This week’s Stocktake marks the official debut of a new look, designed by the women of SM Studio, Molly Cranston and Safiye Gray.

You might have clocked some of their brilliance in the new-and-improved graphics of The Goal is to Eat, across the talk show (watch Tuesday’s episode with Cameron Malik-Flynn’s here) and in more recent Instagram posts.

We have extra details coming, and fun developments in the works, including some hot TGITE paraphernalia arriving this summer…

Today’s Stocktake is paywall free, partly because I’d like you all to experience this edition’s design in full, and also because it’s my birthday on Tuesday. A gift from me to you. If you find value in what you discover here each week, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

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To commence my birthday celebrations, we lunched at the painterly Sessions Arts Club yesterday, whose roof terrace is a sun-kissed sanctuary for postprandial lounging. We digested through spoonfuls of honey parfait, drags of Marlboro Gold and sips of espresso martini.

I hope that as we enter this new week, you too will indulge in the excess that Taurus season embraces and encourages.

• CODE’s Women of the Year lunch menu on Monday felt designed with the appetite of a “Lady” in mind. Hosted at Simpson’s, no bread or potatoes (bar bread sauce with chicken) were offered to the women dining.

• The exclusive reservation app Dorsia is building a members’ club operating system. An OS that gathers data on member behaviour, and can manage member comms too, could this be the next area of domination for Dorsia?

• The latest taverna to hit London is called Zylia, which means jealousy, named as such “because it’ll be so good others will be jealous”. Only men could come up with that reasoning. A Greek / Greek-Cypriot restaurant, I suggest you read ’s essay tackling the messiness that comes from fusing these two cultures and cuisines. My heritage is a mix of both, and I’m always trying to explain the nuance of being both Greek and Cypriot to friends. I fear that Londoners, especially a Covent Garden audience dining at Zylia, will not understand the important distinction between the two. And what’s more:

  unfortunately [Zylia] inadvertently feeds into the same colonial narrative and ideology, that for so long has stopped Cyprus, or in the context of food, Cypriot cuisine, from being independently recognised in all its beauty and diversity.

• EXCLUSIVE: Marta Sandini is head chef of Lardo. And with that, Lardo – a long time London Fields neighbourhood favourite – regains its relevance on the culinary scene. Where nearby just-launched Auguste, and soon-to-launch Ornella, dive into hyper regional specifics, Marta broadens our perspective of what Italian cooking can be. See: her Ninja Pizza, a steamed brioche bun filled with ricotta, sprinkled with chilli, dipped into silky tomato sauce. I’m here for her innovation, and clever approach to constructing dishes.

• Speaking of positive bastardisation of Italian cuisine: 1900ALLKAPS now has a permanent space. Your favourite chef’s favourite pizza, you can find the slice shop at 163 Dalston Lane, Wednesday to Saturday, 3pm till sell out.

• Meanwhile, Tiella is opening seven days a week. Including Monday dinner.

• I’ve never been pulled into a Barnaby chocolate shop, but I’m tempted to visit the next time I’m on Mount Street. Tom Morris’ design for their latest opening is inspired by the traditionally niche retailers of this Mayfair street, like the 1960s cigar stores, or 1970s shoe shops.

  

• The biggest hospitality business news this week was Richard Caring selling a majority stake of his restaurant and members’ club empire for £1.4bn. It’s a high valuation when you know that Caring’s property portfolio includes mostly leasehold buildings, meaning that much of this figure is based on the potential for successful international expansion e.g. Annabel’s New York in 2027. I only care for POV on this, and thankfully she gave it:

  The question worth asking is whether the brands that made Caring’s empire incredibly successful — Mayfair roots, built on personal relationships, and dependent on a very specific kind of London social currency — can travel. It also goes back to the popular question of whether or not exclusivity can scale, even if to just one other location. Annabel’s Berkeley Square and Annabel’s New York are not the same proposition. At 24x on a leasehold book, Diafa has left itself very little room for the answer to be anything other than yes.

• I must hand it to Victorinox for their top talent selection in advertising the Wood Santoku Knife. I’ve enjoyed seeing how each ambassador approached marketing the knife: Marie Cassis of Arome Cassis on satisfyingly shaped canapés, Nil Mutluer of Heal Goblin making an ad go viral with her pixelated avocado, Merlin Labron-Johnson opting for the cinematic, and Jackson Boxer posting only a photo of himself with the brand’s background story.

• Is Ace the first hotel to join Substack? The brand’s long-term alignment with the arts, and person-driven voice from Shama Rahman, should serve them well.

• The Times profiling Moses Combe’s smart critique of gentrification through food is great to see. Moses indadvertedly giving so much air-time to Gail’s and Jolene, is on the other hand, less great.

• If I were free at the end of May, I’d consider going to Les Ondes. Les Ondes is a new three-day gathering focused on music, wine and food, set in the iconic art deco Hôtel Belvédère du Rayon Vert in the coastal town of Cerbère, close to the French border of Spain. With cooking by Harry Lester, you can access a 3-day long music programme, four meals (two lunches, two dinners) and table wine for 360€.

• Is it a coincidence that Salone del Mobile, Milan’s Design Fair, arrives at the start of Taurus season? No.

  • IKEA presents Food for Thought – five days of daily designer-chef duo takeovers. I’m interested to see what comes out of the homegrown combination of Charlotte Taylor and Ben Lippett.

  • Laila Gohar designed her first ever clothing collaboration with Arket. I love the Domenico Gnoli inspired campaign, shot by Chaumont–Zaerpour, and next week, Laila and Arket have created a carousel of giant fruit to ride at Il Giardino delle Arti, as part of the launch.

  • If you’re in Milan, I suggest you visit friends of TGITE hosting activations:

    • SIGLA on Wheels

    • cooking lunch

    • What Truly Matters by

This Thursday, 23rd April, I’ll be on a panel for ’s salon on the World of Work. If you’re in London, and freelance in any kind of capacity, come through for the insight, and stay for the camaraderie. No RSVP required.

As ever, reply to this email with your thoughts, and until next week, The Goal is to Eat.

Last April, we travelled to my grandma’s village in mainland Greece, where shotguns are fired when the meat is cooked, and competing speaker systems blare out of each family’s yard, overlayed with the squeaks and beats of local musicians travelling from house to house to deliver a tune or two.

My dad always seems to select the strongest red egg, and my uncles refuse to eat lamb because it’s too high in cholesterol (a rule that doesn’t apply to kidney-as-snack while carving, or to barbecued spleen dropped off by a neighbour) and gorge on goat instead. Beer and kokoretsi are on the table from 11am.

Today, in London, we went for a full English and fasolakia with chicken and rice, mid morning at The Hope on Holloway Road. It’s been run by a Cypriot couple, Sotira and Chistodoulos Anayiotis, for the last 35 years. Cash only, but they’ll let you bank transfer if you’re true to your word.

In case you missed it, The Goal is to Eat launched a talk show.

Thank you for the support in , and to everyone who has sent words of encouragement and adoration over the last week.

I had planned to share more about why I’m doing it, as well as the process behind it, but there are several episodes to come – our next guest is revealed tomorrow, with a new episode every Tuesday for the next six weeks – so I’m going to keep things (uncharacteristically) mysterious, for now.

I’m looking forward to hearing your reactions to the upcoming episodes, and of course, I’m open to giving comment. If you want to write about it, get in touch.

THIS WEEK I WAS TOLD

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Partly because it’s important to stay fluid, but mostly because I’m throwing a Spring Parlour this afternoon with SIGLA, and I filmed episode five and six of The Goal is to Eat’s Talk Show on Friday (coming soon!) so I’ve had less brain space for collating my observations from the world of taste.

Before I dive into my thoughts and many consequent questions from a lunch at Simpson’s in the Strand, I want to alert you to a handful of points of interest:

I received a copy of ’s debut book To Entertain and it got me thinking about the increase in narrative driven cookbooks, which use recipes as embellishment and accompaniment to the life stories of the author. Consider Ella Quittner’s Obsessed with the Best (read my interview with Ella, if you haven’t already), Lydia Pang’s forthcoming Eat Bitter, and Tanya Bush’s Will This Make You Happy. Cultured wrote about this emerging pattern, and coined cookbooks the “next frontier in narrative writing” while focusing on Ella and Tanya’s recent publications. A reminder: Ella’s bakes are at Fink’s next week, while Tanya’s are at Bake St this weekend, and TOAD next. Sweet book promotion moves.

(AKA Grocery Goblin) has a new column called The Receipts in LA Material, looking behind the scenes at the financials of restaurants, starting with Cafe Tropical. I’d like to see something like this for London spots.

Jules St-Cyr is opening his debut restaurant Bittikesu in Paris. I set Jules up to cook at Carousel a few years ago, and he’s yet another example (alongside the likes of Esu Lee with Jip and Orson, Emmanuel Peña Treviño with Tarántula, Sahin Erdal with Selma etc.) of young, talented chefs opening a place of their own in Paris. I always put this down to lower start up costs in Paris, and higher financial rewards thanks to eating out playing a bigger role in the city’s DNA, but I welcome your thoughts.

New Gymnasium is a new wellness member’s club launching in Amsterdam, as “a space uniting movement, wellness, work, food and community. […] It’s a way of thinking. A way of living.” Extras include movie nights and nutritional support, laundry service and massages.

Auguste, opens next week in the former Papi space, with a focus on the cooking of Abruzzo, including skewers, which I’ve been told are great. We’re yet to reach the apex of zoom ins on hyper specific Italian cooking, with the majority fronted by non-Italians.

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Two Mondays ago I visited Grand Divan in Simpson’s in the Strand for lunch, and shared some stories to Instagram that same afternoon. I wanted to drop a letter with my observations from the experience almost instantly – as I’d like to communicate more impulsively here – but life got in the way.

I’m not interested in reviewing restaurants, but context and observation are my speciality, and sitting in the Grand Divan – Simpson’s in the Strand’s Edwardian wood panelled dining room, with ornate mouldings and decorative details that match the 1928 Bateman cartoon printed on the back of the menu almost exactly – the overriding thought I couldn’t get out of my head was how much restaurants historically were (and remain) designed by, and for, men.

This is Jeremy King’s third opening in two years, except it’s actually four spaces in one. Why is it that the most successful restaurateurs in London today are almost all men?

This restaurant is 200 years old, steeped in British history, which, to quote my friend Remi last night, I don’t claim as my own. The refurbishment is sympathetic to this history, the style of service, and even the majority of the clientele feel in keeping with it too. The space is elegant and considered if erring on stuffy, where in several moments, looking around the room I felt out of place. Too young, too vivacious, too unconvinced. Too aware that my friend Kitty and I, dining as a table of two women, were perhaps the only ones passing the Bechdel test.

To cover the cooking quickly – which many people like to say is King’s weak spot – it is English to the core.

It makes me wonder whether in this time of the great UK-US edible exchange – where Sunday roasts and Stargazy pie increasingly appear on menus stateside, while The Wolseley plots a hotel in NYC, and publishes the term Londonmaxxing unironically – are London’s British restaurants rising to the challenge, and returning to historic levels of Englishness? Simpson’s serves angels on horsebacks (for the uninitiated, that’s oysters wrapped in bacon, the twin to the devil, which uses a date) while Sally Abé’s just opened Teal, serves both types of horseback, and includes penny licks and rhubarb jubilee on the dessert menu. Two sweets that feel positively Victorian to me.

Are we entering a period of British culinary pride to balance an increasingly unsteady position on an evermore chaotic global stage?

