Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurel Miller.
Hi Laurel, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up on a small (especially by Texas standards!) ranch in California; my dad is a former wrangler/packer and is a retired large/exotic animal veterinarian, so we always had a menagerie, and my brother and I were active in 4-H. My parents raised Quarter Horses and mules. Despite living in a rural area, we were just 30 miles north of L.A. and I was the weirdo at school who raised goats and rabbits and competed in hunter-jumper events with my mule. Let’s just say I didn’t relate to my classmates and vice-versa.
Those formative years also taught me that, despite our living in a major agricultural country, people were totally out of touch with where their food came from. I can remember walking my dairy goat at the county fair when I was eight and having adults ask me what kind of dog she was. That planted the seeds for my future career, as did our family vacations- I was fortunate to have parents who valued travel as a means of education, and they’re also passionate skiers/outdoor enthusiasts. My dad formed a veterinary ski group over 60 years ago that’s still active today, and they held continuing education seminars all over the Rockies and the Alps, and that also exposed me to different cultures and foods and further developed my independent nature. I should add I was the world’s most annoyingly picky eater as a kid, except when it came to travel when I’d venture beyond my standard macaroni & cheese.
In college, I majored in communications, but academically, I’d always been a poor student due to a learning disability that wasn’t diagnosed until I was 17. I loved college but had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. In my last semester, I took a journalism class and it really resonated with me. I’d always been a good writer and my dad has been a contributor to academic and equestrian journals for decades, but I’d never considered writing as a career. At this point, travel was becoming a priority in my life, and I was also increasingly interested in food and cooking. Despite my upbringing, my mom doesn’t cook, so I had this very bizarre dichotomy of gathering eggs and milking the goat and having fresh produce and then my mom would microwave everything. I didn’t know how scrambled eggs are actually made until college.
I mulled over travel writing as a career and dismissed it, as I didn’t feel I had the discipline to freelance, although I interned at a horse magazine and had my first work published while still in college. But I was also starting to consider culinary school as I worked a series of industry-related jobs as a post-graduate. I worked one summer in public relations for the wine industry and it confirmed my belief that I’m incapable of a 9-to-5 job. That’s not a diss on people who do it; it just doesn’t work for my temperament and when I started having anxiety attacks before work, I knew it was time to quit.
When I turned 26, I was working in the produce department of what was then called the natural foods industry. I knew at that point I wanted to do something with food and related to regenerative agriculture and humane livestock management, but at that time- the early 90s- those concepts were considered crazy hippie talk outside of liberal pockets of the U.S. I enrolled at Johnson & Wales University in Colorado and graduated top of my class with a degree in Culinary Arts and the foundation to carry out my goal of teaching recreational cooking classes and leading farm tours to educate people- especially kids- where their food came from. I was also interested in food writing, but the feedback I got from editors was it was a notoriously difficult industry to break into and I got discouraged. Remember, digital writing wasn’t really a thing then- only print carried any value or paid money.
In 1999, while teaching at cooking schools around the Bay Area and in CO and HI (where I lived briefly in my 20s and for a culinary school internship), I launched a home-based cooking school/farm tour company, The Sustainable Kitchen, in Berkeley. I achieved local acclaim for my work and it was really gratifying to see the response, but I was still working about five part-time jobs to get by. In 2001, a friend who knew I could write asked if I’d like to try out for a major newspaper column sponsored by the Berkeley Ecology Center that would highlight regional farmers and ingredients. I really didn’t understand how journalism worked, but within a month or two of that column launching, I was getting invited on press trips all over the world. It was crazy. I’d been trying for years to find a way to meld my love of food and travel and earn a living from it, and suddenly a newspaper column on, like, rhubarb, was getting me invited on press trips to Mexico and Italy.
