Housekeeping
The more I am online the more I find incredibly interesting, clever and creative people to follow. I have always found the internet a pretty inspiring place and it feels exciting to see Substack becoming a platform where people can pay for what they really want to consume and not just be beholden to an algorithm of information that they might not really engage with on a deeper level.
When I started my newsletter a few years ago I was using a different platform to send it out each week and when I moved over to substack a year or so ago I was very hesitant to offer any paid content. After lots of consideration I have decided to stop the paid portion of my newsletter. I am not a content creator as my job and I don’t want to be either. I love writing about food and sharing about food because I already do it to everyone I know and somehow there are now lots of you that also like reading about my particular style of cooking!
I know that this decision might seem strange given the amount of traction newsletters have and most people hope to go from free content towards paid so it might seem odd to go the opposite. Cooking, entertaining and sharing that energy around a table is a very natural thing and I find that it is a difficult thing to coerce into content. Most of my newsletter has been about sharing recipes, talking through different styles and techniques and sharing inspiration; all of which I still absolutely plan on doing, I still plan on putting together menus and hosting tips too just ‘al a minute' instead of as paid content. I like that newsletters are democratised and allow for there to be no barrier or algorithm in the way of sharing which is a big part about why I don’t want half of my recipes to be behind a paywall.
If you do want to support some newsletters by paying you can find some of the wonderful ones I pay for on the sidebar of my kitchennotes page (best to use a desktop). These creatives put huge amounts of energy and effort into their content, it is the way they make money and is directly affecting their work.
Hear is to lots more cooking!