But, back to the Grand Divan’s Prawn Cocktail, which comes heavily dressed and served with two crustless triangles of buttered bread. I don’t remember the last time I ate un-toasted, buttered sliced bread, let alone with the crusts cut off. This, and the treacle tart, with squidge and shine like I’ve never seen before, were our stand outs. The Boiled Ham, Bubble & Squeak and Creamed Spinach were well presented, if under seasoned, and forgettable. The salt and pepper mills, in typical King style, weigh about 1kg each, and English mustard is brought to the table in a large bowl, spooned onto your plate by the server. What could make for a deft touch, made me feel like an incompetent child.

Perhaps having a napkin attached to my blouse didn’t help.

A fortnight ago, I thought buttonhole napkins were commonly understood to be a thing. After peer reviewing, it appears I was wrong. Not enough people know about this dining detail, and its an expense few would reinstate – bar Jeremy King.

The buttonhole napkin dates back to the 18th century, when formal dining was an art, and protecting one’s clothing was a must. Of course, the napkin with a buttonhole was designed for men: sloppy eaters wearing a shirt. Maison Francois and Cafe Francois’ napkins also have button holes, but they could easily be missed, as they’re not folded facing upwards like Grand Divan’s, begging to be used.

Excited to see a buttonhole napkin and enamoured with its red stitching, I attached it to the top button of my yellow silk Pierre Cardin blouse. As I presented my ingenuity to Kitty, Jeremy King walked past. He stopped at our table, acknowledged my use of the buttonhole, and, with a slightly troubled look across his face said: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman use the buttonhole before.”

However much I love being original, the truth of his remark, and the fact that a seasoned restaurateur like Jeremy King, in all his decades of business, had never seen a woman use this smart feature, left me disheartened.

Disappointed that there can be such a gendered divide within such simple design. Saddest of all, this is not uncommon in dining spaces. How often do you see women leaning on high counters to eat and drink? How easy is it to climb onto, and stay sitting, on bar stools if you’re under 5’9”? How likely is there to be a considered spot to place your bag?

What happens to the way we eat, the tastes we develop, the style of dining we become accustomed to, if the experience is designed by men, with other men in mind?

This deserves it’s own essay (editors get in touch) and I have a lot more to say, but I want to hear what you think.

Increasingly more women are setting up their own restaurants as chef-patrons, but where are the women restaurateurs, who thrive in the background (or the limelight, like King himself), who excel at managing the many people, personalities and processes that make for a successful restaurant?

I wrote about this last year (in Stocktake 01), and sadly, I can still count the number of women restaurateurs (who are not also the chef) on two hands. Is it the media’s fault? Is it the hospitality system that’s to blame? Or, even, is it simply that the conversations and connections required to launch a successful hospitality business only happen over rounds of pints at tall bar counters?

Tell me what you think.

Thank you for reading. Until next week, The Goal is to Eat.

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Welcome back to The Goal is to Eat, a practice in the business of appetite. If you’re new here, Stocktake delivers commentary on the world of taste every Sunday.

If you have an occasion you’d like me to attend, or a story you’d like to share, please email panayiota@tgite.com.

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•••

SLOP HITS 10 ISSUES

SLOP announced their 10th issue this week, so I thought I’d catch up with Nicolas Payne-Baader and Jack Stanley to mark the occasion. SLOP arrived on the scene in July 2023, and I met Nick and Jack at a party on the Toklas terrace the day before their first issue launched.

It’s been fun watching grow, and witnessing the duo experiment and expand the realm of what a food magazine can be, and the universe that can be built around it.

To quote myself from a Stocktake back in October: “if you’re looking for a preppy, Jura swigging, post-MOB creative director type who collects Drake’s collab pieces and can get you a last minute table at Le Cheval d’Or as well as free drinks at The Marksman, the SLOP issue launch parties are just the place to meet them.”

Issue 10 launches next Thursday 26th March with a party. See you there?

Congratulations on making it to 10 issues in less than three years. Which issue has been your favourite so far?

Nick: In terms of theme, it was probably the Sacred Issue. I think it gave us a really nice way of talking about food in a different way, pulling apart tradition and religion. It’s the kind of theme I’d love to revisit at some point.

Jack: I also loved the City Issue. We often see food as something that’s grown and made in the countryside, so it was really interesting to explore another perspective. I think that gets to the essence of what SLOP is about.

What’s the best destination you’ve travelled to for a piece in the magazine so far? And where do you wish to go most next?

Nick: Going to India was incredible, the cuisine is obviously so different and even the way flavours are built within a dish are just completely outside of the standard European way of thinking about food and flavour. Also seeing how cashews grow was crazy weird – worth a Google.

I’d love to go to China, the tradition and produce is so varied and often really overlooked.

Jack: I spent a week last summer in the Faroe Islands, which was an amazing experience. The food was like nothing I’d tasted before (not always in a good way), and the shellfish was honestly unbelievable. I knew nothing of the food culture before I went, so being shown around and immersed in it was pretty special.

I’d love to go to Argentina or Chile for a future issue of SLOP. I spent some time there about 15 years ago and have always wanted to go back, and I’d love to explore it through a SLOP lens this time. It’s an amazing part of the world.

You set up SLOP as a magazine that would also serve as a creative agency, and you’ve succeeded, developing a clear target audience and working with a lot of brands, most recently, Dr. Martens for the Lowell launch. Who is your dream brand collaborator?

Nick: Personally I would love a reissue of the Louis Vuitton Noé bag. It was made to carry champagne and I think that blend of something really beautiful and something very practical is excellent.

Jack: To echo Nick, I’d love to work with some more traditional luxury brands. Over the last three years we’ve managed to polish what we do and how we work, and I’d love to do that with some of the classic names. We also have a load of ideas we want to do with watch brands. We’ve got close but it’s never quite happened.

How much of SLOP’s income comes from the magazine versus the agency?

Nick: It’s a hard one to pull apart really. It’s hard to make profit off an individual issue, with paying contributors, printers and graphic designers. It all adds up. But the magazine is the heart of what we do, and it serves as a portfolio for the wider company that brings in other work.

Jack: It’s a really symbiotic relationship. The agency work (events, consultancy, white label content) is the driving force behind the business, but the magazine is always the focal point. As Nick said, you can’t have one without the other.

Nowadays, media brands make merch, and your green and orange SLOP cap is iconic. I once spotted it on a man at Oikonomou in Athens, who turned out to be a chef from Paris (turns out this man was in fact Malik Bouzid who’s incredible cooking I enjoyed at Joyau last night (and he’s at Naughty Piglets from Tuesday)). Where’s the most surprising place you’ve spotted a hat?

Nick: An ex-colleague sent me a picture of her and a random guy in a small town in Australia wearing matching SLOP caps. I was honestly so chuffed.

Jack: There’s a guy I see every morning on my walk to work who wears one. I don’t know who he is, but it makes me smile every time he’s wearing the cap.

•••

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• Bid on this Lebanon fundraiser raffle, organised by Rosie French and Aya Haidar. Closes at midnight Monday 23rd March.

• Bompas and Parr have inaugurated their new gallery space, Woodward Henry, with My Lady Nicotine. An exhibition that explores nicotine as ritual, vice and cultural symbol through contemporary art and historical objects, their creativity on the F&B offering proves why they are truly the original “architects of taste”.

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Welcome back to The Goal is to Eat. If you’re new here, Stocktake delivers commentary on the world of taste, delving into matters of interest and intrigue across hospitality, design, culture and the media, every week. If you have an occasion you’d like me to attend, or a story you’d like to share with me, please email panayiota@tgite.com.

I missed writing Stocktake last Sunday.

An impromptu change of plan delivered ’s illustrative Food and the City guide to eating around Doha instead, and on Wednesday, my enlightening interview with entertained many of you. N.B. Ella will be taking over the pastry counter at Fink’s across the Easter weekend. Don’t miss it if you’re in town. I’m eating her Spicy, Gingery Chicken Cabbage Salad as I write this, and it is top.

I’m straying from regular programming, once again, to share TGITE-related news, a recap of recent culinary adventures, and a free-flowing selection of notable nourishment.

I met three TGITE readers in the wild this week. If you ever see me, please say hi, it makes my day <3

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A SPRING PARLOUR WITH SIGLA

On Sunday 29th March, I’m hosting a springtime Parlour with the co-founders of my favourite jewellery brand SIGLA (who make the dove brooch, pictured above). There will be chocolate by Confiserie Fraulein (Evelyne is amazing), jewellery to play with (at 15% off), bottles of Babycham or cups of chamomile tea for your refreshment, a wide selection of printed materials to peruse, and new friends to make.

RSVP to me (email, DM, text) for the address, if you’re keen to swing by!

INTRODUCING FIGURES

figures – a new representation firm for the alternatively influential, or “for public thinkers” (as per the WSJ) – has included me in their founding roster. Alongside women I’ve admired for years, like Mindy Seu and Jaime Perlman, and those I’ve fan-girled over more recently, like Lucy Kumara Moore and Kat Chan, I’m in very good company. figures’ founders Jacqui Kavanagh and Leila McGlew are building a smart response to our ever more knowledge-centered world of cultural influence.

ON THE SOCIAL LIFE OF LONDON

My boyfriend and I took the day off on Friday to enjoy the essence of a holiday at home.

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Happy March everyone. I found it hard to focus on trivial things today.

But, I’ve made a commitment to be here every Sunday and consistency is my overarching motto this year – remaining persistently generous in spirit and insatiably skeptical of everything – so here we are.

There’s a lot of variety in today’s edition, and as ever, I hope things resonate with you. Drop me a line or leave a comment with any of your thoughts.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• I’ve read a lot about Tracey Emin this week. Her Tate retrospective, A Second Life, opened on Friday, and I enjoyed finding this interview about her life through food (and love of oysters) from 2010:

The first time I had surplus income, as an artist, I bought oysters. I was 30 or 31 and I’d never had one. Suddenly I’d spend every spare penny on oysters. At one point I was on 70 to 100 a week.

• In the midst of a bleak London winter, I dream of summer on a Greek island. I’m not the only one forward planning, and these two culinary retreats have piqued my interest. I’d love to know who’s booking onto them. Is it any of you?

  • – with chef Sian Redgrave – will be hosting Ways of Feasting at Casa Mediterraneo, Kastellorizo in May.

  • will be heading to (the just launched) Loutsa in Samos in July.

• Two brand new and beautiful shopping spaces have opened in London, founded by inspiring individuals: Spazio Leone (E8) and Nadine Mos (N8).

• has quietly rebranded The Stanza. I like that the new design (whose trademark deep purple remains) leans into Italian heritage, with swirling lines and a trumpet-blowing cherub.

• I’d like to stay at Rafael Prieto’s ten-bedroom Casa Boques Pension in Mexico City. This is the expanded “lodging arm of his epicurean universe” (which includes an art bookshop, chocolate atelier and design agency) and soon it will house the all-day Café Ideal downstairs, created in collaboration with his friend and food artist Laila Gohar. Her first restaurant project I believe?

• The Critic vs Creator conversation remains a hot topic on both sides of the pond. To me, the Critic and Creator are almost interchangeable these days, borrowing traits and techniques from one another to offer us more varied – much welcome – forms of culinary commentary.

  • In December, for ’s IN SERVICE 03, we brought together , and to explore the evolving authority of critics and creators, and how taste, trust and influence are built in an era dominated by algorithms and fleeting attention spans. Have a read of the conversation here.

  • Restaurateur Karan Gokani gave his two pence on the influencer vs the critic on Instagram, while Jonathan Nunn posted the below. I’m keen to see what ’ third print issue – whose theme is The Influencers – will have to say on the subject.

  

  • got into “no such thing as a restaurant critic” in Smashed 80, and responded to ’s most recent piece on taste vs judgement.

