Membership criteria

Membership is open to those who, for payment, under their own or a pen name, write or broadcast on food for consumer, trade, professional or academic publications or organisations, and whose work is regularly published or transmitted in the UK.

Prospective members should be able to show one of the following:

at least one substantial food or cookery book already published by (but not limited to) an established publisher;
the equivalent in food or cookery work e.g. editorship/cookery series/food column etc;
have been in regular employment over a six-month period writing or broadcasting about food for a recognised professional publication or organisation.

Applications are discouraged from those whose work is entirely or predominantly on behalf of a client or clients who pay the applicant a fee for promoting a specific product or service.

Subscription for membership is currently £85.00 per year payable on joining or on 1 January of each year.

Those joining after 30 September pay no further subscription for the following year.

Members who have not paid their subscription by the last day of February of the current year shall no longer be deemed to be members and their name will not be printed in the Directory.

How to apply

How to apply

Ask an existing member to propose you and another to second you, if you do not know any Guild members to ask, enclose a letter explaining this to the membership secretary asking him or her to consider your application.
Print down and fill in the application form.
Return form with recent samples of your work – see application form – and a cheque for £85.00 made payable to the Guild of Food Writers to the Administrator, 255 Kent House Road, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1JQ. If your application is not accepted your cheque will be returned to you promptly.

Applications are considered at monthly committee meetings. In the event of an application for membership being rejected the Committee will explain its reasons and may suggest that the applicant re-apply at a later date.