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Sometimes, being at culinary school, though it is completely exactly what I want to be doing at this moment in my life, can feel like a total drag. I haven’t had routine in my life for so long that now that I suddenly have this incredibly rigid structure (get to school by 9.30am, leave school by 5pm, do homework, eat some quick dinner, pass out around 10pm) it sometimes feels a little restrictive. Gone are the days when I would go out to dinner with friends willy-nilly, purely to discover new restaurants around town as and when I pleased; gone are the days of dozing in bed until late morning, raising myself to sit in front of my laptop with a mug of hot lemon and honey (still wearing PJs until the late evening by which time what was the point in even changing?) to plonk out a piece about a food event I’d attended the night before, or edit a new batch of photos.

But then when I look back on those days I see what a lack of focus I had, how lazy I was becoming. On the one hand I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted; on the other I was bored, feeling stupider and fatter by the day, and was desperately poor with no idea whether this was what I even wanted any more. These days I’m still poor but my brain feels as if it’s overloading with new and exciting information. My need to experiment has come back in full force – the other week I bought an ox tongue just for the fun of it and I’ve been making enquiries into how to get hold of a whole pig’s head to make headcheese – but the result of this is that I’ve become quieter, less social, more reclusive and a much harder worker. So maybe that’s why I’ve decided to change things up a little.

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So by now you guys have all heard of Kickstarter, right? If not then you’ve probably been living under a rock but I’ll give you the Spark Notes – have an idea or venture that needs funding? Kickstarter’s your friend. Simply describe what you want to do and how much it’s going to cost, set a time limit and then see if you make your goal. If you get the funding your project is greenlit and you receive the backers’ money, if you don’t reach your goal nobody gets charged. It’s a fantastic way for artists, filmmakers and alike to get the funding for a project from the people that matter the most – the public, ie. you and me. Previously, Kickstarter has brought to life the amazing Nomiku home sous vide – an affordable and portable device to turn any pot in your kitchen into a sous vide!

A little while ago I was contacted by the folks behind Good Taste & Gatherings, a new documentary web series who are trying to get their project greenlit through Kickstarter. Essentially the documentary follows three different groups of “foodies” who create “extraordinary community experiences” through food – in this current trend of pop-ups and supperclubs, the documentary sounds like a great way to gain insight into why regular folk love to make and share food. In Saralyn Critchlow’s (the associate producer) & Dawn LaMattina Asher’s (the producer) words, they “want to see lives changed as a result of ‘Good Taste & Gatherings'”.

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