Before I get started, I have a quick update for you… it makes me nervous as I think you will all hate me a bit or consider me mercenary and well, just a bad person… so, *deep breath*, here goes…
Thanks Steph. Your writing continues to be clear and conversational. I am so glad you are continuing and I think the paid subscription option makes sense. I think American dollars are accepted. You have inspired me and thank you. I have been writing a weekly blog since then on Substack, gaining followers and mostly I do it for me. I am guided each week by a theme coming out of a seemingly random observation. Keep up the good work, the faith. I am enjoying learning to cook. It is a balance between wanting it to be perfect and appreciating the learning process. Typically what I cook or bake never is inedible and most of the time it amazingly good!
Hey Scott, thanks so much for your message . I've been nervous to make this little transition, so incredibly grateful for your kind words of encouragement and support!
Yes, it's funny how each week - however mundane it often seems - can initiate some element of conversation/interest! Love that you're enjoying your cooking/baking journey! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Nicola you're my hero and inspiration, thank you for being such a shining light. Also huge congratulations on the 100th KP! Cannot wait to see what more you have in store! xx
Great piece of writing, I do send you my support in these sometimes, troubling times of self-doubt. I do feel it myself, having starting off a career of food writer about three years ago after loosing my job at the beginning of covid and having no experience nor had any studies + English not being my mother tongue. But I believe it is in continuously doing things that we can really learn to appreciate who we are and what it is we are doing. As you rightly said, there is space for everyone in everything. We need to remember we are all unique in our own ways, trained or not!
Subscribed! I am assuming my payment converts to USD. I appreciate how you try, test, retry as necessary. To me, that is what makes a baker. Your passion for baking and living an authentic life speaks to me...looking forward to more TCC!
Steph, just to keep things in perspective, around 15-20 years ago i was working in New York for JP Morgan, an investment bank and happened across Jamie Dimon in the same restaurant as i was. I was lucky enough to have a few drinks with him. Before it was coined ‘imposter syndrome’ people used to have that nightmare when you imagine someone suddenly standing up at a meeting and pointing a finger at you and saying ‘you don’t know what you are doing !’ We stumbled across the topic and discussed confidence and doubt and he said very matter of factly he still expected someone to burst into his office and say those exact words. He’s the CEO of JP Morgan and is a Billionaire … if you ever doubt yourself then you are entirely normal and in great company … some of the most successful people on the planet wake up every day doubting their skills 🥰🥰🥰 Next time smile … you’re the same as the rest of us ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Omg Steph, finally finally! Yes if you do a paid option I will subscribe asap!! Ok I understand all your feelings of not being formally trained or having as much technical knowledge, but being a person who has read blogs for >15 years, I can’t even tell you how many people who are just home cooks, no formal training, make money from their blogs literally recycling verbatim recipes from Cooks Illustrated or other professional sources, and just writing a post, taking some pics etc. they do credit their sources, but still, not much creativity from a recipe developer standpoint. And yet it’s still a valuable form of content to us as consumers, I have no problem with people making money for blogs! I’ve written a personal baking blog as well in the past, and I know the time that goes into writing posts like this newsletter. And yes it’s fun but it does take time. The value to others reading is that people are looking for inspiration- and someone popping along and saying “hey these cookies or bread is just the best thing I’ve made recently” and then posting a recipe, even if it’s adapted or even almost unchanged from others - you’ve done so much work in 1) curating a recipe, 2) testing it, 3) writing it up. Even if you would have done it anyway for your own eating, the writing it up to share and choosing the recipe is valuable and inspiring and maybe just the thing someone is looking for. I saw a post on social media lately reminding female entrepreneurs that “if you get paid for your product, you’re a professional” - even it’s part time or on the side, it’s true! The food industry doesn’t have any qualification requirements (it’s not like you have to be board certified to practice like in medicine), so if someone pays you to develop a recipe, or a cookbook, like you have been, you are a professional cookbook writer and recipe developer. You should own it! I think a non-trained home cook background has a valuable place in recipe development because you’re coming from the same place that most of us readers are. I have a science background so the sciencey aspects of baking are fun to me, but I only know what I know from reading cookbooks or online articles, just like anyone else, it’s not like I’ve taken food science classes at university or anything. Your willingness to research to learn about things you’re not sure about and test multiple times is already more than I have time to do, so I value that time and effort to bring a recipe to us as readers.
