Writing Food with Shahnaz Ahsan

Discover how to serve up a sensory feast on the page and have your readers craving seconds in this workshop with award-winning food writer, Shahnaz Ahsan.

In this workshop you’ll explore what food writing is, and what it isn’t, how it differs from recipe writing, whether you need to be a good cook to be able to write about food and if your own story is a crucial ingredient. Ahsan will help you get started with your own food writing and share her personal, practical tips on building a profile in this space, pitching your pieces and getting published. Watch your writing rise as you take your ideas from half-baked to perfectly plated.

Shahnaz Ahsan is an author, columnist and award-winning food writer. Her new book The Jackfruit Chronicles: Memories and Recipes from a British-Bangladeshi Kitchen was published in 2025. Her work has appeared in Observer Food Monthly, Vittles, Good Food, Waitrose Magazine, Borough Market Magazine and Hyphen. Her debut novel Hashim & Family was an Observer Best Book of 2020 and was shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize. ​ Born and raised in West Yorkshire, Ahsan is of British-Bangladeshi heritage, and has also lived in the USA, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Rwanda. She writes a monthly newsletter, Scribbles and Dribbles, about life as a writer while raising two small children.