My Anonymous Career

[Gita]

In the third year of our marriage, which coincidentally was my third year of trying to finish a novel, Rainy said to me, "Get out there and be a breadwinner, you big galoot."

 I signed on with a large national restaurant chain to write descriptors for menus, and  I was the very first to use the term "farm-fresh" to refer to eggs and "kettle-simmered" to describe soup.

Menu writers toil in anonymity, but my reward came when the National Restaurant Industry awarded me the Golden Napkin Holder for coining the adjective "artisanal" to describe, well, pretty much anything overpriced, from bread to beer to pizza.

Although you'll never see my name on a menu, I can guarantee you've eaten in one of this chain's many outlets and I will bet my descriptors added to your interest in sizzling, creamy, buttery, garden-fresh, succulent, melting, old-timey, home-made goodness and artisanal flavor-bursting dishes.

One day, to supplement my income, I answered an ad in the paper calling for writers to contribute heartwarming sentiments and pithy sayings to a collection that would be called "Chicken Soup for the Soul,"  and we would be paid by the word but get no author's credit.
The book was a huge hit and spawned all kinds of sequels, such as  "Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul," to which I (rather proudlybut anonymously) contributed, "In life, you've got to bogey before you can birdie."

[Stephen Torelli]

"Le ultime frontere da snacks." (The last frontier of snacks) Are you in Italy too? I saw this advertisement for cheese chips flavored with oregano and black olives.

[Joey Delgado]

This is as cool as it gets. I've always wondered who was behind the menu-writing, who was at fault for making me believe soup at restaurants was cooking in a iron cauldron over a wide hearth flame. It was you!!

Amazing writing. Now the origin of 'artisinal' foods is no longer a mystery.

[Kristine_ES]

i must say, this made me hungry for warm bread and other succulent things.  mm mm mm..  

[Stephen Torelli]

Yum! Perfect descriptions. So tonight we'll have an "old timey" pizza baked in our brick oven and "garden- fresh" arugula and tomatoes. Great snapshots and post, Gita!

[Gita]

you mean it's not?

[Dude A Bydes]

So you're the one making my mouth water at Olive Garden, Gita! I'm such a sucker for succulent writing and a total ignoramus for cooking and ingredients (note: I thought a brothel was an middle eastern soup kitchen). -Dude

[Teresa]

I love the way this begins and how chicken soup heals the soul of the bank account.  I never think about money and writing together.  That's probably a mistake.

[Robert Crisman]

My favorite menu was passed out in the old Dog House in Seattle. They had rib-eye steak, "tenderness not guaranteed," but tender it was and that's all I ate when I went there. God it was good!

[Wendy]

This is a tasty treat, Gita! I savored every word.

[Angela]

It's got to be somebody's job to write that stuff, and I bet it's not easy.  Imaginative.