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M.F.K. Fisher AwArd for Excellence in Culinary Writing

Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, Grand Prize Winner

the 2014 Winners are...

A l s o I n s I d e … E d i b l e L o n d o n To u r L D E I B o a r d i n Wa s h i n g t o n

Carol Penn-Romine, Internet Category Winner

Stacy Schultz, Print Category Winner

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Journalism teacher wins Ldei’s M.F.K. Fisher Award Grand Prizefor Excellence in Culinary WritingWho entered the Contest?Big changes were afoot in the 2014 M.F.K.

Fisher Awards contest. Last year, not only did the Ldei Board approve my suggestion to divide the entries into three categories, they also decided to hold the con-test every year instead of biennially. This resulted in the largest number of entries since our writing awards began in 2006.Ldei received 110

entries—a 30% increase over the 2012 contest, tripping the need to recruit additional judges and to conduct several rounds of judging. One can’t ask volunteer judges to read and rate 100, 50, or even 30 (2,000-word) articles. in total, i recruited 12 excellent judges from all over the u.s. who are not members of Les dames.Book Category: 17 entriesInternet Category: 41 entriesPrint Category (Magazines & Newspapers): 52 entriesNo dames were category win-

ners, but two dames, Virginia Willis (Atlanta) and Kim Ode (Minnesota) finished third in their categories. More dames (23) entered this year than in previous years, so that’s progress.unusually, both the grand prize

winner and the print category winner were from the “show Me” state, Mis-souri, which had eight entries. The states with the most entries were New York (20) and California (19); five entered from Canada. A non-winner wrote to me: “Keep

me in the loop as to when the games start again. i’ll be doing mental push-ups preparing for the gate to open on the race between fillies with the ‘write’ stuff.—Micki McClellan, Pipe Creek, texas (2012

second-Prize winner)i hope y’all feel the same way! The deadline

for the next contest is March 31, 2015.CiCi williamson, Chair2014 M.F.K. Fisher Awards

Nina Mukerjee FurstenauFAYETTE, MISSOURIGrAnd PrIze WInnerBook Category WinnerBiting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s HeartlandUniversity of Iowa Press, 2013.http://ninafurstenau.com/Nina Mukerjee Furstenau was in the closet of a historic manor house near siena, italy, when Ldei President Beth Allen reached her by phone to tell her she had been chosen the Grand Prize winner of Ldei’s M.F.K. Fisher Award for excellence in Culinary writing. (The closet was the phone’s home.) A journalism teacher at the university of Missouri (Mu), Nina was in tuscany for a month with six of her undergraduate students, according to her husband, terry, who was back home in Fayette, Missouri.Beth said, “i first told Nina she was the winner in the Book Category. she was sO excited. But then when i told her she was also the Grand Prize win-ner, she was thrilled!” her prizes are $500 for the Book Category winner plus an additional $500 for being chosen as the Grand Prize winner. Nina also receives a trip to Boston for our 2014 M.F.K. Fisher Awards Banquet to accept her award at the royal sonesta hotel in Cam-bridge, Massachusetts, on November 1, 2014.“Nina had entered two excerpts from her book, so she asked me which one had won,” Beth said. “when i told her Biting through the Skin: Prologue, she said she thought that would be the one! Nina said that she still thinks many years later about that hungry little boy in her story who bit right through the banana peel when she threw it to him out the bus window. he truly has been the reason she is so interested in dedicating much of her journalism work toward food, especially hunger,” Beth said.“what wonderful news to receive, especially being so far from home!” said Nina. “i’m so honored. i have known and long admired Les dames d’escoffier for its sustainable-food fo-cus. This drew my interest, but since winning this award, i now know more about Ldei and its emphasis on culture and food heri-tage, another high-interest area of my own.“But it took the suggestion of a friend, writer, and res-taurant critic todd Kliman, of Washingtonian magazine, who knew about the Ldei contest, to nudge me to enter. i met todd at a symposium i was help-ing organize at Mu, ‘Food sense,’ and about a year later, at ‘The Art of Food.’ he has been a great touchstone for me and i respect his writing very much.he said to go for it,” Nina said.

she was also given a nudge by her friends. “i have a great group of writer-friends: Laura Mchugh, Jill Orr, Allison smythe, Jen Gravely, and Ann Breidenbach. Ann issued a challenge that each of us submit a piece to at least one journal or contest this spring. since i generally drag my feet about such things,

Photo by Anastasia Pottinger Photography

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F A L L Q u A r t e r L Y 2 0 1 4 5

i needed the group’s encouragement, sup-port, and confidence. i have to say this group has been an important component of writing long narrative for me. writing is essentially a lone endeavor, and this community of women has meant i stepped out of my comfort zone repeatedly. Love this group.”

