Well hello, Substack! I’m Rosie Birkett, a food and travel writer, recipe developer, and cookbook author living by the sea on the Kent coast.

I’ve spent the past almost 20 years working in food media: writing cookbooks and restaurant guides, developing recipes, working as a food stylist and cooking pop up dinners in professional kitchens, all while contributing to publications like The Sunday Times, The Guardian Feast, BBC Good Food, Conde Nast Traveller and Olive. Along the way, I fell in love not just with restaurants and gastronomy, but with the quiet magic of really good home cooking, which is what I grew up on and love to cook and eat with my family and friends.

These days, life looks a little different. Six years ago we swapped London for the coast, and I’m raising two small children while continuing to cook and write and create our dream seaside home. Starting my Substack, A Lot On Her Plate, has given me a direct way to share my best work and new recipes, while writing about the gloriously messy bits of life, too.

If you subscribe, you’ll find: easy-but-elevated seasonal recipes you’ll actually want to cook; thoughtful, personal writing on food and life; recommendations on travel, restaurants, and places worth knowing and, crucially, a warm, curious community of people who love to eat well and live fully.

If that sounds like your sort of thing, I’d love to have you at the table.