The genre that I chose is restaurant reviews. There are many different types of restaurant reviews, spanning the whole world, but for the purpose of this class I narrowed the reviews down to ones of Austin restaurants. I figured that if I would eventually be writing a restaurant review, it would be from a restaurant in Austin, so my mentor texts should all be reviews of restaurants in Austin. I chose reviews of Uchiko, Magnolia Café, Clark’s Oyster Bar, and Hyde Park Bar & Grill.

The first interesting thing I noticed is that several of the texts I found opened with words in quotes. There are different reasons for this, such as a quote from the bible or a phrase from a menu. I thought it was very interesting that many reviews began with words other than the author’s own. Each review has an introduction, in which the author primarily explains their purpose or background for coming to review this particular restaurant. Some authors included their expectations of the restaurant before eating there. Many introductions include information on the history of the restaurant itself, whether that be through quotes from the chef, historical facts, or through discussion of the cultural context surrounding the restaurant.

The reviews then move from the introduction to the main body, in which the author describes their eating experience at the restaurant with a tremendous amount of detail.   This genre forces authors to include as much detail as possible, because readers want a sense of what the food is like and whether or not they should spend their money at that restaurant.

The reviews close with a concluding function; some a paragraph, some more of a statement. However, each one ends in a very defining note, clearly indicating the author’s overall opinion of the restaurant. This is important because it is the lasting impression that the reader has of the restaurant. They are unlikely to remember all 13 of the dishes that the author ate, but they will likely remember the last few remarks.

The texts that I chose have a very important place in the world, in that they serve to inform the public about restaurants around them. If someone travels to Austin and wants to know the best places to eat, they can read reviews like these to determine where to spend their hard-earned money.

My genre is food sampling videos, usually called “(Group of people) tries (type of food) for the first time”.  These are commonly posted to YouTube by a variety of digital media companies, including Facts., WatchCut Video, Buzzfeed, and many more.  These videos have gained extreme popularity, with regular view counts in the millions.

Food sampling videos commonly are between two and ten minutes long.  They often include a short interview lasting about a minute prior to the tasting, usually regarding what the tasters are expecting out of the food.  The videos then transition into the actual tasting portion, in which anywhere from one to six dishes are sampled one at a time and each of the interviewees gives their opinions on the foods.  Usually, about one to two minutes are devoted to each dish before moving onto the next one.  Occasionally, when addressing an entire cuisine, the video follows the setup of a normal meal, beginning with an appetizer, moving onto an entree, and finishing off with a dessert.  However, there appears to be no order when sampling different types of the same food (i.e. teas from around the world) or food from a particular establishment (i.e. Taco Bell).  After the tasting ends, these videos will sometimes include a reflective interview lasting about a minute asking whether or not the interviewees liked the foods or will eat them again.  Most of the time, after the video ends, the production company will include a brief slide regarding credits and promoting other videos the company puts out.

These videos serve many purposes, but they primarily function in the realm of entertainment.  Sampling videos are often humorous and lighthearted in tone.  Food tasting videos also ultimately serve as a type of food critique, placing them into the larger category of reviews.  In the case of digital media giants like Buzzfeed, these videos also serve to promote their company in its other endeavors by encouraging viewers to visit their website or watch their other videos about different subjects.  All of the distributors on YouTube who produce this type of content use it to promote their social media following by urging their viewers to subscribe to their channels so that they may receive notifications about when new content is posted.   

For my genre analysis, I will be focusing on the “Mexican People Try Taco Bell for the First Time” video produced by Buzzfeed, the “American Kids Try Tea from Around the World” video produced by WatchCut Video, and the “Irish People Try Surströmming (World’s Smelliest Food)” video produced by Facts.  I chose these three videos because they all have tasters from different regions, backgrounds and ages.  Each of these three videos are about a different section of food cuisine: one for a specific restaurant, one regarding how a food varies culture-to-culture, and one focusing on a single food with a notorious reputation.  These shorts have very different contexts, but they all ultimately fall into the genre of food sampling videos.

