Meet the Male Food Blogger Who’s All About Feminism
Illustration by Julia Rothman
When Tim Mazurek graduated in 2008 from Northwestern University with an MFA in art theory and practice, he’d just begun to consider the power of “feminist spaces.”
“I was thinking a lot about my grandmother, who was kind of forced to perform this domestic role for all of her life, which she resented,” Mazurek told Yahoo Food. “I’d always really loved cooking from childhood and I was kind of interested in our different relationships to food. For me, because I was choosing to do it and it was a hobby, I didn’t have those feelings.”
Mazurek is an artist whose projects often veer toward the cheeky side — one of his pieces is titled “My Favorite Female Suicides in Western Literature: 1854-1970” — but he was suddenly inspired to go a more literal route. He started a food blog, Lottie + Doof, named in part for his grandmother, Lottie. Doof is just “food” spelled backward, though Mazurek has since learned that it means “dumb” in German. He thinks it’s fitting.
Profiteroles with tahini brown butter cream, sesame cashews, caramel, and halva. Photo: timmazurek/Instagram
The dishes on Lottie + Doof are beautifully styled and photographed, which is to be expected from someone with an art background like Mazurek’s. He often features recipes from restaurants he’s visited, snagged from the chef, and adapted for the home cook. There are also tweaked recipes from favorite publications and cookbooks. Some are ambitious — like profiteroles with tahini brown butter cream, sesame cashews, caramel, and halva — but others, like blueberry muffins and a cheesy bread pudding, and are more manageable.
But the blog isn’t all recipes. Mazurek enjoys writing about politics, places he’s visited, or even Beyoncé. He often references his husband, Bryan. “For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to really focus on this being a purely creative space for me to do what I want,” he explained. “Consequently, I’ve both lost and gained some readers who only wanted the recipes, which is understandable. But there are plenty of places for them to find them.”
Cinnamon rolls. Photo: timmazurek/Instagram
Don’t get Mazurek wrong, though — he still has quite the devoted following. Lottie + Doof has been featured by Serious Eats, The Huffington Post, the Williams-Sonoma blog, Design Sponge, and Epicurious. In 2012, Saveur named it “Best Cooking Blog” in its annual blog awards.
The desire for artistic freedom is why, in part, Mazurek refuses to make money off Lottie + Doof. “I’ve always had a day job that’s been paying me, so this has always been a hobby,” he said resolutely. At the end of the day, he doesn’t want to appeal to advertisers, or even his own readers, for that matter.
So for whom does Mazurek write? “When I’m writing, I guess I’m writing in some way to myself,” he said.
Previous bloggers of the week who should be on your radar:
Mexican food gets a healthy makeover from ‘Muy Delish’
‘Lady and Pups,’ a Beijing blogger who isn’t shy about being angry
Why ‘A Brown Table’ gave up a career as a scientist to become a pastry chef
Who’s your favorite food blogger? Tell us below!