sometimes i think i've wasted my life but then i remember
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ruby tandoh
@rubytandoh
writer. occasional kitchen notes at the New Yorker, occasional eating notes at Vittles. she/her
linktr.ee/rubytandohJoined March 2013
ruby tandoh’s Tweets
every day i think about how bake off has been a trojan horse for SO many people of colour and assorted queers to sneak into the food world. smuggled over the threshold cloaked in bunting, right under the nose of her majesty's scone patrol. what an energy. we stan
this was me at 20 (in the bake off tent). i now spend less time hating myself and more time hating the UK food media and the crooks who uphold it. we grow.
GIF
if you've ever struggled with disordered eating, felt shit about your body or had other anxieties around food/exercise, please spare yourself the hurt and stress of watching the BBC Horizon show tonight. here's a more joyful, inclusive view of what 'normal eating' can be:
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in case you were in any doubt about giles coren's racism, here's the opening paragraph from his review of a restaurant in peckham
(for those not in the UK, giles coren is one of the UK's most famous critics; peckham is a majority black neighbourhood in south london)
i'm going to be writing another cookbook! it's called COOK AS YOU ARE: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens. it's about taking the aspiration out of cooking and finding ways to enjoy the kitchen no matter your budget or experience ✨
thebookseller.com/news/serpent-s
every food person still condoning, humoring or even championing g*les c*ren... you're really showing your ass. he's not clever, he's not funny. there are so many other people writing engagingly and with heart about food, he's both shit and redundant. sack him off. move on
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looking at Bon Appetit and wondering what'd happen in the UK if food editors/writers called out the racism of their colleagues rather than hiding behind 'it's not my fight'. we denounce trump/boris but when racism is closer to home many are silent. what (and who) do we stand for?
in response to the terrible calorie restaurant show, i've written about eating, guilt and the myth that health is a choice 💖🍕🍊
supported people overtime last night as a result of the show. if you can, please donate via the links in the article
medium.com/@ruby.tandoh_6
as many have pointed out, this is an appalling show premise at the best of times, let alone right now. people struggle SO much with their relationships with food - this will only worsen that anxiety. reducing food to calories is unhelpful, joyless and leans into disordered eating
nigel this is main
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yeah sorry i'm just bored cos i criticised a guy for being a snob and the response to that critique was for three voices of the food establishment - two of whom went to eton, one heir to a baronetcy, one the son of a duchess & one a renowned bigot - all saying i was being mean
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Who is @rubytandoh and why is she so cross? twitter.com/rubytandoh/sta…
PSA that after a long time off unwell, i'm slowly starting to write again. editors, if you're looking for thoughtful essays about food culture – get in touch ✨ whilst i am a daft bake off alumna, that's not ALL i am – i wanna prove that to you. here's some of my work:
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shut the fuck up you weasel faced cunt - can you let this guy, who is an amazing ice cream maker by the way, have his day in the sun? you sad fuck
the absolute state of it
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Keep the family entertained this weekend by trying some home baking.
#StayHomeSaveLives
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it's really coming together 😭
(out Oct 7th in the UK, and TBA in the US)
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here's the cover for COOK AS YOU ARE! 💕 i'm so in love with 's illustrations. cover design by steve panton and book design by evelin kasikov.
