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The Food Essay, a 5-Week Course
To start the New Year, I will be offering a five-week version of my class “The Food Essay” to the public. This was previously taught in the Boston University gastronomy program. We will discuss the history of the food essay and four specific types of essays: reported, personal, cultural criticism and/or opinion, and recipe. There will be readings for each week, discussion, and optional assignments. There is an add-on that will get you my edits and feedback on your essays.
All lectures and discussions will be recorded and shared the following day, along with the materials. Thus, this class can be taken live, asynchronously, or as a combination. I will also create a digital space for ongoing discussion during the duration of the workshop.
Find the Desk Member discount of 25% off here.
OVERVIEW
An essay has the unique ability, through a combination of brevity, style, and focus, to reach a large audience. Indeed, it is the form through which most people engage with food writing. For this reason, considering the history and significance of food essays in defining the public discourse on food demands careful attention to the context, writing, and scope of popular food essays and new imaginings of what the food essay can be and do. In short: How has the food essay consistently demonstrated an engagement with politics and culture over the course of decades, and how could it continue to do so in the future as engagement with media becomes more fractured and visually driven?
Lectures will contextualize the essays in their political and cultural moments, discuss their overarching structures, and examine how the style and content are in service to the overarching argument or idea being presented. The publication and form in which they’ve appeared, whether print or digital, will also be considered. Readings will be short, but discussions will be rigorous and detail-oriented, and based on close reading.
OBJECTIVES
Students will come away from this class with a deep understanding of the significance, structures, and impact of popular food essays. They will also workshop and refine their own approach to the form, learning from the examples, lectures, and discussions with fellow students. Assignments will give students space and practical experience in communicating ideas that are broad and specific; reported and personal. Overall, the course will show the students how to communicate effectively about complex ideas in food to a diverse audience.
WHEN
Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST
January 13 through February 10
WHERE
Zoom
You will receive the syllabus and information upon purchase. Please sign up using the email at which you want to receive information.
WHO
Alicia Kennedy is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of the best-selling No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, and her memoir On Eating: The Making & Unmaking of My Appetites will be out in spring 2026. Her newsletter on food culture, politics, and media, From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, is read by over 30,000 people weekly.
To start the New Year, I will be offering a five-week version of my class “The Food Essay” to the public. This was previously taught in the Boston University gastronomy program. We will discuss the history of the food essay and four specific types of essays: reported, personal, cultural criticism and/or opinion, and recipe. There will be readings for each week, discussion, and optional assignments. There is an add-on that will get you my edits and feedback on your essays.
All lectures and discussions will be recorded and shared the following day, along with the materials. Thus, this class can be taken live, asynchronously, or as a combination. I will also create a digital space for ongoing discussion during the duration of the workshop.
Find the Desk Member discount of 25% off here.
OVERVIEW
An essay has the unique ability, through a combination of brevity, style, and focus, to reach a large audience. Indeed, it is the form through which most people engage with food writing. For this reason, considering the history and significance of food essays in defining the public discourse on food demands careful attention to the context, writing, and scope of popular food essays and new imaginings of what the food essay can be and do. In short: How has the food essay consistently demonstrated an engagement with politics and culture over the course of decades, and how could it continue to do so in the future as engagement with media becomes more fractured and visually driven?
Lectures will contextualize the essays in their political and cultural moments, discuss their overarching structures, and examine how the style and content are in service to the overarching argument or idea being presented. The publication and form in which they’ve appeared, whether print or digital, will also be considered. Readings will be short, but discussions will be rigorous and detail-oriented, and based on close reading.
OBJECTIVES
Students will come away from this class with a deep understanding of the significance, structures, and impact of popular food essays. They will also workshop and refine their own approach to the form, learning from the examples, lectures, and discussions with fellow students. Assignments will give students space and practical experience in communicating ideas that are broad and specific; reported and personal. Overall, the course will show the students how to communicate effectively about complex ideas in food to a diverse audience.
WHEN
Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST
January 13 through February 10
WHERE
Zoom
You will receive the syllabus and information upon purchase. Please sign up using the email at which you want to receive information.
WHO
Alicia Kennedy is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of the best-selling No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, and her memoir On Eating: The Making & Unmaking of My Appetites will be out in spring 2026. Her newsletter on food culture, politics, and media, From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, is read by over 30,000 people weekly.