Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Meewes.
Hi Veronica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started writing as a kid growing up in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. My mom still loves to tell people how I’d slip my handwritten, illustrated books onto the shelves of our local library. Poetry came first, then plays in middle school and journalism in high school. By the time I was applying to college, I was torn between journalism and a more creative path, ultimately choosing the latter at Sarah Lawrence College, where I studied creative nonfiction, poetry, photography and sociology. (At this incredibly liberal liberal arts school, we didn’t have to declare majors!) I never really thought writing would become a career—it was simply the thing I kept coming back to.
Food had become just as much of an obsession. I was always tinkering in the kitchen, and my first job was at a farm market and bakery. That led to restaurant work—a Jersey diner, a Tex-Mex joint beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a sushi spot on the Upper West Side. After graduating, I wanted to experience a part of the country beyond the New York area. So my college boyfriend and I packed up the car for a months-long road trip down the East Coast, across the Southwest and up the West Coast before eventually regrouping in Richmond, Virginia, where I waited tables and saved up money before relocating to Austin.
Before leaving, I wrote a letter to the city I’d come to love and submitted it to RVA Magazine. It became my first published article. Once in Austin, I had a few culinary jobs—this time in the back of house, cooking for a catering company and working in the pastry kitchen of a hotel— before joining a nonprofit arts program through the City of Austin. But I was itching to start writing about food, so I wrote an article about pickling and submitted that as my “clip” to a food and drink publication that used to be around town called Eat & Drink Austin. Soon editors were sending assignments my way but the pay was modest, so I continued working in nonprofits, assuming journalism would remain a side project.
I worked at a residential treatment center for children for a number of years, and was considering going back to school for a Masters of Social Work. The job was stressful and draining, so food writing offered a welcome creative outlet, and everyone at my job was so supportive of my writing. Eventually those two worlds began to overlap: I volunteered teaching writing in Travis County Jail and at Austin State Hospital, while also developing a cooking program for people in transitional housing through Caritas.
Meanwhile, my bylines were now appearing in Edible Austin, Thrillist, Serious Eats, Tasting Table, The Austin Chronicle, The Austin-American Statesman, The Today Show, Texas Highways, TimeOut Austin, Austin Monthly, Forbes Travel Guide, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Afar, CN Traveler… and my side hustle had officially become more than I could handle with a full-time job. When I was offered to come on as the Austin editor of Zagat, that gave me just the push I needed to take the plunge and become a full-time freelance writer in 2015. I wrote my first book that year— a cookbook focused on fish sauce— and I was getting invited on press trips all over the world. I now had the freedom to take those, and I learned so much from those experiences. I also became immersed in the wine world thanks to trips I had the privilege of taking to Greece, Germany, Italy, Uruguay, Australia, France and more.
I started working part-time at APT 115, an eastside Austin wine bar, as well as in wine education and events for the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas, all while continuing to freelance. I really built on my wine knowledge during this period of time— and then the pandemic happened, which of course was not a great time to be a food and travel writer. I started to diversify a lot more during this time, taking on more social media, SEO content and copywriting contract work for different brands and organizations. I even dipped back into the non-profit world in a communications role until I was offered the opportunity to come on as a wine buyer for a small restaurant and wine shop. I completed my WSET2 certification and became a Certified Sake Professional during this time too.
By now, I’d co-authored a couple other books (one was a Fodor’s travel guide and the other was a farmer’s almanac-inspired ‘zine with local restaurant group Odd Duck). In 2022, I came across the opportunity to work on my second solo book project— a bar guide to Austin published by HarperCollins. Right after completing that project, the same publisher asked if I’d be interested in taking on a hardcover Texas barbecue book, so I embarked on that massive project in 2023.To make room for a project of that scale, I traded the hustle of full-time freelancing for a role at Whole Foods Market as a Senior Food Copywriter & Editor, where I led storytelling across customer-facing campaigns spanning email, digital, packaging and in-store experiences. For nearly three years, my weekdays belonged to Whole Foods while nights and weekends belonged to brisket. The result was Texas BBQ: The Art of Low and Slow, a 500-page coffee-table book published in late 2025, and by far the biggest project I’ve ever tackled. Since then, I’ve spent the better part of a year speaking about the book at bookstores, festivals, ticketed dinners and barbecue events across Texas while steadily building my freelance work back up.
