Column: Cuisine, careers and questions

What does it mean to be a food journalist?

I’ve been asking myself this question frequently as of late because I have hit my junior-year rut. At the bottom of each of my columns, you can read, “Lily Miller is a junior majoring in food journalism.”

It’s not a common major, nor is it specifically offered through the School of Journalism.
I designed my major through the Individualized Major Program, which I strongly
recommend to any freshmen or sophomores who feel conflicted academically.

I decided that a skillful blend of journalism and food anthropology courses would be the best bet for my major. Throughout my food-based courses, I’ve been reading a lot of Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, people who I consider to be more investigatory food journalists. I love what they do and believe it’s important for our society.

But it’s not really what I want to do. Chasing down food corporations and overly analyzing ingredients sounds exhausting. However, everyone who hears about my major automatically assumes that I want to strictly be a restaurant reviewer. Frankly, that’s just not true.

Actually, the thought of only reviewing restaurants the rest of my life sounds boring. Not that I wouldn’t love the job, but it’s just not what I want to do straight out of school.
So what on earth do I want to do with a specially designed degree in food journalism, a degree that technically does not exist and has only been taken by a few other IMP students before me?

I have no clue. I’ve toyed with restaurant reviews and investigations. I could have my own show on Food Network, or write for a food magazine.

Actually, it was Gourmet magazine that drew me to food journalism in the first place. Former Editor-in-Chief Ruth Reichl is one of my idols, and the writing in the magazine was simply superb.

So you can imagine me crying when I heard Condé Nast pulled the plug on my favorite magazine. To be honest, I still tell people my dream job is to be editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine one day.

But is this what people consider to be food journalism? And more importantly, is food journalism, whatever it may be, actually what I want to do with the rest of my life?

I’m running out of time and white space to figure out what this all means.

Maybe I’m just another baffled undergraduate, searching for answers, clinging to a passion and hoping that it sticks.   

Or maybe I know exactly what I’m looking for and don’t know how to put it into words.
I guess as long as I’m happy, that’s all that matters.

Right?