Meet Jenny Rosentrach: Devoted to the Dinner Table
An interview with a talented food writer and vegetarian cook
Good morning dear readers. Thank you for being here. I am currently writing to you from a little breakfast nook at some friends’ home whom we are pet sitting for in Warm Springs, VA. The house sits alongside the Jackson river and you can hear it streaming along through the open windows, and the birds sing song all day long. It’s a very peaceful and beautiful spot to be for a bit.
April felt like being put through a washing machine. I was all over the place, hosting, traveling, teaching, moving homes, etc. It was A LOT. But, It was also so rich and so full of goodness. Teaching with
in both Western North Carolina and Warm Springs, Virginia was a dream. Collaborating with such a talented baker and chef was so lovely and I feel like we were able to offer all of the gifts of the season and the land rising up around us. Thank you to our students that were able to attend either of our workshops! We will definitely be teaching together again in the future and hope to offer even more seasonally aligned creative retreats for people to attend.I’ll share more life updates in the near future, but for now I wanted to share a little interview with
. Jenny is the creator of the very successful and lovely newsletter Dinner: A Love Story. Jenny and I partnered up to do a print giveaway which you can learn more about here!I hope you enjoy getting to know Jenny here below. Please feel free to leave any more questions in the comments!
In your own words, can you tell us what you do for a living?
In short: I write about dinner and the dinner table and all that happens around mine. I started Dinner: A Love Story in 2010 when my kids were 6 and 8, I've just never stopped. It's amazing how the dinner table has evolved over the years -- from the hustle-bustle of feeding a young family to my current reality which is cooking for and with my husband, plus a rotating cast of neighbors, friends, my kids' friends, etc. One thing that has remained constant: The love story part.
How did you get into cooking? Was this particular craft or something similar a vision that you dreamed of doing as a child/growing up?
If you told my younger self that I'd be writing about food for a living, I would've laughed and called you crazy. I found my career by accident, working as a features editor at various lifestyle magazines, and realizing that what I looked forward to the most was editing and writing stories about home cooking.
What is your favorite dish to make? What is your favorite ingredient?
That is way too hard a question and it changes almost every day. It would be a tight race between many wildly different dishes: tagliatelle with Marcella Hazan's bolognese or a simple tomato sandwich during peak tomato season, or the addictively wholesome Wheatberry Salad with Grapes, Feta, and Tofu in my book The Weekday Vegetarians.
Do you have a mentor? If so, how has that support helped you get to where you are now?
I don't have a single mentor -- just a village of magazine editors whose voices I hear every time I open my substack to write. I was lucky to have learned about service writing in the late 90s and early aughts, when the magazine industry was still somewhat robust.
Who are some chefs/bakers/makers who inspire you?
So many! Meera Sodha, Melissa Clark, Julius Roberts, Marcella Hazan, Nigel Slater, and plant-forward recipe developers like Lukas Volger, Justine Doiron, and Pierce Abernathy. Ever since I wrote my Weekday Vegetarian series, I am really drawn to people who can make vegetables shine in creative ways.
When you are struggling to find your creative voice, what are some practices that help bring it back for you?
Reading, reading, reading. I am a big reader -- all kinds, fiction, nonfiction -- and when I'm reading inspiring writing, it's impossible not to feel inspired myself. Most recently this happened with a novel by Susie Boyt called Loved and Missed. I couldn't get over how strong her voice was with such a spare writing style.
What advice would you give to someone trying to do the same kind of creative work that you do?
Start a Substack. If for no other reason than to keep your writing and cooking muscles in shape -- think about it like you're going to the gym a few times a week.
Please tell us what you are currently working on, and if there are any important updates/etc.!
My most recent book came out in the fall, the second volume of my Weekday Vegetarians series, so I'm working on a proposal now for the next book and I am always always working on my Substack. I started it four years ago and I a) never run out of ideas and b) look forward to producing it every week. I think that's a sign that I need to keep at it.
Thanks for being here and for following along as I share snippets of inspiration and musings as they come along.
Wishing you all bird song and sun-filled spring days.
Love this. Where food, art and connection meet is my happy place.
Thank you for the feature, Molly! Love your work so much. xoxoxo