The Exhausting Demands of Social Media, How Being A Scientist Affects My Kitchen Behavior, plus Big Book News!

The Quirks of Being A Cook and A Scientist & A Book Tour!🎉

The other day, I received an email to find out why I hadn’t launched and tried the new broadcast channel feature on Instagram. My heart sank. This new feature promises to make it easier for me to reach my followers directly on Instagram. I cringed with dismay. Do I want to add another thing to my heavily loaded social media chores? I don’t. What was the original point of Stories? Wasn’t that supposed to help me reach people who care about my work? Here’s another dumb feature that I might have to take on. I declined and said I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to take on more social media platforms and their subdivisions. It felt freeing to say that finally.

I took Veg-Table to Iceland and got a photo at the Black Sand Beach of Reynisfjara, where Game of Thrones was filmed.

There are many disadvantages to social media that have been well-documented by medical experts and researchers. Mentally, I am slightly tired of being constantly engaged on different platforms, hoping that the algorithm “rewards” me at some point so people can see my recipes and writing. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy making the photos and videos for the recipes; I can express my creativity. It’s the need to be constantly on and also go through the emotional ups and downs of people seeing or not seeing my stuff. “Likes, Views, and Shares” define your days, and it eventually becomes less and less about people cooking your recipes. With a new cookbook around the corner, I am also nervous about how many people are actually seeing my book. I feel bad for the people who follow me and care about my work; all these different platforms only dilute and decrease attention spans. There is only so much “content” that a person can handle. The other day, a prominent food writer told me she rarely sees my work on Instagram and had no idea I had a cookbook out until she read the Eater Best Cookbooks of fall list. I keep thinking, what is the point of Instagram and these other platforms?

This is why I now find joy and satisfaction in my newsletter. I write, and you get to read it, no algorithms.

With only a month away from my book launch, things have been busy, and I won’t lie, I’m anxious. This might be my third time, but I still feel like it was my first time. Each year is different; what has worked once might not this time. It’s unpredictable, and I’m not clairvoyant; I keep doing what I know to do and learn and adapt as I move along. I love writing cookbooks and the entire process of creating them.

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Veg-Table on The Road

I’ve been waiting to share this with you, and now that I can, I AM ECSTATIC! You are the first to hear and see this news.

Starting this October, I’ll be on the road, traveling from along the West Coast to the Southwest and then hopping off to London with my new book, Veg-Table (Pre-Order the book via Amazon/Indie Stores and more here). There are dinners, cooking classes, and book talks with some of my friends from the food world. So mark your calendars and save the date. We will have a lot of fun over the next couple of months! Registration links to some of the events are already available at the bookstores listed, and I will announce them separately on my site next week. We have some more events in the works here in America and the U.K., and as soon as they are confirmed, I will let you know. Space is limited to some of these events, so grab your tickets soon!

I’m also headed to Portland and Austin for the first time, so please hit me up with your food recommendations and favorite hot spots.

10/24 Book Larder

10/27 Copperfield’s Books

10/28 Omnivore Books

10/29 Bookshop Santa Cruz

11/11-11/12 - Texas Book Festival

more to come…

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My Kitchen Quirks

Let me start by saying these are my quirks, some of which are personality-driven and some from working in labs. I know a lot of it will come across as extra, and yes, I have a unique flair.

1. My undergraduate degree is in Microbiology and Biochemistry, and later, in grad school, while studying Molecular Genetics, I worked with infectious viruses and later cancer research. No matter what labs I worked in, the art of keeping things sterile was heavily emphasized, and for good reason. One mistake and an expensive experiment could be easily ruined, and there was the risk of infections and contaminations. Microbiology labs have altered my perception of cleanliness; I’m a little over the top regarding keeping things clean and sterilized in the kitchen. I also live with three pets and a spouse, and in general, it is a good idea to keep everything clean before and after cooking. I also clean the dishwasher and refrigerator once a week, and all door handles are sterilized. If my grocery bags touch the ground, I never keep them up on the kitchen counter. I know; I’m a little paranoid. I used to sterilize the mouth of the milk bottle directly in the gas stove before and after opening…it took me a few years to stop doing that.

2. I prefer weighing all my ingredients when I develop recipes and cook. I own two scales to weigh food, and I also keep one that measures small weights near 0.05 g) and keep a standard 100 g calibration weight to ensure my scale is always on point.

3. I love my Thermapen thermometer. I learned early on that it’s always helpful to have a reliable thermometer in the kitchen; often, the in-built thermometers in ovens aren’t the best. I also keep an infrared surface thermometer to gauge how hot the surface of my pizza oven or the baking steel is.

4. I keep a Vernier caliper and a stainless-steel ruler to measure thickness, widths, etc., for pastries, bread, etc. This becomes particularly useful for my column at Serious Eats when the tough, detailed questions flow in from my editors.

5. I keep pH paper and a pH meter to monitor my home fermentations. I’m fermenting cream this week, and it’s been extra helpful to gauge things.

6. I always say “forceps” instead of “tweezers”, which has led to confusion when working with other people in the kitchen.

7. I highlight all the expiration dates and mark the open date on every baking soda, baking powder, and yeast bottle. This way, I know when to get rid of things and troubleshoot recipes that aren’t working. There’s nothing worse than spending all your time on a bread recipe only for it not to work.

What are your quirks in the kitchen? Please share them below in the comment section.