  • In the US, Ed Levine’s latest episode of Special Sauce asks whether restaurant criticism is obsolete with a critic’s round table of Hannah Goldfield (The New Yorker), Elazar Sontag (The Washington Post), and Bill Addison (The Los Angeles Times), which is not so dissimilar from the round table assembled by Vittles for their second print issue on Bad Food with Helen Rosner (The New Yorker), Chitra Ramaswamy (The Times, Scottish edition), Pete Wells (The New York Times) and Jonathan Nunn, moderated by Adam Coghlan.

• ’s Deputy Editor, and friend of TGITE, has signed to Storm Models. And so, one more discerning editor (critic) becomes an influencer (creator).

• It’s not often I get invited to eat somewhere I’ve never heard of before. FAN in Notting Hill – originally from Lima – cooks Peruvian Nikkei cuisine in a gloomily glamorous room. Their scallop and spicy crab nigiri, served at the dinner on Wednesday, rendered us all momentarily speechless.

• Forza Wine’s newest Soho site has a mirrored ceiling and can seat over 200 guests. The Forza “Italian-ish” formula works, and they’re not messing around with their latest spot, which houses a large terrace too. I remember being surprised when they closed Forza Win in Camberwell a couple of years ago, but they continue to prove that honing in on what works best for the brand (and the guest) will pay off.

• Another week, another woman with an excellent food book: On Eating by . Alicia announced the line up of her upcoming podcast series in sync with her book launch, and I like the transparency of who will feature as a guest. I often wonder whether teasing episode by episode or revealing a full line up is a better marketing method.

• Food and music experiences continue to merge. Back of House is “a new festival, just an hour from London, tearing down the walls between kitchen, stage, and dancefloor. Showcasing the very best in rising stars and specialists across cooking, service and entertainment.” My pals Elliot Hashtroudi and are on the chef line up. Try it out – and report back – if you’re free in mid August.

• The Spiteri family (London restaurant royalty) are opening The Latimer. I wonder whether they can bring something new to the now-common gastropub formula.

• Cream is a new magazine “about bars, and everything in and around them”. Launching at Victoria Bar, Berlin on 10th March.

• Fallow is now on Substack with . Their mission? “To help you cook like a chef”. The Fallow TikTok appears on almost every restaurant social media deck, and they are deemed the blueprint for video content. Will they achieve the same calibre with this newsletter?

• (of Serviette magazine) wrote about the dining room as antidote to the algorithm for .

• The Vogue and GQ BAFTA afterparty got the first look at Simpsons in The Strand. And now we do too, thanks to some perfectly shot BTS video content: “service is a form of theatre”. With five venues opening under one roof, this is the kind of feat only a seasoned restaurateur like Jeremy King could undertake. It officially opens from 30th March.

• Speaking of new openings, Bar Etna is coming to Newington Green. Most recently a cocktail bar called Crossroads, my boyfriend and I had our first kiss there a few years ago over a whiskey sour. It’s a narrow site, over a couple of levels, so I’m intrigued to see what product designer Michael Stampler will do with the space. Jolene across the Green has leant into Italian cooking, Oi Vita down the road does great pizza, but I’m hopeful Ed McIlroy and Philly pizza chef Joe Beddia’s collaboration will offer us something novel.

ADD TO CAL

A couple of International Women’s Day specials for next Sunday 8th March:

• Super 8 presents: Women in Wine 2026, championing women sommeliers, winemakers and growers. Super 8’s Head of Wine Martina Larnach and nine of London’s most exciting wine professionals will come together to celebrate by pouring bottles made by women winemakers.

• Friend of TGITE, will host Spice of Life at the return of Come Together’s Test Kitchen Club. You’ll be hearing more from Mehlaqa here too, soon…

Thank you for reading Stocktake. Until next week, The Goal is to Eat.

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Stocktake is delivered every week, typically on a Sunday, and offers a critical exploration of the world of taste, delving into matters of interest across hospitality, design, culture and the media. This is reading for ravenous minds.

If you ever have a story to share, an occasion you’d like me to attend, or something I should really know about, please email panayiota@tgite.com.

threw herself a birthday party at her house last night. “God, it’s nice to make a big deal of it every few years” she chuckled as she unwrapped my gift. In true Paris fashion, there were touches of opulence and fantasy at every turn. She constructed a fairground table spread with sandwich triangles bordering crisp pools, while Pom-Bears danced around, suspended from tin foil arches. On the roof terrace, a living art installation of pink and purple ice blocks melted slowly as the night went on. Paris is a surrealist and a visionary like no other, and I suggest you pay close attention to her next moves with .

In today’s Stocktake: we meet the duo behind Freeloader (London’s latest hospitality newsletter), track the moves of an indefatigable restaurateur, recce LFW’s food and drink offering, and share many more excellent consumables for your consideration.

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Freeloader launched on Wednesday, and I must admit, on first look I rolled my eyes – not another male duo offering self-serving entertainment.

I’ve since changed my mind.

I've been tracking the latest scoop-forward, food culture newsletters Stateside here over the past year – Best Food Blog, Gourmet, Caper – and Freeloader mirrors that now-standard insider POV but with an unapologetic emphasis on lightheartedness, and of course, an extraordinarily British sense of humour.

I asked co-editors Joe Bishop and Kieran Morris to answer a few questions because I wanted to know, why this, and why now?

You’ve both written about food and hospitality in many forms before, but you exist on the joyful edges of the industry – do you think this is a key requirement to successful freeloading?

Completely. It just seems like good manners, at the very least, to be joyful about something you’re getting for free. If you met a mate for lunch and they picked up the tab, you wouldn’t then tell them how shit the meal was, and if you did, they’d be well within their rights to tell you to pipe down and be appreciative. This newsletter is that attitude at a more macro level; there’s no pretence that we are a stand-in for a paying punter, using our expert knowledge to assess whether places are worth paying hard-earned cash for - freeloaders don’t care how much things cost because they don’t have to. But in shedding that, we want to be a stand-in for saying ‘yes’ to a last-minute invite, joining an unfamiliar table, making fast friends over free wine, and pinching yourself that you ended up in the good spot rather than the million other places you can spend an evening. It’s a laugh, right?

What draws you to freeloading? Do you sense you have a talent for it?

Not so much a talent as a lifelong grasping desire for more: more than we’re worth, more than we have, more than we can afford. But it’s not as if we’re debuting the concept of freeloading. All these events and parties and dining rooms and press trips are stuffed with freeloaders, drawn to it for the same reasons we are - everyone likes playing with house money. What we’re doing is being explicit about it. One, because it beats the allegations that we’re on the take, and two, because it signals that we want more.

You both have your hands in various editorial and media projects, so what propelled you to add this to your load, and why now?

Once a month is a nice, gentle pace. It will never require a full day of work - a writing afternoon here, an edit morning there, and an email to check for invitations. It slots into our work schedule and our social schedule; we get a chance to see each other, and our friends in the industry, on a more regular basis. None of what we put out is any different to what we’d text each other anyway, so it’s not even like we have to strain for opinions. And growing an audience is fun, seeing old pals and new names sign up out of curiosity. It was formulated as a way to have a good time, and that’s where it fits alongside the rest of our work.

What is your dream room – or dining room – to freeload your way into?

Alchemist, probably. Fifty courses, six rooms: the kind of no-holds-barred silliness that we love about fine dining, but don’t particularly want to pay for. That, or the Michelin ceremony, to come full circle with our very first mailout. You want to be in the room when the chefs, somms and servers are able to cut loose, because that’s when things start getting weird. Before you know it, you’re sat in a barmaid’s shed at 5am drinking homebrewed rum with the fish cook at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons (true story).

Why did you choose beehiiv over Substack to host Freeloader?

So we didn’t have to say “It’s a Substack” out loud to family and friends. No shade to Substackers of course, but given our ‘unsalaried working arrangements’, we didn’t want it to sound like a desperate roll of the dice before our partners intervene and tell us to get real jobs. Beehiiv feels more hobbyist, and less like a play for social media presence or, worst of all, success.

You can subscribe to a monthly dose of Freeloader here.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• Jackson Boxer is making moves at an incredible rate. Over the course of the last week, he has:

  • Cooked a Chinese New Year tasting menu with John Javier at Carousel.

  • Teased that a second Dove will be opening later this year in Farringdon.

  • And, announced that he’s backing the team of Taqueria to relaunch as TAQ next week, with the help of chef Eduardo Yishima – softs are on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th.

• Wilton Way’s restaurant legacy continues to hold strong. Teal by Sally Abé is opening in the legacy site that used to be Sesta (previously Pidgin) at the end of March, and a new Italian (to be revealed) is coming to the picturesque corner that used to house Fran’s.

• I like food spotting at Fashion Week, and this is what I’ve clocked so far:

  • A second round of British Vogue at Corner Shop in partnership with Nike. Nothing new to see here, just lots of photos of juice.

  • Impressive floral cupcakes at Chopova Lowena. No credit – and a vague answer when asked – so speak up if you know who was involved in producing such intricate, colourful icing.

  • Completed Works served fruit jellies that looked like crystals, except again, I haven’t found out who made them. I’ve seen the list of credits – from Skin to Sparks to Scent – but there’s no mention of the chef.

  • Chet Lo brought a Hong Kong night market to the Mandarin Oriental ballroom. No food was served, only displayed, and cans of Dot Dot bubble tea (co-founded by Susie Lau) were on offer.

  • On the booze front, Fashion East served G&T tinnies while Talia Byre hosted a zine launch at Perfect Lives with Showering’s and French Bloom.

  • From the best of the dinners I’ve seen, Jimmy Choo dined at Poon’s with personalised chopsticks and goodie bags of their covetable condiments.

    • What have I missed?

• I’m all for Jeremy King’s ban on photos in public spaces at The Park. Less phone use while dining can only be a good thing, and I look forward to seeing how other restaurateurs respond and adapt to this. Will we see photogenic places promoting the fact that influencers are welcome in their dining rooms?

  • Somewhat relatedly, Emily Dawn Long (whose eponymous brand is incredibly nimble at world crafting) threw a party called No One Dances Anymore, where no phones were allowed during NYFW, and it was covered in Vogue.

• Another woman-authored food culture book to add to your Reading List: Tell Me How You Eat by Amber Husain. Eat Up remains the only book I’ve read on the tricky topic of disordered eating, but Husain’s attempt “to challenge our understanding of eating disorders by highlighting just how difficult eating is made for so many of us, and how we all deserve to exist in a world where it is the easiest and most pleasurable thing to do” has piqued my interest. I also recommend Halima Jibril’s Q&A with Husein in Dazed.

• The “caviar on everything” prediction for 2026 is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Partly thanks to BAO for LNY – see Nil Mutluer and Lea Ogunlami’s latest cooking show episode too – and that virally successful McNugget Caviar campaign.

• My favourite Athens boutique PHĀON has made a fanzine. “ΒΙΤΡΙΝΕΣ 001 is the printed extension of […] an evolving archive that links the ephemeral nature of the store windows with a lasting, collectible form.” Only available in store.

• Jake Mike Boy of has a new column – An Offal Opinion – in Cook_inc. A lovely match.

• Two beautiful examples of art meeting conviviality:

  • Roman Holiday projected onto a sheet cake by Throat. The first time I’ve seen film meet food in this way.

  • Chisme Corner with wall mounted stainless steel cigarette holders to facilitate a stationary moment of light conversation by Ananas Ananas.

ADD TO CAL

• 10th March: ’s Issue 2 launch party at Café Kowloon. RSVP to hello@toothsome.xyz – it will get busy.