eArly yeArsBorn in Bangkok, Thailand, to indian parents, Nina Mukerjee

grew up in Pittsburg, Kansas, and sometimes traveled to her

ancestral india. she studied in england, scotland, and France

in 1982. Nina said, “i went abroad to find myself and i found

the love of my life, my husband terry.” terry Furstenau is an

American man whose grandparents hailed from Germany and

sweden. talk about the perfect Global Culinary initiative,

this couple fills the bill! Nina earned a B.J. degree in Maga-

zine Journalism from Mu 1984, and they were married all of

nine months that same year before leaving for Africa and the

Peace Corps. “i realized that most of the major decisions in my life have

been governed by an experience i had with food at the age of

five. The boy in the piece that Ldei selected as the M.F.K.

Fisher winner influenced so much of my life. i chose to enter

the Peace Corps in 1984 because i wanted to effect change

and touch another culture in a significant way,” Nina said.

The couple was sent to Kairouan, islam’s fourth holiest city,

located in tunisia about 50 miles from the Mediterranean

sea. Nina’s husband was an agricultural extension agent, and

she worked on a women-in-development (wid) project.

“we lived outside the city in an area where many farm families

lived. They had come to the city to find work and there was

little of that. i was helping wives and widows to get more op-

portunities to generate income.” since the women made beauti-

ful rugs—flat woven kilims and margoums and knotted, pile

carpets—to sell, Nina focused on that aspect of their lives.

“By building a center for the women to get a rug-weaving

certificate in the area they lived, the women could attend

without having to walk two kilometers to town, which was

difficult in that culture. with certifi-

cation, the women could get higher

prices for their rugs.” Math and reading

classes were planned. A playground,

complete with a camel slide, was de-

signed and built. “i had help. usAid

and uNiCeF provided funds for bricks

and mortar, the Kairouan government

donated the land for the center, i was the

boots on the ground. it was truly a joint

project.”The weaving project and cooking with

the women in her neighborhood filled

Nina’s days in tunisia. “during my two

years there, i learned how to share food

and food stories because of working and

cooking with the wives and daughters. i was 22 and it was the

first time i had really done this. it changed my entire experience.”

Post-PeACe CorPs yeArs

After returning from two years in the Peace-Corps, Nina

founded a publishing company with her husband and began

her working life as a journalist and publisher/editor of three

construction magazines beginning in 1987. They launched

and published these magazines and two others until 2001.

They also had a daughter, Anna, and son, Nathan. since then,

she has published numerous creative nonfiction pieces for

journals such as Painted Bride Quarterly and Ploughshares as

well as magazines such as Missouri Life. she earned an M.A. in

english/Creative writing from Mu in 2006. in 2008, Nina

was a month-long resident at the Vermont studio Center in

Johnson, Vermont.today she is a teacher and project director at the Mu sci-

ence and Agriculture Journalism program and the Journalism

school. her two areas of focus are teaching food and wine

writing and serving as a project director for a usAid project

for soybean innovation in Africa. “This last is important for

me because it encompasses food security, hunger, nutrition,

sustainable agriculture, and food policy—completing the

umbrella of food topics for me from farm-to-fork and from

hunger to taste and flavor,” stated Nina.

she is also the author of Savor Missouri: River Hill Country

Food and Wine, a book celebrating the local flavors of food

and wine in Missouri (Missouri Life and Acclaim Publishing,

2013). Nina received a 2014 Notable Book Award from the

Kansas state Libraries Association for Biting Through the Skin.

“I admire M.F.K. Fisher and often use her work in my journalism classes as examples of

exceptional food writing. She was definitely an inspiration for me.

When I first read her writing, I was struck by how she revealed an entire way of being,

a world view and culture with accessible language and beautifully told food story. Fisher’s use of small

details that intensify focus hooks me every time. I am excited to win LDEI’s award in Fisher’s name.”

—Nina Mukerjee Furtenau.

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The author's family when they moved to Kansas in 1964: Parents Sachin and Sipra Mukerjee with Nina and her brother Sandeep.