But look, from my standpoint if you do a subscription model, I have no minimum content expectations and I don’t think you should do that to yourself either. I view it as backpay for all the stuff you’ve already posted here for free. I just want you to have more resources to do what you love and find a way forward for yourself. And share some recipes you find with us when you are able to! But don’t strap yourself to promising 3 recipes a week or something. Just continue what you’re doing now. Just know anything you post is worth the support, doesn’t matter how much or little!! The other thing is that everyone enjoys your writing separately from the recipes, too, so you could make the conversational part of it free and then just lock up the recipe at the end like a lot of substack people do. That way you don’t lock up stuff for everyone (keep the comments open for everyone if you can, if you do that) and you can tease the recipe and maybe entice someone to upgrade.
You are so qualified to do this! You have a ton of experience baking at home, you survived an internationally renowned reality baking show that made you bake crazy elaborate things under unrealistic constraints to the finals (like, you literally almost won), you’ve created and published 2 baking cookbooks and have regular freelance jobs for news outlets! You’re so qualified! I’m so glad you’re doing this so I can support you!!
Update: subscribed 🤩. Also, rereading my ramble, I don’t mean to imply at all that you are at the level of some of bloggers I mentioned -- you put a lot more additional tweaking and development than those for sure, but if they can monetize, then so can you, who obviously puts a lot of thought and research and intention and your own touch to things! Also I like the way you wrote around the theme and brought it back to encourage others. I hope writing to encourage others helps to encourage yourself as well! 🥰 the brownies look fab!
I love your posts, as much for your conversational tone as for the recipes, and I think it makes all the sense in the world that you should have a paid version (I'm surprised it's taken this long for you to step into this space). Wishing you much success!
Subscribed! I know I don't *know* you, but I feel like with all the previous newsletters that I know you. We share so many of the same struggles.
I have good days when I get into that "I don't care what anyone thinks" mode & bad days where I feel like I'm always letting people down at home or at work (or just having a rough time with my health/money, etc.). I love your newsletter and rooting for you this week. I know whatever you bake is either going to be great or lead to something great.
Thanks Steph. Your writing continues to be clear and conversational. I am so glad you are continuing and I think the paid subscription option makes sense. I think American dollars are accepted. You have inspired me and thank you. I have been writing a weekly blog since then on Substack, gaining followers and mostly I do it for me. I am guided each week by a theme coming out of a seemingly random observation. Keep up the good work, the faith. I am enjoying learning to cook. It is a balance between wanting it to be perfect and appreciating the learning process. Typically what I cook or bake never is inedible and most of the time it amazingly good!
Hey Scott, thanks so much for your message . I've been nervous to make this little transition, so incredibly grateful for your kind words of encouragement and support!
Yes, it's funny how each week - however mundane it often seems - can initiate some element of conversation/interest! Love that you're enjoying your cooking/baking journey! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
Excited for you! ❤️
Nicola you're my hero and inspiration, thank you for being such a shining light. Also huge congratulations on the 100th KP! Cannot wait to see what more you have in store! xx
Great piece of writing, I do send you my support in these sometimes, troubling times of self-doubt. I do feel it myself, having starting off a career of food writer about three years ago after loosing my job at the beginning of covid and having no experience nor had any studies + English not being my mother tongue. But I believe it is in continuously doing things that we can really learn to appreciate who we are and what it is we are doing. As you rightly said, there is space for everyone in everything. We need to remember we are all unique in our own ways, trained or not!
Bravo for launching your paid segment!
Subscribed! I am assuming my payment converts to USD. I appreciate how you try, test, retry as necessary. To me, that is what makes a baker. Your passion for baking and living an authentic life speaks to me...looking forward to more TCC!
