Matt Schickling
Wire Staff Writer
Dana Bate onced studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University, and now she writes what she calls “foodie-romcom” novels. One doesn’t necessarily inform the other, but, according to Bate, cooking and science are related by way of process.
“It was like I had to choose one path or the other,” Bate said. “Part of me realized I would never read about X-ray crystallography in my spare time, whereas I would pick up Hemingway on vacation.”
She couldn’t have her cake and eat it, too. No reputable scientists would recommend consuming lab results, but in the kitchen, it’s all fair game.
So Bate, a resident of Rydal, paired her passion for food with her passion for writing and dug deep into the world of food-informed romantic fiction.
On Feb. 3, she spoke to readers at Huntingdon Valley Library about food, literature, the publishing process and her past and current projects.
Specifically, she zeroed in on her novel A Second Bite At The Apple, which chronicles the ups and downs of Sydney Strauss, an aspiring food journalist gone farmers market employee who stumbles into a second chance at a career in food writing.
Her previous novel, The Girls’ Guide to Love and Supper Clubs, features a Washington businesswoman who starts an underground, illegal supper club in her landlord’s unoccupied townhouse. Both novels have romantic and comedic implications, but food is the link to it all, including, Bate believes, to her readers.
“Food connects everyone. We all eat,” she said. “You can take a bite of something and remember an experience. Immediately, it helps the reader enter your world.”
Bate asserts that focusing on food infuses sensory detail that would otherwise be absent from moments in her books. You can smell, touch, taste, feel and see a cupcake, for example, and all those senses are instantly recallable.
Food also connects to place. A home-cooked meal makes one think of home, barbecue might conjure images of summertime, breakfast, lunch or dinner can place one in a time of day.
“Even if you don’t like to eat, you have to to survive,” Bate said. “Food can ground the story.”
This is apparent in Bate’s life, too. She talked about experiences that led to her decision to write about food, including hosting an NPR-style radio show at Yale, getting her master’s degree in journalism and working as a business reporter.
“At a certain point, I feel like I hit a wall,” she said. “I wanted to create my own stories.”
And she wanted those stories to be about food.
But that’s not something a person can say and it will happen. Going the traditional route for publishing is not easy. Bate sent her manuscript to as many publishers as would take it, and most of them got lost in the “slush pile.”
“It can be soul-destroying,” she said. “It takes a lot of fortitude to go through that process.”
Eventually, she did land some backing at Hyperion Books, part of Oracle Press.
“I was untested. They had no idea how my book would do, but they took a chance,” Bate said.
She explained that, at the time, there was more of a stigma against self-publishing in the industry. In the last few years, that method has been picking up for aspiring authors, with somewhat encouraging results.
Another movement that has been progressing is the prevalence of the foodie, which has a lot to do with how Bate’s books are marketed. But regardless of the culture surrounding food, people still need to eat to live, even if they don’t live to eat.
“When the trendiness dies down, people will continue to cook, eat and break bread together,” she said. “And I will write about it.”
