Jaya Saxena

@jayasaxena

Founder-Owner of @ Series Editor at Best American Food and Travel Writing Queens, NY she/her Tips to jaya@weareravenous.con

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Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· 8d

www.weareravenous.com/ai-freelance...

On the precipice of soliciting freelance work, I asked some colleagues about what they were doing to protect their publications from getting got by AI, and the responses were depressing. Some reported spending more time poring over a writer’s or photographer’s clips, or requiring video interviews to make sure freelancers were actually real, which cuts into other work they could be doing. And multiple publications said they had just decided to close open freelance calls altogether, instead only accepting pitches from people they already knew, or from friends-of-friends who could be personally vouched for. It makes perfect sense when the other option is wading through AI-generated emails and potentially publishing a completely fabricated story from a person that doesn’t exist. But operating on a who-you-know basis recreates the environment of gatekeeping, privilege and closed ranks that so many of us in worker-owned media are trying to fight.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· 17d

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· 18d

I just got one of those AI generated "as a fellow author..." emails from "Colleen Hoover" the internet is toast

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· 21d

girl

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· 23d

😢my shtetl in ruins

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jul 9

There is one question everyone who has waited in a long food line has at some point asked themselves: Was it worth it? “Almost immediately it becomes a question of is this as good as I heard? Is it worth the time I waited?” says Fortney. It’s not like this question isn’t present at every meal — the more expensive the dinner or harder to get the reservation, the more one might think about whether the juice was worth the squeeze. But at a restaurant, there is ambiance and service and often cocktails to distract you from the pure monetary transaction. Lines usually arise around cheaper pleasures than a full dinner, but a line has no atmosphere, only the feeling of the clock ticking by, leaving just you and a $12 croissant, and the nagging feeling that your time might have been wasted.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jul 7

Me scrollin

Panel from watchmen: the planet is currently swarming with events. In such times, none of them are insignificant. I need information. Information in its most concentrated form.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 30

I love this sort of response. Like sure, but why and how were hot dogs produced in such numbers that cooking them outside became quick and easy? Why them rather than any number of things that can be cooked outside quick and easily? Imagine having not a lick of curiosity!

Response to article about why we eat hot dogs in summer: "Because you can cook it outside quickly and easily. Next question."

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 30

Happy pride from all the horseshoe crabs fucking

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 24

I highly suggest naming your cat Frog for all the correspondence

Fireworks season is coming. Is Frog prepared? [inbox]

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 24

lol did they now

The New York Times report on Brad lander winning, riddled with TKs

On Tuesday lander said TK
Goldman said TK

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 17

This past weekend @weareravenous.com went to the James Beard Foundation awards in Chicago, and thrilled that the first photo we got was me and @aemccarthy.bsky.social belting to karaoke at the AAPI event

A crowd, including me and Amy, singing along to "I'll make a man out of you" by Mulan

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Jun 10

Ok I think we know who we have to call to get the Knicks to turn it around

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 31

Been married to @mattielubchansky.com for 12 years today and she remains the best thing that’s ever happened to me!!!

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 30

Me in a too short for this weather leopard print dress

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 27

I think I hate language

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 27

Actually wait this was the worst one. Got sent this for work and people didn't even want me to pour it down their drain.

Bottle of "Pickle Juice Chaser," a neon piss colored liquid in a bottle covered with green lightning

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 25

"This week, the tone quickly changed. Instead of a bargaining date, Attaboy Local 134 received word on May 18, via a message in work Slack from the General Manager, that Attaboy was making some changes to both the working conditions, and the staff, at Attaboy. Both of which the union says violates the National Labor Relations Act."

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 18

🫡

A calzone that has chicken tikka masala in it

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 9

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 8

"I maintain that every white British person should be spending most of their time thanking any and all higher powers that South Asians continue to bless them with the concept of flavor even after all that they’ve done. You would be nothing without us, and you should remember that we could yank that garam masala right out of your chicken tikka masala if we wanted to!!!!"

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 6

Just in reporting this story, I’ve gotten side eyed questions from family and friends about the concept for a for profit restaurant willingly risking their bottom line. Do they all just have rich benefactors? Wouldn’t people cheat? Wouldn’t people see this as a way, horror of horrors, to get something for free? Well, yes, that’s the entire point. “I want people to use it and abuse it however they want,” she says. There is no “abusing” a restaurant that actively wants to give you food for free.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 4

Also, see:

tweet from @swinginparteigh: luke sky walker did not wear black velvet and the Chanel boots to the sarlac pit just for JJ Abrams to say that someone else is gonna be the first gay in starwar. Don't worry mr. sky walker. I saw your chanel boots.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· May 4

This weekend we had a memorial for my aunt Katherine, who I love and will miss so much, and now I get to remember by this amazing mug I found in her house

A Minnesota zoo mug with an illustration of a koala that says “1989 koalas”

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 29

Been spending a lot of time thinking about this graph and the expansion of the NYTimes food section and what that means for food writing in general 🙃 (I know the graph is "employees" and not specifically editorial but you know what's up)

A graph from the NYTimes showing that about 7% of all newspaper employees in the US work at the Times

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 28

I am going to need England to be serious

A bag of “bebeto fizzy whizzy weenie worms”

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 20

I particularly love this insight from Amiel at @gourmetlives.bsky.social about how food media has spent so much time trying to capture people who are not actually very interested in food

For Stanek, Gourmet’s call to cook was about countering the narratives he has seen over his long career in food media. “Food media writ large has this fundamentally aversive relationship with cooking,” he says. This, he argues, is because of how media in general has worked, with magazines and websites—often at the behest of investors and venture capitalists interested only in infinite growth—attempting to cater to as many readers as possible for profit. In food, this means not just talking to people who already enjoy cooking but capturing those who really have no interest in it, or actively hate it, at least for the purposes of page views. “I’ve spent a lot of my career feeling like I’m trying to convince people to do something that they don’t want to do, trying to convince people that something that they think is hard is actually easy or that something that is inconvenient is actually worth doing,” says Stanek. This leads to recipes that promise they’re “quick and easy” or “one-pot” before you even get to what’s in them.

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 16

It really is laid off if you do, laid off if you don't with corporate media www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/b...

Re: shuttering Self Magazine: "Condé Nast’s overall business was profitable and ended 2025 with revenue growth, Mr. Lynch said. The new changes, he said, were aimed at positioning “the company for continued growth.”"

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 10

Oh my god

Namu Distilling posting about a cocktail called The Gay of Hormuz, made with their gin and Calamondin, lemon, saffron, rose, cardamom and clarified milk

Jaya Saxena@jayasaxena· Apr 9

A fascinating look into this mentality. Why do you need to compete with a Fortune 500 company? You are a diner! The number one thing I want to see is photos of YOUR food, not a generic AI burger or your mac and cheese animated beyond recognition