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As far as what inspired Nina to write Bit-ing through the Skin, she answered, “i began to see how food traditions in your home tie you to your family heritage, even if there are no other clues to that history outside your front door. All families have this story to one degree or another. we are all products of small pockets of culture within the larger American landscape. For me, food has been a way to see boundaries of culture and how these often meet over dinner. My book gave me the opportunity to consider how cultures meet over food, how we are alike, and also how we may be different.”Nina has been a professional writer for 29

years. For five of those years, she was in-volved in writing Biting Through the Skin. “i was not accustomed to writing about myself as a journalist. even though there was no great trauma in my life, somehow, those intimate chapters were difficult for me to put out into the world. Plus, i was new to trying to get a book published and i spent time waiting for replies. it may be that this worked in my favor, however. it was a kind of long digestion process for the work, as i made significant decisions on edits as the work settled over time,” explained Nina.WIll WrIte for food— ItAlIAn edItIonwhen Beth called, Nina was taking six

undergraduate women journalism students from Mu for a month in italy. The group studied the food and wine of the tuscan re-gion, spending three weeks in Florence and one week at spannocchia, an agricultural foundation farm (which has very difficult internet and phone connections!). They had finished their three-week stay in Florence and were enjoying their last week of their journey on-the-farm near siena. At spannocchia, they raise pigs, grow

vegetables, make cheese, and even wine. “we enjoyed wonderful dinners every night made with foods produced on the farm,” Nina said. “One of the wonderful learning experiences the students had was simply gathering each night for rustic dinners all made from the farm products.”The study abroad, will write for Food—

italian edition, is meant for undergradu-ate students at the university of Missouri school of Journalism and science and Agricultural Journalism program interested in regional food stories. it was new this year.“we studied the food and wine of the

tuscan region. it was lovely to visit the ‘biologic,’ carbon-free winery in Mon-tepulciano, and a family that operates a three-generation farm that produces Parmesan cheese, as well as a family that makes Parma hams. in siena, we learned about Cinta senese heritage-breed hogs, we tasted and learned about the farm’s produce and wine, we made pasta from scratch, and we

learned about the regional food history.”The students wrote blogs for Voxtalk, a

city student-run, online publication, and longer stories about italian food, such as Parma ham, Parmesan cheese, regional pasta, espresso, and more.WrItInG for A lIvInGGiven that so much uncompensated

writing is done on the inter-net, Nina is still optimistic about making a living as a writer. she said, “i think that there will always be a place for good food stories. writers with a knowledge base in agriculture have the edge when it comes to balanced work on food, food policy, and sustainability. it’s dif-ficult to get that level of writing unless it’s treated as a profession. some are starting to recognize this and i hope more will. “sometimes i feel that voices from the

Midwest are not often heard in the main-stream. And i think writing from a place that still produces much of our food and its story is important. But, it took a com-munity of writers to prod me a little. They understood i needed that. i am so thankful to them.Beth’s follow-up email read, “Fabulous

speaking with you today from that closet! i must say: the phone connection was amaz-ingly clear! Looking forward to meeting you…and again, our sincere congratulations! i’m delighted i was able ‘to make your day!’” replied Nina, “Thank you and the selec-

tion committee again. Lovely news today and i am most honored. Our phone con-nection was great—just goes to show you that posh surroundings are not everything. Looking forward to meeting you, CiCi, and all the dames in Boston! i can’t wait to learn more about your organization and the work you do.”

CoMMents froM the JUdGes• Magnificently

written; an insightful and intelligent personal take on a serious world issue.—Carol sugarman, Bethesda, Maryland• Elegant, dramatic writ-ing that invites readers into a personal view of another culture. A compelling read.—Ann Criswell, houston, texas.• Great evocation of setting, family history, public masses, and taste, smell, and texture of food.—dianne hennessy King, Vienna, Virginia• Strong description, tense narrative, and inner explora-tion of two cultures.—don Fry, Charlottesville, Virginia• How we relate to food–emotionally, spiritually, even politically - as well as physically – is perfectly cap-tured here. Well done.—Jan Norris, west Palm Beach, Florida• Candid, brilliantly written account of both the joy and the heartache that comes of growing up Indian in the American Midwest.—richard swearinger, des Moines, iowa• The writing is poetic and novel-esque. The writer has the ability to touch the reader.—Madge Baird, Layton, utah

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Carol Penn-romineBurbank, CaliforniaInternet CAteGory WInner

“My Fishing Trophy”www.hungrypassport.com/

“Fantastic…that’s great! i’m excited…i’m so glad you called.

i entered this contest four years ago and didn’t win but

decided to enter again this year.winning is a nice shot in the

arm!” Carol Penn-romine said excitedly to Ldei President

Beth Allen, who had called to share the good news.

Carol was 10 years old when she learned to drive a tractor

on the family farm outside of Kenton, tennessee. she also

helped with the crops, livestock, and kitchen garden. But at

an even younger age, Carol was bitten by the writing bug.

