An update about Better Chews

A step back...or sideways

Hi!

I haven’t written here in a while, I know. My husband and I were in a ‘brief’ transition that turned into six months while we waited for our visas to the Netherlands. We finally moved and as we approach the end of our first month in this new country, it’s time I update you all about the future of this newsletter.

I got a job as the head chef of a gluten-free café and restaurant so as you might imagine, I’m absolutely stoked to devote myself to learning the ropes in their kitchen and establishing a career in The Netherlands. The thought of making lots of gluten-free food, not worrying about cross-contamination at work, and feeding a bunch of gluten-free/coeliac clients is so thrilling.

I was fully expecting to continue developing recipes, editing reels, and publishing weekly newsletters here on Better Chews. Today I was recording a video of developing a karpatka recipe and I had a realisation: filming, editing, and otherwise monetising my time in my home kitchen really doesn’t sit well with me. My kitchen is where I unwind, experiment, zone out, get stressed, and experience so many of the joys and failures in my life. I like to put on music and calculate the batch size, throw things in the oven and wash the dishes while they bake. Setting up my camera and speaking into a microphone, while maintaining silence in my home for said microphone, and later spending hours editing videos together and adding captions and interacting with comments…these things have nothing to do with why I adore the kitchen so much.

I want to feed people. I got into food because I like to eat food, and serve people food, and discuss dishes with people, and learn things about science and culture and nature through food. The image of food, the art of video editing, the need to grab and maintain attention: I can happily live and die without them.

That is absolutely not to say I am abandoning this newsletter! What I am abandoning—at least for now—is making videos to accompany the recipes I post here, and my promotion of this newsletter more broadly. I am always trying new things and I look forward to sharing them with you, because I still really enjoy writing recipes, discussing technique, and hearing from you all — I just won't be holding myself to any schedule or pressure to produce polished images and videos.

Until further notice, this will be a casual space for me to share my recipes and I will be lifting the paywall on all my posts. If you still feel inclined to be a premium subscriber and thus give me a few euros/pounds/dollars per month, that will mean the world to me. But certainly don’t feel obligated. I want all of us gluten-free people to eat better and be happier, so I hope as many people as possible find these recipes, make them, comment their thoughts, and share them with friends and family.

I’m going to be very busy with my new job, but I am developing a layer cake menu to offer local clients, so I hope to share these tests and new recipes with you soon. And I’ll be all the happier doing it, because I’ll be eating cake in a kitchen filled with music, without a camera in sight, unconcerned about my frowning face or dirty dishes in the background.

Talk to you soon!

Zachary