Latest news with #AmateurGourmet
Washington Post
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
If you like rom-coms and cheesecake, you're in luck
Two nonfiction food writers. Two novels about the foibles of the New York culinary scene. Two protagonists with strong feelings about truffle oil. Here, the similarities between 'Food Person,' the quippy, rom-com-ready first novel by Adam Roberts, and Mark Kurlansky's meandering 'Cheesecake' end. For Roberts — best known for his blog-turned-newsletter the Amateur Gourmet — dietary habits reflect individual character. What you eat, and refuse to eat, indicates whether you are a person who values nourishment, pleasure and community or one who seeks self-improvement and power. In 'Cheesecake,' Kurlansky uses food — notably, the evolution of an ancient recipe for cheesecake — to explore a quirky cast of characters who frequent a Greek diner in Manhattan.
Wall Street Journal
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
How the ‘Amateur Gourmet' Keeps the Freewheeling Fun of Food Blogging's Early Days
'I accidentally went to law school. I hated it with a fiery passion,' said Adam Roberts, aka the Amateur Gourmet. 'So I started cooking.' The food and TV writer, social media producer and, now, novelist has spent the two decades since building a loyal audience and teaching them, in turn, to cook. It started in 2004 with a blog called the Amateur Gourmet, which Roberts launched as a newsletter, as well, in 2010; he has developed a robust social media presence on Instagram and TikTok under the same banner. 'A lot of people who just seem like sweet little bloggers baking a pie, they know what's going on under the hood of their blogs. I never did,' Roberts said. 'I was just good at being entertaining and maybe strategic about writing a post that might go viral because it was funny or unique or creative.' Amateur is his brand, and he's sticking to it—though he's made plenty of pivots and reboots along the way.