“You can always generate great conversation around food, and perhaps more understanding about different cultures and heritages while at it. Everyone has something different to share, so why make the same thing, the same way, each and every year?” – Cathy Erway

Erway, Cathy. “Curried Sweet Potato Dumplings.” Not Eating Out in New York. N.p., 26 Nov. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

For my mentor text, I chose a blog post, written by Cathy Erway, from the blog Not Eating Out In New York. This blog features recipes and articles for those who are trying to save money by cooking good food at home instead of eating out at restaurants (remind you of Leanne Brown much?). For this specific blog post, Cathy tells us how to make curried sweet potato dumplings as a Thanksgiving side dish. As with most other web-based blog posts, Cathy prefaces the steps and “how-tos” of the recipe with some background of what makes this recipe so special. With this, she answers the so what? who cares? we discussed the other day in class when talking about rhetorical situations. Although she was born and raised in America, she comes from an Asian background and is a vegetarian. So, when it comes time for Thanksgiving, she’s not that inclined to cooking the traditional turkey with cranberry sauce recipe. She discusses her family’s tradition of doing an Asian infused meal the night before Thanksgiving and then also celebrating the American holiday the night after with the rest of the country.

With this in mind, she presents a combination of elements from those two meals: curried sweet potato dumplings. Part Thanksgiving (sweet potatoes) and Part Asian/vegetarian infused (dumplings). This dish serves to not only incorporate some of her Asian cultural background, but also to mix it up and get creative with cooking a side dish that time of year. And what better way than to incorporate sweet potatoes, a seasonal vegetable that is often the epitome of the side dishes in a Thanksgiving feast (other than stuffing, of course). Another part of this blog post that speaks to a wider audience that may not abide by her same exact dietary protocol and/or have the same ethnic background. She is able to relate her experience with Asian cuisine to others with similar relationships to other cuisines that may be more important to them. In this way, she speaks to not just Asian-Americans, but to people of all backgrounds and cultural experiences that may be looking to get creative on during that time of the year.

Lastly, she paints the picture of making dumplings in the kitchen together with family, since Thanksgiving is traditionally thought of as a family gathering. In this way, she makes cooking this dish with family seem easy to imagine and fun to do. This recipe serves as a mentor text for me when determining which genre to choose because she is able to give such personality and incorporate story telling into a recipe.

Genre: Dramatic Short Story

Chopin, Kate. “The Story of An Hour.” Vogue (1894): n. pag. Print.

                              When asked to discover a mentor text that we would like to emulate, It took me a while to think of one. There seems to be a lack of dramatic short stories about food out there in the world, and I decided to choose this style of writing as my mentor text. I wanted to focus on Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour;” a piece of literature that we studied, analyzed and critiqued in my previous English class.

                              This story displays the emotional roller coaster that Louise Mallard suffers after hearing about the death of her husband, Brently, who was believed to be dead after a railroad disaster. Mrs. Mallard has heart problems; so, her sister and friend deliver the devastating news try their best to deliver the news to her. After hearing this she runs and locks herself in her room to mourn her loss. However after a while she begins to consider her life outside of being married, she believes her “[b]ody and soul [are] free!” Sadly when she hears her husband enter the house, she suffers a heart attack, Brently flies up the staircase to see the body of Louise lying on the ground.

                              The structure Chopin has chosen for “The Story of an Hour” is a series of short paragraphs, many of which consist of just two or three sentences. The dense structure mirrors the intense hour Louise spends contemplating her new found independence. This story can be read quickly, making the impact so much more dramatic. Due to the fact that a short story leaves no room for background information, flashbacks, or excessive speculation, Chopin succeeds in making every sentence important by employing an almost poetic writing style. She uses repetition to highlight important points, also repeating phrases and sentence structures to highlight important points. Chopin makes the prose of the story beautiful by using alliteration and internal rhymes using stylistic and structural techniques making this very short story powerful.

                            I would like to mimic Chopin’s stylistic writing in my short story, I would like to make my short story about food powerful, and creates a mental impact to the reader. Using a slightly poetic tone with my writing, I enjoy the way she flows from thought to thought fluidly. Stories like this are uncommon, and I wanting to emulate this style of writing for myself, noting that my writing is more concise. Using my concise writing style and making it more complex and fluid.

