Tucked away on the corner of Huron Street and Greenpoint Avenue is Brooklyn’s beloved food book store and Italian café, Archestratus, owned and operated by Paige Lipari. Inside the warm railroad-style shop Lipari has spun straw into gold, establishing it as a cultural hub, weaving together Brooklyn’s food community through dinners, book clubs, cooking classes and fundraisers like this spring’s “Baked Goods Against Bigotry.” Brooklynites are now in for another treat.
Adding to that roster this fall is a more scholarly approach to food. School is now in session at Archestratus.
Here to officiate its debut is seasoned food writer Devra Ferst, with a six-week food-writing course dubbed “Breaking into Food Writing,” complete with homework assignments and in-class projects. Ferst has a decade of writing under her belt, including working at publications like Eater NY and Tasting Table, experience teaching cooking classes at Archestratus and Brooklyn Kitchen, and guest-teaching for Raquel Pelzel at the New York Times Summer Academy for high school students.
Courses like this are usually available in more exclusive environs, which is part of what makes Ferst’s class so special. This program will serve to guide newer writers looking to break into the food-writing world, laden with usefull nuggets from someone who’s been in those shoes and established a successful career in food journalism.
Students can expect to walk away with a sharp arsenal of tools at their disposal, like pitching—a fundamental and invaluable skill to hone as a freelancer—learning to develop story ideas, becoming better readers, and more.
“I wanted to be realistic. These six weeks are not a two year masters in journalism at Columbia,” she explained, however, “six weeks is enough time to gain some skills and improve some skills.”
The first session began September 11, but students can still join September 18 for a prorated fee.
