Interview with David Leite – April 29, 2003

 David’s Career

AEB:  How did you begin your career as a freelance culinary writer?

DAVID:  After 15 years in the creative department of different advertising agencies, I felt burnt out.  I wanted to try something different, to write an article, but had no specific ideas. Then, in 1992, my Portuguese grandmother died.  We’d been quite close.  One of my best memories is of us working together in her kitchen.  When she died, some of our family’s culture, which can be seen through the prism of our food, died with her.  Because she was illiterate, she hadn’t written down her recipes and several family dishes disappeared.  Though my mother and aunts made their own versions, they were just that: versions.  So, I interviewed my mother and aunts, videotaping their cooking and asking about their food memories.  I learned that there’s a lot more to a recipe than what goes into the pot.  Cooking is a truly sensuous and sensory experience and the memories of special dinners and certain foods can shape you and stay with you all your life.

Although the standard recommendation is to start small with local papers, I sent a query to the high-circulation Chicago Sun-Times, received a response and wrote my first article on spec.  (Ed. note: David wouldn’t be paid if the editor didn’t like the finished article.)  I was used to writing advertising copy, which doesn’t have much of a narrative arc.  Suddenly, I had to write something that required a beginning, middle, and end—plus 900 extra words!  I paced, I sweated, I ‘angsted’.  When it was done, I heaved a sigh of relief and thought that was that.   Then I saw my byline and I was hooked.  The article, which paid homage to my grandmother and our heritage, really touched people and I saw firsthand the power of the written word.  From there, I had a creative two-year period writing more pieces for the Sun-Times and other publications here and there, until I began writing full time last year.

AEB:  What do you find most rewarding/satisfying about this profession?

DAVID:  It combines all the things I adore in life:  eating, writing, the culture of food, the familia feeling when sitting down at the table.  I think visually and this career, which includes my Web site, Leite’s Culinaria (www.leitesculinaria.com), takes advantage of my education in photography, my degree in communications design and my advertising background.  It’s the ultimate experience for me, because I’m paid to do what I love.  I also love to laugh and I tend to write with humor, something I got from my mother.  I derive great pleasure when people chuckle out loud while reading my work.  If I had to say what my goals are when I write, it would be to entertain first and educate second.

AEB:  What is the most difficult part of being a freelance food writer?

DAVID:  The money.  Advertising threw suitcases of money at me.  Now I find myself looking through my wallet for a dollar bill.  I think there’s an inverse relationship between the value of a job and what you’re paid.  Writing and teaching, two of the most important professions in the world, enrich us yet pay so little.  I hope to be the exception to the rule.

AEB:  Do you write on assignment?  Pitch articles to various publications?   Compose articles on spec and hope to sell them?

DAVID:  I’ve done only one article on spec.  These days I pitch detailed ideas to publications I haven’t worked with before.  For those editors with whom I have a relationship, I send a short e-mail outlining an idea.  Nothing too formal.  Now that I’ve been writing for about four years, some editors call to tell me that they have idea and ask what I think.

AEB:  Do you have any tips for making contact with editors?

DAVID:  Get a Web site, especially if a writer has no clips.  My site has helped enormously.  It has a lot of content, so an editor can peruse articles and get a sense of my writing.  Humor has helped me when I’ve pitched to editors, too, but only with those publications that I feel are open to humor.  I study a magazine before pitching it, so I can be as focused on that publication’s style and content as possible.  This shows good research, something editors value in a writer.  Another point:  make sure your pitch is grammatically correct, no matter the length.

AEB:  Your own style is friendly, light-hearted and a bit irreverent, but your articles make it clear that you’re a serious food professional.  How would you recommend beginning food writers establish their own personal style?

DAVID:  I grapple with this in the food writing class I teach.  I can only recommend that you read, read, read.  You’ll be drawn to certain writers, which can be an indication, a clue, of the voice within.  At first, while you’re casting about for your style, it’s okay to mimic someone else’s as an exercise.  In my class, I give students an opening paragraph from different writers and ask them to write the subsequent paragraphs using the writers’ styles.  Then, I have them ask themselves, to which am I more drawn?  Me, I’m drawn to Jeffrey Steingarten, not M.F.K. Fisher, even though she’s a great writer.

There’s nothing new to say about food—an apple is an apple, foie gras is foie gras.  It’s how you approach it, your sensibility, the voice you bring to it that will make a piece truly yours.  No one will ever experience that apple or foie gras quite like you, and that’s what you have to capture.  Also, interesting people make interesting writers, so have lots of exciting, unusual experiences.

AEB:  Do you have any other tips for culinary writers who are just starting out?

DAVID:  In Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul, one of the contributors wrote that the most important thing a writer needs is ‘bumgum’—sticking your butt in the chair and doing the work.  A writer is a writer because he writes; otherwise he’s a wannabe.

At the same time, what you choose to leave out of a story is just as important. Get rid of the decorative, the odious.  It’s like a sculptor who chips away everything but the bare essence of the statue.

Also go to every conference you can afford and work the conference like it was your last day on earth.  At my first conference—the Symposium for Professional Food Writer’s, held at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV—I got an agent; formulated a cookbook idea; bonded with a magazine editor; met a woman who turned out to be a mentor; and won my first award.  It was such a success for me because I made sure I took advantage of every opportunity.

AEB:  Of all your writings, is there one particular food writing project of which you’re personally most pleased?  Why?

DAVID:  I think “A Man and His Stove”, which appeared in the February issue of Bon Appétit, was the first piece that captured my voice at its fullest and most vibrant.  I wrote it in about three hours.  It just came out with few changes needed.

Another favorite was a round-up of the foods of the 20th century, decade by decade.  The 8,000-word piece covered the entire front page, an inside spread, and half the back page of the Chicago Sun-Times food section in December 1999.  It’s been used in elementary schools through colleges and in culinary schools.  I’m very proud of that fact.

AEB:  Was there a work that was especially difficult to write?  Why?

DAVID:  “La Guerre de Beurre: The Franco-American Butter Wars” was difficult for me.  It was strict reporting on the reasons why chefs use either French butter or American butter in various dishes in their kitchens.  It left little room for style, although the magazine editor thought it was one of their best pieces.

AEB:  Considering the illiteracy rate and lack of interest in reading, what do you suggest to ensure a future for food writing?

DAVID:  My mother is very artistic and I grew up in visual world, drawing and painting all the time, so reading and words weren’t a big part of my childhood.    In fact, I was a poor reader until college.  That was when I turned to writing to express myself and, lo and behold, my reading improved.  I think we need to instill a love of words and reading in children at a very early age.  If we unlock the door to their imaginations with words, instead of allowing TV to do the job, they will always have that.  We need to start them young and get them hooked.

We also need to teach writers to write extraordinarily well with vibrant voices and strong opinions in order catch the reader.  For me, writing is one of the most intimate, personal arts there is.  With painting, we all see the same thing, although we interpret it in wildly differently ways.  But there is a concrete piece of art in front of us.  With writing, the writer envisions his own world, captures it with words, and from those words the reader imagines his own world, which is unlike anyone else’s.  The reader, in effect, becomes a creator, too.  A writer has the ability to impact with words.  If he doesn’t, he shouldn’t be a writer.

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