“The Teen Chef is Proof Kids Should Stay Out of the Kitchen” Steve Cuozzo

This mentor text is a rather critical review aimed particularly at a chef, whom Cuozzo argues, is in turn the restaurant itself. This text has positive and negative aspects too it. While it does a good job in articulating why his experience was poor and what needed to be approved upon, Cuozzo comes off as very condescending towards the young chef. Having this ageism weaving through his review makes him seem highly biased from the very beginning, titling his review “The teen chef is proof kids should stay out of the kitchen”. However, considered the location and pricing of this restaurant, one could argue that Cuozzo’s intended audience, a group of wealthy and exclusivity-driven adult, would agree with his bias. They want a highly knowledgeable chef that can be seen through his talent and through his years.

This text functions as a good example of a review because it shows that a bias can actually work for you if your intended audience has a similar viewpoint. It also demonstrated ways in which the reviewee can improve upon his craft, rather than just complaining about everything.

Cuozzo, Steve. “This Teen Chef Is Proof Kids Should Stay out of the Kitchen.” New York Post. N.p., 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Where should we go for lunch today? There are so many great restaurants in Austin; sometimes it is hard for me to pick where to eat. When this dilemma occurs, restaurant reviews always save the day. The synthesis of opinion and fact given through the writer’s experience helps me delve into their experience and see whether the restaurant is a good fit for me or not.

My mentor text is a review of a restaurant in NYC called Hart’s. The article is written by Bryan Kim and I found it through a website called “The Infatuation”. Kim’s review gives an overall rating to the Hart’s and gives a rundown of the recommended dishes, which consists of a one-sentence description and an intriguing picture of the dish. The text pulls the audience in by starting with a compelling hypothetical situation that creatively helps the reader understand the interworking of the restaurant more clearly. The author, Bryan Kim, is a prolific food reviewer for “The Infatuation” and the audience he is targeting is the trendy, young New Yorker. His intended purpose is to give his targeted audience a new place to try next time they are eating out with friends. This text’s function is to bring to attention a restaurant that might go under the radar otherwise so that people can know what type of food they serve, what the atmosphere is like and when and with whom is it best to go to this place. This text is a great mentor text for me because the intended audience and the purpose are very similar (though I’ll be targeting the Austinite and not the New Yorker). I would also like to emulate aspects of Kim’s format (the length and concision) and many of the tools he used (the overall rating, recommended dishes, description of atmosphere).

This text is a great example of a restaurant review because it helps the reader delve into the environment for a brief moment in order for them to decide whether that is somewhere they would like to eat.

Kim, Bryan. “Hart’s – Bedford-Stuyvesant – New York.” The Infatuation. The Infatuation, 16 Mar. 2017. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

For my mentor text, I chose a Spoon University article that falls under the genre of “best of” or “top ten” articles – specifically for the online media format. This specific article is titled “9 Restaurants You Have to Eat at During SXSW in Austin” and is typical of other such online list-articles found on sites, such as Spoon University and Buzzfeed. For example, unlike usual, wordy articles, list-articles are more interspersed with pictures for each list item, followed by a short description, anywhere from one sentence to a short paragraph. For each item, the text also includes other relevant, helpful information, such as hyperlinks, locations, hours, etc. It’s also important to note that these types of lists are usually in one, scrollable page, rather than an encumbersome slideshow that a reader is forced to click through. These types of articles are widely ready by millenials, but also enjoyed by some of the older population. Besides a short introduction, there is not much else; usually, even the number of listed items are short. However, sometimes less is more, and today’s millennials certainly seem to agree. This is exactly why these types of texts are so relevant in today’s world…

Today is different from ever before. We are living in the digital, modern age, where everything is faster, and yet, it seems like we have less time to do everything that we want to do. That is why people nowadays sometimes prefer information that is concise, to the point, and easy to comprehend (thus, the need for pictures). Also, due to information overload, it is often better to present readers of these texts with carefully curated, short lists rather than comprehensive, winding lists. Today, this is how a lot of people get their information, especially for what is seemingly more “trivial” information, such as food, and some even use this format to get their news.

I believe that this text should serve as a mentor for my own writing because it has all of the elements of a successful list-article, especially for a Spoon Texas article, that would capture the attention of UT students, and I, as a member of Spoon Texas, hope to write a series of texts in this genre. It has eye-catching photographs that link to social media accounts, which is very savvy with our social-media-crazed world. Also, the article has consistent formatting. Also, it is written by a community member of Spoon University. This is significant because a lot of these types of articles are written by online community members, as commonly seen in Buzzfeed. Finally, her writing style is impecabble for these types of texts; it’s concise, yet attention-getting and relatable. For example, with lines, such as “…AND [Italic is] open late on Friday and Saturday. Skip the food truck pizza and get Italic after a night of drinking instead”, the author clearly both engages with and understands her audience – which happens to be UT college students, who all can relate to a late night on Sixth.

