Give the gift of FFJ
A reminder that premium FFJ subscriptions are 20% off (just US$24, or $2 per month) for the holiday season! Most of this newsletter is for premium subscribers only, so whether you’re looking to gift FFJ to a friend, or simply to upgrade yourself, now is an excellent time.
Until the end of the year, all premium subscriptions come with a personalized holiday card and illustration that we’ll send by email. A premium subscription also gets you access to audio versions of many stories (here’s a taster) as well as BTS content and membership to our Feminist Food Club, a series of online meet-ups launching in 2025.
Isabela here from FFJ! It’s time for our biannual resource round-up. But first, one last attempt at a sales pitch (sorry):
The crux of this newsletter, a resource round-up from our recent pool of writers, is for premium subscribers only. If you’ve been paying attention so far (and no hard feelings if you have not — my eyeballs are personally fried for the year), you’ll have seen the plug at the top advertising the fact that premium FFJ subscriptions are just US$2 a month/US$24 a year and we really need your support to keep going and yes, every single newsletter is saying this and we know nobody has much money including us but we’re trying anyway ok I’ll stop.
In more chill news (if you know me in real life, you’ll have a good cluck at this, because I haven’t been chill since the day I came shooting into this world), we wanted to look back on 2024 over here at FFQ HQ.1 And because we’re extremely creative but somewhat slow, we’re doing it in the form of Spotify Wrapped, which everyone was sharing over two weeks ago. Surprise!
2024 FFJ WRAPPED
2 new magazine issues released
23 newsletters published
6 audio stories recorded for premium subscribers
365 pitches received
5 journalism training sessions and fever dream trip to Manila delivered
936 new free subscriptions
4 more premium subscriptions
5 collaborations with other organizations and newsletters (Famerama, TABLE, Beurrage, AnthroDish, ORFC 2025, and shelf offering) published
13 original illustrations drawn
Most liked story: Bottomless by Shena Cavallo
Longest piece: The Labour of Lunch, an interview on school food politics with Jennifer E. Gaddis and Sarah A. Robert
Shortest piece(s): poetry by Taylor Hunsberger, A.J. Parker, and Natasha Matsaert
268 combined hours of editing
564 emails opening with “we hope this email finds you well”
3 joyful months spent together at home in Vancouver
5 chaotic weeks spent together in Berlin
23 hours of voice notes sent to each other on WhatsApp when apart (13 hours of which is us apologizing for having sent such long voice notes)
What FFJ stories stood out to you from this year? What do you want to see more or less of? We’d love to hear from you in the comments or by email (hello@feministfoodjournal.com).
Numbers aside, it truly was a great year for us at FFJ
Our premium subscriber count may barely have moved, but like Devin Kate Pope has said, metrics aren’t it. We finished last year having just launched our merch store, which offered our first-ever print magazine edition; we remain so proud of these products and the fact that we’ve built a back catalogue worthy of capturing on paper. And we’re beyond honoured to have nearly 3,100 of you subscribed.
This year, we finished SEA, published MEAT, and started BODY. We had the chance to be interviewed by one of our favourite food systems podcasts (hopefully coming out soon) and again by one of our favourite food writers. We published so many stories that made our hearts beat faster and learned a lot about new topics on the way.
We joined Big Feelings, a community of other food writers on Substack led by Apoorva Sripathi and Steph from food/play/food that immediately felt like home. We were contracted by Wedu Global to lead journalism training and the creation of a magazine focused on gender and rice with a cohort of food security leaders from Southeast Asia, and had the chance to travel to Manila to meet these incredible women in person.
Luck had it that we were both in Vancouver while we worked on the Wedu project, which meant that although we had to give webinars from 3-5 am PST, we also got to work together in-person and get fed by our benevolent parents while doing so. Not to get too sappy here, but our relationship as founders is a huge driver of our dedication to FFJ, particularly in those moments when we’re wondering if our work has enough impact to merit the sweat and time we put in. I learn so much from working with Zoë and I’m proud of we’ve evolved as editors, writers, illustrators (in Z’s case, most definitely not mine), and business owners (although you wouldn’t have known it from how badly I freaked out during tax season).
FFJ will be turning three soon, and we’re still having the time of our lives. Now it’s time to rest and recuperate over the holiday season, so we can hit the ground running in the new year (attending ORFC 2025 and launching our new Feminist Food Club!). We’ll also be back in January with new BODY essays that we can’t wait to share.
