Nostalgic Kitchen began in 2019 in a rented kitchen in East Nashville, started by a small group of line cooks and a food-obsessed copy editor who kept arguing about recipes at the same dive bar. The original idea was simple: publish recipes that actually work the first time, written by people who cook for a living, not just for a camera.
That kitchen is still where every recipe on this site gets tested — usually more than once, occasionally four or five times, before it's allowed to go live. If a step doesn't work the way it's written, we rewrite the step. We don't rewrite the truth to fit a prettier photo.
Three things, and we try not to wander far from them: recipes worth repeating, the restaurants — chains and single-room diners alike — that are shaping how the U.S. eats right now, and the craft underneath both: knife work, fermentation, fire, the stuff that takes longer to learn than a headline allows.
Nostalgic Kitchen is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with contributors filing from kitchens in New Orleans, Austin, Portland, and a rotating cast of cities depending on who's driving where for a story. We cook and write about food across the United States, but Southern cooking will always be the accent underneath everything we publish.
Nostalgic Kitchen is supported by advertising and select brand partnerships. We do not accept payment in exchange for a positive review, and any sponsored content is always labeled clearly as such. Our full advertising and editorial policies are covered in our disclaimer and terms of use.
"We test every recipe on a normal Tuesday, with normal groceries, in a kitchen that isn't staged for anything. If it doesn't work like that, it doesn't get published."
— Editorial team, Nostalgic Kitchen
We're always taking tips on kitchens worth the drive, anywhere in the country.