Welcome back to CulinaryWoman, and a special hello to our newest subscribers. I’m tickled at the wonderful feedback you’ve given me from our first issue. Rest assured we’ve got lots of great features in the works.
This has been a holiday weekend for those of us in the U.S., and perhaps a long holiday for our friends in Canada. Even with the stress we’re all feeling, I hope you’ve gotten a little time off. Here’s some enjoyable reading to ease you into a new week.
Virginia Willis: Turning Culinary Figures Into Social Media Stars
You might think that the COVID-19 pandemic would be exactly the wrong time to launch a new business.
Restaurants everywhere are closing for good, putting their dining rooms on hold to focus on carry out, or are even closing again after re-opening. Predictions for the industry are dire.
But as Virginia Willis discovered, “in one way, it was an opportune time.”
In mid-March, Virginia and her business partner Cynthia Graubart launched Culinary Media Training, offering a variety of services to culinary professionals. Their goal is to “build the skills and confidence they need to work effectively in today’s digital environment.”
Virginia’s new business arrived just as culinary figures were scrambling to become more visible on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and other social platforms.
At the same time, a stay home public hungry for interesting content couldn’t seem to get enough of cooking lessons, cocktail recipes and how-to videos.
“Anyone who could pick up a butter knife wanted to do a video on Facebook,” Virginia says.
It’s the latest venture for Virginia, who is a much-admired chef, cookbook author, and culinary consultant, based in Atlanta.
Fellow members of Les Dames D’Escoffier know her from her many activities on its behalf, and she’s a long-time colleague and friend of Southern cookbook legend Nathalie Dupree.
In this new environment, Virginia has discovered the viewers aren’t picky about the way these things looked. (How many times have you watched an Instagram Live where the presenter can’t get the guest’s stream to show up, or who knocked over their camera?)
“Production values for the moment are out the window,” Virginia says. “You’ve got chefs’ husbands shooting things on their iPhones with one light on in the kitchen.”
What this has taught her as a producer, she says, is that fancy camera techniques and smooth presentations aren’t the be all and end all.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s an iPhone, as long as it’s smart TV that’s educational and entertaining.”
What Martha Stewart Taught Her
To be sure, Virginia has decades of top-notch broadcast experience behind her. One of her first positions was as the TV kitchen director for Martha Stewart Living, the original and very expensive television program.
“It was a multi-multi-million dollar brand when I worked for her,” Virginia says. “Her resources were, and always will be significantly greater” than most culinary people will ever be able to access."
The key lesson she learned from Stewart was consistency. “There were certain standards that had to be met, whether it was in home and garden, the cake department, the floral department, whatever.”
Another was being able to re-purpose content. If Stewart featured a recipe in her magazine, she wanted to repeat it on her television program, and the items needed to make it would be available on her website.
A third lesson was to stay in touch with trends. “Martha is just so astonishing. She keeps ‘getting it,’” Virginia says.
While her association with rapper Snoop Dogg might have surprised some viewers, Virginia says they’ve actually been friends for years, and Stewart has leveraged the relationship into yet another platform.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. She knows what she’s doing. She can see success. That doesn’t mean it’s any less authentic. But she sees the reaction she’s getting,” Virginia says.
The Difference Between Men And Women
Virginia also worked with celebrity chef Bobby Flay at the beginning of his career, and the experience taught her that men and women in the culinary world take contrasting paths.
“A woman wants to be educated and informed and qualified before she tries to do the job, and a man assumes he can,” she says.
Virginia says the Flay she worked with in 1998 is the same Flay who is on screen today. “Bobby is Bobby is Bobby. He hasn’t really changed. He’s a dude,” she says. “If he were sitting right in this chair, I’d tell him that to his face.”
She says men are allowed to pick a macho specialty — “grill it and kill it” — while a woman has to be more approachable.
“I guarantee her chef’s coat is unbuttoned, if she’s got one,” Virginia says. “There’s a difference between what the audience wants, and expects” from a female chef.
Many of the fans of her cookbooks are women, Virginia says, but she’s noticed that the audience on Instagram Live tends to skew male.
All that can be a challenge for those who would like to build their visibility in culinary media. The days when a hit cookbook was sufficient to create an image are over.
“Writing is not enough,” Virginia says firmly. “It’s about different skill sets and revenue streams.”
