insane how much she does.

Erik Michielsen:  How so?

Cathy Erway:  Edible Schoolyard, I was out in Berkeley, California when they were celebrating their 30th anniversary with that project, and it just seems to expand all the time. They add more functions to this project. There's more cooking courses going on, there's more events surrounding it, and more groups that are getting involved with Edible -- it's like this thing, it's like this beast now. So, yeah, she's a huge leader.

Cathy Erway on Fixing the Mixed Messages of Food TV Shows

In Chapter 14 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "Why Should Food Media Be More About Education Than Entertainment?"  Erway highlights the need for food media television and blogs to be more clear in their intent.  She believes audiences see entertainment as instructional.  Erway takes issue her and aims to clarify the intent or purpose of shows teaching cooking and selling cookbooks that do not promote healthy eating. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  Why should food media be more about education than entertainment?

Cathy Erway:  Well, I mean, not to sound too naive, but I think that, yes, I understand there is a difference in tone for the purpose of a food media thing, television show, for example, and a lot of the times we don't see it, we don't see that line and it gets confused for authenticity or just, you know, plain instructions, something that you should follow, but of course a lot of entertaining stuff is out there that--it wasn't--it didn't have that purpose.

So, the first food media, TV shows started, you know, in the '50s when television -- that truly was--that was like housewives need to know how to flip an omelet, so this is how you do it. That's really where it started, but of course, now we have all sorts of crazy shows, all sorts of funny, entertaining blogs out there too, and we need to, like, just be a little more clear on which, you know--what we should be watching it for, and--I mean, not that there's anything wrong with entertaining food media. I love watching funny shows like Food Party. I love the old British series Posh Nosh but, I mean, if you're going to instruct a food and sell cookbooks, I think that there needs to be more purpose behind that than just to entertain. Because you're going to have a real impact on people's eating habits, and they do, and they really do.

And, you know, I've noticed when I write something on my blog that's a recipe that is kind of hilarious, over-the-top--bacon cream cheese cupcakes--that the readership spikes and sure enough, you know, that's fun and stuff, and I do that once in a while, but it's not something I want to do simply to have a broader audience and, you know, I just -- because I don't want people to eat -- I don't eat that way all the time.

Erik Michielsen:  Right. Yeah, yeah, it's misleading.

Cathy Erway:  Yeah. I think so.

Erik Michielsen:  Only if it's done for entertainment's sake then it -- Okay, the goal is to entertain and then to sell advertising behind that and to make a productive, you know, television show, but when you're--

Cathy Erway:  Then you're like a tobacco company. Right? You're just like selling something that people like even though you know it's not good.

Erik Michielsen:  Yeah, there's a deeper element there that can be probably used a bit more.

Cathy Erway:  I like to write recipes that, if you read the behind the lines I do have a mission, but I'm trying not to hit you over the head with it. I talk about how delicious turnips are. And they are, but I mean, who would've thought that originally? It's not something you'd read and be like, "Oh, yeah, totally!" You know, there's, I feel like there's media that is affirmative like when the watcher--when the viewer is watching it, it's, you know, there's a positive experience which is, "I agree with you, and I already do agree with you." And that's the easiest kind of positive response to get.

But when you challenge by bringing up a totally new thought or new revelation like turnips taste decadent. Right? Or you try to make it sound decadent instead. There this like, "Eh." You know, non-- but you know after a while maybe they'll try and maybe they'll think it's a positive thing afterwards. So it takes a lot more time, it's harder to do, it's harder to get people to have a good experience because they have to actually do it or try it or something. 

Blogging Advice on Starting a Weekly Podcast to Grow Your Audience

In Chapter 15 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Are You Learning to Adapt Your Message to Reach Different Audiences?"  Erway notes how her podcast radio show as proven to be a strong complement to her food blog.  She shares how this has played into her evolving education marketing and promoting her ideas, messages, and writing. 

Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How are you learning to adapt your message to reach different audiences?

Cathy Erway:  Well, one thing I've done is really focus on other mediums that I do on a pretty regular basis. So I have this radio show, it's a podcast on Heritage Radio Network. I think that the audience that listens to podcast radio, maybe they're -- maybe they just tune, you know, tune into it while doing other stuff at work, instead of reading because it's easier, maybe they're busier, I don't know, I think it's probably a different audience than somebody who reads a blog and also cooks a blog, cooks recipes from it that is.

I felt that, you know, there always are going to be people who just search for a recipe and land on your blog, and that's really cool too. So I like to tag up, you know, some recipes, which I didn't use to do before because I was so bad at--horribly bad at you know stuff like traffic, but that's always cool to see, and sometimes they do comment. They're like, "Hey, I just stumbled across this." And they're like totally a new voice in the whole conversation, which is great. 

Advice on How to Handle Rejection

In Chapter 16 of 16 in her 2012 interview, author and food writer Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Deal With Rejection?"  Erway notes how dealing with rejection comes down to attitude and ego.  She reminds herself rejection is not about her and shifts focus on understanding the party saying no and why it would do so.  Cathy Erway is an author and food writer living in Brooklyn.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen:  How do you deal with rejection?

Cathy Erway:  Rejection is actually -- it is a product of ego. I'm very easygoing, and if somebody rejects me and it's not a huge deal, I really handle it pretty well. Or if something, you know, I -- say I submitted to a poetry contest and I didn't get it, it's really not--I'm not going to be crushed, so I don't really get so worked up.

And if you didn't have a big ego, then you, there's no such thing as rejection, actually. It doesn't exist. It is something that you feel when you're--when somebody says no for whatever reason. You can take that to be, "Oh, I respect the way that person or that organization is thinking," and that's, it is what it is, you know? That's all it is. It's not about me, but let's think about what they were thinking, and that's their choice, okay. So, cool. But if you're thinking of it from only your point of view, "Oh," you know, "the world is -- It's me against the world. And the world is rejecting me." Then of course you're going to feel bad, so it's really about an attitude.