Alison Roman on "selling out" and writer's block.
Plus Teen Vogue’s collapse and another chic downtown children's book store.
Hello everyone. It was fun to see some of you at the Haymaker Media Summit last night. After speaking on a panel with
about building our businesses on Substack, I walked to ’s newsletter launch party with Breaker’s Lachlan Cartwright. After that I got dinner with my friend at Superiority Burger, and then I took the train home with a paid reader who happened to also be sitting at the counter with me. Apparently we met back in January when I was covering ’s Inauguration party. Some nights New York feels smaller than others.Today’s letter includes: Alison Roman on life post-Substack, another new chic downtown children’s book store,
is growing her newsroom, and what Teen Vogue’s collapse says about Condé Nast.📱 Have a story you think we should look into? Text the anonymous Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916
Guest Lecture:
This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want. Past guests have included , Kareem Rahma, and Audrey Gelman.
Today, answered all of your questions about the strategy behind launching a CPG brand, life post-Substack, and “selling out.”
“I love the strategy of launching a CPG brand alongside the book. Are there a lot of recipes that….use tomato sauce?” - Emily
Believe it or not, the tomato sauce and book launch were NOT supposed to happen at the same time. I’d call this kismet timing sort of a blessing and a curse — a blessing because when it, rains it pours, and it’s great to have so much to talk about when people want to talk to you. A curse because it can be tough to focus on one thing and I don’t want either to be diluted or wanting for attention.
BUT yes, there is not only the recipe for A Very Good Tomato Sauce in the book (because the whole point isn’t that you can’t make it yourself….it’s that maybe…you simply don’t want to!). There’s also a few recipes (ones you might be familiar with) that use it: Baked (but not stuffed) Shells and A Little Eggplant Parm are both excellent candidates for using a jarred sauce.
“What ingredients do people add too much of? What ingredients do people skimp on?” - Lindsay
I think people generally overstuff sandwiches, which is why they end up on my least-liked food list. I thought Instagram had grown out of this, but I still see it everywhere: photos and videos of the cross sections of sandwiches and bagels that are just completely stuffed and filled beyond a reasonable capacity. A human cannot realistically fit these sandwiches or bagels into their mouths. Even if they could it would be a mess and, I PROMISE YOU, not that enjoyable. The ratios are off, not designed for optimal enjoyment. This is stunt food and it’s disrespectful to people who actually like food.
People really under-use olive oil. You all should be using more!
“I’d love to know your process of naming and ‘marketing’ recipes? Do you have a sense of when something will take off? Brothy Beans and The Stew are truly foundational recipes in my kitchen, and I’ve always wondered how much of their magic comes from how you’ve positioned them.” - Amada
I love this question — I think naming recipes is absolutely important. I think I realized this was important back when I worked at restaurants. Things would sell or not sell based on how you’d describe them on a menu, and the same can go for if someone wants to cook something or not based on how it sounds. I do think I’m good at it — it’s effectively just writing, and the recipe names are an extension of my writing style/voice.
When I name something, it’s genuine — I don’t “market” the recipes and don’t overthink it with the goal of “I’d better give it a great name to convince people to make it.” I think if the recipe is great, it will have a great name, and I won’t have to work that hard to come up with something to make it sound good. That said, I think if the Caramelized Shallot Pasta had the word anchovy in it, I do wonder if it would have been as popular (though I named it that since caramelized shallots, not anchovy, were the dominant technique and flavor there, so I was being the most descriptive and straightforward I could be).
“How do you navigate writer’s block and get through your cookbook copy deadlines with so much going on across your brands and business? How do you navigate all these competing demands? Thank you!” - Rachael
Honestly, most of the time, I don’t. It’s very, very difficult for me to simultaneously keep up the expected cadence of online content and pay attention to all the other things I (try and) do, including writing books which have massively delayed gratification.
Whether it’s because I’m stubborn and hate delegation, am perhaps a bad business person or just simply old school and believe in integrity, I still cook every recipe, write every newsletter, every Instagram caption, etc. This all takes a lot of time. I am the tortoise. Because I insist on this, deadlines definitely suffer, but…I think the work is better (and thankfully, they’re almost always my own deadlines). I do a lot of things, but the goal for me in expansion is so I can spend more time writing and cooking. Hopefully one day everything else I’ve created is doing so well that I get to spend hours of uninterrupted alone time on my laptop, writing.