The Goal is to Eat (!)

A soon-to-be inconsistent archive of notable nourishment

Friends, colleagues and family members - my boyfriend’s mum included - have asked me why I don’t have my own Substack. And the truth is, I’m scared.

Putting yourself out there is hard enough in pictures, let alone in words. Years ago, I aspired to be a writer, but I gave up because it was hard. To sit alone with letters, trying to find the right vocabulary and tone to translate feelings, build a valid point of view and transmit an energy through the page can be a solitary and soul-destroying task.

My first piece of “non self-published food writing” was for Vittles in March 2020, on Turkish supermarkets. Jonathan Nunn was a kind editor, and I was proud of it. From that high, I created Cornershop Chronicles, where I did crisp taste tests and wrote about Bobby’s, the shop and saviour at the end of my road. Some lockdown entertainment I suppose, but I went back to managing restaurants, and thankfully those posts are now archived – for all our benefit.

A couple of years later, I chose to morph this platform into Orexi (Greek for appetite), in what I hoped would become the space for my long-held desire to interview women from different backgrounds about food, feelings and fullness, answering the ever-evolving question of what it means to be fulfilled. I even got Callum to make me a logo, except that I never wrote a single post.

My history with having a newsletter is convoluted, and ties perfectly to the point my therapist is currently making that I turn away from the boring, the “beige”. Once I’ve explored an idea, I flick over to something else, leaving loose ends behind. But last Saturday, my friend - the photographer Sophie Davidson - came over for lunch, for an edition of Women Cook For Me.

I’m currently in a cooking rut. And when I say currently, we’re looking at one that spans the past two years, and I guess I’ve been in a writing rut too. I cooked Sophie a simple spaghetti alla puttanesca and in writing my essay around it - to be released soon - I realised I’ve missed putting words down on paper.

Still Life with Oysters, Jacob Foppens van Es

After I shared my puttanesca how-to with Basma in LA, and she immediately and enthusiastically voice-noted to suggest I recipe write for a living (nope) or at the very least start a newsletter (ahem) I thought, third time lucky, we go again.

The Goal Is To Eat was decided on the 141 home from work on Monday. I believe I first saw the quote, as photographed on the blue background, a while ago in one of Juliana Salazar’s iconic story mood boards, or maybe it was on one of Sharmadean Reid’s channels. I found it in my screenshots from Siren’s stories last summer, Braxton Miller tweeted the line in 2016, and it seems to be attributed to Steve Harvey on TikTok. I saw it once again on Alex Kessler’s stories and decided this had to be it.

The inspiration, of course.

I’m 96% extroverted and love socialising, I’m out most nights and not in the country a lot, so people think I’m very busy. I can’t cry about having a lot on my plate though, because I choose to live my life this way, and it has its pay offs. I hunt for the exceptional, as far as possible from the mundane and the ordinary – but it’s hard work.

I’m switched on, instantly interested but harder to excite, with good taste, a sharp eye and my finger firmly on the pulse, especially within food culture. In my day job, I act as a consultant, a conduit and connector, an editor and producer, within what I like to call the World of Taste. I sit at the intersection of food and drink, hospitality, communications and media. Which gently blurs into the attached spheres of fashion, design, art and lifestyle. And that, to me, is really the culture of pleasure-seeking, searching for things that are creatively nutritious.

A crop of a painting by Anouk Aumont and forever mood.

Yes, there are countless publications on here, and I’m obsessed with a lot of them (Feed Me is my daily news), so it remains to be seen what this will become. But I hope it evolves into an inconsistent collection of essays of interest, an outlet for my sentiments and knowledge, featuring occasional mood boards and interviews. If nothing else, I’m opinionated, curious and observant, I have excellent Google Maps and a deep repertoire of cross-cultural recommendations to share.

The one aim that’s for certain though, is for this to always be filled with notable nourishment. Because the goal is to eat.

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