Now, after three years at Whole Foods as a copywriter, I’m about to begin a new chapter as Brand Manager of Content & Collaborations, a position that feels like the culmination of so many threads that have run through my career. It brings together my experience in journalism, copywriting, nonprofit communications, content strategy and event programming into one role, where I’ll shape brand storytelling and produce experiences that celebrate food culture and build community. Looking back, what once felt like a winding path now feels surprisingly cohesive. Every stop along the way has prepared me for what’s next.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road. Full-time freelance writing is a hustle—and, if anything, it’s become even more competitive since I started. There are inevitable cycles of feast and famine, and even when work is steady, you’re chasing invoices, managing taxes, pitching stories and essentially running a small business. You’re rarely doing just one job either. Throughout different parts of my career, I’ve balanced journalism alongside restaurant work, nonprofit communications, copywriting and book projects. That juggling act can be exhausting, but it has also made me a much more versatile writer and communicator.
The media landscape has changed dramatically over the past two decades, so I’ve also had to learn how to reinvent myself. Publications have folded, editors have moved on and media budgets (and, with them, freelance opportunities) have shrunk. Rather than seeing those changes as dead ends, I’ve tried to stay curious and keep expanding my skills, whether that meant writing books, learning about wine, or moving into copywriting and content strategy. Looking back, those pivots weren’t detours at all; they became some of the most valuable parts of my career.
One thing I’ve learned is that you can work incredibly hard to create opportunities for yourself, but you should also leave room for the opportunities you never see coming. Every one of my book projects happened because someone approached me, not because I pitched it. The same is true for many of the other roles I’ve held throughout my career. Those experiences have reminded me that relationships matter just as much as resumés, and that consistently doing good work has a way of opening doors you didn’t even know existed.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a writer specializing in food, beverage, travel, wellness and culture, though my career has taken many forms over the years. I’ve built a career across journalism, book publishing, nonprofit communications, copywriting and brand storytelling. I’ve written for national and international publications, authored five books and led customer-facing storytelling for a number of food and travel brands. Along the way, I’ve also had stints working as a server, cook, sommelier and wine buyer. Those experiences have given me a deeper understanding of the industries I cover—and I believe they’ve made me a stronger, more empathetic storyteller.
The stories I’m most drawn to are the ones that reveal something bigger through food and drink. Whether I’m writing about Texas barbecue, gong fu cha or a small town speakeasy, I’m ultimately interested in the people, traditions and sense of place that shape our foodways. Of everything I’ve worked on, I’m most proud of my latest book, Texas BBQ: The Art of Low and Slow. The 500-page hardcover, published by HarperCollins, represents years of reporting, travel and research into one of Texas’s most iconic culinary traditions. More than any single article or project, it embodies the kind of immersive, deeply reported storytelling I aspire to create.
What sets me apart, I think, is a genuine curiosity about the people behind the story. I’m less interested in chasing trends than in understanding why they matter— how food reflects history, identity, tradition and community. Whether I’m interviewing a pitmaster, a farmer, a winemaker or a small-business owner, my goal is always the same: to tell stories that are deeply human and leave readers feeling like they’ve learned something meaningful.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I’ve always found as much inspiration in books as anywhere else. Early on, I devoured the work of Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain. They showed me that writing about food could be about so much more than restaurants— it could be a lens through which to explore people, culture, history and identity. Their work was a huge part of what made me want to become a food writer.
More recently, the memoirs of Stanley Tucci, Hannah Selinger and Lisa Donovan have continued to inspire me. I love the way they weave together food, family, travel and personal history into stories that feel intimate and universal at the same time. Last year, I attended the M.F.K. Fisher Symposium for Women and Storytelling, where Reichl gave the keynote address and Donovan led a memoir workshop. It was an incredibly affirming experience, one that reminded me how expansive food writing can be and reinforced my desire to eventually explore memoir myself.
I’ve also been captivated by J. Ryan Stradal’s novels, which use food to tell big-hearted stories about place, family and community in the Midwest. I started out writing poetry and fiction before finding non-fiction, and his work has me thinking about easing back into the fiction world again through the lens of food.
Lately, I’ve also found the rise of worker-owned digital publications like Ravenous and Gourmet incredibly energizing. In a media landscape that often feels uncertain and constantly in flux, it’s inspiring to see writers building sustainable, collaborative models that prioritize both great storytelling and the people creating it.
The work of José Andrés has also had a profound impact on me— not only as a chef and cookbook author, but as a humanitarian. He has demonstrated how food can be a powerful tool for dignity and connection, and he continues to shape the way I think about the broader role food can play in our communities.
Pricing:
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.veronicameewes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellfedlife
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicameewes/
- Other: https://muckrack.com/wellfedlife
