Travel and Food writing with Michael Ruhlmand and Delta Willis

EXPLORING OFF THE BEATEN PATH

In the footsteps of James Joyce, we’ll become flaneurs, discovering the streets, alleys and voices that inspired Joyce to employ Homer’s Odyssey. “I always write about Dublin,” Joyce explained; “because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.”
In a shrinking universe, we’ll focus on how your travel reports can tap readers’ hunger for discovery (including themselves) gain insights from other cultures, and travel frugally and sustainably. Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown challenges us to taste a region with our senses, and taps the power of video in storytelling, which demands at least one visit to a classic pub with music. We’ll seek new ways to cover a popular destination, revisit adventure travel in the age of Siri, and discuss how to profile, or become, a modern-day explorer or digital nomad. How To Pitch your stories to editors, and other industry tips will be one day’s workshop, but most classes will focus on feedback to your submissions, how to discover the particular that is universal, and finding mentors beyond Joyce to follow.

DELTA WILLIS will lead the workshop for the first 3 days on travel writing, then chef MICHAEL RUHLMAN, will lead the group for three additional days.

MICHAEL RUHLMAN, this will be a non-intensive workshop, beginning with a food tour of Dublin the first day, exploring street markets, breweries, cheese mongers, and finishing with a traditional Irish meal, followed by two days of workshopping, conversation and discussion of how to write originally and meaningfully about food, both in nonfiction as well as fiction, in a media culture glutted with food writing, but also increasing interest in food writing. This workshop is intended to be lighter fare than the more intensive workshops already in the works. The second of a two-part workshop building on the first three days, all of it devoted to travel and food writing in their many forms.

MICHAEL RUHLMAN wrote more than twenty books, mostly about food and cooking, half with chefs, some non-food non-fiction, and a lot of opinions here on the fundamental importance of food and cooking to our families, our communities, our world. He

Michael co-authored four cookbooks with celebrity chef, Thomas Keller, of the French Laundry. He was a contributor to the Alinea Cookbook with chef, Grant Achatz’s tour de force on the new cuisine. He wrote Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.

Michael has been on several television shows, “Cooking Under Fire” on PBS, a judge on “Next Iron Chef” and “Iron Chef America”. He has also been a featured guest on Travel Channel’s “Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations”–Las Vegas and Cleveland episodes.

Michael is a James Beard Award Winning Cookbook writer. List of some of his books: How to Braise, How to Roast, Egg: A Culinary Exploration of the World’s Most Versatile Ingredient, Ruhlman’s Twenty, Ration: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing, The Book of Schmaltz, The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen, Salumi, Books about Chefs and Professional Cooks, The Reach of a Chef: Professional Cooking in the Age of Celebrity, The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, A Return to Cooking with Eric Ripert, Michael Symon’s Live to Cook, Ad Hoc at Home, Bouchon, The French Laundry Cookbook, Under Pressure.

DELTA WILLIS A member of The Explorers Club, Delta Willis profiled Richard Leakey for The Hominid Gang and has written for Adventure Travel, Audubon, Diversion, Outside, People and The New York Times. A former publicist for the National Audubon Society and Earthwatch, she tracked lions in Kenya. She is currently writing My Boat in the City, about living onboard her houseboat at New York’s 79th St. Boat Basin, base camp for journeys to Africa, Australia, China, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
In the footsteps of James Joyce, we’ll become flaneurs, discovering the streets and tastes that inspired him.