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2 days ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
An art magazine called Spike, to which I’m an avid subscriber, put out a “food” issue for spring 2025. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t groan when I got the email announcing this as the theme they’d be pursuing: For the most part, food is a subject that everyone thinks they’re an expert on, and because of this, they don’t dig too deep into the multi-faceted questions that emerge when one considers the reality of how what we eat gets from seed to plate.
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5 days ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
There are foods I always forget about until they’re right in front of me on a menu, and one of those is barbajuans—a fried savory pastry filled with cheese and greens, often ricotta, spinach, and chard. I’d like to see them on more menus, because this just isn’t something I’m likely to make at home and they’re a lovely little vegetarian appetizer moment. Where did I eat them this time? Well, you’ll have to read on in order to find out…!
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1 week ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
The week that Pope Francis passed, I was talking to a lot of people about how to eat in a way that might staunch the bleeding of our shared planet. I use a little stigmata imagery for obvious reasons. Father Jorge Bergoglio, a Jesuit, chose the name Francis as his papal moniker, a first ever, though Saint Francis of Assisi died in 1226.
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1 week ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
I’ve not been making a conscious effort to receive more input and influence from real friends and acquaintances, printed matter, and ambient atmosphere lately, but some small shifts in my behavior have restored me to a less algorithmic past—and I’m better for it.
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2 weeks ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
I’m typing this initial draft into the Notes app on my phone while on a plane, watching David Sedaris’s “master class.” Do I think this series of interviews is “masterful”? No, but it’s clear the audience is people on planes or those who have a desire to be a writer they’ll never actually act on. It’s useful, too, to those of us who act on this impulse, if for generally providing ample permission. It’s good to reup on permission.
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2 weeks ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
It had long been my modus operandi to shoot fast and loose from the hip. Quitting jobs, launching newsletters, booking trips—I did these things without much consideration of the future. That is no longer my modus operandi: I want to be sure of what I’m doing. When I launched a Discord server for paid subscribers, I did so gingerly—no massive announcement, so I could work out the kinks, and kinks there have been, perhaps because I didn’t do a big announcement.
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3 weeks ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
There are some things I’ll never make “traditionally” even though I’m now vegetarian. I learned to cook and bake as a vegan, and I know that there’s no better chocolate ganache than the one Lagusta Yearwood of Lagusta’s Luscious developed, which is coconut based. Why would I use eggs in cakes or cookies if I know how to do so without them? I once had to put cow’s milk in a cake while at my parents’ house and the whole time, it felt bizarre and vulgar.
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3 weeks ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
Between Two Waters: Heritage, Landscape, and the Modern Cook by chef Pam Brunton asks us what “normal” means in the context of Scottish food within the first few pages. Is “normal” the food traditional to the landscape, or the food that has come to be ubiquitous through global trade and migration?
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1 month ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
While I was listening to Against Platforms by Mike Pepi on audiobook through Libby, an invaluable public library resource, I realized that it was in conversation with two other books I’d recently read that explained how neoliberalism had dropped us right on the doorstep of fascism here in the U.S. That’s a glib way of putting it, but each of these focus on different subject matter—the food system, universities, and digital platforms—through similar yet unique lenses of critique that...
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1 month ago | 
aliciakennedy.news | Alicia Kennedy
I have a full Monday essay coming this month about airplane food and what it taught me about perceptions of veganism (spoiler alert, but it involves a lot of fruit cups), as well as what I miss about being vegan vs. vegetarian and what I don’t. March has my husband’s birthday (Pisces) and my mom’s birthday (Aries), so I made both of them dinner and dessert to celebrate. We also did some New York City and Long Island dining out, too.
