- How are you exploring your essential question; is it different from what you expected? If you don’t feel like you’re answering your essential question, what is happening that’s different from what you expected?
For the first two interviews, I expected the interviewees to have recipes with them that I could ask them questions about. Instead, we started talking about what makes food “Jewish” and does it really matter where a food comes from.
- Are you surprised by any of the challenges that you’ve faced so far? How have you met those challenges and what can you do going forward to deal with them?
The most surprising challenge was that a millennial did not know how to work zoom, as opposed to the 70 year old guy I had to interview, who worked zoom perfectly.
- Writing on your essential question: What have you learned about your essential question so far? What further questions do you have? and/or Has your essential question changed? If so, how? What do you want to know more about?
My essential question will not always cover recipe’s and dishes, but will also cover deep, philosophical conversations about food in general. I don’t know how helpful those conversations are without a recipe, but it can’t hurt to try and work it into the book.