it's out on oct 7th in the UK and you can preorder NOW if you're in the market for a non-aspirational, inclusive cookbook 🧡
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COOK AS YOU ARE is out in a month so i wanted to tell you more about it
it has 117 accessible, affordable, non-aspirational recipes, helping you find ways of cooking (and enjoying it!) no matter your budget, skill or the state of your kitchen✨
preorder: linktr.ee/rubytandoh
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COOK AS YOU ARE is out in the UK today!!!! i put so much into these recipes and into making the book as accessible, thoughtful and inclusive as possible - i really hope you like it. it's a cookbook for real life, hungry cooks and messy kitchens. please go buy it if you can 🧡
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if you can't get hold of flour or eggs but you wanna do some easy baking, here you go - malt, oat and dark choc chunk cookies 🍪✨ don't ask me about substituting x for y cos truly i don't have the answers, i'm sorry! this recipe is already at saturation point for substitutes
i am v proud to share that i wrote for (!) about where cheeses go when they die! it's all about extinction, adaptation and great cheese lineages. ft the late brilliant Mary Holbrook, and . 🧀
like so many of you i have also just lost my job (i've been working in a kitchen). i don't need pity but just wanted to say it's shit and i really feel for everyone going through this. much love to everyone in a precarious position 💫💞
so proud to finally share this: about Esiah Levy, a man whose influence started in his little garden in Croydon but ended up stretching halfway around the world. this is a long read about seeds, the power of sharing and what it means to dream big 🌱💫
this is now a slop fan account only. ground rice cooked with coconut milk, semolina pudding, ready brek, jook, melty ice cream. right now i'm halfway through a bowl of custard. this is where my psyche is at
lots of people are falling in love with gardening atm, so i'm resharing this long read about a truly incredible gardener and seed-sharer called Esiah Levy. his story was cut short but his seeds (and his wild, green dreams) live on 🌱
photos by
medium.com/@ruby.tandoh_6
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once more for the cheap, cowardly, uk food media personalities at the back 👏🏼 twitter.com/demarionunn/st
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school holidays coming up soon, can someone enrol the chicken connoisseur in a holiday club or buy him the tracy beaker books or something. extremely small time energy from a guy who was onto a genuinely good thing and has decided instead to be the world's most beggy homophobe
try sayin that to my face
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Small shops told Easter eggs are non-essential goods by police and local councils, trade body says bbc.in/2WQ5B0Z
i was just possessed to stir cold Bird's custard into the milk for my morning coffee. and it tasted good? surely no good can come of this
really proud to write for @vittleslondon about the food in care homes and the brilliant cooks who make it. chefs in restaurants attract a lot of prestige, but there's a whole world of amazing cooking going on in our institutions, too.
not sure how anyone is managing to take issue with this. hope more businesses follow suit (and stand their ground against the ghouls who seem to think that simon rimmer's restaurant's loos are the somme and not, in fact, a place to piss after a campari and some garlic bread) 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈
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our decision to have unisex toilets was not taken lightly. We have trans and non binary customers and staff.We also have a separate accessible toilet for any person who finds the unisex toilets unacceptable. We listen to feedback from customers constantly
i've been furiously googling 'MET OFFICE' several times an hour for the last week as though they have a say in it
preorders are open for an easy-read version of my cookbook, COOK AS YOU ARE!
- 10 easy recipes
- spiral-bound book
- step-by-step colour photos
- for people who find reading difficult
- for people who struggle with complex instructions
- out on 7 October
cookasyouare.bigcartel.com/product/cook-a
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been reflecting on how difficult it is to judge the tone of a joke online. my only regret is that i didn't go in harder
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it horrifies me that the BBC would think this is remotely responsible programming at any time, let alone now. it is SO well established by now that this kind of focus on numbers (minutes exercised, calories in, calories out) feeds into disordered eating. we deserve better 🥞🍎🍟
i'm meant to remind you that Cook As You Are is a good xmas gift but i can't face the hard sell so i guess i'll just say: if you already got it and liked it, please tell your friends. or if it's not your thing, no prob! i hate it here
i wrote about Good Food Things: how these perfect, normal moments abound no matter how much £ you spend or whether they're homemade or store-bought, slow food or quick. as we lay the foundations for a better, fairer food world, we gotta do so with joy 💫
this is today's column from one of the country's major restaurant critics. his other column dumped on . we're both quite tickled by it tbh!
here's a thread of food writers and cooks who are doing a better job than giles coren 🔥:
(TW for giles' ableism in the pics)
over the next few days i'm gonna be revisiting my lists of Good Food Things 🎂🧀🍳🍔🍍🍦🍇 will be retweeting the old ones and taking suggestions for new additions too if you think of anything fun. here's part one to get things going 💫 twitter.com/rubytandoh/sta
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she's here, she's cute, she's thick ✨
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one of the uk food media's most lucrative scams is making up european alter egos for men on daytime tv just so we have something to believe in. the guy from first dates literally isn't french he's from watford junction? gino is from loughborough. i don't know how we sank so far
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he's disgusting. the fact that he is still in work speaks to the deep-rooted racism and rot across the entire food media. it's so depressing isn't it 😓
don't frame me as a big mean witch please, my tweet is abundantly reasonable.
anyone who knows me will know that i live for beef. truly a blessed day. the sun is shining and william sitwell has finally reciprocated my feelings: a deep and unbounded hatred for everything he stands for. honestly i've a spring in my step
first prints of the EASY-READ VERSION of COOK AS YOU ARE are here!
