December 10, 2021

How To Describe Food In Writing: Best Words To Describe Food

Nigel Seah

Nigel is a Technical SEO Specialist at a Digital Marketing Agency based in Singapore. He also dabbles in freelance SEO content writing and is an avid language learner.

So you’ve decided to begin your journey as a food content writer but often find yourself struggling to find the right restaurant or food-related words.

If you’re wondering how you can write about food, don’t worry. You’re not alone 🫂

Finding the right words to write even a deliciously descriptive food paragraph can be tricky. And it’s for this purpose that I’ve prepared some useful tips to help you in your journey.

In this article, I will first be sharing some useful tips on how you can come up with your own mouth-watering description of food before sharing some of the most useful words and phrases I’ve personally used in my food descriptions.

Tips on how to describe delicious food

1) Learn from the best

As with learning every other skill, one of the best ways to start improving is to observe and learn from those who have already achieved success in their respective niches.

Read as many articles as you can from some of the best food blogs out there. Follow and learn from some of the best food writers out there. Take note of the words and phrases they use when describing food.

If you have no point of reference of what is considered good food content, how are you going to set your own writing standards?

2) It’s in the phrase “descriptive food writing”

Sometimes, the answer is right before our very eyes 👀

If I were to ask you right now to describe what you are wearing, what would you base your description on? What would you tell me?

Your answer would probably go something like this: I’m wearing a red and white striped shirt 👕, blue jeans 👖, and a pair of brown leather shoes 👞

Now, this is not about what you’re actually wearing. But what you’re basing your description on. You are describing to me what you see.

Check out some of these examples:

Simply describing what you see can help elevate your food writing. — Simply describing what you see can help elevate the flavours of your food writing.

As you can see, the writers of these paragraphs did not use bombastic vocabulary to wow your tastebuds. All they did was describe what they saw.

This helps readers visualise the dishes and immerses them in the writing.

3) Avoid using disrespectful adjectives to describe food

Food has a very strong cultural and historical significance.

It is incredibly disrespectful to undermine and disregard how much the dishes of various cuisines mean to different groups of people. Doing so will have severe consequences 😱

A White-owned “clean Chinese food” restaurant in the US had shut its doors after referring to Chinese dishes as “icky” and that they will make you “bloated”. Talk about being disrespectful.

Here are some words that you should never use in your food content writing ❌❌❌

Exotic
Weird
Ethnic
Oriental and Occidental
Generic location-based adjectives like Asian, Western, Arabic, African (be specific)

Best words and phrases to describe food

1) Generic words and phrases

Sumptuous meal
Spread of delectable dishes
A meal fit for the gods
It was a lavish dining experience
A gastronomical experience like no other
Roasted/cooked/steamed/fried to perfection
Added a whole other dimension
A delight to eat
The steak was an absolute winner for me
Grilled to medium rare perfection
This dish hit the spot for me
Succulent

2) Words and phrases to describe taste or flavour

Symphony of flavours in my mouth
Left a delicate sweet aftertaste
Holy trinity of aromatics
Flavour that packs a punch
Savoury with hints of citrus and spice

3) Words and phrases to describe texture

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside
Melts in your mouth
I could see the chocolate filling slowly oozing out as I cut through the layers of crispy, flaky pastry
Crumbly
delicate
The cake was moist, yet was somehow able to avoid becoming soggy
Fluffy as a pillow

Start describing food like a pro!

Putting together a descriptive piece of writing about food shouldn’t give you a headache 😵

Instead, it should stimulate the taste buds.

As the legendary Coldplay once said, “nobody said it was easy”. It takes time and practice to get to a level of finesse where you can easily pull these words and phrases right off the tip of your tongue.

Give it a shot! Use some of the words and phrases I recommended and keep at it. Soon, you’ll become a great food content writer 😋

To learn more about food content writing, check out the tips and tricks shared by WritingWildly! It has one of the best online blogs for writers out there!