Everyone has a "little glutton" living in his stomach, eager to eat, and he can't help but crawl out when he sees delicious food. The purpose of food copywriting is to draw out the "little glutton" and stimulate appetite, and even make you drool just by reading the text.

As a foodie, I have watched many food documentaries before, such as "The Flavor of the World", "A String of Life", "A Bite of China I II III", "Taste of China"...

While appreciating each delicacy, I will pay special attention to how they describe the food. Why would an ordinary delicacy be described so appetizingly? Later, I read a lot of food articles and summarized the two major copywriting methods for writing about food. Next, I will tell you in detail in the article how to write about food in a way that makes people salivate.

1. Describe the details of "food" in depth

The description of details is an important way to create a picture of the copywriting. The more detailed the description of things, the more interesting it will be. People are convinced. The more vivid the details, the more flexible the text, and readers can construct their own imagination in their minds based on the description. "Details" in food can be described from two aspects: "senses" and "scenes". Describe in detail the sensory stimulation that food brings to people

Starting from the senses, describe in detail the visual, taste, smell, hearing, and tactile experiences that food brings to people. In the documentary "A String of Life", there is such a description of "gnawing on sheep's hooves":

When chewing on sheep's hooves, you'd better give up your reserve and become a pure person who is overwhelmed by hunger. . The taste of the skin, the elasticity of the tendons, the roasted aroma, and the sweet aftertaste of the marinade. It will make you forget the whole world, and all you can see is a big bone-like tendon, spinning and jumping, forcing you to tear it off in one bite and chew it hard. Then drink a whole glass of cold beer, "burp~comfortable", and only with a bare bone left can you finally feel as calm as water.

This passage fully provides a "sensory description". We can see in our minds the "big tendons with bones", smell the "roasted aroma", and chew the "elasticity of the tendons". . In short, when reading this passage, I can picture the image of "chewing on sheep's hooves" in my mind, and I can even swallow my saliva uncontrollably. I immediately want to rush out, go to the barbecue stall, order some roasted lamb hooves and eat them.

The description of sensory details should be as meticulous as possible, and the "delicious, good-looking, good-smelling" description of the food should be vividly described to attract readers to taste it.

For example, when describing "fried dumplings", it only says that "the outer skin is crispy and brown, the filling is moderately salty, and a little spicy, and it is delicious." It is far from "after the soup penetrates into the skin, it is moderately delicious." The brown color really makes the taste more fragrant. The filling is so soft that it seems to melt away. Every time you chew, your mouth is filled with fresh juice. The slightly numb and spicy flavor makes people want to eat it.

With the following comparative description of “senses”, you can immediately feel the difference.

Take the “oranges” sold in Moments as an example:

Visual: Thin skin, juicy, delicate flesh VS If you open an orange, you will see that the flesh is very full and there are many cysts The outer membrane of the pulp has been stretched open, revealing small orange beads. Taste: sweet and refreshing, rich in vitamin C VS. You can taste the sweetness and refreshing as soon as you put it in your mouth. After eating a few, your lips and teeth are not dry, your throat is moisturized, and your throat is no longer dry and itchy. Smell: The fresh aroma of oranges spreads in the air. VS closed his eyes and asked. The aroma of oranges penetrated his nose, and the air was filled with fresh smells. What about, does the detailed description in the following have a more "picture sense"? Using such copywriting to sell oranges in the circle of friends can double the sales.

What needs to be noted is: when describing "sensory" details, one must be good at using "verbs" to present sensory experiences, rather than abusing a bunch of gorgeous adjectives.

The above copywriting of "gnawing at sheep's hooves" makes full use of verbs, such as: tear it off in one bite and chew it hard. Verbs such as "tear, chew" can give readers a sense of immersion, as if they are having such an experience. Describe the scene in detail and bring readers into the atmosphere of "enjoying delicious food".

There is a passage in the public account "Food Station" recommending a "salted duck egg": Sea duck eggs taste tender with tender egg yolks and sandy yolks.

When eating, lightly crack one side of the sea duck egg. After opening a mouth the size of a spoon, you can scoop it out and eat it.

The spoon rests against the edge of the eggshell and rotates smoothly. After scooping out the egg yolk, the red oil will flow down the eggshell, not to mention adding more rice.

This is a typical example of setting the scene for the reader and telling him how to eat. And it pays great attention to the details of the characterization, which makes people feel that eating an ordinary salted duck egg can have such a "ceremonial feeling", creating a feeling of "I want to try it too".

In advertisements, we can also see examples of certain products using "unique ways to eat" as their selling point:

There are many ways to "set the scene", for example, you can talk about The combination of food; when is the best time to eat; where to eat to create more atmosphere; even the selection and preparation of ingredients for a delicacy can create an atmosphere of eagerness for readers to enjoy the food.

Let’s take the case of “salted duck eggs” again and see what “food pairing” says: Adding salted egg yolks to dishes is also a good way to enrich the taste of the dishes.