When I look back at my 30s and early 40s, I’m honestly amazed at the places I’ve been and the adventures and experiences I’ve had on every continent except for Antarctica. I always travel solo, which I prefer, both because I’m an introvert and because it allows me to focus on the experience, even if I’m just riding local transit. I absolutely prefer traveling to developing nations because I’m drawn to certain cultures (South America has become my niche, but I’ve also spent a lot of time in SE Asia) and it helps give me a kick in the ass when I start feeling complacent. As Americans, we tend to take so many things for granted, and I don’t want to do that.
Traveling alone has opened doors to me that otherwise would have remained closed. In many countries, it’s absolutely unheard of for a woman to travel alone, so I’m sometimes an object of pity, but that’s resulted in both having a watchful eye over me as well as invitations to dine with locals or interactions or conversations that are so rewarding. I also prefer solo travel because I’m never not working, in that I’m always searching for the next story and just want to do my thing. I’m also a passionate outdoor enthusiast and my idea of a good time doesn’t match that of my friends- I think trekking three days to get to the put-in of a remote river in Nepal is fun, and I enjoy riding clapped-out buses across remote terrain. I love the logistics of my type of travel, which is based finanical necessity, and my love of the problem-solving aspects of getting from point A to point B. This is why a friend of mine calls me a “high-functioning dirtbag.” I love that, but I should also clarify that I do extensive research before all trips to learn about the people and place, and I never intentionally put myself in what I deem high-risk situations or locales. I’m an adrenalin junkie, but I suggest all travelers leave a close friend or family a detailed intinerary and contacts. I also always register with the State Department.
In 2001, I put the teaching on the shelf to focus on writing and was able to start focusing more on hard adventure travel, as well. To me, food and travel are intrinsically related- I can’t say anything Anthony Bourdain hasn’t said but truly, I can think of no better way to experience a culture. I’m fascinated by indigenous cultures and ingredients and the anthropological and sociological aspects of food and eating. I was the editor of Edible Aspen magazine for four years while living in Colorado, which enabled me to oversee a small magazine, which was also a great experience. I moved to Austin over three years ago for the expanded job market and food scene, and it’s been hands-down the best decision I ever made. I’m very nomadic- I’ve lived in 5 states and moved about two dozen times since college- but that gets very lonely, and I’m at a point in life where I want community and a “permanent” home base, and I’m obsessed with all things Texas. When I think about my upbringing, which involved so much interaction with ranchers and rodeos and horse people, it’s not at all surprising that I ended up here—also, breakfast tacos.
Today, I also focus more on spirits- a serendipitous segue that came from my working in a couple of Texas craft distilleries, and I find spirits endemic to specific regions every bit as compelling as food. I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like since travel journalism never fully bounced back from the 2008 recession and blog culture, but fortunately, the tide is turning. We’ll see how the pandemic changes things, but for me, travel is my greatest passion, my motivation and inspiration, and the reason I continue to write despite the lack of a steady paycheck. I love writing as a process, but I don’t consider what I do an art form or anything- it’s just something that’s come naturally to me, but it requires constant nurturing and improvement, just like anything. I’m also a professional procrastinator, like many (most?) writers. Writing is a freakish occupation- I absolutely believe it chooses you- because we work in a vacuum and there’s a lot of rejection involved. I would never have intentionally set myself on such a career path because I’m not a masochist, but even choosing photos to go with this profile, it really hit me what extraordinary experiences I’ve had because I worked hard to make them happen. I just renewed my passport and can’t wait to start exploring- and writing about- the world again.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all. With writing, unfortunately, it’s more about who you know- an opinion that might rile some people but it’s true. It wasn’t until I found a successful mentor that doors starting opening to me, and while in hindsight it took off fairly quickly, from local newspaper to A-list magazines like Gourmet, Saveur, and Outside- it still took years and I didn’t start earning a living as a writer until just before the pandemic! I’ve always worked side jobs like pet sitting and food service, and I also do content creation. As a writer, you can never sit back and relax and think you’ve finally made it. Most of what I do is generate story ideas and pitch them to editors and even when you get assignments, there’s generally not a steady paycheck. It’s not a career for people who crave stability and sometimes I wonder how I got here! Thankfully, I enjoy multi-tasking and don’t do well with routine, so in many ways, I’m very well-suited to my occupation.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a journalist specializing in food, spirits, travel, and more recently- design. My background and education are in the culinary arts, sustainable agriculture and the outdoor industry. You need to be adaptable as a writer, so I also write about interior design, real estate, lifestyle content, architecture… My passion is for deep-dive stories about food and drink, be it a specific dish or ingredient, and I especially love writing about indigenous cultures and profiles of farmers and makers. If I’m lucky enought to sell a story on international whitewater rafting or trekking that includes the cultural aspects I love- like, I’ve written about a whitewater company on the Zambezi that trains and hires employees from within the local community and the ripple effects from that, or Nepali cheesemakers I encountered on a trek- that’s my happy place.
