Newsletters You Should Get in 2025

Food, drink, kitchens and other stuff too.

On the Substack app, you’ll find a lot of us old-hands of the platform complaining about the worst things about being there. The constant posts about how to use Substack. The “gaming” or “hacking” Substack newsletters. The posts about stats and open rates. The posts from people re-using their Threads topic starters (“Dog-ear or bookmark? Choose a tribe!” “Anyone else secretly love drinking tea with their sleeves pulled down over their hands while gazing wistfully out of the window, or is it just me?” and so on.) The long reads that are so badly researched they should self-destruct, but instead are shared again and again by people looking for clout, not something good to read. There are negatives to every social media platform, and since Substack became one, these are its pitfalls.

However, Substack can be great too, and it’s important to remember that there are hundreds of fantastic writers crafting well-written, well-researched newsletters every week , mostly just for the hell of it. For me, it’s the perfect outlet for my thoughts and stories when I don’t want them to be shaped to fit a publication’s remit. Sometimes I just want to write, you know? Last Thursday’s post, Cologne, Pt. 1, was a true example of that—published warts and all because I was in a rush, but I still wanted to get it out there. In the end I was annoyed at the typos and niggling little grammatical blotches, but I’m glad I didn’t spend too long writing it. In the end, it was a story to be told there and then, like a chat over a dinner table or in the pub.

I’m promoting these newsletters because their authors put their curiosity and personality into them. They aren’t writing as anyone else but themselves. That’s what I still love about newsletters. Like blogs, they are an insight into a person’s life and interests without the fumigation of a rigorous editorial process. As an editor, I say that with utmost respect: editing is a necessary and useful art. But sometimes, I want to see the rubbing out, the typing so fast the letters get jumbled. In a world where AI threatens to extinguish thought, I like to see the workings-out.

I hope you spend 2025 thinking, reading, writing, and doing!

Loudemile Weekly

Loudmila Bogatchek is a French food writer who spends a lot of her time writing about home cooking, the labour of doing so (her recent piece on washing up, for instance), condiments, cheese, and other good, relatable things.

In her own words: “…my groundbreaking work on eating ketchup a lot, or getting the shits after a bad hamburger, or stealing communion bread at church. Welcome to the party.”

The food writing world needs more instances of people writing about their direct influences and experiences, rather than the aspirational gumph we’re all so bored of.

Drinking In Strange Places

I’ve known Charlotte Cook for a few years, and as long as I’ve known her, she’s been a fantastic brewer and an activist for equality and equity in the beer industry. She has always said she’d like to write more, and you know me, I just told her to get on with it.

Not that I’m taking credit here—this newsletter is all her own doing. Drinking in Strange Places documents Charlotte’s fascinating global travels, where her interest and curiosity in local tradition, culture, and alcohol leads her to some incredible places.

Drink Zoigl in Bavaria. Drink Chichi in Georgia. Drink wine with a monk in a country that doesn’t exist.

Body Type

I like this newsletter because it’s about body image and body culture and all the toxic things that bind these things together in uncomfortable knots, written by Mikala Jamison, a former competitive powerlifter and fitness instructor.

The way Mikala talks about issues in the media around food, bodies, self-image, and fitness is really refreshing, and her notes on the Substack app are always useful — she shares a lot of good articles and reflects on news stories.

Shelf Offering

The recipes Apoorva Sripathi shares in her newsletter always make me want to cook. I can smell their spices in the air as I read them, and if I’m hungry I have to start planning what to make for tea — and I’m nearly always hungry.

It was her piece The Pantry is an Installation that got me following her. This sort of inquisitive interrogation of foodie culture as style culture always gets a big tick from me.

Pizza Every Friday

I don’t make any of the recipes in this newsletter, in fact, I never make pizza at all.

Still, this newsletter makes my world a better place because every Friday I have new beautiful photos of delicious pizzas to look at, enthusiastic words about pizzas to read, and a renewed love in my heart for pizza overall.

How I Cook

I’ve forgotten how many Ben Lippett recipes I’ve ripped off and called my own. By now it must be in the thousands.

He’s just got a knack for doing delicious elevated pub grub at home, and I have the deepest respect for anyone who dedicates a large portion of their life to making beer snacks. His Instagram is good too.

Brussels Beer City

Apparently Eoghan Walsh is reviving his blog. Will it be a Substack newsletter? Who knows. But at least my BBC tote back isn’t totally out of date now.

Lecker

Quite an obvious one, and a newsletter you’re more than likely signed up for already, but Lucy Dearlove deserves a shout.

Her passion for kitchens, home cooking, cookery skills, utensils, and all things kitchen design inspires me to think more about the places we eat and cook as well as what’s on our plates. I always come away from one of her pieces with some thoughts to have a ponder on, which is my favourite thing. I love to have a good think.

J’adore le Plonk

Rachel Hendry is one of our leading lights in wine writing right now, and don’t you forget it. She’s going to have a big year.

In the meantime, sign up for her newsletter J’adore le Plonk, which is actually outside of Substack. Use the form and I promise you’ll receive periodical delights about wine, cider, life, death, fruit, and more.