• 11th-21st March: Malik Bouzid (of L’Orillon) cooking at Joyau. A beautiful poster too.

Thank you for reading Stocktake. Until next week, The Goal is to Eat.

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That’s the tagline at Chez Savy in Paris: Maison de confiance (since 1923). Translating the phrase to English suggests it’s a company you can trust, but I prefer to think of it as a place that’s like a loyal friend: someone you know you’ll have a great time with.

I revere the art of translation for its nuance, and I appreciate Chez Savy’s good humour too:

I like to think of Stocktake as reliable company. Respectable yet unrestrained.

This week, Stocktake is in a looser format. Less structure, more stream of consciousness, to match my mood.

I hope it suits yours too.

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PANI IN PARIS

It has a ring to it, non?

A decade ago, I wanted to study Design History at Parsons in Paris, and explored working in galleries, but never found the boldness to move. I had experienced the nightmare of French bureaucracy during a year of study in Bordeaux, so I told myself that life in Paris would be similar to the one I enjoyed in London, only without good friends close by.

That’s the power of the mind justifying a lack of courage, I think. I used to visit Paris more often, and when I returned last weekend, I remembered how at home I feel there.

So yes, this is my announcement that I intend to become bi-coastal, with Paris-focused Stocktakes to come.

Some thoughts from:

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Happy Friday!

I’ve brought Stocktake forward this week because I leave for Paris tomorrow and come Sunday, I should – ishalla (that’s in a Cypriot accent) – be waking up late, rolling into lunch at Lao Siam and later on, dining at Chez Georges.

In less luscious news, is anyone surprised that “despite his connections to gourmands […] the emails show that Epstein had no taste. His diet toggled between sous vide steaks and stale beef jerky, Lactaid chocolate milk and blueberry muffins paired with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! spray (later replaced by Kerrygold)” – as reported in Gourmet.

I hope you’re all resisting the memeification of this monster and remaining adequately outraged, because we cannot afford to keep being taken for fools.

There’s so much to say, on all sorts today, but before we dive in, I have a question:

In this week’s issue I reveal: Erchen Chang’s order at Rose Bakery, where Fergus Henderson proposed to Margot, intel from the restaurant criticism scene, the deal with Regular Maxxing, and the design references you should know about.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• I will say it again: BAO does it best. For Lunar New Year, BAO is running a Dark Horse set menu (£35pp, 10-26th February) and as ever, they’ve nailed the creative and visuals. As part of LNY celebrations, Dover Street Market is also hosting a smaller BAO set menu, today and tomorrow. I went to the launch party last night, where a chef-cum-performance artist (wearing what looked like gold Tiffany Hardwear) silently spread chive-laced crème fraîche onto a horse charm bao before placing a dollop of personalised Umai caviar on top. I spoke to Freddie Janssen (ex-Snackbar and Lyle’s) who’s now freelancing as Marketing Director for BAO, and she told me they’ve been having a lot of fun with it all. And it shows! To add to the fun, I asked the inimitable Erchen Chang (BAO co-founder and Creative Director) a few important questions:

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Happy February everyone!

£0.96 per Stocktake might not get you as much bang for your buck as £0.27 per bowl of Yang Chun noodles at YE YE’s Noodle and Dumplings, but without Stocktake you might never have known that such a steal exists.

In 2022, I visited the YE YE on Artillery Passage every week on my break from St. JOHN Bread and Wine, and became emotionally attached to their pork dumplings. YE YE launched Shanghai-style breakfast in September, and their £99 annual membership offers you a bowl of Yang Chun noodles every morning, Tuesday through Sunday, at the Wentworth Street location.

I clocked it via Nil Mutluer’s stories on Wednesday – as did the three other women who joined me at PARLOUR that night (thank you Nil for your service) – and for a second, I lamented how oversubscribed our lives have become.

Then, I thought about the failings of Club Pret, and finally, I concluded that a soup subscription is actually s(o)uper smart, and that smart people read Stocktake too.

So, consider this your suggestion to eat more noodle soup at YE YE, and more importantly, to upgrade your subscription to The Goal is to Eat.

In this week’s Stocktake:

• What we tend to forget about Jaffa cakes

• Why restaurant groups are opening side-by-side sites

• No more Dover Street Counter, please

• Where NYC-based accessory brands choose to host their London parties

• Alternative Sunday roasts are having a moment (again)

• It’s not just Ognisko that has a photoshoot problem

• Some interesting media moves

• And more events, magazines, openings, opinions…

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

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My words appeared in the Financial Times yesterday. The excitement and pride I felt from friends and family prove to me that however much we might consider new media to be fracturing influence, certain legacy publications retain their soft power.

I wrote about why we need a chef residency renaissance for Insider’s Notebook, and fit as much context and opinion into 500 words as I could. I hope you’ll read it, and if you want to know more, my essay on The Roaming Chef from March last year still rings true. As ever, I’d love to know your thoughts on the subject.

In today’s Stocktake, we dive into my Opportunity of the Week, some wide-ranging Notable Nourishment and Notes From: six recent restaurant experiences.

Thank you for reading! And a special shout out to Méabh and Clementine for making my night yesterday with their words of flattery/encouragement.

OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK

I live by Newington Green so this kiosk is of interest to me. Lizzy’s on the Green (the previous tenant) made a fantastic bacon bap, but with Jolene on one side and Brags and Brams on the other, Jumi offering toasties opposite, and Lot 103 now down the road and nailing eggs, whoever takes this space should not be focusing on Western breakfast foods and/or coffee.

Instead, I’d like to see a global lens applied, with more creativity and an element of surprise. I’m thinking tacos and horchata, or rice bowls and Hong Kong milk tea. Maybe noodles, or soups. Perhaps even build-your-own subs or smoothies. Worst case scenario, burgers.

There are several small-scale operators I believe could nail it here. Working with the council might prove painful, but if you have an idea, go ahead and express your interest by next Friday. I might even send Jerry my own suggestions.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• Mam Sham prove, yet again, what it means to be original. They’ve shared two clever videos to announce the return of their legendary supper club on 27th February, with a line up that includes Chris Leach of Manteca, Melek Erdal, Melissa Thompson, and Sam Wong. Tickets go on sale 30th January.

• Alex Scott is presenting BBC Sport’s new Eat & Yap series. Alex will meet Women’s Super League players to share the food they love and grew up eating. Nice idea, but I would like the term yap to be banned. It trivialises conversations and I deem it damaging in the long term, especially with how frequently it is applied to two or more women talking.

• MJMK are hiring for Group Head of Communications. This is the third time they’ve tried to fill this position in a year, and I hear they are now opting for the LinkedIn temptation technique.

• Speaking of talent transfers, Gilles Draps is moving to Public House Group. The chef-turned-videographer known for building out David Carter’s restaurants’ cinematic visuals, will be applying his eye to the ever-growing ambitions of Public House Group instead.

• Raleigh Chapel in Stoke Newington has been redesigned by Jermaine Gallacher. Remember what I said about more people finding faith a few weeks ago? Raleigh Chapel is a functioning Victorian church, whose “programme is guided by sound, art and faith”. As Mariam Bergloff says: “there’s a lack of neighbourhood spaces… we’re all trying to find an anchor”. I think this means it’ll be doubling as a cultural venue for performance. I find Jermaine’s design, and its references to the church’s devastating 1989 fire, spectacular and spooky.

• Bara (bread in Welsh) is opening in Peckham. An all-day café that will be open weekdays from 7:30am, Bara is the brainchild of Masterchef Professionals quarter-finalist Cecily Dalladay, born and raised in South Wales, and former head chef Zoë Heimann, born and raised in South London. The idea was born from their mutual love of bread, and as an ode to Cecily’s Welsh background. I’m into it.

• A couple of relocations for your consideration:

  • Papi has announced that it is closing on 7th March, and that something else is coming soon, “with a new name and quite a fancy new home”. Intriguing.

  • Royal China Club is closing on 8th March. I saw this via Fuchsia Dunlop and panic-read that Royal China was closing down in its entirety. Turns out RCC will reopen somewhere else in 2027.

• Keep an eye on OMIS, a new London-based agency specialising in culinary and cultural projects. Safiya Robinson of Sister Woman is their first talent signing.

• Perfectly Imperfect has launched Scenes: a new way to form community online. I have a PI profile but never use it. Do any of you? I’d love to know how much traction the platform has in London.

• Synonym magazine is calling for submissions. Issue 5 is on the theme of Sweets.

• The hospitality industry is really into the Observer magazine’s Planque feature. is partly to thank for the renewed interest in Seb Myers, and I wonder if this kind of press coverage will be the catalyst for winning him a Michelin star this year. I’m surprised to see East London restaurant features make it onto the Observer magazine’s cover two weeks in a row, but it’s energising to see so many people working in hospitality enthusiastically interacting with mainstream media again.

NOTES FROM:

Ognisko. I had dinner with my parents last Sunday, and clocked three tables with pairs of women, glammed up to the max, ordering a cheesecake to start, with a candle in it. One woman posed – the birthday girl – while the other shot the content using extra lighting and multiple cameras. Later, their savoury food arrived, and after eating, they disappeared for 15 minutes (to pose on the staircase and in the grand rooms upstairs) before returning to their table. I asked our waiter about it, and received an exasperated reply that this is a phenomenon that has occurred every week for the last year. My TikTok digging came out fruitless so shout if you know something I don’t.

Ustun. I’m crowning myself Ustun’s number one ambassador. Visit for the freshly baked bread, The Godfather mural and of course, the homemade chicken soup. Get a lahmacun on the side, pick up a magnet when you pay, and in case you find yourself overwhelmed by choice, pide no. 23 is our household favourite.

Tiella. An instant classic, with soul-soothing cooking and layers of Dara’s heritage threaded throughout. There are many eclectic, thrifted objects to admire while you dine, and many more to come in time. Tiella will only get better with age, softening and maturing into its storied spot on Columbia Road.

Canteen. A good spot for a vegetable-forward lunch, and interacting with the teenagers who work FOH (if like me, you’re anthropologically inclined). I enjoyed sitting at the counter, watching a chef prepare pizzas and brush the wood-fire oven with a remarkably calm rhythm. I now believe Crodino should only be served long, diluted with lime, as they do. Their Instagram – which I had not previously explored – is filled with daily posts of point and shoot imagery capturing everyday moments of their team in action, alongside the daily-changing menu. An easy method to adopt.

Xi’an Impression. I was excited to see it remains packed on a Friday night. I haven’t dined in for a very long time, as the cooking travels well on delivery, but the portions are better in person, and it’s still BYOB.

Cantina x Oma. A four hands dinner between Giorgos Samoilis (Cantina, Sifnos) and David Carter (Oma, London) for 300 people across two sittings at The Organ Factory, off Hackney Road. One of those buildings that’s tucked behind the scenes, forming yet another hidden layer of London. They successfully re-created the disco ball Boiler Room energy of Cantina’s closing party, I stuffed myself with soft sesame koulouri dipped into tahini and red zhoug, and all proceeds are going to David’s restaurant group’s charity, xenia.

• Some intel from the night: David has not one but two new openings planned (indefatigable) while Yiannis (co-owner of Cantina) has an exciting place opening in Sifnos later this year. More on that soon.

Thank you for reading Stocktake by The Goal is to Eat. See you next Sunday.

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My out-every-night plan was a touch OTT. I hope to find more balance next week.

On Monday, I dined at Raavi with and loved the seekh kebab and haleem. On Tuesday, I was hosted by food artist Barney Pau for dinner with three other writers, at his flat on Kingsland Road. While walking up, I noticed the much adored House of Momo has opened a glowed-up spot just ten minutes from the original and, you can book.

