Winter is for deep nourishment
Our coffee table book has officially arrived
Print is back. Beautiful coffee table books are well and truly alive. There's nothing stopping you from putting your phone down, kicking your feet up and entering a new world. Perhaps solve a crossword puzzle. Read about the lives of American lobstermen. Make tiramisù. Learn to make Basque cheesecake this weekend. All while tastefully buzzed (caffeinated).
From the very beginning, we’ve always strived to be the space on the Internet where you can feel good. There’s too much negativity everywhere. We’ve always strived to push impeccable vibes and our coffee table books are an amalgamation of that ideology. Beautiful to look at. Fun to read. Yet still packed with incredibly rich material. Recipes. Original stories. Art. You deserve to be entertained, tastefully.
I’m very pleased to announce that our first print book for the year is now live. Whether you’ve been with us from the very first issue or you’ve just joined, I hope you enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed putting it all together. It’s been a true labor of love.
This is our thickest book yet, coming in at 210 pages, printed on 120gsm art coated paper in perfect binding. It measures 8.5” by 11” with a matte laminated cover, embossed with linen and silver-foil stamping. Made for your coffee table to hug.
We’ve immortalized some of your favorite articles over our last several digital issues, along with some print exclusives which we’ll eventually release on our editorial page here on Substack.
This time, each order comes with a 300gsm A5 card for you to send a handwritten letter as well as our very first custom sticker pack. You’ll receive ten WARKITCHEN stickers - an apple, tiramisù, pomegranate, an orange, a ribeye, affogato (of course), a boule of sourdough, an oyster, honey and of course bison (from our Winter remedies infographic).
Enjoy complimentary US shipping with any two or more items - mix and match freely between our Winter and last year’s Summer coffee table magazine. While stocks last. There likely won’t be a restock after it’s sold out.
Here’s a little preview of some of the features in this coffee table book:
The Art of Tiramisù
We’re honored to collaborate with the queen of beautiful desserts herself, Saweeeties, for the perennial tiramisù piece. She shares her secret base tiramisù recipe - one that you can use to make any kind of tiramisù that you like - from matcha to pistachio tiramisù. She even teaches you how to make one of her favorite variants - an incredible chocolate tiramisù that’s served with dark chocolate ganache. Truly the perfect late weekend snack.
The Haul
This is something I’ve struggled to keep quiet about. I’m sure Carter Davis Johnson and Andrew Granstaff can say the same. It’s just about the most brilliantly audacious piece we’ve commissioned - in the best of ways.
Carter and Andrew journey aboard the Psalm 34, where they join a lobster crew hauling traps before dawn off Swan’s Island in Maine. Carter bands lobsters until the bait smell sends him reeling over the side of the boat (at one point he nearly loses a finger). Andrew somehow keeps his composure the entire time, long enough to shoot photos all on beautiful film.
They capture the story of the American lobstermen - an incredibly underappreciated group of people. They get up before dawn and dedicate their lives to feeding you and me. Carter and Andrew really outdid themselves this time with a piece that makes for an incredible read.
Film & the Gift of the Present
Film is magic. If you’ve been following us for a while now, you understand the deep appreciation we have for film photography. It just feels different. There’s a soul to it that modern photography just cannot replicate.
O.W. Root takes a break from his sartorial pieces that you’re so accustomed to with a piece on film. He starts with a question we all know the answer to but don’t want to admit. We take more photos than ever, yet why do we remember less than ever? Fourteen versions of the same shot we’ll never look at again. Digital catacombs, he calls them.
The warmth and grain of film are undeniable. When you have a roll of 36, there’s jeopardy. You don’t want to take so many shots of the same thing. You press the shutter. Hear the click. It’s an art.
He talks about handing his kids disposable cameras on a family trip (an incredible idea that I’m sure many will follow). The photos that came back felt like looking into his own childhood and his children’s at the same time. He calls it “nostalgic present memory,” which is one of those phrases that sounds made up until you see the photos and feel exactly what he means.
Highly recommend reading this with either a frothy cappuccino or a warm cup of English tea.
Some Crabs I’ve Known
Lou Tamposi is back, this time with a piece on all things crabs. He walks through about a dozen species across North America. Blues, rocks, Dungeness, spider, stone, king, green, and tells you everything you need to know.