The shutdown has forced many people to decide how to best focus their efforts. “People are having to look at their lives, look at their jobs, look at their careers and make some assessments.”
Her selling point with her new company, she says, “is giving someone a second set of eyes.”
Based on the lessons she learned from Stewart, Flay and her own visibility, Virginia has one final piece of advice: '“Find a brand, and stick to it.”
CulinaryWoman Of The Week
When I lived in Boston in 2016, I made a note to find a branch of Flour Bakery + Cafe. Years earlier, I wanted the episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay (yes, him again) in which Joanne Chang baked the most amazing looking sticky buns.
In the course of finding one of those sweet rolls, I also took a class in the Science of Baking from Joanne at Flour’s Breadquarters, the group’s home kitchen. As luck would have it, I wound up introducing her and Dorie Greenspan at a cookie program at the Boston Center for Adult Education. (Here they are, signing books.)
Now, I consider her one of my culinary inspirations, not only for her delicious food, but for her business acumen.
Joanne has grown the Flour empire to eight locations and also opened a fantastic sit down restaurant, Myers + Chang, that serves excellent Asian fusion cuisine inspired by her mother’s cooking. (The Myers is her husband Christopher, a hospitality polymath.)
Rather than expand regionally, or nationally, however, she’s stayed loyal to the Boston area, where the COVID emergency has meant challenges. “Things went from crazy to insane in a matter of minutes,” she emailed me in March.
Even though Flour had done plenty of carry out business, she decided to shut her cafes down temporarily to protect her staff. About 80 percent of her employees came to work via public transit, and it wasn’t clear at first if they would be in danger.
But the Flours are now open again, and the company is doing pop ups around the Boston area (there’s one next Sunday in Sommerville, Mass.)
Joanne’s customer friendly style always seemed familiar to me, and it turns out that some of her practices stem from Zingerman’s. She’s sent staff members to ZingTrain training classes in Ann Arbor and had trainers from Zingerman’s come to her Boston operations. So, what I was admiring was rooted close to home.
Like the people throughout Zingerman’s, Joanne is generous in sharing her knowledge. I wrote this piece for Forbes with her tips on opening a bakery.
I’m happy to name Joanne as our CulinaryWoman of the week. Go get a sticky bun if you’re in Boston, and order dinner, too.
A Cookbook To Know About
Milk Street Fast and Slow, by Christopher Kimball
So many people are devotees of instant pot cooking, but some of us still like to cook things the old-fashioned way. Recently, the folks at 177 Milk Street sent me a copy of Fast and Slow. It’s the perfect combination of dishes when you’re in a hurry, and others you can make if you have a little more time. Milk Street is a fascinating culinary empire that Christopher Kimball built from scratch, after parting ways with America’s Test Kitchen. From TV and radio, to books and the magazine, Milk Street offers useful and innovative ideas from a variety of cultures.
If you had a cookbook published the past few months that needs a boost, or have one on the horizon, please let me know!
What I’m Up To
Last week, Chicago said goodbye to a beloved restaurant. Blackbird has been on Randolph Street in the Fulton Market district since 1997 — in fact, it was one of the restaurants that turned Fulton Market from an area for meatpackers into one of Chicago’s liveliest neighborhoods. However, it’s fallen victim to the great restaurant contraction, as I wrote for Forbes. It’s so sad to see Blackbird go, but I understand why Paul Kahan and Donnie Madia had to pull the plug.
The summer heat we’ve been experience in Ann Arbor reminded me of this recipe collection that ran on The Takeout last year. You’ll find lots of ideas for watermelon feta salad, beyond the usual “cut up watermelon and toss it with feta.” See some suggestions from Alon Shaya, Mary B. Sonnier, Ari Weinzsweig, Rishi Majoj Kumar, and Joanne Chang.
Send me feedback and ideas!
Are there some culinary world people you’d like me to talk with, or are you spotting trends I should know about? I’d love to hear directly from you. Email me at mamayn@aol.com.
Follow CulinaryWoman on Twitter @culinarywoman. I’m also @michelinemaynard on Instagram. If you let me know you’re a newsletter subscriber, I’ll be happy to follow you back. Thanks to those who have!
Feel free to share this newsletter. Stay healthy, wear a mask, and see you next Sunday.