I also revisited two of London’s Italian classics on Thursday and Friday: Bocca di Lupo and Brutto. In both instances, I experienced bill joy. Or at least, the very opposite of bill shock.

At Bocca di Lupo, lambrusco is served in fridge-cold ceramic cups, their month-long collaboration with Rachel Roddy of Ancient Roman dishes is inspired (I smiled at the geographical indication of SPQR) and the option for half portions across the menu is very friendly. However, the bar stools are hostile. Comfortable yet heavy and hard to manoeuvre, my friend Pri sat almost a foot away from the bar top. Sometimes I forget that spaces tend to be designed with men in mind.

THIS WEEK I CLOCKED

• Margot Robbie on Dean Street. She was spotted at Noble Rot Soho later that night by Marina O’Loughlin and we concurred that she is “literally luminous”. I served Margot at Noble Rot Lamb’s Conduit Street (she’s clearly a fan) back in 2020, and my lasting memory is that her skin glowed in a way I’d never seen before, or since.

• Meedu Saad outside the building site of Impala, also on Dean Street. In August, I said that Soho was in its comeback era (with six hospitality groups launching in the area) and we’re now seeing things come together, six months later. Forza Wine opens on 23rd February (if I’ve done the calendar maths right on their online countdown clock) and Tamila is soft launching on Poland Street on 24th and 25th February. Impala opens in the spring.

• Camille is becoming the unofficial hospo haunt. Remember Fizz on arrival? Well, on Wednesday night, I noticed three food world people having drinks and/or dinner there – separately. Let’s call it the Daniele effect.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• The biggest news in food media this week was the launch of Gourmet magazine. Condé Nast didn’t renew their trademark of the name in 2021, so it’s been adopted by the latest worker-owned publication (à la Best Food Blog). Here are a few things I’m mulling over:

  • The acronym for friends of the magazine is FROG (FRiend Of Gourmet) and it’s All You Can Eat for $7 A Month. I love a food pun, but I’ve not been enticed to pay yet

  • It’s hosted on Ghost (as is Best Food Blog) and press coverage keeps mentioning this. Is Ghost the next Substack, or beehiiv? It allows for a fully customisable front end, and Gourmet has leant into clunky 00s blog

  • They have proven that you can still hit 10k followers on Instagram within a day of launching. I was follower one hundred and something, and they are already on 11k+.

• The founder of Scarr’s Pizza went on Subway Takes. I agree that merch on sale before launch is a tell-tale sign of VC-backing. VC fingerprints are all over the NYC scene and increasingly London’s too, while so many of us don’t even notice it. To quote my hospitality funding guru on the topic: Restaurants that weren’t mega chains were once considered “not investible”, but that is shifting to show us where and how consumers prioritize their spending. Blank Street is perhaps the most obvious VC-backed establishment in London, while Lina Stores is a good example that’s less apparent to regular consumers. It went from a storied Soho deli to a concept roll out (thanks to White Rabbit Projects) and I would love to chart which restaurants have VC-backing across our capital. Hawksmoor, JKS, etc. etc. or HMU?

• Much like this VC chart, I’ve often thought about plotting a London restaurant alumni ecosystem. The Observer Magazine got there first with this spider diagram of Brawn’s diaspora, and it is a beautiful way for them to celebrate 15 years as “your favourite restaurant’s favourite restaurant”.

• Has anyone else noticed Botivo is everywhere? I ordered Yard Sale last weekend and the pizza box was decorated with Botivo illustrations (part of a 1st January activation). On Monday night, Botivo sponsored a party at Bistrotheque with Ladies of Restaurants to keep hospitality spirits high. Their cans are now sold at both atis and The Salad Project and their ownership of yellow – as both colour and attitude – is proving powerful.

• World-building women are hard-launching their studios with merch.

  • Studio Charlotte Taylor has launched a store to sell Bitch of All Trades caps and tees (both £57), as well as SCT branded lighters.

  • HURS has officially launched a studio (a creative consultancy for brands) alongside the ongoing cultural platform. HURS lighters (not for sale) have existed for a while, and I have a feeling caps are coming soon.

• Hot Sauce is now representing the map app Step. An app I never remember to use, I’m intrigued to see what this partnership will look like. More Step sponsored parties? More Step ambassadors à la AmiGo?

• I was buying a sad poke bowl from Itsu when I noticed Monica Galetti’s face on their latest product: noodles & broth pots. Yikes.

• While we’re on Japanese cuisine, I liked Saja Kilani’s Golden Globes diary on A Rabbit’s Foot. Finally, we get to see what people eat at these things! (Nobu caviar, nigiri and miso black cod.)

• This is a great visual story on the Regency Cafe in The Londoner. The sale of this historic caff was all over the press last summer, and according to Hannah Williams, it’s being taken good care of by the new ownership. However, owner Fevzi Gungor’s roll out plans seem to be crystallising: he’s keen to keep the original branch exactly as it is … he’s planning to open five other branches in London, and four to five in mainland Europe, starting with Amsterdam and Berlin. Another five in London is a madness.

  

• Eventbrite launched their 2026 Social Study with the theme Reset to Real. TLDR: we’re moving to IRL. I only know about this report because interestingly, it was dissected in both and .

• of Food Relics is curating the cheese plate at Oranj. Hyper specific information I know, but I enjoy the outsourcing of such a task to someone who both knows her cheese and brings an interesting perspective to it.

• I was scrolling on the Piccadilly Line when I saw this piece by Ryan Bartlow’s. I like his band analogy – something also used recently when speaking about restaurateurs – but I couldn’t help lament more Men of Restaurants becoming Men of Restaurant Writing. I’ve written about this before, but I want to see diverse points of view from behind the scenes. More from front of house (à la ) and design teams too.

• TANK magazine’s travel issue looks good. They shot an editorial at Chinese takeaways in seven cities around the world, from Accra to Athens. See below for snaps taken in Bangkok, São Paolo and Glasgow.

• In case you need some heartwarming inspiration, take it from Malaki Conteh. Not only is he the first black chief chorister of Chichester Cathedral, but he also pays for his £4,000-per-term school fees by running a Jamaican restaurant in Crystal Palace. And he’s only 13.

ADD TO CAL

• Dow of Ginn Khao and Tintin of Swilipino have fused to become: Filipino Thai Friendship. They’re popping up in Clapton next Thursday (22nd January) and the menu is next level.

• Two beautiful souls can teach you how to take beautiful photos. I know a lot of people who need this. Photographer Patricia Niven and food stylist Katie Smith are hosting a 3-hour smartphone workshop on 31st January. Elevate your compositions and learn what the settings in the camera app actually do. Also, Katie is one of the best bakers in London, so the spread will be elite.

Thank you for reading Stocktake by The Goal is to Eat. See you next Sunday.

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I’d hoped that no evening plans and home cooked food every night would provide pleasure and productivity. Instead, it has presented peak procrastination and only confirmed what I already knew: I need to be outside and active (in a marching up the Tube escalators, running late for dinner kind of way), socialised and inspired to get my shit done. And so, my week spent inside on my laptop, working and watching trash, which included 3 of the 3.5 hours of Lawrence of Arabia - where not one single woman speaks - has left me bored and unrestored.

Fear not, I’m out every night next week.

ASPIRATIONAL HOSPITALITY

It never fails to astound me how much emphasis we place on hospitality recommendations. Pointers on pursuing a life of leisure.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the recommendations economy, and it’s supposed recession, but my conclusions remain fuzzy as I attempt to gauge whether we possess more energy and ease for giving recommendations if we don’t work in the industry that they relate to. I welcome thoughts. In the meantime, my essay on The Recommendations Paradox from last March still stands.

People tend to assume I have long lists of spots to tick off for various places, but the reality is, I haven’t maintained a wishlist since 2020. I hold most names of interest in my head, or my Google maps, and it’s messy. I’d like to consolidate where I’m dining (the back pages of my 2026 diary have been reserved) and I’d also like to start planning for future experiences.

For example, I’m heading to Italy in June to attend two weddings, and I’ll be returning to Rome 13 years since my last visit. Without any refreshed research, I’m most excited to shop at Atelier Bomba and lunch at La Matriciana.

Where do you most want to visit in 2026?

Last Sunday I launched TGITE’s chat. If you’d like ideas for where to dine solo, then I suggest you check out this selection. I’ll be asking a question on TGITE chat every Sunday, so do share your epicurean desires for the year with us.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• This is one beautiful restaurant ceiling. There’s a lot to be said for hand painted surfaces that tell a story. Poon’s at Somerset House also comes to mind.

• Gemma Bell’s interview on the Vittles podcast released on Friday. It’s an insightful conversation (until they chat about snacks) and I enjoyed Gemma’s retorts to Adam Coghlan’s constant resurfacing of the word control when speaking about PR. As she says, it’s more about stability and guidance.

  • On the topic of Vittles, I like that they’re hosting events that correspond to the content in their print magazine. For audiences to remain engaged with and loyal to publications, events linked to the printed material are key. They also present good opportunities for meeting like-minded people.

• TopFloor, the video series by Home Hospitality, has come to an end. They flew too close to the sun (TopJaw).

• “Creating an emotional connection and making repeat guests feel seen is one powerful way to inspire guest loyalty”. gave us her In and Out list for 2026. I can’t afford the calibre of hotels mentioned in The Stanza but that doesn’t matter, because you can be a regular anywhere. Guests want to be regulars for that soft sense of belonging, and establishments - whether a dive bar or hotel spa - should be keeping tabs to show that they remember you. It’s the best way to boost spend and spirits.

• The Quo Vadis centenary guest chef line up is a steller selection. The best of British cuisine, you could say. Top marks to the QV team.

• More opinion pieces are coming out about NYC’s influence on London hospitality, so it brought me joy to read the reverse. As per , The British Invasion is coming for the States.

• I do however love New York’s attachment to maître d’s, and I wish London could have the same. Point 34 of New York magazine’s 39 Reasons to Love New York was Because the Maître D’s Took the Power Back From Resy. On theme, in December, Broadsheet interviewed Max Harrison, Chiltern Firehouse’s Maître d’ since 2014 – one of few places that can afford one.

• ICYMI, Gunpowder is running 2016 prices to celebrate 10 years in business. Yes, taking a leaf out of St. JOHN’s book for all of January. I recommend their Soho site, and the now £3.50 (!) spicy venison vermicelli doughnut.

• Public House Group is hiring a Head of Events Programming. Their scaling is serious and the pace remains unmatched. Despite their decorative neutrality, or perhaps because of it, a lot of brands are after their multi-floored spaces. I recall the Isabel Marant takeover of The Hart, produced by CEBE at the end of last year, was a surprising yet inspired pairing.

• Connie’s will give London Britalian pizza. Right, so that’s what we’re calling crispy style pizza now. Opening in the ex-Smokey Kudu site, Connie’s comes from Andrea Asciuti, the chef behind 081. I’ve never eaten at 081 but I have faith in Connie’s success because of its backers, which include Martin Kuczmarski (The Dover, Martino’s) who lists 081 as one of his Difficult Name projects.

• I’m already sick of the 2026 offline discourse. It’s mostly touted by people who a) made their name and/or money online, and b) now post images to Notes on Substack instead. I’m not convinced Instagram’s relevance is going anywhere and I want to share two accounts that are bringing me pleasure:

  • Foodies Archive curated by Veronika, a pastry chef at Spring.

  • Contact High by Carmen Hall, a creative agency involved in most smart fashion campaigns. Most recently, they scripted W’s Best Performances interviews. Also, Carmen gifted her collaborators a word search with watercolours by Choosing Keeping for the New Year. Classy.