Dieterich, Elizabeth. “9 Restaurants You Have to Eat at During SXSW 2017.” Spoon University. Spoon University, 12 Mar. 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. <http://spoonuniversity.com/place/9-restaurants-you-have-to-eat-at-during-sxsw-in-austin>.

The mentor text that I chose is a restaurant review of a local sushi restaurant, Uchiko.  I chose this text because I am very passionate about sushi and I love Uchiko (if only I could afford going there on my own).  I also think that I am interested in food reviews because I enjoy trying new restaurants and finding the best food in Austin.  This review, written by Kate Thornberry and published in the Austin Chronicle, does a great job of explaining not only the food that Uchiko has to offer, but the culture behind it as well.  The author begins by explaining that Uchiko is the sister restaurant of Uchi, another Austin sushi restaurant started by the same chef, Tyson Cole.  The author then gives some background behind Cole and his cooking philosophies, before delving into a very detailed description of some of the best items that Uchiko has to offer.  What is really interesting is the way that the author included quotes from the head chef Cole gave really in depth insight into the cultural context of the restaurant.  The reader can tell that chef Cole likes to make generosity a top priority, which I can say is very true after having eaten at his restaurants a handful of times.  The author does a great job of describing these values and their relation to the restaurant itself.  This text represents a good example of the food review genre because it gives a fair look into a new restaurant and analyzes the restaurant with more than just the menu in mind.

Sharma, C. P. “Food.” PoemHunter.com. C.P. Sharma, 31 Jan. 2009. Web. 22 Mar. 2017. <https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/food-16/>.

I chose the poem “Food” by C.P. Sharma for my mentor text because of its simplistic and clear poetry pattern. Using a simple pattern of a single couplet per stanza, Sharma is able to express all different important aspects of food. From its natural production on planet Earth, to the way it fuels our bodies to allow us to thrive. The way Sharma describes food is not mundane or systematic, but instead is very fluid and gentle in nature. Her couplets each provide unique and exclusive aspects of the importance of food, of sustenance, and nature as a whole. She connects the way that the Earth produces food and the way that living beings consume it in a symmetrical fashion, showing us the natural connectivity between nature and living beings. Her purpose of the poem is to express a deep seeded appreciation not only for Earth and its plentiful gifts of food, but also to our own selves to be able to utilize these gifts in such an incredible fashion. She is able to get this message across most effectively through poetry because of her utilization of couplets as stanzas: while her points are individually quite simple, they are glorified and individualized with a separate stanza for each one.

This text serves as an excellent mentor text because of its simplistic and aesthetically pleasing form. With its simple rhyme scheme of AA, BB, CC, etc, Sharma provides us with many interlocking ideas combined in a fashion that anybody could attempt to copy. While other poems may be able to portray more complex messages through advanced rhyme schemes, the effectiveness of this poem as a mentor text comes from its ability to give beautiful and insightful points about nature and food in an easily followed fashion. Mentor texts are texts that define the genre well and yet are simple enough to look at as a base for learning and understanding the genre, which is exactly what I feel that Sharma has created with “Food”.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasminnahar/the-hardest-game-of-which-food-must-go-for-meat-lovers?utm_term=.gf3QXKpgl#.xgLKzwNkQ

This food quiz, published on BuzzFeed.com, is just one example of the many types of quizzes available on the website having to do with food. I chose to use this type as my mentor because I like seeing how my opinions compare to those who have also taken the quiz. After you choose which option must go, your least favorite, it immediately comes up the % of others who have chosen that as well. I chose this specific quiz because of it’s clear pictures, variety of ethnic meat choices, and because the theme of meat is broad enough to be consistent and not too short.

The author, Jasmin Nahar, is a junior staff write for BuzzFeed located in the UK.

Although this genre isn’t something we have covered in class, Tasty BuzzFeed videos have come up a lot, so I thought this genre is another relevant popular genre in our modern culture similar to those.

Nahar, Jasmin. “Which Food Must Go: The Meat Edition.” BuzzFeed. N.p., 24 Nov. 2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.