A Pinch of Heartbreak

When Food Network Magazine launched in the fall of 2008, I felt a pinch in my heart: It had just been a few months since my work at Hearst Magazines ended and I never saw them coming—the new magazine and the loss of a job. In a short time I would start a proofreading and copy editing job at J.Crew, but I still smarted from losing access to the most beautiful cafeteria in Manhattan. I actually missed the Hearst Café more than my old job.

To share a short backstory though, in the spring of the same year, I'd applied to be an editorial assistant to the managing editor at Quick & Simple. I know by then it had been eight years since I last worked as an EA, but I was raring to move on from my marketing assistant post in the international department—I was an editorial girl at heart. (I loved working with Harper's BAZAAR, though.)

I didn't get the Quick & Simple job which turned out to be a blessing because in just a few months after I'd interviewed with my prospective boss, the magazine folded!

So back to Food Network Magazine, from what I know of, some Q&S staffers moved on to work for the new title. What pained me the most at the time was how much I loved, lived, and breathed Food Network, the TV station. For as long as I could remember, I only watched a single channel whenever I'd turned on the television. When I was still based in Manila, I would spend yearly month-long vacations in Denver and would practically just watch the shows on the network whenever I was at my mother's house. Sure, every now and then I would catch some favorite shows on USA Network and E!, but Food Network was my TV home.

When I moved to New York, I recorded shows on my roommates' DVR. So needless to say, I'm very much a Food Network fan and when the magazine opened, I felt a sense of yearning, and a little envy, for not being...there.

My editorial background is in lifestyle and beauty journalism. But food has definitely always been in the picture (my first blog was the Chocolate Soundboard, which I closed after five years when I moved to this address). My earliest assignments in Seventeen Magazine were food-related, with my first being an article on giving dorm food a makeover. Whenever we would go on location, I usually got assigned travel pieces in relation to where we were and photographs of food were almost always the centerpieces of my stories. I could go on and on about my relationship with food, and how now, as a freelancer, I've taken to writing and blogging more and more about it, and unintentionally opening AllMySugar.com as a venue for all these food-related posts. (My original plan was to move all my blogging activities there and close NyMinuteNow.com. But like life, one never really leaves New York.)

Anyhow, the point of all of this is, last weekend, I finally picked up a copy of Food Network Magazine. It's a lovely read filled with vibrant photographs of food and straightforward lifestyle features. I feel a sense of belonging which is both premature and relevant. What job would perfectly marry my love of food and love of magazines?

Once I wrap up my two-month project with Cosmopolitan Magazine Philippines and Pond's, I am commencing a full-blown job-hunt for the first time in almost two years since going freelance. So, I hope editor-in-chief Maile Carpenter and managing editor Maria Baugh have Google Alerts on their names because girls, if you're reading this, I'll be bugging you for work when I get back to NYC this summer!