- 10 easy recipes
- spiral-bound book
- step-by-step colour photos
- for people who find reading difficult
- for people who struggle with complex instructions
- out on 7 October
to order:
cookasyouare.bigcartel.com/product/cook-a
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life is very much too short to be modest about this. it is revelatory
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I strongly believe @rubytandoh ‘s gnocchi with chilli crisp and capers is one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century
watch out bitches ✨🇺🇸
(seriously though this is v exciting and i'm looking forward to making a number of significant, but hopefully not career-ending, cross-cultural faux pas. i hope you're all ready to learn about chippy teas)
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No one, NO ONE, writes about food with more warmth and giddy joy than @rubytandoh. I am incredibly excited to say she’s found her American home with @AAKnopf & if Ruby doesn’t convince you of the merits of malt powder by the last page, I’ll eat my weight in eclairs (gladly)
i was looking forward to seeing genuinely affordable and accessible food! i think you came off flippant. i'm sure you didn't mean to but when the whole premise of the show is being flexible/cheap it matters if you're enthusiastic about the food or if you make it sound second-rate
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Wow! Are you always this angry?
I didn’t know about the vitamins in frozen spinach and the jif lemon juice was also a genuine question!
Can I suggest you watch something else rather than allow me to wind you up. ...life’s too short ...which is more than apparent these days. twitter.com/rubytandoh/sta…
inspired by a lifetime of false starts and countless dreams and schemes, i wrote about the art of quitting ✨ (ft. my all-time favourite quote, via E.L. Konigsburg: "the weather in March is a lot like me, nice for one day and then nasty for two.")
wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/work-suc
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i imagine it'll also be a particularly difficult watch for those who are plus-size/fat. and for those who are disabled. these shows tend to be so fatphobic and ableist. solidarity with those of you who will feel it particularly hard 💞
i wrote for @heatedmag about how Bake Off has been an unlikely vehicle for diversity in the food world! ft. and 💞. i looove that we POC were all carried into the food world in that cutesy baking trojan horse 💫🧁
BREAKING EGGS is out today! it's an immersive baking audio guide – a collection of four real time, step-by-step recipes for anyone who wants to start baking but needs the support of a friend (me!) right there with you in the kitchen 🧡
amazon.co.uk/Breaking-Eggs-
so deep is my respect for this iconic moment that i literally put it in the book
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Happy 11 anniversary to this cultural shift
one of the most enjoyable assignments of my life. i wrote about hot seaside doughnuts for (£): about the smell of frying dough, the spectacle of the fryer and the placeless, timeless joys of the British seaside
vittles.substack.com/p/the-utopia-o
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(i wrote and published this myself cos i wanted freedom to say what i needed to say and i wanted to be able to direct people to donate to Beat. if you wanna support my work i'd only ask that you shut down bullshit food chat, fatphobia etc as and when you see it. take care 💖)
i wrote for about the Sainsbury’s Design Studio and food packaging design in the post-war years. it's about the unexpected beauty that arose from the end of war, the death of counter service and the birth of the modern supermarket 🥫
if you're looking for food writing that engages meaningfully with class + worker's rights, i recommend @vittleslondon, and . our food system can emerge from this better and fairer, but only if we dig out its rotten roots 🌹
this is food twitter literally every day, and all cos some guy said fusilli sucks or pineapple pizza or whatever. god bless but i hate every last one of you twitter.com/galacticisme/s
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ok i have 100+ FREE COPIES of COOK AS YOU ARE for UK charities, community food orgs (etc)
please share far and wide, and read the info in the picture for how to request one and who's eligible!
i'd like to be able to get this book to as many good homes as possible ✨
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i loved eating my way around essex, my homeland, for @vittleslondon. this essay is about the foods that flow along the industrial belt, roman roads and the Thames. it's a complex, nourishing, weird food culture - and always, always on the move 🚛 go eat!
erm ok! i tend to hate anything i write the moment it's finished, which i will work on i promise, but i did put a lot lot lot of thought and care into this book – into making it as inclusive, adaptable and accessible as i could. and i'm proud of it, in spite of myself.
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The General Cookbook winner is @rubytandoh. Thanks to sponsor @Thermapen_ #gfwawards2022
i wrote about the steady rise (and rupture) of intuitive eating through the books and podcasts that have popularised it over the last 25 years. it's a meditation on what it might mean to happily follow your gut, and whether that's even possible ✨
ruby-tandoh.medium.com/how-to-follow-
this dream is genuinely coming true for me next week and i still can't drive. happy bisexual visibility day!
