A New Recipe for Secret Breakfast: Open, Free, and Shared

The Joy of Sharing

When I’m having lunch with my family and order a great dish, the first thing I want to do is share it with my daughters. In fact, whenever I eat something memorable, I wish that everyone in the restaurant, my neighbors, and even my distant friends could experience the same joy.

The Secret Breakfast newsletter was born from this spirit of sharing. It’s as unpredictable as my restaurant choices, as irregular as my meals, and as curious, reckless, or irreverent as my current mood.

The Illusion of the Closed Newsletter

But like many things that have emerged on the Web in recent years, it has also been trapped in a misconception: the idea—or rather, the illusion—that a newsletter must be a closed space, an exclusive club protected by a pop-up urging you to subscribe to access a world of words.

Five years ago, when I started sending a weekly email, I hoped to find an audience. And like many others, I tried to keep that audience engaged, ensuring they remained within our digital space, seeing a few ads to cover the costs of sending emails (after a certain number of weekly sends, I'm afraid even hobbies become expensive).

In a small community, I felt like I ended up doing what the tech giants do to us, our apps, and our content on their social media platforms. I was trapping people.

I was wrong. I'm sorry.

A New Model for Secret Breakfast

Since February 2025, I’ve completely rethought the sustainability model of Secret Breakfast, the software that runs it, and my approach to readership.

• Secret Breakfast remains a weekly newsletter about food, cooking, and culinary culture, sent out every Wednesday.
• You can sign up at Secretbreakfast.com to make sure you never miss an issue.
• But now, it’s also an open website where anyone can read every single edition—no subscription walls, no pop-ups, no barriers.
• For the more tech-savvy, there’s also an RSS feed so you can follow Secret Breakfast along with your favorite websites (RSS is an amazing and simple technology—let me know if you’d like me to explain it more).

The Technology Behind the Change

For those curious about the tech side: after years of using Mailoctopus, Mailchimp, and Beehiiv, I’ve decided to switch to Ghost, a free and open-source platform that allows me to create highly readable websites and newsletters without the pressure to monetize every link or subscriber list.

Think of the popularity of the Substack model, I'm going the other way.

By doing this, Secret Breakfast feels more like my own—but also more like everyone’s. It’s no longer a closed circle but an open space. After all, open spaces are what have allowed societies to evolve, enriched by diverse ideas, new flavors, and incredible cultures.

No Fear of an Open Door

I’m not afraid that opening the doors will make readers leave. On the contrary, I hope many more will join us.

And if someone decides to leave but later wants to return, they will always find someone ready to listen to their stories—perhaps over a warm dish that, once again, we’ll all want to share.

Photo by Bernard Hermant via Unsplash