THE FEED: June 2025

What I'm eating, reading, doing, living.

THE FEED

A monthly catch-up from The Recovering Line Cook

If you’ve been reading this newsletter a while, you’ll know I spend a lot of time in the past; stories from my cooking life, and reflections on my time as an immigrant in Finland.

And I love that. It means what I share with you is always deeply felt and as polished as I can make it. But it also leaves less space for the here and now, what I’m eating, watching, working on, and learning.

So, I’m starting something new.

I’m calling it The Feed (because you know like feed as in food and feed as in a news feed? Oh, forget it). You’ll get one on the first Friday of every month, and they’ll always be free.

Let’s begin.

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Eating

Something I’ve not made any effort to talk about here (which is pretty fucking stupid now I think about it) is that I’ve spent some pretty big chunks of my life as a vegetarian, the longest of which was well over a year when my wife and I were living in Stockholm.

There were two big reasons:

1. The environmental one

2. Because it was so bloody easy

The truth is, neither of us were/are the biggest of meat eaters. (Note: we only added a little meat back into our diet when my wife became pregnant).

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve eaten a steak since I was a teenager, I can’t stand the texture of animal fat, and, though I would have never imagined it as a 16-year-old, I just don’t think bacon is all that big a deal.

I’m sure some of you think I’m crazy, I hope we can still be friends.

Cooking meat though is another thing entirely. Grilling steak has been one of my professional cooking life’s greatest joys. I love it. It’s a craft I’ve had endless hours of fun doing, and it’s why I’ve loved writing about such things here on the newsletter.

And when I get access to genuinely sustainable (and such better quality) meat, like the reindeer I had in Lapland back in March, I really value the opportunity to support the tiny producers that make it possible.

In this regard I’m reminded of the head chef I worked with in a Stockholm steakhouse a decade ago. He once said to me that, despite his bottom line being contingent entirely on people buying meat from him, his goal was for people to eat less meat. When you consider all the meat in his restaurant came from small producers across the Stockholm Archipelago, you can appreciate the difference environmentally between the (admittedly pricey) stuff he was offering/supporting and cheap beef from industrial farming.

This kind of thinking was crucial to my education as a cook in the Nordics, where the relationship we have with(in) the environment, and the corresponding responsibility we have over our food choices, is such an important part of the story we offer guests.

I want that story to be one I do a better job of sharing in this newsletter from now on.

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Doing

Cooking classes now available at 50% off/soft launch prices

I’ve been so encouraged by the reception to my starting online cooking classes/workshops. These are something I’m really excited about and I love that those joining so far range from the very young as well as adults. This is still a soft launch so prices are really accessible. Dates now open across the summer and all the details below. Would love to hear from you!

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Reading

As a paid subscriber to Alicia Kennedy’s newsletter, I was lucky enough to watch her talk with the Scottish chef Pamela Brunton.

Brunton owns and runs the restaurant Inver in the west of Scotland, where she works with local producers heavily prioritising sustainability.

Ahead of the talk, I read Brunton’s book Between Two Waters, which I really couldn’t recommend more. Though it is written in the context of Scotland and “Scottish” food, it is valuable to anyone interested in food sustainability, cultural history, and restaurants generally. I particularly appreciated reading about her experiences in Nordic restaurants and thoughts on local food and foraging, which I felt mirrored mine.

And I’ll take this opportunity to recommend Alicia’s newsletter as well which really should be on anyone’s newsletter list if you’re into food writing.

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Living

Summer is here, even in Finland, and that means midsummer is round the corner.

The longer I live here in Finland, the closer June 21 aka midsummer (a day of absolutely zero importance to me growing up in England) gets to overtaking December 25 as my favourite holiday of the year.

Like every year we will be spending it in a little cottage without running water or plumbing on an island in the Finnish archipelago. You can look forward to a newsletter on cottage life (or mökki life to use the Finnish) later in the month. Expect sauna, coffee, lakes, probably some mosquitos, and lots about what we eat to celebrate the day.

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And what you might’ve missed

Cutting out meat isn’t a huge challenge for me, but eggs and dairy is another matter entirely. I was really proud of the Norwegian brunost cheesecake I worked out for you last month…

… and my serialised cookbook The Prep List continues to be a real source of joy for me to write for paid subscribers. So far I’ve released chapters on foraging and the “mind of a chef”.

The Prep List: Chapter Two

If you can afford the small upgrade fee to become a paid subscriber, you will help make this newsletter possible.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

A few shots from May: The cheesecake, a dish of noodles and mirin/soy marinated tofu, and some fermenting green tomatoes.

PS!!

Another thing I haven’t mentioned is that I’m running my local marathon in August. My training currently has me on course for a sub-4.5hr marathon time which I’m pretty happy about for a first-timer.

But I’d be even more happy if any of you might sponsor me in my effort to raise money for UNICEF to support the safety and welfare of children in the world’s worst conditions.

If you can spare anything, please click here to donate.