Hungry for More: Food, Love and Revolution
Food isn't just fuel - it's foreplay, revolution & family therapy all in one. Join me as I explore how sharing a meal can change the world. Bring your appetite & leave your table manners at the door.
We chase flavours.
For James, my chef husband, it's the pursuit of perfection. For me? It's about the entire sensory pleasure. I don't just taste the food - I drink in the whole experience, craving those moments that make my heart skip a beat.
Take Neptune's Grotto in Sydney, this place has everyone talking and not just for the food. Toni Clarke's art wraps around the walls and sweeps you into her world of culinary chaos - dressing up, spilled wine, eating with pitchforks, and the inevitable tangle of spaghetti with seafood. It’s messy, sexy, and unrestrained - a glorious celebration of flavour, freedom, and indulgence. Go see it. This isn’t just how I want to eat; it’s how I want to live: untamed, unafraid, and full of love in all its forms.
Love, Lust & Eating with Our Hands
It’s no surprise I married a chef. We fell in love across bar tops, dance floors, and dinner tables - talking, laughing, lusting and eating with our hands.
Intimate, raw, delicious.
This talk about sexy food began at La Gavroche this week, where Porcelain Alice's burlesque fabulous performance inspired me to explore what makes eating so sensual.
What Do I Find Culinarily Sexy?
Besides the word 'culinarily' go on, wrap your lips around that - what immediately comes to mind is whipped butter, fresh bread, and a bottle of jammy Desire Lush & Zin Primitivo. And I’m yours. Easy.
And let's just take a second and talk about hand skills - kneading dough, popping a cork, breaking bread, tearing, offering, creating. It’s primal. Intimate. Seductive. That’s why food is sexy.
When Great Food Meets Great Company
But I’ve realised that a sexy dish isn’t just about what’s on the plate, it’s about who’s sitting around your table. It’s that spark when great food and great company collide.
For me it’s not about the usual aphrodisiacs - though yes, oysters and figs certainly have their moment. What excites me/us is a generous, rich Spaghetti Ragu one that begs to be mopped up with crusty bread until the plate is licked clean.
Roll up your sleeves and dive in with gusto, make a mess, drink wine and break bread together - just like my friends in Toni’s dining scenes.
Speaking of which, let me share our family Ragu recipe with you.
Watson Family Ragu
A hearty Italian meat sauce that makes enough for the house and a batch for a friend. Make this the day before, it tastes better the next day.
Ingredients
1kg ground beef
150g guanciale (Italian cured pork cheek) cut into lardons
8 pork and fennel sausages squeezed from casings and crumbled
2 brown onions
1 carrot
2 stalks celery
6-8 cloves garlic
3 tins good quality Italian chopped tomatoes
1 cup full cream milk
250ml red wine
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 tablespoons each rosemary and thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
250g block of Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
Finely dice onions, carrot, garlic and celery to make a soffritto
Heat oil in a heavy saucepan and cook the soffritto & guanciale for 10-15 mins and stir through the herbs
Add the sausage meat, ground beef and cook until browned
Add tomato paste and stir through for 2 mins
Add wine and simmer for 2 mins
Add tomatoes and milk, season with salt and pepper
Simmer on low heat for at least 1½ hours, stirring occasionally
Taste and adjust seasoning before serving
Serve with your favourite pasta - we use Barilla and cook it al dente, add the drained pasta to the Ragu and cook it in the sauce for a couple of minutes then turn it off and RELAX - let it rest, let the flavours become mates - 10 mins, you can do it, grate over a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano and there you have it.
Cooking As A Love Language
What I’ve also learned this week, after deep-diving into my own psyche, is this: cooking is about expressing all kinds of love.
It’s not just romantic. It’s the dinner you make for your mum. The container of leftovers you pack for your workmate. The special meal you prepare for your pets. The shared meal with your crush, your gym buddy, or the person who turned out to be totally wrong for you.
These acts of culinary kindness are just as meaningful. Just as tender. Just as full of care.
The Sweetest Thing: The Peach Melba
When it comes to the delicious dance between food and desire, I take inspiration from Christine Manfield. She says:
"Dessert gives pleasure, is food for the soul, and sensuous by its very nature. It's intended to arouse passion and be provocative…dessert is the final thing you eat. It leaves a lingering taste, a lasting impression."
We’re inspired by her Peach Melba, a dish with history & romance. Here’s our take on the Peachy dish - scroll down for Recipe.
To Drink
We’ll get in the mood with a bottle Billy Cart Rosé and recommend you get yourself a bottle of Sangiovese to compliment the Spaghetti Ragu. You know what you like.
For a nightcap (who even says that anymore?), let’s sip Montenegro on ice, a slice of orange would have been great, this fresh baked Amaretto biscuit from HAM was a nice touch.
And Now, The Finale - A Thrilling Revelation
While I’ve been talking about sensual cooking, I’ve realised something bigger.
I’ve been thinking too narrowly about food and connection. Sure, romantic, sensual dinners are beautiful. But cooking extends far beyond romantic partnerships.
Reading
Substack this week opened my eyes to how LGBTQ+ communities have long used food as a vehicle for activism and creating chosen families. In these spaces, the dinner table isn’t just about eating - it’s about creating new traditions, rewriting manners, and dissolving inhibitions in favour of genuine connection.I’m embarrassed that this never crossed my straight & narrow mind before. But I’m thrilled by the revelation.
Food isn’t just about pleasure. It’s about power.
I’ve always felt guilty that my family never sat at the table perfectly, like we did as kids. But in John’s newsletter, he quotes Gallard/Black/Wheeler "At the dinner table we create our own culture with its own set of manners….all are acceptable" and that works for us too.
Food As Social Change
I never realised how cooking could be a tool for social change, let’s expand our view of culinary connection.
Let’s cook to build community. To preserve traditions while creating new ones.
To nourish not just bodies, but the collective soul of our chosen families and communities. Thank you John x
Until next time - cook with love (in all its delicious forms).
Lisa x
RECIPE
Peach Melba
A classic dessert that's all about the harmony of sweet peaches and tart raspberries. Make it the day before and assemble together when you’re ready to indulge.
Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients:
500g frozen raspberries
1/2 cup white sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Method:
Combine raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan
Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
Continue cooking until the sauce becomes silky and rich in texture - taste it, you want the sweet & sour Yin & Yang coming together.
Blend with a stick blender then strain through a fine-mesh sieve if desired
Let cool
Sous Vide Peaches
What we love about the water bath is how all the flavours cook then cool together, creating something truly magical.
Ingredients:
5 Golden yellow peaches
Zest and juice of 1 orange
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup Lillet Blanc
1/2 cup sugar
Method:
Set sous vide water bath to 85°C
Combine all ingredients in a vacuum-seal or zip-lock bag
Cook in water bath for 1 hour & 30 minutes
Remove bag and immediately place in ice water bath to cool
Refrigerate overnight in the sealed bag to let the flavours become the bmates.
What we love about the water bath is how all the flavours cook then cool together, creating something truly magical.
Vanilla Cream
Ingredients:
300ml thickened cream
125g mascarpone
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Method:
In a large bowl, whip all the ingredients until soft peaks form
To assemble the Peach Melba:
Allow peaches to come to room temperature
Carefully peel the skin using a paring knife
Cut a wedge in each peach
Pour a pool of raspberry coulis onto each serving plate
Add a generous dollop of vanilla cream
Place the prepared peach on top
Nestle fresh raspberries into the wedge cuts of the peach
The combination of textures - the silky coulis, puffy cream, and tender peaches - creates a dessert that's as beautiful as it is delicious. Oh my god I love myself for making this!