Hello and welcome back to the podcast! Today I speak with writer and editor
. Rebecca publishes the newsletter and is the author of the book, Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen (Pushkin Press, 2022). Small Fires is unlike any other food book I’ve ever read—it’s part memoir, part manifesto and part poetry (I’ve quoted from the book in the newsletter—see here and here!). It was such a pleasure to speak with Rebecca, exploring what it means to cook, and why we cook.
We discuss gender roles in the kitchen, and how women especially are pressured into a performance of joy (as opposed to real, personal joy, which I explored last week), where cooking is perceived as an act of love instead of real work that takes an immense amount of skill. Rebecca also describes how recipes can be valuable forms of information and knowledge. In her book she “elevates the domestic to the level of an epic,” as she says, which I love. Because cooking is indeed a journey, and there’s so much we can learn in the kitchen, not only about food itself, but also about other people and about ourselves.
Stay tuned to the end because Rebecca describes some recipes she’s been making lately, and I’ve included links below to some of those dishes, including a blueberry custard tart that I’m dying to try!
You can listen to the podcast right here, or, better yet, subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. If you feel inspired, share it with your people or rate it in your podcast app—it goes a long way in supporting this work.
As always, remember to nourish yourself with intention and love.
xo, Nicki
@nickisizemore | more recipes | cookbooks | classes
Cooking is (Not) Love with Rebecca May Johnson