Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Bench.
Hi Tara, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a food stylist and food blogger and work out of both NY and UT. I started my career in food as a magazine food editor at top NY magazines. I now run my own business and blog and love what I do! I grew up cooking with my mom and loved it. I was always trailing her in the kitchen and she’d give me tasks and recipes to follow.
When I was deciding what to study in school, my parents were wise enough to encourage me to study something I loved. I went into Food Science but soon realized there was no cooking involved and switched majors to Culinary Arts at Utah State University. To complete my degree I needed an internship and I called every food magazine in the country to see if I could intern in their test kitchen! Only Martha Stewart Living magazine invited me for an interview. I flew to NYC and cooked for the test kitchen director and from there she hired me as the summer intern!
I moved to NY and interned for 5 months before I was hired as a contractor, then as a full-time food editor. I learned everything about being a food editor while working at Martha Stewart. It was my first job out of college. I learned how to develop a recipe, how to test recipes, how to write a recipe, food style for photography, how to create concepts for stories on food topics, think about what those stories would look like on the pages, and how to share my expertise with others. I honed my skills in copy editing, I learned art direction and the importance of propping a tabletop scene from watching the designers and prop stylists. I was at Martha Stewart for 6 years before I left to be a full-time food stylist.
After a few years on my own, I was hired as the Food and Entertaining Director at Ladies’ Home Journal magazine. I was there for 7 years before starting my own business Tara Teaspoon Inc. I loved working at a magazine with an amazing legacy. LHJ was one of the first women’s service magazines in the country and flipping through the pages of those turn-of-the-century issues was fascinating. There are obvious and huge changes in the way we cook and eat from decade to decade. Even in the time I have been in the food publishing industry, I can see both innovative and regressive changes.
Can you imagine being around when people started cooking with small appliances, like a toaster, a blender, let alone a microwave? Then, over time there was a desire to relearn to cook from scratch and use traditional cooking methods. We are a bit all over the place right now, with the insurgence of new machines like Instant Pots and Air Fryers, then whole foods trends and unrefined food. What I love is that there is always innovation, and new perspectives on health, wellness, enjoyment, and convenience.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have started at the bottom and worked my way up several times in my career. From intern to senior food editor at Martha Stewart wasn’t easy. The atmosphere was political and competitive and less than pleasant. However, I learned a lot and gained amazing experiences.
When I started my own business, I started from scratch. I’ve had to learn how to run and maintain all aspects of a small business, as well as switch my skills from print publishing to web. There have been a lot of courses, learning curves, and long hours of fixing mistakes to build my little business.
Having come from the world of publishing I thought it would be easy to write my own cookbook. It was so much harder than I thought it would be! I had to set aside a lot of business opportunities, invest more time and money than I thought, and work in a way that was new to me to publish my cookbook: Live Life Deliciously. It is my pride and joy and I’d love everyone to have my cookbook in their homes!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in creating food content. That’s a broad term, that means I can create recipes, beautiful images or videos of those recipes, and editorial content plans for websites, cookbooks, magazine articles, or marketing. I run my own recipe website called TaraTeaspoon.com that is a wonderful world of easy recipes for dinner, families, entertaining, or special occasions. The other part of my job is working with big food brands to create food content for their websites or marketing firms.
I take on several clients a year and help them share their brand in unique and accessible ways. I’m so very proud of the wonderful recipes I’ve created over the years of my career. Many that have been published have been copied by other bloggers and companies and shared as their own, but it’s fun to know I was the first to create the idea and publish it in a magazine.
In my industry, what sets me apart from others is that I don’t specialize in one thing. I can create food content for special diets, all different kinds of food items and brands, I can do specialized baking and cake decorating, or easy family-meal recipes. My clients and blog followers come to me for that variety and expertise. The recipes on my blog are free!
I encourage everyone to come and visit the blog and click around a while. Just by clicking and rating my recipes, you are supporting my business! Share my site with others and find your favorite recipes to share. My passion is sharing food with others and I want my blog readers to do the same!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being openminded. I try to be open-minded in my business and professional life and have found that has given me many great opportunities. Sometimes it may take me a while to get to a place of being open-minded! For instance, I resisted starting my own blog for a long time because I was unfamiliar with everything web-based.
As soon as I was open to it, I was able to move forward and learn what I needed to. Being open-minded allows me to work with clients and deliver what they need for their company, rather than just sticking to what I like or feel is best. This characteristic allows me to get repeat business and opens doors to opportunities I never would have seen.
Contact Info:
- Website: tarateaspoon.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarateaspoon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tarateaspooninc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/tarateaspoonofficial
Image Credits
Ty Mecham
