The Freckled Fork

05/18/2026

The kale rotting in your fridge isn't a character flaw.

The bowl of cereal over the sink at 10pm isn't a sign of weak willpower.

Those are triage decisions…Our nervous systems have been on high alert for so long, they can barely remember what it feels like to not be…and they are making survival calls with whatever they have.

New post is about what's actually happening in our bodies…and why the smell of onions browning in butter might do more for a clenched jaw than any supplement you're currently being sold on TikTok.

Come to the table...

On Mother’s Day hangovers, metabolic safety & why your nervous system can’t "rest & digest" on a body full of secrets...

04/30/2026

Happy Thursday, turkeys!

Setting the Table Vol. 14 is live! Friday night at Barclays singing Florence + The Machine songs completely off key with Tiff and Amy, two of my oldest and dearest friends from South Carolina who have known me since the 90s, since before all the many versions of me.

Then Saturday, I worked my first Cherry Bombe Jubilee as a volunteer...I spent the day with the incredible women behind DONA tea, stole moments from the main stage to catch the Edna Lewis legacy conversation with Toni Tipton-Martin, Nina Williams-Mbengue & Adrienne Cheatham, got to meet Lucie of FROM LUCIE (whose birthday cakes I've been ordering since the pandemic!), and ended the day with Rita Sodi and Jody Williams of Via Carota and iSodi. I came home full and ready to build!

Vol. 14 has the full story, plus this week's reading list, a cookbook recommendation, Lena Dunham's Famesick, and a little reset for your week.

Oh, and three new spring gigs are booked for The Freckled Fork...busy season is incoming, and I am so ready!

Two days, a lot of women building things & Famesick in my ears

04/27/2026

Yas has been trying to patiently explain the algorithm to me for months as I’m working to get The Freckled Fork to show up on the map…and me? I half-listened…gave him a “yeah, uh-huh.” I doom-scrolled Instagram instead…(yes, I see the irony…)

Then he said the thing I couldn’t stop thinking about…
“Somewhere in the last decade, we all started performing like brands instead of being people…and the algorithm…the one that gives you the ICK…is a huge reason why.”

So I hear I am trying to process what it actually means…what it does to a person, to a marriage, to a mission, to a kitchen, to a kid scrolling somewhere right now.

Part Two of The Feed is up. Link in comments.

04/24/2026

The Loring Place announced its closing. Cleo just opened around the corner. I filmed Between Bowls Episode 2 with one working mic and the gumption to keep going because these ladies from Three Top Hospitality just opened their 3rd restaurant in 6 years, in NYC no less...that's not nothing, so give it a watch!

The chef content market may be too crowded...but the bigger problem is, it's too quiet...and quiet kills restaurants faster than rent.

New Setting the Table is up...a closing, an opening, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, reads from Kate Bowler and Jess Sowards, and two reservations you should make this week. Let's go eat!

https://tablebetween.thefreckledfork.com/p/setting-the-table-vol-13

04/20/2026

I've been in kitchens that cost more than my apartment and felt absolutely dead inside. And I've been in kitchens the size of a closet where the joy was so thick you could feel it on your skin.

Good bones has nothing to do with the surface.

I wrote something about that...about what's underneath when everything else falls away. About how the ancient Greeks reserved a room in their home for the stranger who hadn't arrived yet. About what actual bone is made of (collagen + mineral, and neither works alone). About how we became the most productive society that's ever existed and also the loneliest.

This one's been building in my mind for a few months now, and it's about hospitality...real hospitality...and why it might be the bones of every meaningful thing.

New on the Substack: Good Bones:
https://tablebetween.thefreckledfork.com/p/good-bones

04/18/2026

Sake Rising: The Japanese have a proverb…

*nihonshu wa ryori wo erabanai*

meaning sake doesn’t fight with food.

That changed how I think about pairing my favorite libation these days…

Sake has about 1/5th the acidity of wine, no tannins & naturally high umami…which means it handles ingredients that might trip up…oh, I don’t know…wine, maybe?

In my kitchen it might look like a dry ginjo with fried green tomatoes, a kimoto with melting collards, a dry-hopped sake with fried catfish.

Southern food + sake is not the pairing you’d expect… but it’s definitely one I’d argue makes a lot of damn sense!

This week’s Setting the Table is a full love letter to sake…the rise of craft sake in NYC featuring the origin story of our very own (total fans, Kura Kin members here 🙋‍♀️), links for some upcomjng events for you to get acquainted, and why Yas and I are all in.

Our wedding cocktail was an apple cider sake sangria. We find ways to talk about it in almost every conversation…We’re totally not chill or casual about this 💕

Live on Substack: Link in Comments

04/16/2026

I paired sake with fried green tomatoes, slow-cooked collards, and fried catfish this month...and honestly? It made more sense than wine ever has.

New Setting the Table is up.

The whole issue is a love letter to sake...a Japanese proverb that changed how I think about food pairings, a Brooklyn brewery that started in a chest freezer and became the first to export back to Japan, and an Arkansas-grown sake rice with tasting notes of honeysuckle.

Link in comments.

04/13/2026

Can I be honest?

I've spent 20+ in marketing and design. I've coached brands on authenticity, connection, and trust...and yes, I believed every word I said.

Come to find out, I genuinely did not fully understand how these platforms were actually working for them or for me.

Yas has been trying to explain it to me for months now. I kept gracefully trying to change the subject...I didn't want to know.

Well...I finally started listening, and today I'm participating in the conversation...here's what I've learned...

Part One of The Feed is up on Substack...about the algorithm, the loneliness epidemic, and the system that's been quietly shaping us all.

The Feed, Part 1 of 3: Social Media, Loneliness & the Business of Manufactured Discontent

04/08/2026

✨Mornings with Jess✨
A little Hump Day memory for you…Back in my days at — every Wednesday we hosted Hip Hop Hump Day outside the GMP — greek life step battles…unreal energy…and if you know me, you know to this day, every Wednesday I blast beats 🥁Thank GOD I got hips & rhythm and swag 🤞😉

This morning on the menu?

Rollin’ with Cheesy Soft Egg Omelette Roll-Ups w/ Fresh Fruit & Almond Flour Banana Cranberry Muffins

04/07/2026

we are all performing roles we didn’t necessarily sign up for…

and most of us won’t stop until something forces us to drop the mask entirely…

for me, it was the kitchen.

new essay up on Substack today: the why that changed everything.

Link in bio💪

04/07/2026

✨Mornings with Jess✨
POV: Your office hired a private chef and food is fun again!

Every day, breakfast and lunch for 25 from scratch.

This morning?

Soft Boiled Eggs w/ Mushrooms & Scallions
Vanilla Yogurt Bowls w/ Espresso Cocoa Granola, Honey, Mangoes, Bananas & Lime Zest

I start my day dancing alone in the kitchen bc the work is the joy & the truest version of myself I’ve ever felt!

New essay on the Substack today: “The Why.”

Link in bio — Subscribe & follow along for some truth nuggets w/a side of sass💪