getting to the (foodie) root of things

a little fear and a lot of self-discovery

Like Staind blared on TRL during my sophomore year of high school, it's been a while!

In the time that I've done not even the bare minimum as GOWRKGRLS (two years now…wild!), I've filled the void with other things. For work, freelancing brand voice strategy and copywriting for small businesses and big brands. For me, cooking, reading, decorating my apartment, tarot-ing, astrology-ing, traveling, pilates-ing, and also being appalled by these political attacks on diversity and people's autonomy – more on that later.

I've been calling this period my accidental sabbatical. The fact that it was even happening crept up on me. At first, it was just me kind of ignoring the "don't feel like it" lurking in the background of things I was supposed to be enjoying (IE, content creating, social media updating, networking...). I thought maybe it was post-pandemic vibes. Or because of my late 30's. Perhaps a little burnout from GWG in its current state.

Nothing spectacular happened the day I decided to acknowledge my sabbatical. One day, I was just like, "You know, I think I'm going to chill."

Of course, when you create the space to do so, you actually start thinking. So all this chill time got me wondering, what's next for me? And where do I want to go with GWG?

Fashionable frozen food brand Daily Harvest was one of the companies I wrote for during this period. The 18 months I spent sweet-talking their audience into eating fruits and veggies reminded me that at one time in my life, I had Anthony Bourdain dreams (Carrie Bradshaw dreams, too, if I'm being honest). But back during those TRL days, I also tuned in to Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and Insomniac with Dave Attell, intrigued by the idea of traveling, eating food, and sharing my experiences with other people.

Lines I wrote for Summer 2022 direct mail campaigns.

Me leaning into nostalgia to entice you to eat a Blueberry + Lemon Bite.

And then here comes Daily Harvest, a "say 'yes' before you're ready" opportunity (despite my love of cooking/food, I'd never written about it, so it scared me a little bit), resurrecting a long-forgotten life plan.

So, what's a girl on an unplanned sabbatical to do with this new (but actually old AF) download? Book a 5-day food writer's retreat in the Ligurian region of Italy!

I'd originally planned to do this in California and googled "food writer workshop LA." My only requirements were that I hone my food writing skills and see some mountains and the sea. Thanks to cookbook author Kathy Gunst's SEO (and an already-passed writing workshop in LA), I stumbled upon exactly what I was looking for on the West Coast…of Italy.

This was my first time traveling solo overseas, and it was a dream realization situation. Sipping Italian wine on a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean is a scenario that has played out in my head plenty.

In Italy, I ate, I wrote, and I indulged. (I've been told this was my Eat, Pray, Love moment. I've never seen that movie, but probably, lol). I went from Santa Margherita to Camogli to Genoa to Chiavari, eyes just as satisfied as my belly. I got my steps in traversing the hilly Ligurian terrain with a band of writers working on various things with one shared love: food.

Left: Villas in Camogli. Center: Me in Chiavari. Right: The most delish calamari dish in Santa Margherita.

Daily writing workshops brought me back to basics. I've been writing to sell stuff for the last 17 years, so imagine my delight that food writing could center solely on what I'm experiencing. No magic formula. My senses = guides. I could use food as a gateway to tell larger stories – which is the perfect segue for my next point.

It might sound like it RN, but this is not an essay saying that I'm doing away with women-centered content to write about food. It's an essay to say that I'm combining the two.

Remember my brief mention about these old white dudes in power attacking diversity and people's autonomy? That shit is really bothering me! Reading things like this makes me feel like it’s time to use my platform to talk about what’s really going on out here while championing women living in a place of possibility despite the challenges of our reality. 

And what better way to have some progressive conversations than over food?

So enter Hot Honey. Maybe I'll call it a magazine, maybe a community. But you can expect conversations about women's issues (not just politics; business and lifestyle stuff, too), plus recipe ideas and talking points, so if you choose, you can share the topics we discuss on the pod over good food.

You’ll hear more from me about Hot Honey in the coming months. In the meantime, you can find my musings – what I'm cooking (usually with ingredients from my CSA deliveries), writing about, and indulging in – here on Substack, TikTok, and Instagram. And since we’re talking about it, why not go ahead and give Feminist Supper Club a follow?

xx

PT