FFJ Recommends: books, podcast, movies and more
Here are FFJ’s recommendations for vegging out on the sofa, whether you’re in the mood to pick up a book, your AirPods, or the remote. We’ve done something a bit different for this edition of FFJ Recommends: crowdsourcing recommendations from writers who have written for us in the last year or so.
We have suggestions from Annie Dabb, Megumi Kowai of love or not to love, Mwinji Nakamba Siame, Clare Michaud of Beurrage, Taylor Hunsberger, Shena Cavallo, Amelia Cookson, and Zoya Naaz Rehman. They have curated diverse and fascinating recommendations: feminist Japanese poetry, Zambian fiction, “slutty chef” content, activist cookbooks, climate essays, and much more.
Reminder: our recommendations as co-founders are available to everyone, but if you’d like to check out the rest of the list, premium FFJ subscriptions are currently 20% off.
Zoë Johnson, FFJ co-founder
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon — I stumbled across this book when looking for inspiration for our RICE zine project and was completly entranced by the beautiful way recipes are used in telling this heartbreaking story.
Can I microdose veganism? from Search Engine with PJ Vogt — I think I reccomend something from this podcast almost every time we put together one of these lists (sorry I’m so predictable) but this episode came out shorlty after we sent our Letter from the Editors for our MEAT issue so the topic was very top of mind when I first listened. As a vegetarian and wanna-be-vegan, I was particularly intrigued by Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowrey’s argument that if you care about animals, “you're better off eating beef than you are eating eggs and dairy”. Warning: the first part of the podcast about throwing turkeys out of planes is pretty hard to listen to.
Ridiculously Easy Focaccia: This recipe was shared with me by a family friend last December and it’s been the recipe of 2024. It really is ridiculously easy and I’ve yet to have a batch not turn out delicious. I’ve made it for big crowds (for both a 30th and a 60th birthday party), as a housewarming gift (does anyone else love giving bread and salt?), and for countless less remarkable breakfasts, lunches, and dinners at home. If I have it, I throw in a bit of sourdough starter and reduce the amount of yeast and usually skip the butter, opting to grease the pans with olive oil instead.
Isabela Bonnevera, FFJ co-founder
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller — an August birthday gift that I’m just diving into now. Already obsessed with the chronology of evil twinks and tops across history, as well as a historical analysis of how we developed sexuality into identities that defines us.
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood — read as inspo for our BODY issue and even more prescient given the recent US election results and regression of women’s bodily autonomy in some parts of the world.
Whale Politics and Offal Conundrums — shamelessly promoting my own work! But I’m really proud of these two podcasts, which I recorded for FFJ in 2024.
Annie Dabb, author of “British Beef vs. French Foppery” (MEAT)
Behind the Bastards: Hosted by Robert Evans, this podcast looks at various “villains” in different contexts: historical, cultural, political and etc and basically makes fun of them. It’s very explicitly left wing so perhaps I enjoy it so much because it’s just a bit vindicating, but it’s a great way to learn more about different figures and trends and the conversations are pretty funny.
Rehash: Hannah and Maia’s podcast looks at internet culture in various capacities in order to “rehash” certain topics that they think deserve a revisiting. Covering things like “ballet core” and “gymcels”, as well as a series specifically about sex culture in online spaces, this podcast just feels like listening to your mates have a chat about something you’d love to learn more about but maybe haven’t had the time to verify your sources or do your own research. Maia and Hannah are super funny and chatty and really well-informed about online culture!
Cunk on Earth: Presented by actor Diane Morgan, who’s also starred in Motherland as a young wine-drinking single mum, and as the leading eponymous role in Mandy, Cunk On Earth is a non-chronological mockumentary series which is explores different aspects of British history and culture. In each episode she asks hilarious questions to confused academics with a deadpan expression and covers topics like William Shakespeare or the Renaissance and it is genuinely laugh out loud funny.
Han Kang, The Vegetarian: Simultaneously one of the most visceral and traumatising novels I’ve ever read and also one of the most brilliant. I re read this novel this year after first picking it up ten years ago after reading Kang’s latest ‘Greek Lessons’. It had even more of a gutteral impact on me than it did the first time. The Vegetarian follows the story of Seong-Hye who decides to stop eating first meat and eventually everything. The prose is fluid and uncomfortable, with a deeply disturbing insight into Seong-Hye’s psyche, caught in a battle between familial convenience/subservience and true desire/morality. Definitely not an easy read but absolutely worth it.
