Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeanne Fratello
Hi Jeanne, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started out as a reporter, covering public policy issues, but I have always loved food and writing about food. I had a great opportunity to do some freelance writing, first for a cookbook and then for Epicurious.com, and I was hooked. I started my food blog, JollyTomato.com, in May 2010. At the time I had two little kids and I was focused on writing about nutrition and getting kids to eat nutritious food. My promise to myself was that whatever I did with the blog, it would always be fun – otherwise it wasn’t worth doing. Fifteen years later, my kids are grown (and they’re great cooks and eaters!) and the blog has evolved. I now focus on food, recipes, and foodie travel – but I still have fun with it every day.
A highlight of my blogging career has been my travels to Italy. In 2021, I was invited to tour Italy as a guest of a coalition of Italian tomato producers. I had a chance to visit Italian tomato growers, sort tomatoes as they went into the cans, and visit with a multitude of Italian chefs who taught me amazing techniques for cooking with tomatoes. Then in 2023, I was invited back to Italy as a guest of an Italian flour company association. Again, I had a chance to gain important knowledge about Italian cooking, including pizza and pasta making techniques. (In my main photo, you can see me doing a pasta-making demo at the Orange County Fair after I returned from Italy.) Also, in 2023, I was invited to the fall olive harvest by the Tuscan olive oil company Olio Piro. That was another incredible learning – and tasting – experience. I feel truly honored to have had so many chances to experience these opportunities and write about them.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When I first started blogging, I came into the process as a writer, so I was focused entirely on the words and I didn’t think much about photography. (This was 2010, so it was still in the early blogging world.) Sooner or later, I realized that words alone wouldn’t cut it for a food blog and I had to put photos in with my blog posts. My early photography was terrible – I look back and I laugh. But I took some photography classes and invested in some better equipment to boost my photo capabilities. At the same time, phone cameras got so much better too. Now I’m still not the best photographer but the quality of my photos has vastly improved.
Also, as I struggled with issues such as engagement, SEO, social media, and behind-the-scenes technical challenges, I learned that many of my fellow food bloggers faced the same issues, and things worked better when we helped each other. I met some of my favorite food blogger friends in early experiences like Camp Blogaway, and we still meet up through groups like Food Bloggers Los Angeles and in our Melissa’s Produce gatherings. I’ve learned so much from these blogger friends and it’s still a joy to connect with them.
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?
In my primary job, I am a communications director in higher education. It sounds like that’s an entirely different thing from being a food blogger, but a lot of my skills carry over between the two. For instance, I’m good at zeroing in on what’s new and interesting, and then developing engaging ways to explain and share that information. In my bio, I say I “find joy and inspiration” in food, travel, and family. That pretty much sums it up – no matter what I’m communicating, I’m always looking for the joy and the inspiration, and finding ways to share it.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I always knew I wanted to be a writer. When I was very young, I was a prolific writer, writing “books” that involved stapled-together sheets of construction paper. Some of them are pretty funny – Maybe I should look into getting them published. As I got older, my friends and I wrote a newsletter that we shared with everyone we knew. Then I was the yearbook editor in high school. These days, in my job, I write and edit news stories. In my spare time I do word games, and I also create “yearbooks” each year for both sides of my family. Do you sense a theme? I love just about anything that has to do with the written word.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jollytomato.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jollytomato
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jollytomato
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/jollytomato
Image Credit:
Altalunas International
