Cookbook author Elizabeth Hewson on Embracing Imperfection, the Ritual That Built A Career and the Power of Generosity

This one is a very special one today - it is the final episode of Series Two, with the beautiful Elizabeth Hewson - marketer, food writer and cookbook author.Lizzie has built a career at the intersection of food, storytelling and genuine connection. She started out in PR, wrote her first cookbook at just 22, then packed her bags for a small town in Northern Italy to study food culture in the birthplace of the Slow Food movement. She returned to Australia to become the creative force behind Fink, helping build the profiles of some of the country’s most celebrated chefs, including Peter Gilmore and Lennox Hastie. And then, on a quiet Saturday night at home, she made a bowl of pasta that changed everything.Saturday Night Pasta began as a personal ritual. It became a movement, then a bestselling book, then a product range. And when we sat down together, her third book, Home Food - a cookbook for imperfect cooks - had just been released.In this conversation, we talk about the long game of a creative career, what it means to build authority in a space without being a chef, her relationship with anxiety, how cooking became her most reliable practice of presence, and the folder on her phone called Sunshine that she returns to whenever life feels heavy.Listening back now, that feels especially poignant. Since this episode was recorded, Lizzie and I have both experienced the devastating loss of our beautiful friend, James. Releasing this conversation without him here feels almost impossible. James was someone who championed the people he loved with his whole heart, and I was so looking forward to him hearing this conversation between two of his closest friends.So today, we’d like to dedicate this episode to our beautiful James. We love you. We miss you. And we’ll keep trying to make you proud.Find Elizabeth's books wherever great books are sold | Follow: @elizabethhewson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.