ADD TO CAL

• Next Sunday, is hosting a charity bake sale. I’ll be there early, so come and carb-load with me.

• On Monday 2nd February, is hosting a supperclub salon. This is the last in a series she’s hosted over the past year at Spiritland, which delved into the topics from her debut book Chinese And Any Other Asian (see what I mean about events in sync with published writing?). The book ends on a chapter about food, so the final salon focuses on foreign flavours and diasporic identities featuring Filipino chef Budgie Montoya and poet and novelist Stephanie Sy-Quia. Do not miss it.

Thank you for reading Stocktake by The Goal is to Eat. See you next Sunday.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome back!

Thank you, as ever, for supporting The Goal is to Eat. To be here, I assume you’re a sharp and sensual person, and I’m honoured to have your readership. If you’re new, Stocktake is my Sunday column that offers critique and commentary on the world of taste, predominantly dining culture, with a London-centric point of view.

I hope the past festive fortnight has treated you well, without too much time spent online. In the post-Christmas lull I returned to the boundless scroll and absorbed a lot of eye-roll-inducing discourse on locking in and quitting the internet, choosing whimsy, manifesting abundance and adopting the Chinese zodiac to conjure the momentum of the Horse.

Simultaneously, I’ve clocked a gravitation towards harnessing positivity in the “era of possibility”, a prioritisation of earnestness and, a lot of chat about God, or a god of our own understanding. I see this return to hope and faith - regardless of religion - as a growing necessity in our contemporary era of overwhelming chaos.

I’ve committed to no resolutions or absolutions, I’ve screenshotted many entertaining and ephemeral In and Out lists, and I’ve been lost in the food prediction landscape.

But, before I dive into my opinion on everyone else’s predictions, I want to share The Goal is to Eat’s 2026 wishlist. Taking a leaf out of ’s book, I’m putting my desires out into the public domain.

This year, TGITE will:

1. Launch a talk show

2. Revive Food and the City

3. Host an XL PARLOUR

4. Programme a cultural conference

5. Open a bureau-cum-boutique

6. Create surprising merch

2026 PREDICTIONS

I get paid to give my analysis of and forecast on the hospitality industry elsewhere, so you’ll have to wait a few weeks for those.

In the meantime, here are some trusted sources (sorcerers) I’ve turned to, whose opinions I disagree with in places, as well as my own hopes for the year to come.

• Helen Rosner’s “pulled these out of my ass” suggestions are great. I’d like to see secret smoking rooms and branded breath mints appear in higher end restaurants.

• Friend of TGITE, Nil Mutluer gave The Face five food predictions that perfectly align with her ethos to cooking – that’s how you know she’s thriving. I would however like to contest the caviar point. Please can we not make it “the new salt”.

• Natasha Pickowicz provides annual baking foresight with her joyful collages. I agree with her on Marzipan (I’ve said it before, and I’m eating marzipan off the top of leftover Christmas cake as I write this), Fruit Carvings (I wish she’d referenced ’s work here) and Portraiture on Cake (I adore Stroma Sinclair’s designs, which I wanted to copy this year for the aforementioned cake, but my mum loves to refute my decorative suggestions).

• Most of Lauren O’Neill’s food trends in British Vogue could have been written in 2024 about 2025, but I wholeheartedly concur with her final point: the downfall of the food influencer. I wish that every self-respecting eater would choose to collectively ignore every single audio visual man in food.

• Best Food Blog offers eight predictions for 2026 (I finally became a paid subscriber to access these) and I highly recommend the platform if you don’t already know about it. I agree with them that Japanese culture, tea and protein (fibre isn’t as sexy) will only grow in prevalence over this year. I also recommend their 2025 round up of The Year in Food Writing.

• Lastly, the New York Times suggests a year of “quieter tastes”. It’s all whole foods, comfort, simplicity and nostalgia. But the following points stuck out most to me, which are true for London dining and Londoner’s appetites too:

  • Value over affordability

  • Dining in hotel restaurants to feel as though you could be on holiday (would love thoughts on this)

  • Japanese-style breakfasts (savoury over sweet)

  • Foods that focus on women’s health (I’d like to start eating with my cycle, cc the magical who I recommended reading, if you want to learn how to eat better)

  • More one-dish restaurants (this will come from imported global chains too)

  • Solo dining as self-care (this is not new but holds strong because we’re more individualistic than ever, and so, back to the solo counter-dining listicles of 2023 we go).

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• We’re officially in soup season. Several food world friends have already visited Sông Quê’s brand new Pho Bar that opened on Friday. I dined at the original café that same day and there was a non stop queue out the door. I had never previously clocked the £4 side of pho broth on the menu, which we both ordered as an amuse bouche. A Viet miso, if you will.

  • Speaking of soup, (the writer of review classics such as Made in Manhattan, Remade in London or Long Live the Pasta Boyfriend!) has just launched a newsletter called , in which she speaks lovingly of Sông Quê’s Pho Bar.

• I found myself deeply angered by Phineas Harper’s terrible etiquette advice. I fervently believe you should NEVER ghost a host. I host a lot, personally and professionally, and I always want to know, however last minute, if you can’t make it. It doesn’t matter if the occasion isn’t intimate, no showing with no reason is poor behaviour, and misapplied audacity. Also, if it’s a brand event, best believe you’ll soon get blacklisted.

• The supremely talented Tintin Jonsson and Niko Andreadis have launched Off The Trolley. An events catering business for fun, decadent celebrations. Niko specialises in European seasonal cooking and baking, while Tintin specialises in east and south East Asian cooking. Tintin catered my birthday party (as ) almost 3 years ago, and she is an exceptional human, so pay attention.

• Condé Nast Traveller’s 2026 restaurant judging panel is almost excellent. A line up of 11 judges will come together in March to select the winners of The UK’s Top New Restaurant Awards.

• on food media “formats” is a good read, if you’re in the game.

• Bar Antarctica and Australasia, We Are Ona produced events on every continent in 2025. Culinary experiences, particularly exclusive ones, aren’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

• Karam’s is taking over from MEATLiquor in the Brunswick Centre. A sign of the times. Also, it should be noted that 2026 is the year where Ravinder Bhogal and Nadeem Lalani Nanjuwany will dominate cuisine in cultural spaces, with their V&A East museum café set to open in the Spring too.

• In sadder news for cultural spaces, four London park cafes will become Daisy Greens in the Spring. City of London Corporation has chosen Daisy Green (I have only experienced Daisy Green in the National Portrait Gallery, and it sucked) to run the cafes at Queen’s Park, Golders Hill Park, Parliament Hill Lido and Parliament Hill Fields.

• To close on a positive note, echoing Jimi Famurewa’s sentiments in his latest Broadsheet bit, I’m excited about London hospitality in 2026. Somehow, despite all economic odds, and for all the older, more experienced male operators defining our mainstream dining scene, there are just as many bright chefs, sommeliers and operators opening places of their own that focus on the cuisine of their heritage, with outstanding determination. I’ll be here all year, taking stock, and I hope you’ll be with me too.

Thank you for reading Stocktake by The Goal is to Eat. See you next week.

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Forgive me for being MIA last week. Life got hectic, my mind became blocked and I started second guessing everything. A common case of festive frazzlement.

Thankfully, all the love The Goal is to Eat has received this past year helped me push through. I started this newsletter as a way to produce something tangible, that served my interests alongside my day to day work, which felt ephemeral and invisible. I launched TGITE on 4th December 2024 when I felt as burnt out as I do now (a seasonal pattern?). I didn’t know what TGITE might become, and I definitely didn’t anticipate turning a riff on the Greek key into a trademark, where friends around the world would send me spirals and meanders every week, spotted in the unlikeliest of places.

Then again, this is the beauty of being in the business of appetite. We never know where our hunger might lead us.

I’ve got lots of ideas for TGITE and my only wish for 2026 is to see them through. Stay tuned but also, please share your thoughts: what would you like to see?

This is edition 31 of Stocktake (to match my age). It’s also one of the longest editions I’ve written, published on the shortest day of the year. London’s world of taste has been turbo-charged this past fortnight and there’s a lot to unpack, so I’ve riffed with some new sections: OPEN–CLOSED, PARTY TIME and NOTABLE NOURISHMENT.

There won’t be a Stocktake next Sunday. I’ll be horizontal and I hope you will be too. We return with POWER in January.

OPEN–CLOSED

Some good news, some bad news

• Daquise remains open for the foreseeable. I’d been worried I wouldn’t make it back before TfL forced them to close, but rest assured, there’s still time to doll up for a cold shot of hazelnut vodka.

• The same goes for Rowan’s, as per their “response to all the hoo-ha”. Though I - like many - enjoyed Ed McIlroy’s emotive ode to Finsbury Park and late night venues on Wednesday, I recommend you read this segment in London Centric from Tuesday instead. Get the context of what’s going on, and why it’s happening now.

• Saltine is closing down today. After two years trading as the ideal neighbourhood spot, the team have decided to focus their effort on their FINK’s empire. Fun fact: my boyfriend co-designed the beautiful space and I pray the next incarnation will continue to do it justice. If you’re free today, go for lunch and order Devils on Horseback.

• I couldn’t help but eye roll when I saw the Osteria Vibrato announcement photos. Oh yes, that’s right, we’ve seen it before. I’d like to suggest a shift away from male operators posing à table for press release imagery. However! I’m excited by Osteria Vibrato. I’m pleased that the enigmatic Gaia Enria is involved, and that in true Italian style a £3 coperto will allow olive oil, parmesan, bread for scarpetta, kitchen scraps and bespoke mineral water (whatever that means) to be given to each table on arrival.

• Soft and Swirly are crowdfunding for their soon-to-open ice cream shop. Another top spot coming to Hackney Road, which is in the midst of a serious glow up.

• Observer Food Monthly (OFM) is no longer a print publication. Now just a weekly newsletter and online content, it’s allowed The Observer Magazine to step up its food game. And so far, that looks to be going well.

  • I’m told The Guardian (technically no longer affiliated to The Observer, but I see it as an overlapped audience pool) is exploring a new food outlet – watch this space.

• Two independent print magazines are now calling for pitches!

  • Scary Boots zine on the matter of Ritual

  • Off Menu magazine on the topic of Multi-generational family projects

PARTY TIME

Observations on a theme

• Two Wednesdays ago, I ate cubes of pâte de fruits and glacé cherries by Imogen Kwok at the Georg Jensen shop on New Bond Street. I considered heading to the St. JOHN Neal’s Yard launch party after, but instead ate Japanese takeaway standing up in my kitchen. That same night, I had friends at six other occasions: HURS x Saie dinner at The Serpentine, Pears for Lunch at Skeehan’s where The Pogues made a guest appearance, The Fence’s Christmas party, a 2sday Supper Club x Sondr dinner, the opening of the Guinness Brewery and Mathilda Goad’s Ebury St. shop launch. For a hot minute London felt like what I hear living in New York is like.

• Speaking of HURS, I like that they list out the attendees at their events. In many ways it’s a flex that proves the calibre of guests, but it also provides us with backstage access. I reckon we’ll start seeing more open guest lists, and ones where attendees are told who’s invited and attending. I also hope PRs are using these HURS party lists as inspiration to refresh their own.

• Cantina, Sifnos is coming to London. Cooking alongside the team at oma on 24th January, it’s the second leg of the pairing I orchestrated in September time. David Carter’s aim with this is to create a “Boiler Room taverna” and I can’t wait to see George Samoilis on the decks. I’m afraid to say it’s sold out.

• The fashion press is also all over the party.