“i have been writing since i was old enough to stitch words

together,” she said.“i wrote stories, illustrating them with pictures scissored

from magazines and taping them into books i stapled

together. while my friends were reading hardy Boys

and Nancy drew, i was engrossed in National Geographic

and studying maps. Food, travel, and writing framed my

growing-up years. Little did i realize they’d be my lifelong

passions. But they are.”Carol has spent the past 25 years as a journalist and freelance

writer, concentrating on food writing for the last 10 years.

she’s also a chef, teacher, and culinary-tour guide. “Blending

food and travel and being able to share it all on the page, in

the kitchen, and on the road gives me enormous pleasure,”

Carol confided. Capping her schooling with a B.A. in english from Bethel

university in tennessee, she followed that with an M.A. in

speech Communications from Murray state in Kentucky.

Then she and her husband moved to California where Andy

romine is a visual-effects artist for animated movies.

“After a number of years working as a freelance writer/editor

and tour guide (i trained at the international tour Manage-

ment institute), i decided to shift my focus to food. i knew if

i seriously wanted to write about food, i needed to take a class.

to bolster my culinary knowledge, which primarily consisted of

that southern penchant for deep-frying everything, i attended

the California school of Culinary Arts and earned a Le Cordon

Bleu degree. That was my beginning in food writing. Now i

write about food and make it the focus of the tours i conduct.

in 2010, Carol received the Apicius scholarship from the

symposium for Professional Food writers at the Greenbrier,

and she won second place in the southwest writers’ Annual

international writing Contest. her work has appeared in Best

Food Writing 2013, Leite’sCulinaria, Gastronomica, Los Angeles

Times, The New York Times, Cornbread Nation IV: The Best of

Southern Food Writing, Farmhouse Magazine, and the Chris-

tian Science Monitor. she is a past editor of Edible Los Angeles

and a contributor to Edible: A Celebration of Local Foods and

to a number of magazines within edible Communities. she

also edits the “Food Journal” of the Culinary historians of

southern California.

M.f.K. fIsher’s WrItInGs

“i knew about Ldei from Toni Allegra,” said Carol. she

and Irena Chalmers told me about the M.F.K. Fisher Award

Contest. i entered in 2010 and you told me i made it into

the top 10. i’ve read a lot of M.F.K. Fisher’s writings; my introduction was The Gastronomical Me. i can’t say that i’ve read the entire canon, but i’ve savored a lot of it. And that’s what i love about her writing—i’m not just reading it for information. i’m savoring it.“she had an effect on my writing.

i love the way she finds gold in the minutia. The topics don’t have to be grand; they just have to be noticed. her writing has taught me to pay more attention to the nooks and crannies, because those are the places where the gold can be found.

“i found an online site that had the recording of her reading

one of her essays—the only time i’ve ever heard her beautiful

voice. it was absolutely lovely, crystalline, and enchanting.

it sounded like music. it’s a real shame she didn’t do audio

recordings of more of her writing.”http://www.prx.org/pieces/39574-julia-child-and-m-f-k-fisher

ABoUt CArol’s WInnInG entry And WrItInG

The inspiration for Carol’s winning entry? “A combination

of the fishing expedition i made about a year and a half ago

with bringing back the trophy from a trip home to tennessee

earlier that year. i hadn’t been fishing since i was a kid, and it

brought back the thrill of that tug on the line. i started think-

ing about the business of fishing, and of eating or not eating

the fish i’d caught—how different those experiences were and

the notion of what fishing was all about, based on my very

limited experiences as a child.”writing the piece spanned about two weeks. “well there’s

writing and then there’s polishing,” said Carol. “i got the

ideas down pretty quickly, but i refined it, put it away;

remembered a few more things and added those…polished

some more…that sort of thing. writing an essay and writ-

ing an information piece are two different enterprises—they

require different creative muscles,” she explained.

“Food writers face new challenges, what with the volume

of uncompensated writing that’s out there,” Carol said. “But

the positive side is that there are so many more opportunities

for us to get our work out there now. Not so long ago we had

only a finite number of outlets, of newspaper food sections

and magazines devoted to food. Now we have limitless inter-

net opportunities. we can even self-publish our books, record

our own podcasts, and create our own internet videos.

