Rocket & Squash is a journal of food related experiences that I think are worth sharing. It covers the restaurants I go to, the meals I cook, and the food themed books, reviews, blogs and TV programmes that grab my attention.

I started the blog in May 2010 for a whole host of reasons, though I don’t really remember now what most of those were.

Perhaps it was to motivate me to tick off the restaurants on my ever-growing list of places to go, and to regularly cook new things. It might also have been because I thought that writing a blog would provide me with a creative outlet; an escape from my job as a City lawyer, based around the things I liked doing the most.

Whatever the reasons, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

In December 2011 I decided to leave that well paid job as I finally realised that I wanted at least to try and earn a living in the food industry. I’m yet to work out exactly how I’ll make my fortune …

… but in the meantime: I completed a 6 month ‘fast track’ professional chef course at Westminster Kingsway college; I do occasional stints in high-end restaurant kitchens and sporadically host occasional supper clubs; co-organised, ran and cooked at a pop-up event throughout August 2012 called the ‘Supperclub Summit’; I was the Assistant Producer and Food Consultant on a forthcoming BBC2 food show; consult and menu develop for a new restaurant/takeaway concept; write regularly for Borough Market; have the occasional piece in publications like the lovely Cereal magazine and the Foodie Bugle; and am always on the look out for paid writing opportunities. I was delighted to be named in a shortlist of 3 for ‘Best Online Food Writer’ in the 2013 Fortnum and Mason Food Awards.

I also offer my services for private cooking tuition and catering. See the links in the left hand margin.

If you are interested, you can see pictures of what I cook and eat by following me on Instagram. By following me on Twitter you can get the usual inane updates mixed with very occasional gems about places to go, or food events that are taking place. I am @rocketandsquash on both forums.

Rocket and Squash will continue to evolve over time – no doubt it will chart or at least reflect my descent from the comfort of salaried lawyer, to enthusiastic chef student and wannabe food writer, to abject failure, poverty and then the inevitable creep back to my former profession.

If something I have written interests, pleases or enrages you, do add a comment to the relevant post. If you would like to contact me more generally, please feel free to send me an email (editor@rocketandsquash.com).

For what it’s worth, my name is Edward Smith. At the time of writing, I am 31.5 years old, have most of my hair, and am gradually turning from flat whites and brownies to brewed coffee and pastéis de nata.

London, April 2013

Colophon

The website is powered by WordPress and was built by Oliver Smith. The typeface used is Garamond. To avoid Rocket & Squash appearing a bit funky, we recommend that you view this website in a modern web browser such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome or Firefox (3+). If you must use Internet Explorer, please upgrade to at least version 9 … but be prepared for a rough ride.