I think those integrated food/adventure travel stories are where I do my best work and what resonate with readers. It’s because I’m so passionate about these things, but it’s also important to me to help keep traditional foodways alive and to help communities thrive in whatever small way I can. I like writing about people doing amazing things that both reflect and celebrate their environment, whether it’s foraging and making craft foods from mesquite flour or starting a distillery to help the women of a small Andean community earn a living from their centuries-old practice of collecting native agave sap.
But I’m also kind of odd and love writing about things that seem perfectly normal or obvious to me that most people find either totally weird or incomprehensible. I used to contribute to a national ski country website and did a piece on the “best hotel bathrooms to sleep in when you miss the last bus home.” I was covering the X-Games in Aspen and learned firsthand what happens when it’s minus ten out and it’s 2 am and you’re drunk and have no way home. You go to the Ritz-Carlton, which has an extremely plush sitting room and marble stalls larger than some NYC studios, and… you nap. I highly endorse the 5-star bathrooms of Aspen, but you didn’t hear that from me.
I think one thing that sets me apart from many food writers, although this has been changing, is I have a Culinary Arts degree and was a cooking teacher and I have 30 years experience in foodservice, including back-of-house. I’ve slaughtered livestock and worked on farms- I don’t see how you can write about something as broad, yet technical, as food without understanding the service industry side or agriculture, but I’m also a hypocrite because I write about spirits and I’ve never distilled, even though I’ve worked in distilleries. That said, food writing was always my goal which is why I spent to many years interning and working in as many aspects as I could. My opinion may not be a popular one but I’ll stand by it, even as I admit I’m often asked to write about things in which I have only passing knowledge. It’s hard not to have imposter syndrome if you’re trying to earn a living at this because you need to be able to write about diverse subjects.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I’ve never been shy about networking, even though I’m introverted. I’m indebted to a handful of people who showed me the ropes, so to speak, but when you’re new, it can also backfire somewhat. I briefly had an extremely unethical writer as my mentor, and as I learned more about the industry, I saw just how shady he was so in that way, he taught me what NOT to do. I used to do a lot of industry events but that’s not really my thing, so I tend to contact people one-on-one for advice or solidarity. Writers need writer and editor friends to provide reality checks and levity. We’re slightly neurotic people and it’s helpful to know it’s not just me.
My mentors just came into by life by circumstance, usually- I’d ask to intern at certain restaurants to work under a specific chef or just reach out to a writer whose work I admired. If you come across that, you have nothing to lose by asking them if you can buy them a coffee and ask them some questions- best case, it sparks a friendship.
I think it’s also very important to know- especially in today’s social media-driven climate- that we increasingly don’t see or hear the reality of so-called dream jobs like mine. I love what I do but the reality is, it’s a very difficult way to attempt to earn a living and the competition is insane. I have no problem being brutally honest about what I do because I’ve heard “Must be nice to always be on vacation” too many times. Yes, it’s my dream job, but most days, it’s not the dream- I’m struggling just like you might be. Find mentors who are willing to be honest with you and you need to be honest with yourself about whether or not your personality is suited to a profession, no matter how cool it sounds.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sustainablekitchen.com
- Instagram: @snackingonxanax