  • The Face has written about Singing With My Friends (the fashion crowd karaoke night) and Lost (the experimental no phone club night)

  • British Vogue analysed people’s outfits at Lost

  • And on the reverse: Lost is publishing its own zine

    

• does party reporting like no one else. I recommend issues 017 and 018 of her newsletter for a dose of NYC sociali(t/f)e.

• This PEOPLE WHO KISSED LAST NIGHT photo series is fun. It also filled me with that all too familiar sense of dread that I felt as a partying teen when, on the morning after, the club photos would be released publicly to Facebook.

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

Consumables for your consideration

• Since I’m talking parties, Sue Chan on is a great listen on the event economy and IRL experiences as status symbols. The brand event scene is what seems to drive culture, with a select group attending the events and the rest of us watching them unfold through our phones. Is every moment we’re living through now (vicariously or otherwise) actually, always, a marketing strategy?

• The “adult advent calendar for food freaks” AKA the 99 Best Restaurants in London proved quite the hit. Perfect phrasing there coined by Phoebe Patrick. My favourite takeaway is the term “watercolour cuisine” and the only complaints I’ve discussed with friends are that 1. the selection of Pakistani restaurants is poor, and 2. Planque isn’t deserving of No. 1 for a few reasons.

• This Observer piece on losing our taste for viscious reviews and finding curated positivity in Broadsheet is brilliant. I’ve re-read parts of it thrice.

  • Andy - the “miserable, balding, rapidly ageing man” - Lynes’ rebuttal to it is a great read too. For my full thoughts on the subject, let’s get coffee.

• After the Vanity Fair White House shoot, we’ve seen enough close ups to last a lifetime, but then LS&Sia posted this. Just to announce lunch.

• The latest British Vogue profiles: Grace Dent by Anna Cafolla and Ravinder Bhogal by Mina Holland. Is BV becoming a food culture magazine?

• I’m intrigued to see what Messy Lunch will be like. “A chaotic new food and music show coming to a screen near you” by Gizzi Erskine and Leonie Cooper. Their style isn’t my usual cup of tea, but I have a feeling this will be on the right side of silly.

• Slutty Cheff launched her newsletter and called it HOT FAT. I remain a SC sceptic, and her first piece on The Ivy Asia did not fill me with hope.

• Meanwhile, proved yet again why she’s inimitable. I screenshotted her 12th December edition titled Since when did everyone become obsessed with hospitality? at least five times. My best bits:

  • Learning about London’s two upcoming member’s clubs (one of which former UK PM Liz Truss is involved with) and the reason why so many clubs fail to stick: “there isn’t someone whose sole focus is introducing members to each other and facilitating introductions.” Quo Vadis needs a connector.

  • Exploring Observer’s 2025 Nightlife & Dining Power Index and zoning in on Eugene Remm’s quote which I have been saying for a while now: “The most significant shift, in my opinion, has been that there is no middle. If you are not creating extreme experiences or extreme conveniences—either fast casual on the convenience side or the kind of elevated experience like what we are creating—people are no longer accepting just a nice, normal meal at a normal restaurant.”

A final festive tip: last weekend, we loaded dressed brown and white crab (crème fraîche, lemon, chives, Lea & Perrins, salt, pepper) onto Tyrrel’s sea salt Furrows (the texture of the wave is important) and sprinkled spheres of roe over the top. The ideal snack with a glass of Crémant. I hope you’ll like it too.

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I’m adequately hydrated, sleep deprived and over stimulated. This is my first trip to India, and there are few things better than arriving someplace new and absorbing all its magical idiosyncrasies for the very first time.

I’m enjoying that:

• you can buy a single street side cigarette and light it with a communal lighter

• after dinner paan (the sweet variety) freshens you up instantly

• adornment exists effortlessly, with embellishment in unexpected places

• trucks and taxis are painted with brilliant - sometimes humorous - graphics

• I ran into a friend of friends from London at a bar called Slink & Bardot

• the Mahindra Bolero looks like a G Wagon (the police drive a great colourway) while the Tahr looks like a Wrangler

• mutton seekh kebabs are almost too easy to eat

• my stomach can handle (most of) the dairy

• the perfect tissue box already exists

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• London On The Inside debuted on Substack by disagreeing with my Zonal PR Guide. Jules Pearson agreed with the rest, mirroring much of my Stocktake intro from 24th October. The reductionism I opted to close off with then aimed to challenge the status quo and encourage a progressive conversation.

• ’s advent calendar is my new favourite read on Instagram. The other day she quoted Irish poet Dave Rock: “I give myself permission to make infinite mistakes”. I read this at a very apt moment, and I’m now convinced that the most prosperous people I know live by this philosophy.

• Branded booze Christmas trees are having their moment. See: the Showerings cider al fresco bottle tree at the festive celebration on Wednesday night (a very good party if I do say so myself). Also: the Ghia holiday pop up.

• KITH Creative Director and CEO Ronnie Fieg is opening his first restaurant, Ronnie’s, in London. A Mediterranean-Inspired New York Bistro (ugh) next to the KITH store on Regent’s Street it’ll be open all day from 12th December. We didn’t need this, but I will be observing its progress, from afar. I often think of KITH Treats - the ice cream and cereal bar - that opened in Selfridges when I consider the streetwear-snack culture overlap.

• More dinner place settings should include selfies and 3D stickers. These photo key rings by CEBE for the recent Fashion East dinner are joyous.

• I hope to meet one day soon. Until then, I’ll keep reading his opinionated interviews, like the latest in Shop Rat on his new clothing brand Hanover. I chose not to work in retail because it felt stagnant compared to restaurants, but he makes a good point on the contrary: I don’t want to work in restaurants because they smell bad, they’re dirty, and you gotta stay up late.

• On the topic of men with opinions, I’m noticing more male-authored, man-focused gift guides. They’re a novel service to me, but one that could prove useful for boy shopping this month, particularly Joel Golby’s Gift Guide.

• For the third year running, I’m editing Gemma Bell & Company’s IN SERVICE report (my brain child and most challenging annual project). The next issue will publish in the new year and assess our trust in other people’s tastes. We’re anonymously collating one line hot takes and I want to hear from you, my esteemed TGITE readers. What are your desires for the world of food in 2026? Email or text me – no opinion is invalid.

• My fear that no one cares about spelling anymore is coming true.

• Finally, and most importantly, you should all buy a ticket to this. Rahel Stephanie and Sarah Souli are cooking a family style Greconesian feast at The Drapers Arms on Monday 15th December. All food and half of drink proceeds will be donated to the Gaza Mutual Aid Solidarity Fund. Echoing their words on the invite: FUCK SMALL PLATES AND FUCK THE OCCUPATION. FREE PALESTINE.

Thank you, as ever, for reading / sharing / loving The Goal is to Eat.

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On Wednesday, we launched the Athlyn 2026 calendar (plus diamanté t-shirts and posters) at their floral design studio in Shoreditch, with drinks by Ghost Labs and Agua de Madre and a rose, lychee and black sesame cake by Louis Thompson.

The attention to detail in the design (three types of paper stock!) is impeccable and I love the visuals of Athlyn’s world, created by SM Studio. Your loved ones deserve this calendar cum collectible object – I know mine do. (Merry Christmas mum!)

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Some things on my mind this week:

• The Observer has had a face lift. Meanwhile, magazine editor Alex Moshakis is shaking things up at a good pace, with the latest issue focusing on what goes on After Dark (edited by Holly O’Neill). I enjoyed Angela Hui’s piece on late night eating in London and it’s fun to see J. Lee featured too.

• Why open one restaurant in one month when you could open two? Martin Kuczmarski of The Dover just opened Martino’s (as reported last week) and this week, launched Dover St. Counter two doors down from the original. Pitched as a late night, casual party spot, it’s open until 2am on the weekend. It’ll make for a great place to people watch.

• Jimi Famurewa wrote about London dining’s increasing lack of grit. It’s true, especially when more operators are rolling out the same tried and tested concepts (see above). So, here I am with some good examples of grit.

  • Two ideas for lunch today: Marcelo Rodrigues at Quality Wines or Song Soo Kim at Hector’s.

  • Gorka returns to Italo for three weeks of December.

  • Tasca will be in residence at Giacco’s from 9th Dec until the end of Jan.

  • Sonora is opening for dinner from next week.

• Everyone’s shopping at London’s top tier, niche shops. Speaking to Ollie Olanipekun the other day, we agreed that London’s young contemporary galleries and interesting shops are what best sets the city apart from Paris and NYC.

  • Nordic Poetry has been featured in i-D, Jake’s is in the latest issue of Ton and Perfect Lives (whose Wooden City interview I recommend) is in The Face.

  • I also wrote about five of my favourite Independent fashion and design shops in East London for . liked it, and I’ve read her columns since I was a teenager, so seeing her name appear in my inbox was a surprise.

• Hugh Corcoran is not cooking at McGlynn’s. He came back to Instagram this week to say: “The Fence is a hateful barstool-gossip column and whatever rumours they may be spreading about me running another pub are completely false and unfounded […] I only believe in having one small place to cook in and that will stay like that.”

• The first copies of Vittles Issue 2 are circulating amongst contributors. It appears to be the ideal combination of silly and informative. I wonder whether there’s any subliminal messaging to the word SLOP featuring in the food percentage chart on the front cover.

• Apollo Bar and Apartamento know how to throw a party. I like how much the guests dancing on tables was documented on social media. Food vs fashion parties can differ a lot (fashion people often tell me they prefer food world parties as people actually eat, drink and chat to one another) but I think magic only really happens when you bring the two crowds together.

Thank you for reading The Goal is to Eat.

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On Wednesday, I hosted the sixth PARLOUR of the year, an invite-only event series I initiated in February. I wrote more about why I was compelled to create the space for intimate, IRL connection after the third edition, which you can read here.

I’ve now hosted 25 women around my dining table and it brings me great pleasure to see guests find so much joy and energy in one another’s company. In this week’s PARLOUR we shared the things we’ve learnt about ourselves this year, and what we’d like 2026 to mean for each of us.

It was one of those magical evenings where nothing else mattered, made all the more special because I didn’t cook dinner. I outsourced the main to my local favourite Ustun, ordering chicken soup and pide – the ideal combination for a freezing cold evening. I decanted the soup into a large pot and refilled small bowls for us at the table. I also prepared another - now trademark - Sweet Salad.

If the company’s great, and the wine and conversation flows, I believe the main part of a dinner party can be joyfully outsourced.

In today’s Stocktake:

• The St. Pancras and Sloane Square openings of the week

• I too would name a shoe after my favourite seaside eatery

• How to run a restaurant like an artist

• A printed flyer is powerful, if your message is clear

• The magazine interrogating the sink and its surrounding rituals

• More places should reflect their owner’s specific “taste memories”

• And, I’m totally charmed by baking nuns

NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

Read more

I’ve been in Lisbon and Liverpool for work this week, and it has been raining non stop.

My last visit to Lisbon was a couple of years ago, and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy the pastelarias with their egg and sugar loaded confections. I like the subtle taste of Delta coffee, the slow pace of the city and how much time the older crowd spend over a bowl of soup or a slice of cake in a leitaria, eaten alone or among friends.

I had never previously clocked the ubiquity of Portuguese pink marble, particularly in the decor of neo-tascas, but this time I could not miss it. At O Velho Eurico, which was my best meal of the trip thanks to a piglet empanada with peppery jus and an orange-scented leite creme whose sugar top I got to burn myself, and at Canalha, where we tried green eggs (devilled and deep fried) and an Amarguinha (almond liqueur) sour, the Rosa marble clads the entire room. The same material shows up on Gunpowder Lisboa’s tables, where I set chef Ana da Costa up to cook for a collab Curry Night.