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tw// biphobia
if u want to live in a small cottage with a little garden overlooking a deeply-wooded forest with a lake you need to learn how to drive
not able to actually stop touching my face, i've somehow ended up just touching it more softly than usual, like feathery fleeting little touches all day long. who authorised this
over the last 5 months I've eaten 343 ice creams to find the best in London. this guide, for , is a huge project covering the entirety of London ice cream culture: bastani, sheeryakh, kulfi, dondurma, helados, gelato, soft serve and more
vittles.substack.com/p/beyond-gelat
just a PSA that if, like me, you're a fan of unrelenting drama, romance, gossip and despicable behaviour, the newest Married At First Sight Australia is the one for you. it is the most outrageously heterosexual thing i've ever had the (horrified) pleasure of watching
I ate 343 ice creams all over London and I knew the moment that I had the #1 that nothing would beat it. the care, thought and ingenuity that goes into this ice cream, and the talent of the maker, are unsurpassed. This is the best ice cream in London:
vittles.substack.com/p/from-343-sco
😭🎂 love unions, love cake
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While the Thurrock bin workers were on the picket for six weeks Naida Pulford baked them cakes every day to support the strike.
Today, they called around to her house to say thanks. Solidarity is our strength. @unitetheunion
this by for @heatedmag is SO GOOD - about palm oil in all its guises. delicious west african red palm oil shouldn't be blamed for the crimes of its less sustainable cousins elsewhere. know your contexts!
this is out today!! i'm v proud to have an essay in it alongside so many writers i admire inc , and more 💕 my essay is about filipino food writer Doreen Fernandez, different meanings of sweetness, and going through life taste by taste 🌼
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hot water pastry is lawless - which is exactly why it's so good. i wrote about it for , via apple pies, long walks and monastic mice. thanks to for the evergreen inspo and as always
i'm not trashing it, i'm just saying that having all this talk of calories in and calories burned - on national tv, in the middle of a crisis - is really horrible for anyone, and especially for people who have (or had) eating disorders x
i wrote for @heatedmag all about the power of cooking with your hands – our most valuable kitchen tool. many thanks to , and for their words, and to , Jiwon Woo and for their work.
🖐️🏾🖐️🏽🖐️🏿
i wrote about yeasted cakes for (!): about cream-filled Bienenstich, cakes resting on eiderdown + the evergreen problem of me making trouble for myself in the kitchen. ft a (surprisingly simple!) recipe for cream cake with honey-almond brittle
i wrote for @vittleslondon about the food stories that one corner of north west London is built on: from a presbyterian mission, to a diner serving ackee and saltfish, and a community kitchen and its garden
📸 by
vittles.substack.com/p/the-granvill
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hi rachel nobody made you log on to this website x
i love this show i really do, but i have to stop myself dialling 999 whenever i see nigella get out that fucking herb chopper
excited to be working on a bake-along audiobook with ✨ it's called BREAKING EGGS and has four immersive recipes, including rye apple galette and sour cream butter cake, that i'll guide you through in real time. it's out march 29th 🍰
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now is also a good time to point out that the food media is full of fatphobia. it can be insidious but this cruelty is real, and it's everywhere, and it's often veiled as 'concern'. it is also highly racialised (see Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia)
love to see fortnums striving for relevance, fairness and inclusivity at this most trying of times x
Do What You Want is now online and completely free! it's a zine (or let's be honest, more like a whole book) about mental wellbeing and finding sparks of hope when everything feels bleak. enjoy 💞💫
read it here:
issuu.com/dowhatyouwant/
i wrote about the conspicuous maximalism of cheese boards for ! ft. salami rivers, depoliticised 'self care' and the moreish, irresistible allure of things you hate. many thanks to and for your cheese wisdom 🧀
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more and more, i've realised that cookbooks are less about innovation than stewardship: curating recipes in a compassionate, contextualised and accessible way so that people can feel at ease in the kitchen. i want to be the best kitchen steward (/friend/guide) i can be 💕
i have a phone call in fifteen minutes in which i may have to say 'terroir' repeatedly, please can somebody tell me a pronounceable synonym for 'terroir'
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finally - i understand that cookbooks will only ever go so far. there's conservatism in the genre at odds with the changes i wanna see in our food systems. so i'm working to redirect money and influence from the book towards radical food orgs/action. more on this soon 🍊
I wrote for about all the hours I've killed in a McDonald's drive-thru: about how chain restaurants end up being a kind of semi-public living room where the eating is incidental and where nothing really happens except life itself
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🙏🏼 i have felt so weird about this for ages. thank you for sharing your thoughts