“while the competition is tougher, if it’s apparent that you

know what you’re talking about and you can write about it in

a way that makes people seek out your words, i think you’re

going to make it as a food writer.i still believe that cream will

rise to the top.”Oh, and the prize money? As i interviewed Carol for this

article, she was in the middle of a kitchen renovation. she’s

going to put her $500 prize into her new kitchen.

to read Carol’s winning entry, go to: “Leite’sCulinaria”

http://leitesculinaria.com/87215/writings-fishing-trophy.html

Farmer’s daughter wins internet CategoryBy CiCi williamson

F A L L Q u A r t e r L Y 2 0 1 4 7

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Stacy schultzClayton, MissouriPrInt CAteGory WInner

“Lox of Love” from Sauce Magazine

“Oh my gosh. i really won? That’s great…

i’m so excited!” stacy schultz told Ldei

President Beth Allen. Beth had not con-

nected with stacy on her first call, but a

call-back number was recorded. “Your

number just appeared on my voicemail. i

used to live in New York so i recognized

the area code, but i had no idea who this

call was coming from. Thank you, thank

you, thank you sO much!”

Before stacy entered the contest, she

didn’t know anything about Les dames

d’escoffier international, but she knows

more now. she told Beth, “This is the

first time i have entered this contest, though others

from Sauce magazine have entered before. i am so

excited. My executive editor, Ligaya Figueras, heard

about the contest from Beth Huch, who was a mem-

ber of the st. Louis Chapter. i really appreciate your

calling to tell me. Thank you!”

stacy is a writer and editor currently living in st.

Louis, where she grew up. “since the age of 12, i’ve

been fascinated with the written word, and i am lucky

enough to put its wonderful powers to work every

day,” she said.with a B.J. (Bachelor’s degree in journal-

ism) from the university of texas tucked tightly into

her suitcase, stacy moved to New York City with little

more than one-month’s rent in her pocket, a fear of

subways, and one very big dream. Fortunately, stacy

got a job before her rent ran out.

“Before long, i became a staff writer at Financial

Planning magazine. i hadn’t a lick of experience in the

financial industry, so i did what any good reporter

would do: spoke with as many people as i could, read

more books than i care to remember, and asked ques-

tions—lots of questions. within a year, my hard work

paid off when i was promoted to senior editor and, six

months later, deputy editor.

“Feeling that i was destined to write about more

than mutual funds and long-term

care insurance, i sought a position

that would better suit my passions. i

always loved to cook and loved food.

Before long, a beautiful culinary

magazine in st. Louis called Sauce

hired me as senior editor. Once

again, i immersed myself in a new

world, meeting talented people and

tasting some truly wonderful food in

the process. i was hired to edit and

manage all of Sauce’s online content

and write several pieces for each

print issue.”Before long, those two hats multiplied, and stacy

became the managing editor responsible for concep-

tualizing, planning, managing and editing all editorial

content. Although she still contributes articles to Sauce,

she is now a community manager at Nestle Purina.

“i’m happiest when i’m being creative and when i am

able to see a project i’ve worked hard on finally come

to fruition. writing constantly pushes me—to learn

more, to read more, to make each story better than

the one before it. No matter how much or how often

you do it, writing is never easy. And while this fact can

make the days long and the work daunting, it gives me

great pride in what i do,” said stacy.

“My favorite food stories are about personal experi-

ences and recipes that are passed down from genera-

tions. holidays are so important, and i struggled to

make an impact on my family’s holiday foods that are

already so well established. i want to make my own

traditions and pass down my recipes when i have

kids—one of these days,” said stacy.

Now in her early 30’s, stacy has already won another

writing award from the American society of Magazine

editors (AsMe). For her M.F.K. Fisher Award-win-

ning piece, “Lox of Love,” stacy first did a rough draft

that she went back to several times. “it was a longer

process for this article because i had to stop several

times as i learned the differences in the recipes for

making lox. i made it over several months and, once

i had the winning recipe, i served it to family and

friends to make sure it tasted right,” related stacy.

regarding the effect of the internet on writing

careers, stacy believes, “it’s difficult to find a full-time

job right now, but it’s a two-way street. in one way, the

internet gives us a great opportunity as writers. Now

we can expand and make our mark in our own way—

brand ourselves. it gives power to the writer in a way

we’ve never had before, like the ability to be part of a

community with our sources.

“however, you have to be careful about writing posted

on the internet. Anyone can write anything. what

makes journalism what it has always been is its code of

ethics. The difficult part about blogs is that they don’t

always have that moral code. The future is going to be

different, but the best writers will not only realize the

opportunity they have but also realize the importance

of a credible source,” stacy concluded.stacy’s favorite stories

to write are long, in-depth profiles, though she loves a great story and a recipe that people relate to. That certainly is the case with her winning story, “Lox of Love.” to read it, go to: www.saucemagazine.com/blog/?author=12#

university of texas Grad “Lox” up an Award

By CiCi williamson

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