Setting the Table: Vol. 14
Two days, a lot of women building things & Famesick in my ears
Every Thursday, I'm setting the table for your weekend…a little collection of reads, recipes, fun things, and whatever else caught my eye this week. It's the moment before the chaos when you get to decide what kind of experience you want. NOT a to-do list…just really sweet possibilities.
Friday night at Barclays, somewhere in the middle of “Cosmic Love” I stopped being self-conscious about how wild I was moving.
I was there with Tiffany and Amy...two women I’ve known since the 90s, since we were teenagers in South Carolina, since before all the many iterations of me. They knew me as the girl eating raw brownie mix from a bowl. And Florence...her beautiful spirit…her incredible voice filled the room, and it felt purely physical, like the air shifted and changed. It felt less like a concert and more like a collective exhale…a room full of people who needed it most. I sang every word I knew and a bunch I didn’t…at full volume and totally off key. I was fifteen again and also very much the 40+ woman I’ve been becoming…both of them existing in the same body for three hours. Those moments don’t happen often, but when they do, you hold on a little bit longer.
Before the concert, we found ourselves at Lola’s. Chef Suzy Cupps is a Carolina girl, too, and the food…creative and honest…made these 3 SC girls feel at home. The food is dang good, and it was the best way to pre-game.
The next day, I worked my first Cherry Bombe Jubilee as a volunteer…which meant I got to be behind the scenes instead of just a face in the crowd. I spent most of the day working with the incredible team behind DONA tea in Bushwick. The tea is quite fantastic, but the women who run it…they are quite special.
Throughout the day, I had moments that made the world feel small and also enormous at the same time.
Lucie of FROM LUCIE was there. I’ve ordered my birthday cakes from her since she was baking out of her apartment during the pandemic...years before the East Village shop, years before the cookbook that just dropped and is, predictably, as beautiful and dynamic as she is. I watched her build something real from what was a hobby, maybe even a survival mechanism, maybe both. I hugged her and introduced myself, and she seemed to know just who I was. I told her I’d been ordering her cakes for years…she was gracious and warm.
I also got to pop my head in for a few moments on the main stage. The Sophia Roe and Nara Smith conversation felt light and natural, like two girlfriends catching up and talking cookbooks on a couch. And then the legacy of Edna Lewis...Toni Tipton-Martin and Nina Williams-Mbengue, moderated by chef Adrienne Cheatham…who I actually hugged right before she went on. The conversation was about what it means to carry a culinary tradition forward…who gets to tell the story…what gets preserved. The day ended with Rita Sodi and Jody Williams of Via Carota and iSodi, so freaking amazing, such badasses, neither went to culinary school, both are still killing it in all the ways.
I came home full...from being around food people, from being in rooms where women were serious about what they do and why. There’s an energy that comes from that…I came home and wanted to build something.
And this week delivered…three new gigs booked for the spring and a few more in conversations that look promising. Busy season incoming for The Freckled Fork, and I am ready.
THE GRAZING PLATE
(quick bites, short reads, things to nibble on)
Stop Borrowing What You Need to Build by Myleik Teele
Myleik hands us something we already know but can’t reach. This piece is about resource and self-trust and not waiting until conditions are right...which, if you read anything I put out last week, you know is exactly where my head has been. I sent this to three people before I even finished it.What’s Trending: The Art and Science by Sally Ekus
On trend culture as a system. What it means to try to build something real when the algorithm keeps moving the ground under you. Read this if you’ve ever caught yourself chasing a moment that was already gone by the time you noticed it.
THE UTENSILS
(tools, recipes or things that help you do the work)
Lucie's debut cookbook — CAKE FROM LUCIE
She started baking birthday cakes from her apartment during the pandemic. Then an East Village shop. Now this. The cookbook is exact and beautiful and tastes like intention on every page. If you're in NYC, the shop is on East 10th Street and is totally worth the trip.
THE VESSELS
(what holds us, what gives our chaos shape and space)
High Tide by Jo Sexton
I read this twice. The ocean has always been my place of clarity...the thing I go to when I need to understand something about myself that I can't get to any other way. If you read last Sunday's piece about the algorithm as water we're all swimming in whether we understand it or not, this one lives in the same current. Something about the way it holds a moment without explaining it to death.
THE GLASSWARE
(the bubbles, the refreshment, what quenches)
Lena Dunham's Famesick —
I do an annual rewatch of GIRLS...sure, there are those that still annoy the shit out of me…the self-involved and narcissistic 20-somethings they are, and yet, the show still catches in me in places I'm not ready for. I finished the rewatch just as Lena’s latest novel dropped. The timing felt serendipitous. Famesick is about what sustained spectacle does to a person. Famous or not. I've been thinking about it alongside last Sunday's essay about the brand where a person used to be…there's something there…in the overlap that’s sticking with me…something about the difference between being seen and being watched.
THE NAPKIN
(for wiping away the week’s mess, the reset)
Think about the people who knew you before the version of you that the world sees now. The ones with that kind of history.
When’s the last time you were actually in a room with them?
Not a text thread. A room. Make THAT happen, before it’s too late.
THE DESSERT PLATE
(the sweet stuff, pure joy, no justification needed)
Two things:
Extra Sauce by Zahra Tangorra
I’ve followed her on the ‘gram for awhile and have been counting down to the release of her memoir — I LOVE a good memoir, especially when it involves food. Grab your copy today!Lola’s
Go! Chef Suzy Cupps is the real deal and the food will take care of you. And they serve lunch now, too! Reservations here.
Thinking About This Week…
Three new gigs, a life-giving weekend & a stack of reading that kept me honest this week. More soon.
Happy Thursday, turkeys!
xo, Jess
Setting the Table drops every Thursday. Essays on life, motherhood, identity, purpose, food and belonging…these babies drop on Sundays. If you had a weekend that reset you, I want to hear about it.
Thanks for sharing your love for The Table Between & all things Freckled Fork…pass along to your friends, share, like, heart…do all the things. I really appreciate it more than you can ever know <3