A Love Letter

I know. I've been away for a hot (three-month) minute. Truth is, I needed some time to get my house in order, both literally and figuratively. Since January, I've been setting up shop here in my new Amsterdam atelier, and greasing the wheels for all sorts of new creative projects and collaborations, a shocking number of which are already coming into fruition. I've had lots of time to really think about my next steps and how to materialize everything I've been working over the past year (nearly to the day) since I first launched Robust as a newsletter. In that time, I've let myself and the idea of Robust shape-shift somewhat, pursuing both curiosity and compulsion.

You're free to have a chuckle at my expense, but in a recent newsletter from The Numinous, my weekly 'Libra Rising' mantra was, "I am following whatever feels the most like fun to me." This, I understand, is the ultimate indulgence. The definition of privilege. But maybe because I've been reading a lot of millennial literature lately, (to say nothing of my Instagram rabbit-holes), I decided to cast off my cynicism and buy into it. Because if there's one takeaway from the millennial mindset and perhaps also the Aziz Ansari conversation, it's that when it comes to personal agency, we are entitled. No, the world doesn't owe you anything, but you owe it to yourself to step up and make demands, to articulate and demonstrate what matters to you. You get to be the decider.
Maybe let's all feel entitled to reclaim ownership of what it means to say #sheaskedforit and #shegotwhatsheaskedfor.

So I thought about it. After I filed away the no-brainer answers, I decided that what is fun, but also what really matters to me is food. And I certainly don't want to squander the freedom and flexibility that I've recently asked for in my career not intensely cultivating that passion from this point forward.

In that sense, Robust is pretty much back to where it started, well-rounded with a little edge. A place where food is always at the center of the conversation. Where everything is on the table.

As in any smart kitchen, nothing is wasted. Finding the sweetspot of life and work purpose? Check. Connecting with the creatives who are turning their good ideas into great businesses? On it. Plugging into the zeitgeist of today's pop food culture. Double-effing-check.

Still a love letter from my kitchen to yours.