John-Bryan Hopkins

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John-Bryan Standridge Hopkins (born September 9, 1971 in Birmingham) is a food writer and blogger, known for his "Foodimentary" weblog and Twitter profile, and for compiling a calendar of food holidays that was adopted by Google.

Hopkins spent his childhood in Hayden and after a few years in Blount County, attended grade school in Childersburg. He enrolled at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee on a choral scholarship at age sixteen and graduated in 1990 with a degree in theater set design. He went on to complete a bachelor's of interior design at Southern Institute in Birmingham in 1994 while also operating his own firm, Hopkins House Interiors on 18th Street South in Homewood. Notably, he was commissioned to take over design development for the expansive Larry House residence, which was completed in 1997 at Shoal Creek.

Hopkins and partner Terry Finley purchased the historic Spanish Colonial-style Jacob Salie residence at 11 Bonita Drive in the Hollywood section of Homewood in 2006. Over the next two years they remodeled the house, with an extension designed by architect Louis Nequette. Hopkins published a blog chronicling the progress of the renovations that generated considerable local interest. He continues to work as design manager for Frank Stitt's restaurants, and for occasional clients.

Hopkins began his weblog, "Foodimentary", in 2005. He began using Twitter in 2007 and has collected more than 854,000 followers on that platform. He received two "Shorty Awards" from Sawhorse Media in 2009 and 2010 for his role as a social media influencer. Along with entries on food culture, Hopkins collected information on food holidays which he expanded into a year-round calendar by inventing new observances. Google adopted his food holiday calendar into its search results in 2015.

Hopkins has participated in Birmingham's "FoodBlogSouth" conference since its beginning, and has made appearances as an expert guest on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel. He has also been consulted for pieces in Epicurious, Slate magazine, the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He helped to establish the weekly cooking demonstrations at Pepper Place Market.

Hopkins contributed to the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015. His first book, Foodimentary: Celebrating 365 Food Holidays,, was published in 2017 by Wellfleet Press through an exclusive deal with Books-A-Million.

Hopkins purchased the historic Florence Jordan residence on Highland Avenue in 2016.

References

  • McAlister, Laura (July 14, 2011) "A Home to Remember". Over the Mountain Journal.
  • Tuttle, Brad (June 17, 2014) "Meet the Guy Who Totally Makes Up the Fake Holidays We Celebrate." Money
  • Dougherty, Conor (August 2, 2015) "Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online, Where Social Media Fills the Calendar." The New York Times
  • Cambron, Caty (n. d.) "Q&A With John-Bryan Hopkins (Foodimentary)" BIG Communications
  • Houser, Dave G. (August 28, 2017) "Wait, it’s National WHAT Day?" MultiBriefs
  • "John-Bryan Hopkins" (September 22, 2017) Wikipedia - accessed September 29, 2017

External links

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