Food is infinite. It attacks each sense and creates an overwhelming experience for the people involved. The person consuming receives nourishment and difficult to describe sensations across each of their senses. The cook experiences a creative outlet, and the joy of knowing his creation produced effects and sensations rarely received by any other medium. This is the world I want to be a part of. I want to be submersed in this culture for my career and enjoyment.
My name is Daniel Puma. I am a Journalism Graduate from the University of Oklahoma. The above paragraph describes someone you would expect to be in culinary school. Well that road was considered but my dream is to write about food. It took a lot of work to get to that conclusion.
Most of my life was spent wanting to be a chef. I cooked for friends and family at every opportunity. The desire to be a chef changed when I began working in a restaurant. Distraught over the experience, I enrolled at the University of Oklahoma intending to graduate with a business degree. Well that changed quickly. I went from an international business major to an entrepreneurship major to taking a semester off to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted to do something with food. It is my life. I know food. I enjoy food. Why am I not studying something that allows me to connect with my passion. That is when I decided to work towards a journalism degree so I can begin my career as a food writer.
Ideally I want to write about cooking technique. That will allow me to not only satisfy my cooking urge, but also allow me write about it and teach the readers. My friends make fun of me because nearly every conversation I hold reverts back to food. I teach, inform, and discuss food and cooking with all of my family, friends, and strangers I come in contact with.
Writing about cooking technique is not my only desire. I would be more than ecstatic to write critiques. Restaurant critiques is an exciting field in the food industry that allows you to form an opinion about all aspects of the restaurant. The focus isn’t only on the food, but the service, and the atmosphere as well.
I am working hard to get to that point in my life. I have taken many classes within the journalism college that not only teaches my about writing for news, but also writing features. My classes also taught me many multimedia aspects of journalism. I have learned about photography, sound editing, slide shows, and video shooting and editing. I have honed my skills as a multimedia reporter with the online edition of the OUdaily, and a features intern with The Oklahoman. I worked with the food editor writing restaurant features for print and web based formats.
There are many aspects that define me as a person. But anyone who talks with me for a short amount of time, learns of my passion for food, cooking, and writing about the two. I have been met with lots of excitement, praise, and hope for my venture into a culinary world that does not accept many.
