Maria L. Dias Assunção, a current student of the Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication at the School of Travel Journalism, has just published a food interview in Appetito, the US magazine devoted to Italian food, wine and travel. Her subject is Luca Scaglia, an Italian who taught Copenhagen to love focaccia from Bari. Here is how she did it, and what her piece can teach you about how to write a food interview that editors want to run.
A focaccia from Bari in the heart of Copenhagen
The story begins in a grandmother’s kitchen in Bari. Luca Scaglia grew up watching her make focaccia barese, thick and topped with tomato, and when he settled in Denmark he wanted to turn that family recipe into a restaurant: La Posata.
There was one problem. Danish diners knew pizza and pasta, but not this specialty from Puglia. So Luca adapted it, making it thinner and crispier, closer to a Tuscan schiacciata, and turned it into the base for sandwiches. Today he runs locations in the city centre (Indre By) and in Frederiksberg, serves a mostly local crowd and has a clear mission: to show that Italian food is much more than pizza and pasta.
That was the story Maria went looking for. The way she told it is a small masterclass in the craft.
You can read Maria’s full interview in Appetito: La Posata Brings Puglian Focaccia to Copenhagen.
What is a food interview?
A food interview is a journalistic piece in which a chef, producer or restaurateur explains their work through a series of questions, and where the food opens the door to a bigger story: a family, a tradition, a place or a business. It is neither a review nor an advert. Readers should finish it knowing something they did not know before.
Five choices that make this interview work
1. A timely hook
Maria did not pick La Posata at random. The restaurant’s appearance at this year’s Copenhagen Cooking Festival caught her attention, and she says so in her introduction. A festival, an opening or an award gives an editor a reason to publish now rather than six months from now.
2. Go, sit down and taste
Before the first question, Maria writes a couple of paragraphs in the first person: the tiny terrace she did not quite get at first, Luca’s welcome that won her over, and the focaccia that did the rest. It only takes a few lines, but it tells readers the writer was really there. In food journalism, that first-hand experience is your credibility.
3. Ask the uncomfortable question
The most interesting question in the piece is a risky one: wasn’t it frightening to build a restaurant around a single product? It is what brings out the real story, the one you won’t find on the restaurant’s website: La Posata was not an instant hit, and Luca had to adapt his grandmother’s recipe to Danish tastes. Good interviews are built on questions the interviewee hasn’t rehearsed.
4. Let other voices in
During the conversation, Laura Wuilay, La Posata’s marketing manager, chips in several times, and Maria keeps those moments rather than cutting them. They add a second perspective (how Luca’s travels help him connect with customers) and some humour too, like the idea of creating an Italian take on the Danish cheese buns that are all the rage in Copenhagen.
5. From the plate to the map
The interview doesn’t stop at the recipe. Maria asks how an Italian restaurant abroad can draw travellers to lesser-known regions such as Puglia, which ingredients come from Italy and which are sourced in Denmark, and how Italian and Danish cooks influence each other. For a magazine about food and travel, those questions turn a restaurant profile into destination journalism.
Pick the right publication
One detail explains much of this success: the story is a perfect fit for the outlet. Appetito is all about Italian food, wine and travel, and a Bari focaccia reinvented in northern Europe is exactly the kind of story its readers want.
Before you pitch, always ask yourself three things: why this story, why this publication, and why now? If you can answer all three in two lines, you have a strong pitch.
How can a student get published in a food magazine?
With a good idea, a well-crafted piece and an open door. The School of Travel Journalism has a partnership with Appetito that lets students and graduates pitch and publish their work, and Maria’s interview is one of the first results of that agreement.
The partnership opens the door, but the writing has to be up to the standard. That’s why every piece in the master’s programme is developed with tutors who publish in professional media, from the idea and angle to the structure and the final edit.
Key takeaways
Maria Dias’s interview shows that a publishable food interview doesn’t depend on landing a celebrity chef. It depends on the writer’s choices: a timely hook, being there in person, brave questions, supporting voices and a perspective that links the plate to the place.
For more stories like this one, explore our student works and achievements, including how Kimberly Domínguez went from our gastronomic journalism master’s to writing for El Nuevo Día.
And if you’d like your next interview to end up in a food magazine, the Master in Gastronomic Journalism and Communication teaches you to find stories, interview, write and pitch your work to real publications. If you also want to tell the story of destinations, the Dual Master in Travel and Gastronomic Journalism combines both specialisms in a single programme.
