Jamie Schler

Jamie Schler writes Plated Stories

My approach to writing is emotional before it is intellectual. Eyes closed, I allow my mind to wander in an endless stream of consciousness, I search for a memory, an odor, a taste, the sound of a voice to appear through the stillness. A food, a recipe, an idea, a topic inevitably triggers something profound inside each of us. As a writer, it is my job to capture and contain that nostalgia, those memories, every sensation, create order to my thoughts and senses in order to capture it in words and then transport each of my readers to that place, triggering their own associations.

The blank piece of paper is my canvas, words my tools, vocabulary my texture, color and light. I work and rework until each thought, shadowy and personal, my own emotional response becomes something tangible and alive, something universal. Food is more than simply nourishment; it is childhood, it is the four seasons, an exotic voyage, it is home. Preparing food is more than just a thrice-daily responsibility; it is therapeutic, it is sensual, it is an expression of an infinite array of emotions.

Working on projects in tandem with a photographer forces me to look at something visually as well as verbally and emotionally. I try and see a topic through her eyes, think about light and color and imagine three dimensionally. It forces me to wrap my words around those objects that she moves around a tabletop. My work becomes just a bit less of a personal reflection, more of a creative exercise.

Although I have always been fascinated by language in the written form, books constant companions, I never felt that I had either the power or the talent to write. My blog Life’s a Feast started as a way to record recipes and talk about food. I quickly fell in love with writing. I also came to understand that writing is like any other craft: it must be learned, skills mastered, developed and honed, creativity focused, deepened and released. I gradually transformed my writing into a successful professional career, specializing in food and culture, travel and heritage, always focusing on the people, the traditions and the stories hidden behind.

I have been published in print in The Art of Eating, Fine Cooking, France Magazine, The Foodie Bugle and Foodista’s The Best of the Food Blogs Cookbook and online at Leite’s Culinaria, Modern Farmer, American Food Roots, deliberateLIFE, French News Online, TED Weekends, Joan Nathan’s Notebooks & Recipes, The Rambling Epicure and Daring Kitchen. I have been a regular contributor to Huffington Post Food since its inception.

I have been featured in ELLE France, Blogging for Creatives, Living France UK and France Magazine US edition, on RDV des Arts Culinaires, CRUSH on-line among others.

Plated Stories was a Saveur Magazine Best Blog Awards Finalist for Best Writing in 2014, the same year that it won the IACP Award for Best Photo-Based Food Blog.

"Jamie is one of the best writers in the food blogging world. She's a master storyteller and sets the bar for all of us."