Hi, I'm Tessa Huang. I run Pondering Pot from my kitchen in Melbourne's inner west, where I spend most of my time cooking things that probably take too long, reading about food systems, and wondering why we don't talk more honestly about what we eat and why.

I grew up in a Taiwanese-Australian household in Adelaide where dinner was always two cuisines at once -- braised pork belly next to lamb chops, rice cooker running alongside the toaster. That collision of food traditions shaped how I think about cooking: it's never just one thing. It's memory, economics, geography, and a fair bit of improvisation.

I studied environmental science at Melbourne Uni, worked in food policy for a state government department, and then spent four years running the kitchen at a small cafe in Footscray. When the cafe closed during COVID, I started writing. First a newsletter, then freelance pieces for Broadsheet, Good Food, and a few trade publications. Pondering Pot grew out of all that.

What I write about here sits at the intersection of three things I care about: how Australians actually cook at home, the sustainability questions the food industry keeps dodging, and the technology that's quietly reshaping how food gets grown, distributed, and prepared. I'm not a tech evangelist -- I'm a home cook who pays attention.

You'll find recipes here, but they come with context. A sourdough guide that also talks about grain sourcing. A curry paste tutorial that gets into the economics of Australian spice imports. A piece about meal kits that asks whether the convenience is actually worth the packaging waste.

I write in plain language because food writing has enough pretension already. I have opinions and I share them. If you disagree, that's good -- the best conversations about food happen when people push back.

Pondering Pot publishes regularly. If you cook, eat, or think about where your food comes from, you're in the right place. Welcome to the kitchen.