The Legacy of Marshall King, A Restaurant Critic Who Believes Food and Faith Are Linked

Marshall King has ended his food criticism column after 21 years, due to newspaper budget cuts and a new book that will debut Spring 2022. Photo courtesy of King.

EDWARDSBURG, Mich.— Marshall King says he is just a guy who likes to eat. As a food writer for more than 20 years, King is still shocked that people are interested in what he has to say about what he eats.

“I like being the diversion more than the guy who broke the massive story,” King said.

His food column ran in The Goshen News, The South Bend Tribune and The Elkhart Truth. After nearly 21 years, he recently ended his Dining A La King column. The last column ran April 5.

In all his years of writing columns and reporting about food, he also noticed the intersection of food and faith.

“Just this week, I interviewed a guy who says that God told him to take a direct action related to his food business and leave another job or go in on this,” King said. “And I look at that as a little bit dubiously, admittedly, but on the other hand, here’s a guy whose faith’s deep enough where he says, ‘I believe God told me to do this.’”

All of King’s grandparents were Amish at one point in time. He grew up attending two conservative conference Mennonite churches. He recalled the fellowship meals with tables filled with lots of food. 

He spent many hours in the kitchen as a child. Some of the most memorable meals from his childhood are his mother’s shoo-fly pie and making egg noodles with his mom, aunt and cousins.

“Pie has always been a huge part of my family’s life,” King said. “Particularly on my mom’s side. My grandmother used to make a pie called Bob Andy, which was kind of a farm pie with eggs, milk, sugar and clove.”

When he was in college, he interned at a magazine in Washington D.C., and he remembers bringing over his mom’s banana bread.

“Do the Dole banana people know what your mom’s doing with their bananas?” the editor asked King.

In addition to the enjoyment of being in the kitchen, he also liked being nosy. In elementary school, he wanted to be a detective. Naturally, his nosiness translated into journalism.

“One of the beautiful things about being a reporter is that you get to ask people all sorts of things you wouldn’t have any reason to ask them,” King said.

Coming from a blue-collar background, the idea of making a living off of writing words seemed difficult to pull off.  In college, people encouraged him to keep writing. 

Then, he worked at The Goshen News as a part-time sports reporter and eventually worked his way up to a full-time reporter position. He realized he enjoyed writing about community.

When he worked for The Elkhart Truth, he started writing a column called, “King on the Road.” In 2000, Terry Greenberg, managing editor of The Elkhart Truth, asked him to write a food column.

“I didn’t ever imagine that an editor telling me to start a restaurant column would result in something that would become a primary part of my identity and the way people know me,” King said. “It’s been fun.”

King spent the next 21 years traveling to different parts of Elkhart County and the Midwest to talk about restaurants and their food. He even traveled to Ireland and California twice.

He learned about new restaurants through word of mouth and by reading signs.

“Signs outside restaurants are a goldmine of information,” King said. “You’ll drive past someplace you’ve never seen before and it’ll say, ‘Opening Soon,’ and you’ll go, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that was going to be a restaurant.’”

Over the years, his writing became a conversation with readers. Readers would ask him about a certain restaurant or new cuisine, and he would investigate.

He also learned about human communication in general while writing food columns.

“It’s amazing how face-to-face interaction will often, not always, but often soften what we say about someone or something,” King said.

He said he has had people come up to him and say how they had a bad experience at a restaurant, but they do not tell the restaurant owners about their experience. He encouraged customers to honestly share their experiences with restaurant owners.

When The Elkhart Truth went to new ownership in 2016, King’s column came to an end. Immediately thereafter, The South Bend Tribune, The Goshen News and the now defunct Flavor 574 picked up his column.

According to his last column, in late 2020, The South Bend Tribune dropped the column due to budget cuts. 

King ultimately decided to put his column writing to rest after realizing he needed a break. He is working on a book on the life and death of Michael “MJ” Sharp that is set to publish in Spring 2022. Sharp was a Mennonite who died in 2017 during a peacebuilding mission with the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

King also experienced the loss of his father to COVID-19 in 2020. He recounted the story in a column for The South Bend Tribune. 

The experience of writing about food not only gave him access to eat all kinds of food, but it also brought him closer to people.

“Early in my days as a reporter, I was a single guy, but I loved food,” King said. “So, I would go to the farm bureau meeting before covering the meeting and eat with the farmers. Part of it was enjoying a meal, part of it was just being with people and when you break bread with people, something powerful happens.”

One of his favorite biblical stories is after Jesus’ resurrection, when Jesus tells his disciples to cast their nets into the water and they catch lots of fish. With the fish they catch, the disciples share a meal with Jesus. The story reminds him of the importance of hospitality and showing love for someone.

He pointed to Jesus as someone who had a lot of knowledge about food.

“He understood the power of food, both to cut through societal barriers … [and] just to reach people,” King said. “Some of the miracle stories are lovely stories of turning water to wine and really good wine. Or loaves and fishes multiplying until it could feed thousands and thousands of people.”

King believes food and religion are intertwined, no matter what the faith structure is. He is not sure whether or not publications like ReligionUnplugged should start a recipes or food section. But he encouraged religious publications to ask people who grow and make food to express their faith for stories. 

“I think we’re seeing it somewhat right now with some of the cultural stuff with Black Lives Matter or how people are treated at Bon Appetit or restaurant kitchens,” King said. “Or how people of color are talking about their own food.”

King pointed to The Bitter Southerner as a digital publication that produces content on southern culture and food that could be a model for how religious publications could cover food.

Today, King works as director of communications and marketing for the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. He also authored a cookbook in 2020 titled, I’m Hungry, Let’s Cook! A Community Cookbook, which features recipes from Elkhart Country restaurants. The proceeds from the cookbook are going towards those Elkhart Country restaurants who contributed. For those interested in donating or want to purchase a book, visit hungrymarshall.com. 

Clay Sidenbender is a freelance journalist based in Edwardsburg, Michigan. He has written for ReligionUnplugged, Religion News Service, The Goshen News and The Elkhart Truth.