Don't be afraid to take a risk, says James Beard-winning food writer and author Danielle Centoni. "If you believe you can do the job do anything you can to prove to that person that you can."

Centoni, a food writer with a background in journalism and the co-author of Oregon Wine + Food and other books had a love for cooking and food and created an opportunity for herself when the newspaper she worked with was hiring for the foods section. After her newspaper experience, Centoni started writing cookbooks, and talks about what it's like to see her book used in a stranger's kitchen and why writing a book is a gratifying, labor of love. And by the time her recipes make it in the cookbook, she says it's got to be something she would make again and it must be "excellent."

"Do what you want with it," Centoni says about the recipes she develops in her cookbooks, "Put your own spin on it. You know whatever you want to do make it the thing that you love and come back to, like, that makes me so happy."

Get in touch with @DCentoni on Instagram.

Get in touch with Polly Campbell at https://simplywrite.substack.com and learn more about the writer's life, and how to develop a writing practice that

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