Hi, my name is...

Allow me to reintroduce myself

Someone once told me that they didn’t understand the concept of going out of their way to eat something that’s, “like, 8% better.” I replied by saying, “well, that’s my entire personality.” In fact, anyone who knows me well knows that I will drive, fly, swim, crawl, or run to find something delicious. And that I can talk about food, menus, cookbooks, cocktails, restaurants, and markets until we’re all blue in the face.

This might be obvious to you, dear readers of my weekly food and cooking newsletter. But you may not know that my career has been as a writer and editor for more than 10 years. I’ve worked for The Huffington Post, Eater LA, Mr and Mrs Smith, Fodor’s, Ralph Lauren, and many others. I’ve written and edited long articles, click-y slideshows, travel guides. I’ve designed and redesigned blogs and content series and websites. I’ve written for e-commerce, I’ve written restaurant news, I’ve written about fashion and art. And when I set out to start To Taste, I underestimated my own strong suit: writing about the things I’ve discovered, tried, seen, and loved.

You can never know how your work will be received until it’s out there. And now that To Taste has been out there for two and a half years, I’ve learned that what resonates most is the writing, talking, obsessing about food and how it intersects with our lives. The site has been celebrated for its design and functionality, and those things aren’t going anywhere. But you (and I!) seem to engage most with this newsletter and my (sometimes heavily filtered) Instagrams.

The question is still how to best play to these strengths? How to strike a balance between a stream of consciousness and Food Writing™? How to continue to grow this community? How to keep spreading the word about To Taste in a fresh way? I don’t have the answers yet, but I’m ready to give it all a shot. To…go in a new direction to make To Taste at least 8% better.

NOW, as you may have noticed, this weekend is all about romance. If you’re looking for ideas on how to make it special, I’ve got many: chocolate olive oil cake with bourbon whipped cream (for the grown-ups) or vanilla bean whipped cream (for everyone). Chrissy Teigen’s seared steak with spicy garlic-miso butter or chef Marc Murphy’s roast chicken and vegetables followed by this picture-perfect flan. Make this uber-trendy baked feta and tomato pasta, turn on Cooking Music 1, and swayyy.

Work together on homemade chocolate truffles. Order some Roe caviar (hurry!), grab some potato chips and creme fraiche, then swing by your local wine shop for a really good bottle of bubbles. (If you’re in LA, prioritize Covell or Ester’s for said bubbles. Or try Saucey to get it delivered and use code ILOVESAUCEY for $5 your first order) Try this excellent-looking recipe for oven fried chicken served with a winter crunch salad (I love this salad and I replace the Brussels sprouts with thinly sliced fennel, FYI). Mix a bitter spritz to sip together while you cook.

This is also your reminder to buy the flowers and get the card. That’s true even if (especially if) the flowers and the card are bought by you AND for you! I will be taking myself out to dinner on my couch with a menu of caviar, pasta, bubbles, and that new show about Stanley Tucci eating food in Italy.

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Now, how about some links?

If you want to buy me a gift, this Fines Herbes sweatshirt is a cute option (Megan Huntz)

Did you know there’s a directory for finding sustainable brands? And not only that, you can search your faves and see how they rank?? (Good on You)

Vogue did a roundup of their favorite cookbooks for beginners (Vogue)

My friend Julia Clancy wrote a fantastic and timely piece about diet culture (Food52)

A video I didn’t make but easily could (via Cup of Jo)

Here’s a list of really cool Black-owned businesses to shop asap (Jasmine Hemsley)

This is the only way I can process that one WTF Golden Globe nomination (McSweeney’s)

Watch this if you’ve seen Pretend It’s a City (SNL)

Also, highly recommend both Lupin (Netflix) and Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself (Hulu)

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In lieu of a trust fall, having sort of reintroduced myself, I’ll simply ask: What would you pick for your last meal?

I’ll go first: steak frites with a dirty vodka martini (extra olives) and Entenman’s raspberry danish for dessert, because food memories are powerful things.

Your turn.

xoxo,