FLAVOUR TOWN USA

an honest review of everything I ate in America

Ciao sweeties,

I hope the first week of September is treating you well. There has been an undeniable back to school energy in the air here in London, the weather has cooled down a notch or two and there’s a good few crunchy golden leaves underfoot. I’m usually someone who relishes the new term energy of September, launching into exciting projects and cleaning my space for the arrival of Autumn. But this year has been a little different, I’ve just come to the end of a very intense working period through August, while it felt like everyone else was floating in the mediterranean, I was jumping cities every couple of days, cooking supper clubs, recording podcasts and live TV segments. I had my busiest weeks of the year through the last month and feel a bit like I have missed the actual slow down of summer. Not one to let a moment pass me by, I have booked a last minute holiday with my boyfriend to Puglia next week, where I will spend two weeks eating, drinking, reading, swimming and soaking up as much of the last warm days of the year as I can. Frankly, it couldn’t come soon enough.

This time last week I had just landed into Heathrow, after a long flight from California, fresh from my US book tour - a real trip of a lifetime, full of moments I will cherish forever. I was jet lagged and exhausted, but had a supper club to return to for the following two nights here in London, so it was on we cracked. While it was a lot to go directly from the airport to the kitchen and back to back events, I will say that I think it helped the jet lag and I slept nine hours both nights, no 3am wake ups for me! (the hardcore melatonin gummies I picked up in CVS could have also played a part..)

Now that I have a bit of space from the trip, I’ve had a chance to think back through all the delicious things we ate, restaurants we visited and the many many highlights I could share. The Substack word limit prevents me from detailing every last drop of joy, so I have cherry picked a handful of my favourite moments, bites and recommendations to share with you here. We were lucky enough to visit New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but it’s worth noting that we never had more than three full days in each city, and between work commitments, our time was limited. There are SO many places I would have loved to visit that we just couldn’t make it to in time, so in the end, the spots we tried were chosen based on their opening times and proximity to my last meeting.

Before we get into the food, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came to the book shop events and supper clubs. The conversations I had with you all were far and away my highlight, it was an honour to meet so many avid cooks, writers and fellow feeders, to hear your stories and get to feed you my food was something I will cherish forever. One of the most frequent questions that came up in the Q&As was around what my advice would be for someone who is starting out in food writing and not sure where to begin. My answer was always a riff on the same sentiment, start with yourself and the thing you are passionate about. When the first burst of energy and drive from a new venture runs dry and you have to dig deep for motivation and resilience, it’s the genuine passion for a project that will keep you going. That, and get yourself on Substack - if you are reading this, then you are already half way there. If you’re thinking about starting your own Substack and are finding it hard to get going, I would suggest spending your time reading first. Hunt out the kind of work you enjoy, read some pieces you wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to, see if you can surprise yourself with new stories, angles and corners of this platform, it all adds to the well of your own creativity. Make a community for yourself here, connect with other writers who are starting out and nurture those friendships, read each other’s work, comment, like, share and subscribe if you can. For me, writing this newsletter every week, having a regular deadline to meet, a promise to keep and a community to share with, is one of the brightest highlights of my career - and certainly the highlight of my week.

Now, let’s chat food. If you are heading to NYC, LA or SF soon, I highly recommend you check out the below.

Sending love, Rosie x