Love multiplied

Hate headlines to unexpected kindness and pantry power

Hello and welcome to my newsletter about food, people and planet. It’s free to read, but you could choose to be a paid subscriber to support my writing.

My new book In Good Taste: What Shapes What We Eat and Drink - And Why it Matters is out now and available on Waterstones, Amazon, bookshop.org and more.

Hate seems to be one of the defining features of the times we live in. So I want to share some thoughts on hate, as well as love this week. Serendipitously, this newsletter drops on Valentine’s Day.

Ratcliffe’s comments on immigrants “colonising” England was not only hateful but almost farcical in its irony. Apparently more a third of Man Utd players are from the global majority. The man himself lives in Monaco. The response of condemnation has been so strong that I hope he’s eating his own words and will open it sparingly to spew hate in the future.

I have also seen national features revelling in the decline of plant-based foods and the “death of veganism”. Now, I understand some of this. I enjoy eating meat. I do not like cuddly animal guilt inserted into my public posts. And I do not like being told what to eat.

But I do not wish death on anyone who chooses to pursue a life of principle. Let’s not forget that many cultures are naturally vegan, and many others are largely plant-based. Not all vegan substitutes are created equal, which applies just as much to meat and meat products.

Food should bring us together, not divide us. It is time to live and let live. I cannot comment on individual health choices. As long as we are not hurting each other or blowing up the planet, that works for me. If you still do not know the difference between plant-based and veganism, I wrote about it here:

Why Veganuary needs a broader conversation

Now, a word or several on love.

It’s been three weeks since the launch of my third book. I’ve been promoting it while delivering client deadlines and trying not to have a nervous breakdown. The bank fraud remains unresolved.

No one tells you that launching a book feels like the end of a very long pregnancy. I may have blocked the memory after the launch of my second cookbook Masala in 2018.

Writing a book is hard. Putting your thoughts on paper, shaping, editing, re-editing and then nervously awaiting its fate. But the real work begins once the baby is out. Promoting it, sharing its contents and securing media coverage to drive sales is a long game. It takes strength, resilience and persistence, all traits the bank fraud has temporarily kicked out of me.

This is where food industry love has stepped in.

The launch event

I hosted a celebration with the clients, experts and colleagues who so generously contributed to the book. The evening was sponsored by Waitrose & Partners, Ali Morpeth and Planeatry Alliance, Bold Bean Co, Peter’s Yard and Belazu, with Mission Kitchen providing the space for a nominal fee.

My guests, spanning my overlapping networks of food lovers across the industry, braved the soggy cold to be there. We had Ireland, Yorkshire, Somerset, Hertfordshire, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Devon and Dorset in the room. Melissa Thompson swung by before a netball game in the opposite direction, in full kit.

It was all too much for me to handle alone. Two of the three sponsored drinks and nibbles did not arrive on time. The teens were extra feral, fighting in the supermarket for last-minute items and then losing themselves in Covent Garden Market. My publicist Emma Marijewycz, publisher Kristin Jensen and daughter Maeve helped with set-up, as did my friend Chetna Makan, who arrived early to chaos.

Great to have fellow Substackers Angela Clutton Catherine Phipps and Ceri Jones there. Deirdre (Dee) Woods and Agnes Maina stayed to clear up. “We do this the African way.” The teens rose to the occasion in the end, charming guests and assisting my sister and brother-in-law.

Random selection of images from my book launch

Book feedback

To say the book feedback has been amazing so far, would be an understatement. Queen Nigella herself shared the book on her Instagram “It’s essential” calling me “wonderful Mallika”, which I gratefully accept.

I had this in an email from the First Lady of Food Journalism, the lovely Sheila Dillon. who gave me her permission to share it with you:

“It’s a marvellous guide to how we got where we are and, importantly, how we move on: “Positive Practical Change’! Hurrah… and congratulations, Mallika. Such good research, well written and a carrier of hope. May you sell a lot of copies.”

I also had lovely words of feedback in Substack posts from Sue Quinn, Karen Barnes and Ceri Jones:

Books, of course, won’t sell themselves so I’m very grateful for the Substack community rallying in support! Special thanks for:

1. Jeannette Hyde for featuring me in her lovely and useful series where you tell her about your breakfast and she analyses its nutritional quality. I was thrilled (as well as relieved) with the verdict, but see what you think! She’s enjoying the book and found the chapter on people, which has my cultural mindset session, useful and practical. Here is the post:

   What a food advisor eats for breakfast

2. Anna Jones for inviting me to write a guest newsletter! Coming up and I can’t wait to share it when it’s out.

If you have any other thoughts on how I might promote the book, or could support me with it, I’d be very grateful for them!

And if you’ve read it, please do leave me some feedback where you bought it. It makes a huge difference.

Love multiplies, after all. It does not divide. In weeks that feel heavy with hate, I am choosing to focus on that.

A few other goings on…

• Oatly is no longer allowed to call itself milk. You may have picked up already. Will, a vegan chef and lawyer, explains succintly why this ruling was made. I’m a whole organic milk user and read the posts with interest. I thought this from Mossgiel farm was an apt summary of the real need here: “If dairy wants a sustainable, profitable and relatable future, we need to stop relying on regulation as our shield and start investing in narrative and stories.”

• I explored exactly that in a workshop for the Better Food Traders Network, along with three in-depth one-to-one sessions. We focused on understanding customers, making emotional connections and making sustainability feel relevant and sensible. Impact does not survive without commerciality, and commerciality means reaching beyond the already converted. Judging by the feedback, it struck a chord.

• I’ll be continuing the conversation about the role we can play from our kitchens at an in-person Fortnum’s event I’m chairing called The Powerful Pantry on 25th February. A panel event with my friends - Sue Pritchard of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, Lulu, from Good Food, Hodmedod’s and Sam Ratanji, a nutritional chef and food educator. We’ll be exploring how the everyday ingredients in our cupboards connect to culture, sustainability and power. Come along if you can!

• And finally, Anna Anderson, the founder of the Kindred venue in west London has invited me to speak at ID8, an evening where eight speakers table their ideas for a better tomorrow in eight minutes. I have four/five guest tickets if you wanted to come along. Details here.

In kitchen news, I FINALLY cooked from Noor Murad’s Lugma and it was worth every minute of my time. The family loved it all:

Sautéed greens with yoghurt, fried onions and turmeric oil
Melt in your mouth okra, a revelation and now an addiction!
Fasoolia bi lahme (white bean and lamb stew)

That’s all from me this week. Thank you for being here and see you next week.