How to Create a Food Memory Journal

Need a place to let your inner foodie run wild? Is your Google Maps app full of “want to go” or “favorite” restaurants? You might have an overflowing recipe binder you’d like to narrow down to the “best of,” or maybe you want to remember rich conversations from exciting dinner parties.

Creating a Food Journal for Memories

Enter the food memory journal—a place to record recipes, restaurant lists, and favorite mealtime moments. In this post, we'll cover our top three ideas for a food memory journal:

• Experimenting with New Recipes
• The Restaurant Critic Route
• The Dinner Party Guest Book

Create yours in a lovely Leatherpress journal that will make sure these memories last.

Idea 1: Experimenting with New Recipes

Use a Leatherpress journal to further your culinary exploits and record new recipe aspirations. If you are new to recipe journals, see our how-to article here.

It’s easy to use a journal to strategize your weekly meal plan as you jot down easy weeknight meals or go-to sheet pan recipes.

Tips for Starting

1. 1. Sit down and think about the meals you make the most often. Start writing them down in a collective journal so you don’t have to search for the link again and again, or remember the cookbook it’s from.
   2. Record the recipes that you think might just become the next “everybody’s favorite meal.” You’ll hear a friend talk about a meal their kids loved or see an online ad with a fall soup recipe that makes your mouth water…but do you remember them? A recipe journal will help you store all these aspirational creations in one place. 
   3. Make it fun. As our recipe journal guide shows, these journals are far from boring. Color code different food categories if that's your thing, or embellish the margins with doodles inspired by ingredients.
   4. Invite others to participate. Get your family cooking. Divide up your journal so everyone can write out the recipes for their favorite meals. Kids can make grocery shopping lists and help cook. Add notes about the experience and the result.

Idea 2: The Restaurant Critic Route

Unleash your inner food critic and curate a restaurant guide for yourself using one of our Leatherpress journals. You might use a restaurant review template or your own description and fill your notebook with memories of food well-eaten, whether on the road, or down the street.

Tips for Starting

1. 1. Separate your journal into categories. There are so many ways you can customize your journal to suite your taste (literally). Make lists of restaurants, coffee shops, and bars you want to go to or have already been. Create a rating strategy with different categories and organize based on quality. Or compile your data based on geographical location or cuisine.
   2. Be detailed. Your future self will thank you if you write down exactly what entrée you ordered and how much you spent on that delicious cocktail. Were you torn by indecision and want to make sure you pick the pasta next time? Make a note so you’ll already know what to order when you go back.
   3. Make it memorable. Was this meal enjoyed on a lovely solo date? Did that pastry accompany a catch-up with a childhood friend? Feel free to jot down a few sentences to make your review a little more like a journal entry you’ll want to reminisce on years later.

Idea 3: The Dinner Party Guestbook

We love this one! Use a Leatherpress journal to create a place where you can document the details of the dinner parties you’ve hosted. Make the memories of an evening well spent last far longer than the last guest’s departure.

Tips for Starting

1. Connect with your guests. Ask your guests sign their names to make a memory. Or perhaps you want to leave the night feeling a little more inspired, so you ask them to describe the time together in one word or a few sentences.
2. Savor the joy of hosting. Below the list of names, write down everything that made each gathering memorable. Doing this brings joy not only in the moment but for years to come! Delight in the connection you felt as you opened your home, and record your favorite flavors and conversations from the meal.
3. Describe your tablescape or decorations. What was your table setup? Did you use special place cards, napkins, serveware, etc.? Were you indoors in your dining room or outside on the back deck under string lights? Write down all the details so you can recreate them in the future.

How To: Food Journal Template

If you want a little more direction getting started, check out our recipe journal template to give you a basis for recording your favorite recipes. (We have lots of other templates, too!)

Of course, all of these ideas look their best preserved in a Leatherpress notebook. Get yours here!