Delivered by STACK March, 2010: Fire & Knives
The place where serious food writing and beautiful graphic design meet, Fire & Knives is a new food magazine made by London-based writer and editor Tim Hayward. Big name contributors like Matthew Fort and Tom Parker Bowles will be familiar from the Sunday supplements, but in Fire & Knives they get to write about the aspects of food that fascinates them. Combining food with film, architecture, history, literature and much more, it’s an eclectic and impassioned exploration of British food culture.
The Stack interview
Name
Tim Hayward
Job title
Food writer and editor of Fire & Knives
What is Fire and Knives?
I could say that F&K was a brand because we have some ambitions for the name outside of the magazine world.
I could say that F&K naturally facilitates a coming together of foodwriters who can’t find a home for their best work with readers desperate for something stimulating.
I could say F&K is a desperate last bastion of quality food writing in an environment of ‘lifestyle’ pap.
Or I could stop being so pretentious and just say it’s a nice little magazine about food that looks lovely and doesn’t make any money
What makes it different to the rest?
The biggest difference is that it doesn’t get involved with advertisers, celebrity chefs or restaurant reviewing.
Who makes Fire and Knives?
Me, a couple of freelance subs and Present Joys, which is Cathy Olmedillas (Anorak and Sleaze Nation) and the utterly genius Rob Lowe.
Who reads it?
Literate food lovers
Why do you work in magazines?
Partly because I write and take pictures and I’m enough of an old Trot to want to annex the means of production. Partly because new technologies and ways of working are making it easier to get involved and the big boys seem not to ‘get it’ and are consequently bleeding out.
Aside from the print magazine, what else are you involved in?
I write for mainstream newspapers and food mags, do a bunch of online stuff and have recenty started doing TV and radio work.
What would you change about Fire and Knives if you could?
I’d pay the writers. Actually, not just that, I’d pay the writers eight times the going rate.
Can you pick a favourite issue of Fire and Knives?
The next one.
Where do you see Fire and Knives in five years?
Still very much in print though by that point I imagine that sorting out micropayment will mean we’re also available on your iPad or similar tech. F&K will also be working with its writers on projects in other media but the magazine will still be at the heart of it – a kind of nexus for quality food writing. Also, let’s face it, Rob’s logo is so damn good, I reckon it’ll be on everything.
Tags: Fire & Knives, Tim Hayward
