The first prize of the XXVII “Alvaro Cunqueiro” National Award went to Yanet Acosta, professor of History of Journalism and Photojournalism at the URJC, for directing and coordinating issue V of The Foodie Studies magazine for her articles on gastronomy in lean times during Covid-19 in the year 2020.

Yanet, in addition to being a professor at the King Juan Carlos, has a PhD in Communication Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and a postgraduate degree in Social Network Management from Columbia University in New York. She too, she is director of the Master of Food Communication and Journalism at The Foodie Studies. She worked for nine years at Agencia Efe and has written numerous novels.

Q: Why did you decide to become a journalist? What led you to specialize in food journalism?

A: I always felt a fascination for stories and for writing, so when choosing a career I didn't hesitate, Journalism. I studied at the UCM and in the third year a teacher told me about an internship in a magazine specialized in agri-food. I competed and won. Since then I have dedicated myself to this subject that has given me an area of ​​specialization in journalism, unique for its social, political, economic and cultural relevance.

Q: How did The Foodie Studies Magazine come about? What was and is its goal?

A: The Foodie Studies Magazine is a popular science magazine about food communication. It is part of the global training and dissemination project of The Foodie Studies platform, in which the Master of Communication and Gastronomic Journalism stands out.

Q: How did the idea for the V number come about? Why The Gastronomy of scarcity?

A: Years ago we worked on the gastronomic repercussions of the Civil War and the Postwar period in Spain. With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020 and confinement, scarcity began to be visible, so we decided to hold a Gastronomic Communication and Journalism Congress dedicated to the Gastronomy of Scarcity. We have reflections from people such as the chef and philanthropist José Andrés (founder of the NGO WCK that provided 3 million meals in our country during confinement) and the journalist Martín Caparrós, author of the book El Hambre, among others. We called on journalists, scientists, chefs, disseminators to make their contributions, we investigated some issues on our own and the sum of everything is that number V.

Q: What does it mean for you and your team to have won the award?

A: Total support for a different way of looking at gastronomy. A transversal and broad look, in which journalism is exercised with depth and knowledge.

Q: Have you received more awards, apart from this one, during your professional career years?

A: It is not easy to receive awards dedicating myself to what I do and being out of the mainstream, and also being a woman. In 27 editions of the award, only 5 women have been recognized with the first category, despite our massive incorporation into this type of information, since 2003. However, I received a literary award for the best historical proposal in La Cultura es Femenina 2020 , which filled me with hope and continues to fuel the novel I've been writing ever since.

Q: How did you find out about the existence of these awards? How was the selection process?

A: The Álvaro Cunqueiro national award is really important in gastronomic journalism. It is the only one in Spain awarded by a jury of journalists. This award has been given for 28 consecutive years and among the winners there are names as important as Fernando Ónega, Nestor Luján, Pilar Cernuda or my dear Cristino Álvarez, whom I replaced as a gastronomic information journalist after his retirement from the Agencia Efe.

Q: Now that we live in a pandemic, how was the experience when collecting the award?

A: Well, very hygienic and distant. I picked him up from a table, with the mask on, and due to COVID-19 protocol it was not possible to offer a few words of thanks.

Q: What is the process of directing and creating a magazine like? What is it like having a team in charge of you? What work techniques do you use so that everything goes perfectly?

A: The key to everything is commitment and doing something that we truly believe in. Make a number that offered a look at gastronomy not from abundance, as is usual, but from scarcity. Any of us may have to face a situation of scarcity and not only for socio-economic reasons, but also environmental or political. In addition, it can be a creative tool in the kitchen or a way of working to avoid waste and commit to sustainability. All this united us from a horizontal plane that is always the one that works.

Q: Do you have new projects in mind in the audiovisual field?

A: Yes, several. We are working right now on new journalistic narratives.

Q: To conclude, what advice would you give to FCCOM students who want to dedicate themselves to writing and being journalists?

A: That they feel the passion to do what they really want in life.

For more information and to read the award-winning monograph directed by Yanet Acosta: https://cutt.ly/cnjV7r0