Cumbrian food stories lack a home
Without a food publication to call its own, Cumbria is failing to make the most of an incredibly successful creative sector.
By most accounts, Cumbria has one of the most successful gastronomic sectors in the United Kingdom. Not only does the county boast more Michelin stars than any other outside of Greater London, but it also has a thriving craft beer scene, a robust series of food festivals and is home to many chefs that, while not yet acknowledged by the great, rubber-ringed despot, are truly exceptional.
Despite this, Cumbria has been without a high quality, food-centric publication ever since Taste Cumbria Magazine went out of print in 2019.
I may be in danger of committing that most corporate of sins - inflating the importance of the industry one works in - but I’m convinced that the lack of such a publication is an unforgivable, missed opportunity to support, champion and critique Cumbria’s most successful creative sector.
Carefully conceived, intricate food publications are vital to flourishing, diverse and respected gastronomic industries. If you need convincing, just look at the outsized impact Vittles has had on London’s food scene.
Not only does this publication rightfully champion a slew of restaurants, and indeed neighbourhoods, that’ve been overlooked by legacy media for decades, it also enables many of London’s communities to wield greater agency over their own food stories.
Publications like Vittles demonstrate how insufficient the small, outdated food and drink sections doled out by most newspapers are. Today’s food enthusiasts expect more than a sloppy review and a 30-minute meal recipe. They want in-depth reporting that allows them to deepen their connection and understanding of the subject at hand.
Writing of this kind does not have to be tied to a geographical area as Pit Magazine’s wonderful kebab issue exemplifies. However, when a publication is tied to a geographic area (especially a regional one) it has an ability to support, raise awareness of and critique local food unlike anything else.
During 2017, Cumbria launched its own, award-winning food publication Taste Cumbria Magazine. This publication would have been perfectly positioned to champion Cumbria’s world class food industry via the in-depth, hyper-focused food writing that’s currently reshaping British food media. Unfortunately, the magazine went out of print barely two years after it launched, well before Vittles changed the food mediascape.
We can only guess what effect Taste Cumbria Magazine would have had on Cumbria’s food culture and the wider county itself had it endured.
What we know for certain is that without a local publication to champion the county, the discourse surrounding Cumbria’s food has been defined by those living and working outside of its borders. Patchy, surface-level reporting has been the predictable result.
This isn’t necessarily the fault of the writers. Without a Cumbrian food publication to pitch to, landing Cumbria-orientated stories has become an almost Herculean task.
Only those articles that have the broadest appeal are commissioned by the nationals. Hence the abundance of articles concerning the county’s Michelin stars and the dearth of articles focusing on any other aspect of Cumbrian food.
On the rare occasion a deeper dive is commissioned, writers are often forced to pander to an audience whose own experience of Cumbria is cursory at best. As a result of all this, numerous stories have gone untold, fallacies have become accepted knowledge. To put it simply, the public’s perception of Cumbria’s gastronomic scene has become skewed.
Taking ownership of our food stories is key if Cumbria is to reap the benefits that its flourishing gastronomic sector offers. As food writing is such a versatile medium, these benefits are almost endless; it is not difficult to imagine stories about Cumbrian food also touching upon other aspects of the county from its storied history to its goal of becoming England’s first carbon neutral county.
Unfortunately, the majority of local and national media outlets are either unable or unwilling to publish these stories with any kind of regularity. For this reason I hope Cumbria has a food publication to call its own before this golden opportunity to celebrate our gastronomic sector is gone.