Supporting you ALWAYS and ALWAYS Steph❣️ Sending much love and appreciation for your honest and heartfelt posts. Shelly DiCiolli from Texas USA 🇺🇸
Steph, just to keep things in perspective, around 15-20 years ago i was working in New York for JP Morgan, an investment bank and happened across Jamie Dimon in the same restaurant as i was. I was lucky enough to have a few drinks with him. Before it was coined ‘imposter syndrome’ people used to have that nightmare when you imagine someone suddenly standing up at a meeting and pointing a finger at you and saying ‘you don’t know what you are doing !’ We stumbled across the topic and discussed confidence and doubt and he said very matter of factly he still expected someone to burst into his office and say those exact words. He’s the CEO of JP Morgan and is a Billionaire … if you ever doubt yourself then you are entirely normal and in great company … some of the most successful people on the planet wake up every day doubting their skills 🥰🥰🥰 Next time smile … you’re the same as the rest of us ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Omg Steph, finally finally! Yes if you do a paid option I will subscribe asap!! Ok I understand all your feelings of not being formally trained or having as much technical knowledge, but being a person who has read blogs for >15 years, I can’t even tell you how many people who are just home cooks, no formal training, make money from their blogs literally recycling verbatim recipes from Cooks Illustrated or other professional sources, and just writing a post, taking some pics etc. they do credit their sources, but still, not much creativity from a recipe developer standpoint. And yet it’s still a valuable form of content to us as consumers, I have no problem with people making money for blogs! I’ve written a personal baking blog as well in the past, and I know the time that goes into writing posts like this newsletter. And yes it’s fun but it does take time. The value to others reading is that people are looking for inspiration- and someone popping along and saying “hey these cookies or bread is just the best thing I’ve made recently” and then posting a recipe, even if it’s adapted or even almost unchanged from others - you’ve done so much work in 1) curating a recipe, 2) testing it, 3) writing it up. Even if you would have done it anyway for your own eating, the writing it up to share and choosing the recipe is valuable and inspiring and maybe just the thing someone is looking for. I saw a post on social media lately reminding female entrepreneurs that “if you get paid for your product, you’re a professional” - even it’s part time or on the side, it’s true! The food industry doesn’t have any qualification requirements (it’s not like you have to be board certified to practice like in medicine), so if someone pays you to develop a recipe, or a cookbook, like you have been, you are a professional cookbook writer and recipe developer. You should own it! I think a non-trained home cook background has a valuable place in recipe development because you’re coming from the same place that most of us readers are. I have a science background so the sciencey aspects of baking are fun to me, but I only know what I know from reading cookbooks or online articles, just like anyone else, it’s not like I’ve taken food science classes at university or anything. Your willingness to research to learn about things you’re not sure about and test multiple times is already more than I have time to do, so I value that time and effort to bring a recipe to us as readers.
But look, from my standpoint if you do a subscription model, I have no minimum content expectations and I don’t think you should do that to yourself either. I view it as backpay for all the stuff you’ve already posted here for free. I just want you to have more resources to do what you love and find a way forward for yourself. And share some recipes you find with us when you are able to! But don’t strap yourself to promising 3 recipes a week or something. Just continue what you’re doing now. Just know anything you post is worth the support, doesn’t matter how much or little!! The other thing is that everyone enjoys your writing separately from the recipes, too, so you could make the conversational part of it free and then just lock up the recipe at the end like a lot of substack people do. That way you don’t lock up stuff for everyone (keep the comments open for everyone if you can, if you do that) and you can tease the recipe and maybe entice someone to upgrade.
You are so qualified to do this! You have a ton of experience baking at home, you survived an internationally renowned reality baking show that made you bake crazy elaborate things under unrealistic constraints to the finals (like, you literally almost won), you’ve created and published 2 baking cookbooks and have regular freelance jobs for news outlets! You’re so qualified! I’m so glad you’re doing this so I can support you!!
Update: subscribed 🤩. Also, rereading my ramble, I don’t mean to imply at all that you are at the level of some of bloggers I mentioned -- you put a lot more additional tweaking and development than those for sure, but if they can monetize, then so can you, who obviously puts a lot of thought and research and intention and your own touch to things! Also I like the way you wrote around the theme and brought it back to encourage others. I hope writing to encourage others helps to encourage yourself as well! 🥰 the brownies look fab!
I also get severe anxiety when going to the grocery store alone! I thought I was the only one! Sending love!
I love your posts, as much for your conversational tone as for the recipes, and I think it makes all the sense in the world that you should have a paid version (I'm surprised it's taken this long for you to step into this space). Wishing you much success!
Subscribed! I know I don't *know* you, but I feel like with all the previous newsletters that I know you. We share so many of the same struggles.
I have good days when I get into that "I don't care what anyone thinks" mode & bad days where I feel like I'm always letting people down at home or at work (or just having a rough time with my health/money, etc.). I love your newsletter and rooting for you this week. I know whatever you bake is either going to be great or lead to something great.
Stephi inspired me to get writing and to start my weekly musings. She has great insight and great recipes.