New year, (slightly) new format

An update on what 2026 will look like at Gentle Rhythms

Welcome to another year of the Gentle Rhythms Substack–I’m so glad you’re here.

I started this project a couple years ago after interning at a restaurant in the mountains of Niigata, Japan. There were the practical reasons for a Substack: I was in need of a little extra cash and to expand my business offerings. There were the personal reasons: I’d been wanting a regular writing practice for a while and knew that having an audience would make me finish the many pieces I tended to only get halfway through. And there were the bigger reasons: what I was learning about in Japan, about slow fermentation and foraging and mountainous plants, was blowing my mind. It was giving me insights not just into regional foodways but also into how a culture perceives and interacts with the land around it. I had studied cooking and baking, and environmental studies, and the humanities, and herbalism–but rarely had it all come together like that for me in one setting. All of that felt worth getting down on paper, worth sharing.

I told myself if I got even about fifty subscribers, it would be worth it. Even just ten paid subscribers, I remember thinking, and I could consider myself a paid writer. I’ve been incredibly lucky to keep traveling and documenting, from working at a tiny trattoria in the Tuscan countryside last spring to joining in on a tea sourcing trip in Taiwan in November to learning to make gochujang and doenjang with maestros in Seoul last January (as I write this, I’m smiling because I know it all sounds deeply romantic. And it is, largely! Though, of course, travel isn’t always as dreamy as it looks in the photos). Amidst it all, the audience for this Substack has grown and grown. The income is still very modest, but it lets me keep doing this and allows me to share what I’m learning along the way.

The past two years have featured 3 posts per month: one essay, one recipe, and a city guide (a guide on where to eat in different cities around the world). Paid subscribers get access to all of it, and free subscribers can generally access 2 out of the 3. But 3 posts, I’ve come to realize, is more than most Substacks my size offer–and, the city guides and restaurant recs generally spark the most engagement. I get sweet messages from subscribers saying they’re eating at, say, Levadura de Olla thanks to my Oaxaca guide, or questions from others wondering where to eat in southeastern France. I’ve become, in other words, something of a travel agent, a possibility I hadn’t conceived of when I typed up that first Mexico City guide on a whim a couple years ago. And, even more to my own surprise, I’ve come to really enjoy it.

I am not, to be clear, going to turn this business into a travel agency anytime soon. I have little interest in booking flights and securing restaurant reservations for folks, for one, and I have more interest in starting up some sort of import business or tea company or something like that to better support all the amazing producers I’ve met on my travels (I just don’t quite know how to make that viable yet, but all advice welcomed!). But I am going to lean more into the travel aspect of the Substack this year, an effort to support the small restaurants, the tea producers, the food tours, and so on that I’ve been lucky enough to experience. I hope my writing can bring some of it to life, but I also think others should be able to experience it for themselves too.

So what does that look like? I’ll be cutting back on the recipes a bit this year. They tend to be the least engaged with posts (let’s be honest: you can find recipes anywhere and everywhere these days), so I’ll be posting them as a little bonus every few months when I get excited about a certain ingredient or technique. City guides will still be happening, and some will be free and some will be only available to paid subscribers. But the real bonus to paid subscribers will be this: travel guides for food experiences here, there, and everywhere. These will be interspersed with the city guides, and will only be available to paid subscribers.

I’ve posted a restaurant guide for Oaxaca, for example–but if you’re following this Substack and headed there, chances are you’re just as curious about what mezcal producers, local markets and cooking classes you should look into. Or, perhaps you’re heading to Japan and want to get out of Tokyo and Kyoto for a few days: I’ll be posting a list next month of tea experiences, food tours, destination restaurants, and more to help you plan a trip. Visiting the PNW this summer? I have city guides up for Seattle and Portland, but there’s a whole lot of exciting rural wineries, bakeries, fisheries, restaurants, and more worth renting a car for.

As a little extra bonus, annual subscribers and founding members can also get in touch with me about planning a trip. Again, I won’t be a full travel agent, but I am happy to recommend restaurants and other food experiences in places I’ve been, and share what I’ve pinned in my maps for places I haven’t. There’s some really exciting food projects happening right now in the Andes of Peru, for example, and food tours you might want to know about in the Philippines, and a new generation of young chefs moving out of NYC to start cool projects Upstate. I can’t promise I’ll know where to look in every small corner of the world, but I’ll do what I can.

In my 20’s I figured what would get me by was talent. I pushed and pushed and pushed to be the best baker and chef and writer and more I could be. In my 30’s, I’m less concerned about that; instead, I’ve come to think one of the best offerings I can provide is my connections. My cooking school has always largely been about bringing people together, showcasing the talents of different instructors, and supporting hand-crafted techniques near and far. I’d like this Substack to be an extension of that.

Thanks again for being here. I’m excited to keep learning together.