Megumi Koiwai, author of “Tender Seas” (SEA)
Reads
My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore? I love a good profile/first narrative from chefs — and this one in particular was a real stand out one. The ultimate doing what you love in a very critical sense
I found the absolute OG Japanese feminist prose by Akiko Yosano. She was a part of the woman's magazine published in 1911 and for her to write something so beautiful and moving back then, is something I would love to share with everyone. (This translation is similar to the original — but it's only part of it.) The prose starts with "Women were the sun".
My favorite British female chef: Slutty Chef. She wrote a piece on Instagram to speak up against the up and coming London restaurant Strakers Instagram post that indicated it to be “a white boy’s club.” She writes in British Vogue often and is a great laugh. If you follow her on Instagram, you can get a good idea of what it’s like to be a woman chef in a professional kitchen setting. This one also being culturally relevant commentary. As A Woman Cook, I’m Well And Truly Done With The Fetishisation Of “Chef Daddies”
I've finally read Nora Ephron's Heartburn. As heard, it's the most delicious book ever. Filled with the most beautiful recipes. I remember I even cooked a hard boiled egg her way, and it felt like it tasted better. Books that are filled with personal recipes are my favorite.
Recipes
I've been pretty obsessed with this super easy home made cereal by Molly Baz
Also another heavy routine! Dad's Sunday brunch Salad by Eden Grinshpan’s cookbook Eating Out Loud is my routined salad, esp during the summer.
This smashed pea toasts with ricotta from Cup of Jo is absolutely great. The best is that you can do it in 5 minutes
Mwinji Nakamba Siame, author of “To Speak in Two Tongues” (MEAT)
Perfect Marriage is a sometimes giddy and other times deeply reflective literary romance about the relationship between a man and woman that are opposites in their views on tradition and family. Though the story is culturally particular and the author speaks to a specific Zambian lineage in which women take pride of place as the conservators of relationship wisdom, the story still shimmers with universality and the writing with humanity.
Clare Michaud, author of “Questioning Lumps” (BODY)
I recommend Human Flowers of Flesh (2022, dir. Helena Wittman). This is a visually stunning film, that, through drawing nuanced connections between body, spirit, water, land, time, and place, feminist and ecological questioning of the legacy of French colonialism unfolds.
Taylor Hunsberger, author of “Esophageal Yearning” (BODY)
The League of Kitchens is a wonderful organization that hosts cooking classes run by immigrant women right inside their own kitchens in NYC. They recently released a cookbook filled with recipes created by their instructors with intros about each of the women and their heritage. It's a really wonderful collection that I highly recommend, especially at a time of year that is dedicated to creating and fostering community.
Shena Cavallo, author of “Bottomless” (BODY)
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. I think it does a good job of balancing bodily horror with the quiet deterioration of a relationship and the heaviness of grief. It's also linked to climate issues in a way, because the lead characters are facing the challenges they face due to what is seemingly a desire to exploit the sea (and workers) to the max.
Amelia Cookson, author of “Fish farming and food colonialism” (SEA)
I recommend Ben Okri's book Tiger Work — it's a collection of poems, short stories and essays inspired by climate activism. I was lucky enough to hear Ben speak live at an event in London a few years ago and listening to him speak so poetically about some really emotionally challenging topics surrounding living in a time of climate breakdown gave me goosebumps which led me to buy the book. It's a beautiful little book which looks lovely on any shelves or coffee table which is always a win. But more importantly the poems and stories contained in this little book are deeply moving, motivating and thought provoking.
Zoya Naaz Rahman, author of “A Fistful of Salt” (SEA)
I really enjoyed this article by Sharanya Deepak. As with all of Sharanya Deepak’s work, this piece is a joy to read and flows like pure poetry. Love how she takes us through the phases of her life marked by different people and their cooking styles before she arrives at a sort of coming of age. Almost reminiscent of a food memoir.
For those new to our publication, FFJ HQ is more of metaphor rather than a physical place: we’re spread between Barcelona (Isabela) and Berlin (Zoë), with a side of as much time as possible spent in our shared hometown of Vancouver, BC.