Libby Travers, "With this book we were getting right into the deep conversations that we used to love having at two in the morning."
Friendship, the creative process of writing Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking, and the ingredients that just can't be compromised on.
I’ve written before about the privilege of writing, and the access to experiences and people it gives, but there’s another layer which I treasure, and that’s the camaraderie of fellow food writers. We write about the most convivial of subjects, but the actual writing part can be isolating. When we meet there’s often food, and drinks, and if we’re meeting digitally there’s always the promise of food in the future. We slip in and out of comparing notes and rates, and stories from the journalistic front of eating and drinking. It’s as close to a watercooler moment as many of us get.
Image: Alan Benson
It feels strange to say that I’ve never actually met Libby Travers face to face. We’ve spoken, messaged, and her newsletters, The Week That Was and latterly Eight Days were a big inspiration for Between Meals. I have my fingers crossed that they’ll return in some form. Now living in Provence with her husband and young son, I caught Libby while she’s in Sydney following the launch of Recipes for a Lifetime of Beautiful Cooking which she co-wrote with her great friend Danielle Alvarez.
The interview is about the process of writing that book, friendship and the creative process, women that inspired both her and Danielle in the writing of the book, ingredients that they couldn’t compromise on, and Libby’s experience as a writer more generally.
I thought about wrestling the word count down on this or splitting it up to feed the content sausage machine but ultimately, I didn’t want to leave any parts of this conversation on the cutting room floor, and I thought it more satisfying for you as a reader to feast on it in one sitting. It’s written in Q&A form, and it’ll take you perhaps 20 minutes to read. It’s mostly behind the paywall but paid subscriptions are the lowest they’ve ever been. In fact, they’re pretty much the lowest Substack will allow me to go. Go on, treat yourself.
You might also want to catch Monday’s piece, Pissaladiere which includes an extract from the book.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Between Meals to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.