I’m starting a spradic-ish newsletter which will start in December 2021. Sort of like a New Year’s project but with a couple of months for good practice.

Like it’s cheesy namesake it will be a small kinda snack. I can’t guarantee it will be enticing but the plan is that I will definitely be varied. It may take the form of a short piece of writing, a photo or drawing.

Want to join here?

A lack of ability to host events have moved things to online platforms, yet this has simultaneously reinforced our need for connection and joy – both with others through laughter and touch, and with food as a medium. This connection has reached down to the earth and soil, with people planting seeds and growing futures – a real back to basics for many, with opportunities to slow down and appreciate the little things.

Home and Hospitality is a thirty-piece city-owned community crockery set designed and crafted with love by artist Najma Abukar, in partnership with the potter Ruth Impey, with the support of Küche and the Centre for Contemporary Arts. The tableware set reflects traditional Somali pottery and geometric designs, the historical production of Glasgow’s export plates, the theme of home and hospitality and incorporates portraiture of people who call the city of Glasgow ‘home’.

Aurélie Fontan is a sustainable fashion designer focused on biodesign and ethical manufacturing processes. She has been working at the ASCUS Art & Science Lab for two years, researching and practicing biodesign with slime mould and kombucha, applied to fashion artefacts. Aurélie is the recipient of numerous awards: Dame Vivienne Westwood Sustainable and Ethical Award, Catwalk Textiles, M&S Womenswear Award at Graduate Fashion Week 2018 and an Honorary Mention for the kombucha dress at Reshape Competition in Barcelona. I discussed Aurélie’s inspiration and design process with her at her recent exhibition ‘Tensegrity’, which was part of this year’s Edinburgh Science Festival.

In Western society, as etiquette dictates, we’re urged from a young age not to lick our plates after eating. Certainly, it’s frowned upon to go around “licking everything in sight”. However, this is just what the ‘Lickable Cities’ research project aims to do with their self-declared international “impractical research community”…

Gathered is a photographic exploration by Jack Mercer into the people and places that are behind some of Scotland’s most iconic foods and drinks. The book is the result of working with five different producers to create photographic essays that use portrait, still lifes, documentary and landscape photography to create a detailed visual representation of their work. Along with the photographs of each producer, each story ends with a recipe created by ‘That’s Yer Dinner’, a Glasgow run supper club, that showcases the produce in all its glory. Steph spoke to Jack and Grant from ‘That’s Yer Dinner’ about the project and their collaboration.

The Dutch Institute of Food & Design creates a global platform for designers working with food and eating. They explore how we create food and what, why and how we eat. They show the relevance of food connected to design and design connected to food.

My aim in corresponding for the DIFD is to share projects that combine food, art and design from Scotland. I spoke to the Dutch Institute of Food and Design, about my views on food and design in Scotland. Here’s my full interview with them

I had shoved The Virtues of the Table into my tote bag on my way to the hospital. “There’ll be plenty of time to read,” I thought, especially if they have to do tests.

It’s an early morning and you’re getting into a car with two strangers. As a non-driver you’re grateful for a lift, because you’re going to the sort of location in the country that is hard to find on Google maps. A fact which reassures you that it’s probably going to be an interesting place and hopefully, an interesting day…

Within Scotland, many of us are fortunate enough to eat three meals a day; breakfast lunch and dinner. However, during these meal times, very few of us would consider the political nature of our daily consumption. If we were to consider Wendell Berry’s quote that “eating is an agricultural act” this may indeed lead us to think a little more about how our food is produced and distributed, and by whom. For those without access to good food, as Jacques Diouf (former FAO Director-General) stated; “Hunger isn’t an issue of charity, it is an issue of justice.”

We walk through a glass door and then sliding oak doors to the restaurant, where we hand over our outerwear to the Front of House, who politely, and diligently accepts layers until so laden that it seems the waiter is performing a balancing act. At no point do they admit defeat – that there is too much in the pile – for that is not the done thing.

Prue Leith, CBE, has worked as a caterer, restaurateur, TV presenter and broadcaster, journalist, cookery writer and novelist. She is Chancellor of Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. In 2017, she became familiar to the public after she took over the role of a judge in the popular tv show “The Great British Bake Off’ after Mary Berry had left the show. We spoke to her at a recent visit to QMU about what appealed to her about the Great British Bake off and whether it would be likely whether we could ever get the nation cooking vegetables in a Great British Veg Off.