50 Food Publications to Pitch in 2021

I won’t say the “p” word, but throughout 2020, freelance travel writers around the world had no choice but to venture into writing about other topics if they wanted to secure assignments. One of the areas many writers (myself included) turned to was food, a natural parallel to travel writing. I’d already been writing about food for publications like MyRecipes and EatingWell, but last year, food stories became my bread and butter (sorry, I had to), helping me to break into new outlets like Better Homes & Gardens, Allrecipes, The Kitchn and more.

Pitching food stories also became a necessity for travel publicists, as I learned during my Office Hours sessions last year. “Food’s been a way that’s helped get us through,” expressed Sydney Feldman, a senior account manager with Diamond Public Relations, which primarily represents travel industry clients. One way travel publicists did this was pitching food-related ideas from their restaurants, including chefs as experts for home-cooking stories.

“At one point, [reading food publications] was a guilty pleasure; now it’s part of what we must do for work,” added another Office Hours participant who works in travel PR.

Here are a few of my favorite stories from 2020 that turned travel into food stories:

For VinePair
Monks Are Making (and Inspiring) Your Whisky, Wine, Coffee, and Beer

For CNN Travel
Shuttered Hotels with Thriving Farms Put Produce on the Community’s Plate

For The Points Guy
These Are the Can’t-Miss Regional In-flight Snacks that Make Us Hungry to Travel Again

When you ask someone about their favorite food outlets, some of the big ones that always seem to come up first are Food & Wine, Bon Appetit and Saveur, to name a few. While these are certainly wonderful outlets, they’re also quite a challenge to place stories with — not only do they have high standards, but also get an unfathomable number of pitches. To add to that, they also don’t cover every type of food story out there.

But the good news is, there are so many other outlets that publish food stories, from CPG news to heartfelt restaurant stories, unique hotel room service offerings, kitchen hacks, vegan recipes, healthy eating trends and more. This year, expand your horizons and think beyond the mainstream food outlets that everyone else is thinking of, too.

And one big thing to remember? Lots of publications that aren’t considered “food outlets” write about food regularly! Here, I’ve compiled a list of 50 outlets to pitch food stories to in 2021.

Allrecipes

Better Homes & Gardens