Steve Hoffman Interview: Food Writer and Author of French Countryside Experience!
Diana Landau | November 12, 2024
Renaissance Man Steve Hoffman explains to Carl how you can truly have it all. Steve has figured out how to divide his year between a successful business and his creative life. He is a tax preparer and also an award-winning food writer that has been featured in Food & Wine, The Washington Post, Artful Living magazine and many more. He is also the author of the memoir that's a real eye-opener if you've ever thought about living in foreign country and bringing your family along with you, "A Season for That, Lost and Found in the Other Southern France".
Steve grew up in the "Twin Cities" of Minnesota in a traditional suburban family. "It was a fairly boring, staid existence," he tells us. As a teen, Steve was obsessed with tennis and basketball and dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He went on to St. John's University and then a trip to Paris, France changed everything for him.
Steve married and had a family and also ran a successful tax preparation business. He likes to say that he knows the names of all of his 500 customers. But tax work is seasonal, and he realized he could live out his dream of living in France part of the year. In 2012, Steve brought his wife and family along with him, which proved challenging beyond his initial expectations. "You know, you have this image of swimming in the ocean on the coast and then having a glass of Rose'. The blue collar, dusty, hot winemaking village where we could afford to live was not like that."
The culture shock was very real. Carl points out that many people talk about living in another country for a while, but rarely actually do it. In his memoir, Steve tells us how his family needed him to step up and be a leader for them and not just live in a dream, practicing his French in town. The family decided to give up their expectations, stepped back and let the experience and the village opened up to them.
Steve always kept journals, yet never imagined he would one day become a prolific food writer. And then his first article about his French adventure won him a National Food Writing award. Steve's wife, Mary Jo also explored her creative side during their stays and became a photographer. 10 years later, they both came out with a new book at the same time! Steve is also the recipient of the 2019 James Beard M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. He now lives on Turtle Lake in Shoreview, MN with Mary Jo, their elderly and entitled puggle and roughly 80,000 honeybees.
Steve's (Un)Retirement Advice:
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"Accepting that part of being a creative person in this economy in this time in history means you gotta have a boring, semi-lucrative job that pays you a little more than you need and that buys you more creative freedom in another part of your life."
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"Write a five-year plan. There's incredible magic in writing down what you want to do."
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"Think of your life in decades. Your 3rd act, which is the culmination of all your life decisions that came before, will become richer for it."
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"It's okay to understand this part of life (unretirement) is about editing and taking things away, so you're focused on the core of things that mean the most to you."
Diana Landau is the Content Wrangler for Pickleball Media After 15 years in corporate marketing, in 2012 she pivoted to write and wrangle content for Niche Media's weekly blog. She now manages the "I Used to be Somebody" blog
