Jaya Saxena

Good morning. If you’d like to hear me chat about private equity, the fine folks at @npr.org invited me on Its Been a Minute to do just that. www.npr.org/2026/10/26/n...

There's a cafe in my neighborhood that's serving pumpkin spice drinks in actual hollowed-out pumpkins and I'm sorry RAW SQUASH is not a flavor you want rubbing up against your nutmeg latte what are you doing

And don't forget to read @thecourtneyesmith.bsky.social's story about private equity in cookies, and how it's making food taste worse www.weareravenous.com/the-curious-...

Listen to our @thecourtneyesmith.bsky.social talking about private equity in food on @npr.org! www.npr.org/2026/10/26/n...

ICYMI I wrote about banks and credit cards' outsized influence on the restaurant industry, and what reservations are available to who, and how swipe fees are making them all more expensive for everyone

Sure I’ll jump in and say one of the first things I ever wrote for @weareravenous.com was about how Cheesecake Factory is the actual hottest reservation in New York www.weareravenous.com/new-yorks-ac...

Shared my thought on the James Beard Foundation announcing two new categories: Food Culture (short-form) and Cooking and Instructional (short-form)

I used to hire food content creators in my old job, and the industry does not incentivize good storytelling.

ICYMI I wrote about banks and credit cards' outsized influence on the restaurant industry, and what reservations are available to who, and how swipe fees are making them all more expensive for everyone

The column I did for Catapult in 2018 ultimately landed me a book deal, a pipeline that seems basically impossible to recreate now. It's awful what's happened specifically to Catapult, and also that somehow now I long for rich people to have vanity projects again

sigmund? sigmund it's your cousin marvin... marvin freud... you know the thing you've been talking about where there's some libidinal force inside us that seeks egoic shattering even unto death... well you're not gonna believe this but I'm looking at the news and im thinking, call it the death drive

I wrote about the influence credit cards have on the restaurant industry, and how it increasingly feels like if you don't have the right card, you can't get into the cool restaurants (and how swipe fees contribute to the fact that you can't afford it anyway) www.weareravenous.com/restaurant-c...

www.weareravenous.com/restaurant-c...

It's no secret why restaurants embrace partnerships with reservation platforms backed by credit cards-they're handing out a lot of money to a perpetually precarious industry! But the deal is saving tables for people with the right cards www.weareravenous.com/restaurant-c...

Hearing from quite a few people that indeed, even with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card the held reservations go too quickly for them to even get one. The perk isn't the reservation, it's the better chance at one. www.weareravenous.com/restaurant-c...

jaya on why everything is bank now is a must-read

Almost 80 years after the Diners' Club was founded, eating out is increasingly a matter of having the right card. If you don't, you're probably subsidizing other people's elite reservations.

And don't forget to send me your submissions for next year! Full guidelines here media.sailthru.com/fss/flelv5/d...

It's pub day for the Best American Food and Travel Writing 2026! So many amazing selections in here, and also I read my own forward on the audiobook version which was pretty cool to do. Grab a copy! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Thwarted left and right by any and all advice about lifting, protein and fiber because I fucking hate oatmeal

A dosa won’t save us, and neither will staying silent.

Can I just say how eternally proud I am to be working with @shokdiesel.bsky.social

I had the pleasure of editing this moving piece by @shokdiesel.bsky.social and you should read it immediately but you may cry a little so maybe do it in private. Or not, I do love a public cry.

I am absolutely thrilled to have a story in this year's edition alongside a ton of fascinating others. Go get yourself a copy today!

Thrilled to be in such good company in this year's edition of Best American Food and Travel Writing. I'd tell you what piece, but won't it read better in a book you bought?

Huge follow-up reporting to my scoop: The Guardian confirmed America Next—the conservative nonprofit founded by Bobby Jindal that was offering students $ to disrupt El-Sayed events—paid a firm registered to Tommy Teepell’s dad Timmy $250k for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed.

Just in case any editors are paying attention, taking one part of a broader interview in another magazine, where a trans woman says “I had surgery”, and turning it into a click bait article is the reason why your apartment is haunted

Imagine hearing “take my wife—please!” for the first time. That’d hit crazy.

this put into words exactly the squishy thing i was feeling

I truly do get the irony here! Imo subscription-driven websites trying not to get our entire livelihoods get scraped by AI is slightly different than a restaurant you would be giving money to anyway, but none of us is immune from Data

oh wow I'm the friend in this story 🥰

Blogged about how annoying it is when you see the hospitality strings www.weareravenous.com/hospitality-...

I really do get the "America needs to burn more shit down" arguments but I also feel like they tend to forget like the George Floyd protests everywhere and Stop Cop City and even like the Bronx last week. We could do more but people love to act like an American has never set a fire.