Hi I’m Adam Roberts, I love to cook, but I don’t take myself too seriously.
Ever since I started my food blog The Amateur Gourmet in January 2004, I’ve been sharing my cooking adventures and mis-adventures with family, friends, and readers just like you.
What do I get with a paid subscription?
All of my recipe posts unlocked: like Barbuto’s legendary kale salad, vegan chocolate cupcakes that taste like the real thing, or this easy overnight focaccia.
Travel posts and New York City-centered posts, like this one about my Top Ten New York Restaurant Meals of 2025 or The Best Things That I Ate on My Book Tour;
Personal essays, like the one where I found I had Parkinson’s disease the week of my book launch or the one where I stopped drinking then started drinking again;
Book content, like my yearly round-ups of the books that I read (2025, 2024, 2023, etc);
The knowledge that you’re supporting my writing! Seriously, it means a lot. Paid subscribers are the best.
Who am I? Good question!
Twenty years ago I started The Amateur Gourmet as a way to capture my culinary education. I grew up on Long Island and then Boca Raton, FL in a household where nobody cooked. Don’t get me wrong: we lovvvved food and eating, we just always went out to restaurants or brought home takeout.
After college, I accidentally went to law school (long story) and somehow found my way into the kitchen. The smells, the sounds, and most importantly the tastes woke something up in me and I became obsessed. My friends told me I should start a blog and I said, “What’s a blog?” (This was in 2004.) And thus The Amateur Gourmet was born.
Since then, I’ve written three cookbooks — The Amateur Gourmet, Secrets of the Best Chefs, and Give My Swiss Chards to Broadway (co-written with Tony-nominee Gideon Glick) — and in 2025 I published my first novel: Food Person! Booklist called it “perfectly cooked” and The Washington Post called it “a boisterous page-turner,” so my mom forgave that whole not becoming a lawyer thing.
