An Interview with Bre Graham, founder of Dishes to Delight

© Bre Graham

© Zena Kay

What made you want to be a writer?

I was a book-obsessed kid and always wanted to be a writer when I grew up. After winning a national short story prize back in Australia when I was in high school, I met other writers and saw how I could shape a career in this industry. I have always balanced being a writer with editing and commercial brand work. I was an editor on a print magazine for two years, worked in-house copywriter at creative agencies, and produced freelance content everywhere from Stylist to Agent Provocateur.

How did (and does) the global pandemic affect your work? Has it changed your career in any way?

It’s been such an interesting time as over the last two and half years I’ve focused my work on food and travel and pre-pandemic I was overseas a lot of the time writing for travel magazines but that all stopped early 2020. I’ve spent the pandemic working solely on content and strategy for food brands, growing Dishes To Delight, and working on my first book.

How do you build brands?

One of the most exciting projects of lockdown that I got to work on was creating and launching a brand called Good Canteen in collaboration with the wholesaler Wholegood. It was building everything up from scratch using the huge range of products in their warehouse. The concept was gorgeously curated snack boxes to make people stop and take a break during their long work-from-home days during the lockdown. I developed a range of scented candles to mirror the mood of each box and got to commission an incredible designer, Hannah Lee to create the brand's look and feel across the product range. Building brands for me begins with the product's purpose, we wanted customers to feel like this was a box of special things that would soothe them and make them see taking a snack break as a key part of their self-care during a working week so that informed the entire process and led to interesting product development along the way.

Tell us about how you write for food? How do taste, touch, and smell all impact brand perception?

Food is all about feeling so when I’m working on anything whether it’s one of my own recipes, product copy for a punnet of tomatoes, or taglines for a new brand I want to encapsulate how it will make you feel when experiencing it. Every approach is tailored to the audience and I think education in a lot of food writing is key, telling people why the taste is different to another product or how the growing conditions or time in the oven for a pie will impact the final result brings a lot of interest to the writing.

Tell us about Dishes to Delight

I wanted to build a platform for my recipes and food writing that was a space for the work I wasn't pitching to magazines. So, I started working on building Dishes To Delight, a website that would be a hub for that writing at the end of 2019, and launched it in February 2020. Little did I know how important not just food would become, but that project in the months ahead. It was a real lifeline to me during that first lockdown and watching people cook from it has been the greatest joy. It’s led to collaborations with fashion brands like Nanushaka and Onloan as well as video content for Papier. At Christmas last year I wrote the Cooking For Christmas zine to raise money for Refuge which was followed up by Cooking For Picnics this year. Being able to raise thousands of pounds through these recipe zines is such a thrill and seeing them on bookshelves around the world is a real pinch-me moment.

Tell us about your newsletter, Just To Delight

The thing that made me happiest about working on Dishes To Delight was seeing this community grow around the shared pleasure of cooking. Talking to people around the world and connecting over a recipe was really special so I wanted to launch something else that would make that conversation more regular. In January of 2021, I created Just To Delight, a weekly Sunday night newsletter that features a mini-essay from me, an original recipe, something good to read, and a week’s worth of menu ideas from my favorite cooks. There are now thousands of readers each week and getting to reach people in rural Australia, Romania, and India all at the same time is extraordinary. It’s a lot of work as each edition features all original photography by me, a new recipe, and quite a lot of writing but getting emails back from readers telling me how cooking from it or reading it made them feel better makes it worth it.

Illustration features a lot in your work. How do you find the right ones?

I’m a super visual thinker and adore being able to commission artists and illustrators for Dishes To Delight. I first commissioned Zena Kay when I launched the platform and then a few months later Zena and Tess founded Still Here, Still Life which I love to use to find new talent. That’s how I found Angelo Dolojan, a Chicago-based illustrator who I’m working with at the moment. It’s a collaborative process and I think when someone’s work really speaks to you it’s so special. The City Series I commissioned from Angelo is one of the most incredible things I’ve worked on and means a lot to me especially feeling so far from home right now.

How do you prioritise?

It’s a really busy time right now, as things are getting back to normal I’m doing a lot of events. I just did a supper club with wine writer Hannah Crosbie called Three Hands at Laylow in Notting Hill and have more events on the horizon. I prioritise the things that give me the most pleasure, I love cooking for people and I love to sit alone and write. So events, the newsletter, and a new are keeping me busy.

© Zena Kay

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