Crush the egg yolks and fry them and drizzle okra over them; or grind the egg yolks and egg whites together and use them to stir-fry overnight rice. The color is yellow and white, which is very beautiful and more delicious than ordinary egg fried rice.

Salted egg yolk and shrimp are also a great combination. Heat oil in a pan, fry the shrimp until cooked, set aside. Add the crushed egg yolks into the shrimp oil from the fried shrimps and stir-fry slowly until fragrant. Finally, add the fried shrimps and stir-fry, the whole kitchen will be filled with fragrance.

Sea duck eggs can be eaten directly as a snack during leisure time. They are deliciously fresh and have just the right saltiness.

To sum up, when we write about food, we can describe the details of the food in depth from the two aspects of "sensory" and "scene", so that the written words can be realistic and fascinating. It will also mobilize readers to "eat, eat, eat".

2. Use various expression techniques to describe food

If you want to write about food, "expression techniques" are essential. Here are some commonly used "expression techniques"!

1. Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia is a rhetorical method created by the famous scholar Qian Zhongshu. It is also called "transaesthesia". When describing objective things, it uses People's different senses such as hearing, vision, smell, taste, touch, etc. communicate, intersect, and shift with each other. Words that originally express feeling A are used to express feeling B, which is a rhetoric that makes the image more lively and novel.

In synaesthesia, colors can have temperature, sounds can have images, cold and warm can have weight... Human hearing, vision, smell, taste, touch and other different senses are intertwined, let's experience this colorfulness together Colorful world.

When using "synaesthesia" to describe food, such as writing about taste, you can use visual thinking to write. Because when the concept of words can produce a clear visual image in the mind, it is most likely to make a deep impression.

The following title is a typical example of using "visual thinking" to describe "taste":

"Magical Nougat Scallion Rice Cake, 54 layers in one bite 》——Food Channel "How to eat 9 roses and 15 jasmines in one bite?" 》——Food Station: Do you feel that you use "synaesthesia" to write about food? The text immediately becomes interesting and flexible!

2. Analogy

The expression technique of "analogy" is to "translate" unknown things with familiar things, turning abstraction into concreteness.

For example: when describing the sweetness of lychee, you can say: it is 2 degrees sweeter than sugar cane. This kind of analogy can allow readers to better understand the characteristics of food. When using "analogy", you need to find a reference, that is, use something the other party already knows well to explain or relate new things, so that it will be much easier to understand.

For example, many people don’t know what kind of fruit “grapefruit” is. At this time, if you are a fruit vendor “selling grapefruit”, how should you describe it? At this time, you can use "analogy", and the copy is as follows: Grapefruit is roughly a small pomelo, shaped like a grape, with a thin and soft skin like a citrus. This description is equivalent to bundling your known concepts (grapefruit, grape, citrus), evoking the image of grapefruit in people's minds, and then transforming the grapefruit into a smaller grape, with a skin as thin and soft as a citrus. Using analogies, readers can quickly understand the characteristics of food and evaluate its value.

3. Personification

"Food" also has characteristics like people. At this time, using the rhetorical technique of "personification" can make the food much more cute. For example: describing "Xue Mei Niang" as harmless to humans and animals, white, plump and cute, but I also have a "exploding heart!"

Another example: describing "Red Date" as a person who is nourished by the soil and water, and who was born ordinary, to give an example He is a proud person who wears a red dress and carries a treasure. Eating it warms the stomach and nourishes the heart, and when you bite it, you will get a satisfying crunch.

It seems that "food" is like a human being. Soul, backbone, character~

4. Metaphors

Using "metaphors" when describing food will make readers' feelings more intuitive. For example:

< p>The apples on the tree are as big and red as lanterns. The braised pork cooked by my mother is so delicious! Can you smell the fragrance? "Candy"!

When using metaphors, you should pay attention to the fact that the ontology and the metaphor should be different things, and there should be absolute similarities between the two.

To sum up , focusing on the four expression techniques of "synaesthesia, analogy, personification, and contrast". In addition, you can also use contrast, parallelism and other techniques. The more techniques, the better. As long as people feel "delicious", it is a success.

Finally, knock on the blackboard: When writing about food, if you want to make people "appetite", you can write from the following two aspects:

Describe the details in depth:

Yes From the two aspects of "senses" and "scenes", describe the details of food in depth.

Describe in detail the sensory stimulation that food brings to people: vision, taste, smell, hearing, and touch. Describe the scene in detail. Readers are brought into the atmosphere of "enjoying food": how to eat food and its combinations; when is the best time to eat; where to eat to create a more atmospheric atmosphere; and even the selection and preparation of ingredients for a delicacy.

Use various expression techniques to describe food:

Use four expression techniques of "synaesthesia, analogy, personification, and contrast". In addition, you can also use rhetorical techniques such as contrast and parallelism.

The above techniques for writing food copywriting are not difficult, but if you want to write something that makes people salivate and move their index fingers, the most important way is that the copywriter himself is full of love for food. This love is the biggest source of creation. , just like the copywriting in the kitchen: only food and love cannot be let down.