Hello! Welcome!
If you missed the intro to this series of chats with Megs-who-freelance, you can catch up on all the background here. Ready? Let’s begin.
Hot on the heels of our interview earlier this week with Megan Bowdler, today I’m excited to shine the Meg Spotlight on…
Megan Davies has been working in the food industry since 2012, training as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu in 2016 and working as a freelance writer and stylist since then. She has written, tested and developed recipes for multiple food magazines and brands, along with recipe development for Ebury and Octopus on several books. She has also food styled for food magazines and brands. You can find out more at on her website and on Instagram.
Hi Megan! Let’s kick off with some easy questions.
Are you an early riser or a night owl?
I’m probably a night owl.
And who’s your favourite fictional Meg?
Maybe Mystic Meg, reminds me of childhood tv! She had a great fringe/bob combo too.
I loved Mystic Meg on the National Lottery! OK, some more deep and insightful questions for you. What’s your most used emoji?
Probably the 👌 (OK finger emoji)
Any Meg-related nicknames?
Many. Megs, Megwan, Meglet, Meggles, Mink… it goes on.
Thanks, Megwan. It feels like we know you a bit better now, so tell us about your work – what do you do?
I’m a freelance recipe writer, food stylist and food illustrator. I write, test and develop recipes for magazines, cookbooks and brands.
I also style food for a similar set of clients… admittedly, for those that don’t know, food styling sounds like it’s fluffing up a bit of lettuce on a plate and saying, ‘voila!’, but it’s actually all the prep, cooking on set and styling. Not glamorous at all, hard work but such great fun. You work with a food photographer, prop stylist and art director as a team and create images for print and screen.
I’m also trying to tap into the illustrating world with my digital food sketches… a work in progress at the moment though on the illustrating front!
You sound busy! Is there a superpower that would make your job easier?
Maybe the ability turn off the urge to snack constantly?
We could all use that, I’m sure… So, another more sensible question that will hopefully help some other freelancers out there reading this. What great business advice would you share?
That’s a hard one… I guess the standard ones that are very relevant to all industries, especially being self-employed is be the best that you can be, always, and hard work pays off (it does) … but one piece of advice I heard recently that Cher’s mother apparently once said (according to Cher, when she was on the Graham Norton show, profound, I know) was, ‘if it doesn’t’ matter in 5 years, it doesn’t matter now’. I loved the saying from the moment I heard it and have been trying to live by it since then, in my work and personal life.
I love that Cher’s made it onto my blog. Thank you. On to some practical/technical topics. Other than your computer or phone, what’s the most important thing you use for your work?
Probably my knife!
Now I’m scared. Moving on. If you could keep only three apps on your phone, which would you pick?
MyFitnessPal, not because I am a fitness enthusiast (I wish I was), but because I use it a lot to find out the carbohydrate quantities in food and drink, I’m type 1 diabetic and it’s super useful to be able to access the full nutritional info on pretty much all foods on there.
City Mapper – because I have an awful sense of direction and it’s SO USEFUL.
Whatsapp – because I use it all the time, you can message, send pics, do audio and video calls on there – it’s got it all! My mum lives in America so I would need a contacting app of some sort to keep me connected to her and all my friends.
Sorry to interrupt you, but bad news, I’m afraid. There’s a zombie apocalypse brewing. You can pick three people to be on your team. Who and why?
OK, Hal my boyfriend, I know that’s cheesy but I couldn’t leave him. My youngest sister is an engineer so she would be great at building shelters, weapons, bridges (to name a few) and then maybe my other sister who is a nurse, some obvious benefits there too!
Your family is impressively apocalypse-proof! You’ve dealt perfectly with that scenario. Let’s give you another one. If you could use a time machine to help you research or plan your work, where would you go, what would you do, who would you meet and why?
Well, firstly I would go back and not bother with university, go straight to my culinary training and start from there… but regarding research and understanding, I would probably go back and try and work for Elizabeth David, the British Culinary Queen of the 20th century, make her tea, do the washing up, whatever it was that I could do to be around and learn from her.
And finally, you work with food… what did you have for breakfast this morning?
A cup of tea! Always the first thing I have.
Me too! Thanks, Megan. You’ve made me hungry and shared great advice – all in a morning’s work, I guess.
Next up, sometime next week, will be Meg Hapgood, discussing everyone from Donald Trump to Disney characters. Don’t miss it!
Megan Rose Freelance Copywriter 
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