Richmond’s official food blogger ready to dig in — and dine out
Creativity, daring and a passion for food land Lindsay Anderson a plum job eating and writing about it
“I can do this!” That’s the motto that prodded Lindsay Anderson into applying for a job that was at once terrifying and tantalizing.
Meet the new official food blogger for Tourism Richmond. Anderson is to be paid $ 50,000 to eat out every day for one year and blog about it, it was announced Tuesday.
Dream job? She thought so, as did 1,507 other applicants who competed for the plum post.
Anderson’s cheery voice over the phone imparts her can- do energy. The 27- year- old is outgoing and nimbly handles interviews.
“When I saw the job posting, I figured whoever gets the job needs to do something out of the ordinary and demonstrate creativity and be able to use various forms of media,” she says. In her audition tape ( not required), friends hold up handwritten signs, à la Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues, with information about Anderson. Meanwhile, Anderson is making a coconut lemon cake in the background. By video’s end, she and her friends plunge into the cake with
their hands in a feeding frenzy. The 45- minute taping is time- lapsed into three minutes.
She had also sent out a social media call for people to vote for her in the public participation portion of the competition and to send photos of themselves with their name and where they’re from.
Here’s Tourism Richmond’s tally for Anderson: 277 fan photos from 131 cities, 29 countries and six continents. She received 3,366 votes, about 1,000 more than her closest competitor.
Another “I can do this” leap of faith was taking a job as a cook when she was 21 at a tree- planting camp in northern B. C.
“I was absolutely terrified feeding these tall hungry men. It was one of the best jobs and by far, the most difficult. If something went wrong, the oven or stove didn’t work, it was, okay, how shall we fix it?”
The job was a lesson in the emotional value of food. “I saw what it meant to people to have a good meal at the end of the day and how it makes life better.”
Tourism Richmond might also have been impressed with Anderson’s New Year’s resolution when she was 22.
“I decided I would do things that scared me for a year. It changed my life. I took a trip to South Africa by myself. I donated blood because I was afraid of needles. I did a bungee jump because I was afraid of heights. It kind of made me decide that fear wasn’t going to stop me,” she says. “It’s really stressful for my mom.”
Anderson’s been in rehearsal for this job all her life, cooking since she was a
kid. Asked if there was a mentor in her family, she says there wasn’t.
“That’s what’s funny. My parents say they don’t know where I came from. My mom cooked to feed the family but she was a working mom. My father was completely uninterested in food. I had grandparents who loved overcooked roast beef.”
While studying art history at the University of Victoria, she realized her life had been all about food. “I realized there are careers for people in food without having to be a chef,” she says. She heard about the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy and completed a master’s in Food Culture and Communications there recently.
“I’ve had kids’ cookbooks since I was really little,” she says of her fascination with food. “When I was eight, I wanted to reinvent the peanut butter and jam sandwich and made a peanut butter and Cheese Whiz sandwich. It was horrible but I forced myself to eat the whole thing. I was raised by Prairie folk — waste not, want not.”
“Being single was one of the things I pitched. It would be easy for me to move — I’m a professional vagabond.”
Her friends will be the benefactors of her 365 days of paid- for meals in the Asian food mecca of Richmond. She
understands Italian and French food more than Asian food but is game to try anything on the menu. Congealed blood? Check. Fish eyeballs? Sure. Chicken feet? She’s already tried it.
As for the caloric consequences of 365 restaurant meals in a year, like a foodie trooper, she’s not concerned. “I’m a pretty active person. Pacing myself and being active will be important. Just because you eat out and enjoy food doesn’t mean you have to be a glutton.”
But, she says, she’ll take advantage of the free gym membership at Richmond’s Olympic oval. “I want to try the climbing wall and try as many different exercises as possible. I used to be a dancer, so I’ll dance. If I keep up with my exercising, I’ll be fine. I spent a year in Italy and ate full- time. I came back in better shape and thinner than in a decade.”
Meanwhile, Tourism Richmond says to stay tuned. “If your favourite blogger wasn’t selected, don’t despair — you might see them again throughout the course of the 365 Days of Dining campaign.” SEE VIDEO WITH THIS STORY AT VANCOUVERSUN. COM