I love it when a colour and material consistently appear around a big city, a bit like Bangkok green or Athenian yellow. It helps connect a place to itself.

Wherever you go in Lisbon, you’re never far from a view of the Vasco da Gama bridge, the longest bridge in the EU. To celebrate its opening in 1998, almost 16,000 people sat and ate feijoada (bean and pork stew) on a table along one side, officially making it the longest dining table in the world. When I was told this fact, all I could think about was the pain of the pack down. Turns out, the event was sponsored by Fairy, who promised to clean all of the dishes using just one litre of its washing-up liquid.

This Sunday’s issue is paywall free. If you enjoy what you read, forward this to your friends who might also love reading The Goal is to Eat.

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NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• I visited Public Readings Library yesterday and scanned a few fun books. Set up by Jake Day - to support adults in cultural learning, facilitating knowledge expansion with offline materials - and assisted by his impressive creative network, the pop up is hosted at Allotment in E8. A bookcase by Andu Masebo houses donated books from 60 friends, and a dining table designed à la Enzo Mari features a tightly curated, rotating selection. Yesterday, restaurateur Missy Flynn’s food culture books were on show, with an incredible mix of vintage art and academic publications. Check out Public Readings Library until next Wednesday.

• Resy published The 2025 Resy Retrospective. A bite sized trend report whose analysis of dining behaviours I enjoyed. I’m thrilled to finally have a name to give - Table Captain - to the role I play at almost every dinner with friends, where I’m by default the one in charge of the order and parlance with the server. Meanwhile, Tableside Service, Listening Bars, Mini Martinis and Omakaze as 2026 predictions (major trends since 2023 in London) indicate a sluggish shift in innovation.

• Financial Times HTSI announced that retro food is back. Again, more than two years late to the party. should have been included for her thoughts, and the editorial imagery is aesthetically in sync with the socials for Resy Rewind.

• Jimi Famurewa is launching a weekly column, The Counter, for Broadsheet. Arriving next Tuesday, it’ll be a “need-to-know debrief on everything that matters in the world of food and drink”.

• And food writing remains a HOT topic:

  • Best Food Blog published an article about the food writers fleeing Substack.

  • While has arrived on Substack to share draft essays of her next two books, and this week, she published Fuck Food - an essay anthology with the words she’d most like to be writing.

  • Off Assignment has launched a food writing course led by Ali Francis, with guest authors Ruby Tandoh, Alicia Kennedy, Tejal Rao and Soleil Ho. The course consists of four weekly online seminars, priced at $420.

  • gave the scoop that Puck alumni are shopping around a new food media startup to serve “industry insiders as well as consumers.” As a side note, I’ve always found it interesting that there is no food vertical on Puck.

• A few days ago, I saw that food artist Alix Lacloche created a book all about glasses (the drinking kind) in collaboration with Venetian glass brand Laguna~B. I ventured onto the Laguna~B website and browsed their excellent online magazine, which took me to a page all about Bruno Amadi’s glass orange peel. Brands wanting to build interesting editorial, take note of Laguna~B. The name Bruno Amadi was familiar to me because I’d seen photographer Adrianna Glaviano post portraits she took of him at work for the latest issue of THE PLANT magazine, just days earlier. Big up Bruno, his work is magic.

• Speaking of beautiful things: Athlyn’s calendar is now out in the world. You should pre-order the floral Ikebana-inspired calendar cum collectible object, or accompanying B2 poster, as Christmas presents. There’s also a party at Athlyn’s studio on Wed 26th to celebrate. RSVP to events@athlyn.co and see you there!

• It’s funny how much we continue to attach ourselves to cultural, seasonal identifiers. See: Bistro Girl Autumn (Hannah Crosbie for British Vogue) and across the pond, Opera House Fall (Alexis Badiyi for Marie Claire).

• FKA BAM is closing down and changing things up. Yet another casualty of 2025. But, I have high hopes for what Lee and Kate Tiernan will do next with the space. Regular service continues until 20th December, and the set menu is a very fun way to celebrate life. Trust me, I’ve taken both my now boyfriend and ex boyfriend there for their birthdays. From the new year, the space will house a pop up, and I’m interested to see if they’ll re-decorate.

• DELLI is rumoured to be moving to a different model… Watch this space.

• Does anyone make a podcast anymore that isn’t filmed? I have it on good authority that are videoing their upcoming series, while the just-launched Expense Account utilises that “we’re keeping things super casual but really care about high production” visual style.

• My favourite thing about Beaujolais Day is how Swansea celebrate it. “Swansea’s Christmas Day” is being honoured by Rake this Thursday at The Compton Arms, with a Swansea Day menu, and brand new Beaujolais too.

Thank you for reading, and until next week, The Goal is to Eat.

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Welcome back. I’ve been advising one of my best friends to self-critique less, to not overanalyse her existence on a daily basis, and to keep doing the thing, trusting that the pieces will eventually fall into place. Much easier said than done, and the only reason I say it is because it’s what I need to hear too.

Stocktake comes two days late this week because Friday ran away from me. I’ve come to accept - and enjoy - that I lack enough discipline to be too strict with myself. When offered three glasses of pet nat at a client meeting at 4pm on Friday, I embraced it and accepted that my buzzing brain dump of a newsletter would have to be finished another day.

So here I am. I came back to it this morning with much more lethargy that I’d have liked, and started to question the point of it all. What was the purpose of me starting The Goal is to Eat, of creating Stocktake and committing to this format?

To write about the things I think are interesting and deserve to be said. I have a talent for observation and analysis, so here I am, continuing to do the thing I set out to do.

On Friday morning, I worked from Quo Vadis and watched two middle aged men - sitting solo, separately - order themselves a glass of champagne, before noon.

November is, after all, a celebratory season and I come to you with observations from three parties from this past week.

1. My friend Nil Mutluer, AKA Heal Goblin, consistently rewrites the script of what a branded food activation might look like. This week she entered the beauty zone and along with her partner John Chen, who together operate as Soft Studies, created an edible installation of playful refinement for Dr. Karen Doherty’s collaboration with Neada Deters of all-natural skin care brand Lesse. If I wasn’t so attached to my facialist Julia Hart, I’d consider seeing Dr. KD.

2. Monument launched their new gallery space in Leyton and Jago Rackham cooked dinner. I enjoyed his concrete block cake, the very same idea I had but never executed for my building loving boyfriend’s birthday earlier this year. I also liked the sculptural candles set on the table. If anyone knows who makes them, tell me.

3. Top Jaw’s 10th Birthday was hosted at Decimo. I wasn’t invited, and sipped Nyetimber outside Shreeji at the &Daughter pop up instead, after running into my friend Cam on his way there. I chatted to the Awaykin team about the genius of their office doubling as a store and event space, and its power as a shopfront for their business as a “fashion growth studio”.

   I stood facing the recently opened (and already packed) The Hart, by Public House Group, and was distracted by the white lights of the kitchen upstairs. I kept glancing up at the KP, whose sink looks out onto Chiltern Street.

   I’m not a Top Jaw fan (unless one of my friends is being interviewed) but I’m impressed by their decade long commitment. We tend to expect overnight success and choose to forget that people pivot many times (the duo’s now infamous bite sized, quick fire recommendations only started a few years ago) until we finally find the thing that sticks.

   I might not have been at the party, but here’s what my sources had to say:

• “It was intense, very full and people were VERY DRUNK.” The guest list sat at 600 RSVPs.

• “It was like a school reunion”. This makes sense.

• “The speeches were totally unprepared and went on for 35 minutes.”

• “The best bite was hands down the BiBi fried chicken.”

• There was an awkward moment between Stevie Parle and David Ellis after the latter’s recent review of Motorino titled “Great chef, shame about the restaurant.” My question: should Luke Ahearne be given high profile roles and coverage when he’s said to be abusive to his teams? Or is this not well publicised enough?

• DJ Fat Tony and chef Chet were on the decks, while Niall Horan was spotted in the room.

• Not many celebrities, PRs or journalists were in attendance but unsurprisingly, “every chef ever” in London was.

• When Jesse Burgess was asked for his best restaurant in London, he said Camille. Also makes perfect sense.

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NOTABLE NOURISHMENT

• Hoppers is going into the former Lyle’s site. Of course JKS would keep a spot like this in the family. This space will mark Hopper’s forth site and cements Shoreditch High Street as a small-chain strip.

• London Fields now has a wonton noodle soup bar. Wonton Charlie’s opened on Friday.

• Ellie’s is transforming into Dalston’s hottest Snack Bar. Once upon a time, Ellie’s was Pamela’s, which over the past decade served as a home to both Decatur and Ling Ling’s. It was only a matter of time before Ellie’s also started serving food and there’s appetite (Nil and Lana have almost sold out) so I’m looking forward to watching their food programming develop this winter.

• Lili Vanilli baked cakes to match Wayne Thiebauld’s paintings. How pleasing. I’ve not yet visited the Courtauld exhibition, but many of the pastry chefs I follow have.

• Wall calendars are back in style. Mark my words, and get stocking up for stylish Christmas presents. Mainly Breakfast’s annual seasonal eating calendar is now available, while another calendar cum art piece (that I’m very excited for) launches later this month.

• On the theme of gifts, Restos Routiers looks like a good book for anyone interested in food design history.

• And to continue my trend forecast: marzipan fruit is soon to be everywhere. Tis their season as festive adornment, but Presto’s genius creations (marzipan cherries and chocolate cigarettes spotted at the latest Luncheon magazine launch) are getting much deserved attention.

• Lexie Smith is back in action, announcing her new book Bread On Earth: Lessons and Recipes Inspired by a World of Bread Eaters.

• London on the Inside spoke about Substack saturation, only to launch themselves on Substack. I keep seeing brands treat Substack as a separate channel to their usual newsletter, which doesn’t make sense to me when both will end up in my inbox. Case in point LOTI, which already has a newsletter, but will use their Substack - named Inside Job - to “deep dive into all the things that didn’t make the cut for London On The Inside. We can promise it won’t be a list, but rather a deeper look into “industry” topics.”

• From 8th January 2026, English proficiency requirements for skilled worker immigration visas will rise to B2 level. This previously sat at B1 and the difference between B1 and B2 is significant it its linguistic nuance. I worry how much this will ultimately impact the world of hospitality, and it’s not being spoken about enough.

• I enjoyed this profile on Frankie Carattini. Found via it’s good to see a party doorman getting press attention, as well as equity in the hospitality businesses he sets the energy for. In his words, “I guess I am creative director, director of guest services, chief vibe officer.”

• Global food culture homogeneity continues to proliferate. Two recent examples:

  • Jolene merch in a store in Tokyo, as spotted by my friend Charlotte.

  • A Trader Joe’s tote recreated Dom’s Subs style. An object that could only be masterminded by .

• I’ve written before about my admiration for Sharmadean Reid and her new bathing brand 39BC. For the public launch of 39BC, she’s curated a week of film screenings and workshops hosted at Mason & Fifth in Westbourne Park. This location - home to workspace Meadow and restaurant Canal - works hardest to community build for Mason & Fifth, which offers boutique residences for flexible stays across three London locations.

• Balbosté - Europe’s glammest food art studio - is following in We Are Ona’s steps. On 17th November, to introduce their new space called Le Grand Atelier, they will host their first ticketed dinner, open to the public and featuring seven international artists. The collaboration will present “a conversation between cuisine and design” i.e. a 5 course dinner, priced at 130 €. I’m excited to see the results online, and if you find yourself in Paris and go, keep me posted!

• Last Sunday, asked for my friendship recommendations. They are almost entirely dining themed, of course.

Thank you for reading, and until next week, The Goal is to Eat.