The standout for me is his father-in-law’s strict protocol for eating blue crabs in Baltimore. You touch a crab, it’s yours. First-timers get a one-crab grace period. After that, if you leave too much meat on the shell, you’re out. Mallets for women and children. Men get their hands and a butter knife.
He also dives for rock crabs in Massachusetts but admits he usually comes home empty-handed because he keeps swimming past them looking for lobster. Lesson in there…
America’s Forgotten Sense of Place
The people’s favorite article from Issue 38, America’s Forgotten Sense of Place by Joe Gillespie, is now immortalized in print. Redesigned with photographs from Alex Kittoe.
It resonated because it's a feeling a lot of us have felt but haven't been able to put into words. He starts the piece with a memory of a diner. Black coffee. Pie made by someone’s grandmother. Merle Haggard on the jukebox. Pieces of a hundred small worlds we wandered through and didn’t think to hold onto. Yet somehow, we’re starting to lose it all… Quietly replaced by the same stores, the same music, the same everything.
The piece then talks about how we can go back. How there’s still hope for those of us who want to live in a more beautiful world. Planting trees that will outlive you. Being active in your local community. Spending money on local spots that are doing things the right way. This is a piece that hits close to home.
The Airport Bar
Owen J. Haffey wrote us a piece romanticizing the airport bar. Yes, the airport bar. He opens with a story about the Brazilian composer Tom Jobim, the man who used to walk to the airport just to watch the planes. He was terrified of flying but loved everything about it.
Owen walks you through the entire ritual. The packing. The drive. TSA chaos. The journey to the bar itself. He even takes us to the TWA Lounge at JFK. Before his red-eyes to Europe, his father drives him to the airport, they squeeze into the tiny parking lot, and they sit together. Owen with a negroni, his dad with a vodka martini shaken with a twist of lemon. Bobby Darin playing in the background. What a vibe.
This is one to read before your next flight.
This piece was first published last September. Redesigned with photographs from Nathan A. Bauman.
Outlier Genius
This is a piece that went pretty viral on Twitter, for good reason. Lauren explores how highly intelligent men often develop their genius not from wholeness, but from fracture. How the mind overcompensates by building extraordinary cognitive architecture. That underneath the put-together man, there's a wounded Anima.
She describes what it actually takes for these men to heal - not through force or confrontation, but through someone who enters through the side door. Someone whose presence teaches the nervous system what safety feels like. And when that happens, she argues, the genius expands. It's a piece I shouldn't explain too much - she does a beautiful job herself. You can read it digitally on her page here, or get the coffee table book if you prefer reading it in your hands.
Starting Sourdough
Have you always wanted to make sourdough for yourself but you just don’t know where to start? All this talk about hydration levels… the amount of time it takes to grow a starter. All this fearmongering about how it’ll die if you don’t do these very specific 27 steps. Well, Blanca Peyró wrote a guide that’s simple. Starting Sourdough. It’s for anyone who just wants to make a great first loaf of bread.
Winter Crossword
Haven’t you heard? Crosswords are so back. Fill it up in your book and tag us on Instagram with how many you got right! :)
Community Eats
And of course, what’s a WARKITCHEN without a community eats section? Thank you to all of you who submitted your beautiful works of Art, not just for this issue but every one that we’ve done so far. You’ve inspired more people than you possibly know. We all hold the power to cook beautiful food for ourselves that will nourish us deeply. Never forget that 🥂
There’s so much more to explore. Articles, recipes and all the art that’s in between the pages.
Every little thing is an opportunity for unlimited artistic expression. Your support means everything 🥂
A huge thank you to everyone who made this issue possible.
Cover Art: Winter Valley by Ryo Takemasa
Contributors 🤍
O.W. Root
Andrew Granstaff
Carter Davis Johnson
Lucca De Wolff
Evan
Old Sovereign Publishing
Lauren
Kyla Garcia
Blanca Peyró
Joe Gillespie
Konrad Verbaarschott
Saweeeties
Lou Tamposi
constanze price
Julia Tarasenko
Delaney Rau
Arianne Griffin
Owen J. Haffey
Holly Ann Rubio
rachel
Landen Taylor
Miranda Howard
Alessandra Bocchi
Caroline R.F. Williams
Featured brands ❄️
Graffeo Coffee
The Buffalo Wool Co
MASA Chips
VANDY Crisps
VanMan
SZIA SKIN
Greco Gum
FRTIL
Health y Sol Soap
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