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Thom Eagle

@thomeagle

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Freelance cook, author, and maker of fine liqueurs
@rovo.liqueurs
Community Cook at @openschooleast
Resident at @themargateschool
Rep’d by @foggberg

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Starting in September I’ll be running the first session of my online writing course, Grounding Your Words - 8 weekly sessions designed to help you develop your writing practice through ways of seeing and thinking about the world around us.Together we’ll go foraging for ideas through film, images, found objects and texts, and explore the craft of evoking emotion and physicality in your work.Follow the link in my bio to reserve a spot, or send me a DM if you’d like to know more! by @thomeagle

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4 months ago

One year in the soil. One last goodbye.February produces an abundance of leeks; May inspires blackberry ketchup. June’s glut of courgettes demands endless recipes; August’s blight strikes the tomatoes. October sees beans soaking in home-made broth, red wine and barley. December’s branches ‘die back’, yet life still stirs under the soil. The Allotment Diaries follows the year Thom joined his father on the allotment. It is a year of growing and pickling, musing on wildness and cultivation, documenting his family’s odd yearly rituals, and unknowingly saying a last goodbye. Above all, it is a melodious, nourishing month-by-month portrait of the earth we all have in common.Coming August 2026, with utterly perfect cover illustrations from artist Joanna Lisowiec 🌱 by @thomeagle

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5 months ago

Next up on leading questions we have the lovely @thomeagle from one of our all time favourites @bottegacaruso in Margate. We’ve long admired his calm approach to leading the kitchen. Over to Thom 🎤How would you describe the Kitchen Culture at Bottega Caruso?I don’t think that’s really for me to say! I hope that it’s fun, most of the time, and that there is always something to learn. There are stresses in this job that are unavoidable, but I think they are bearable if you’re learning. How would you describe yourself as a leader? In my experience people pay much more attention to what you show them than to what you tell them; it’s no good going on about responsibility and so on if you’re always palming gross prep jobs off on other people, or if you’re the first one out the door after service. It’s the same if you’re visibly stressed or snappy – that’s the energy that the kitchen runs on. I try to be unflappable. Did anyone inspire you?@thamas79 at @ducksoupsoho has an incredibly stoic presence in the kitchen I can only aspire to. Are there any rituals, incentives, structures you or your teams put in place to help staff wellbeing / motivation day to day ? Staff lunch! Always varied, always freshly cooked, never an afterthought – that’s the goal anyway. It’s shocking how badly some restaurants feed their staff. It’s also fun for the chefs to cook something completely different from what’s on the menu, try something new. What qualities do you look for in young chefs who want to work with you? If you show up on time and don’t talk too much we can probably figure something out.📸 @zac.gates_ #chef #leadership #interview #restaurant #headchef #leader #mentalhealth by @thomeagle

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10 months ago

The Allotment Diaries is coming out in a little over a month AND for the next few days you can pre-order it online from @waterstones with a colossal 25% off the cover price if you use the code SUMMER26 at checkout! This is very good I think! I’m so so proud of this book and I’m really excited to see it make its way into the world and for you all to read it. Stay tuned for some allotment / bookshop events around the release and do get in touch if you’d like to host me in your shop / garden / kitchen to talk about it. In the meantime you can swipe for some despatches from the allotment over the years.Thanks to everyone at @fleetreads for all their work on the book and as always to @adri.myrtus for all her support and for making sure I actually take photos of things by @thomeagle

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5 days ago

Going to see Nolan’s ODYSSEY later but concerned you need to understand the source text better? You probably don’t have time to read it now but you *do* have time to read the essay I wrote for @vittlesmagazine a few years ago about the poem’s key themes of hospitality and the concept of xenia (which I’m sure play a big part in the film) and what we can learn from them today. Link in my bio to have a read! Original illustration by @singyunlee and very helpful and sensitive editing by @rebeccamayjohnson by @thomeagle

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9 days ago

Assembling materials for the first session of Grounding Your Words. I’ve been thinking about the different ways we turn the grit and grain of lived experience into something story-shaped, as even non-fiction must be; in “The Storyteller” Benjamin talks about the dry narrative style of Herodotus and the medieval chroniclers, and how the story lives in the space they leave around their plainly recounted facts - a sort of latent narrative that emerges only with the reader’s collaboration.If you’re interested in thinking about these things with me you can book your place via the link in my bio! It’ll be an intimate group with lots of discussion and workshopping arising from a variety of texts - poetry, stories, essays, film and photography. Feel free to DM me if you’d like any more info about the course and what you can expect from it. Hope to see you there!Swipe for proof you don’t need to be a fantasy author to make a silly little map to go with your book by @thomeagle

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18 days ago

Next Saturday (the day before Father’s Day, fittingly) I’ll be walking with my brother from Canterbury to Wye to raise money for Pilgrims Hospices, who provide end of life care and dignity to people in East Kent - at no cost to the dying or their families. Our father died in one of their hospices a few years back and I’ll always be grateful for the comfort and calm they were able to give his last hours - away from the bustle and bleeping of hospital beds, with rosemary and flowing water outside his window.Any money you could spare to sponsor our walk and support their work would be gratefully received! There’s a link at the top of the linktree in my bio if you’re able to; if you can’t, please share to anyone who can! There’s an inter-twin rivalry to be won if nothing else. by @thomeagle

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a month ago

The other day I finally got to use all the napkins I’ve accumulated in the last 15 years, as well as all the little silly trinkets that live in our tiny flat! Thankfully, I’ve got generous friends and colleagues who I could borrow the rest from.Thank you, Anna and Leo for welcoming @thomeagle and me in your beautiful bakery for a supper club themed around stale bread and breadcrumbs; we loved writing a menu that featured and highlighted your bread as well as all the vibrant late spring Kentish produce. I felt rather privileged while harvesting salad and herbs from our local community gardens @wcgmargate just a few hours before service!Thanks to everyone who came along 🫶🏻Alla prossima x by @thomeagle

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2 months ago

• HAL-AN-TOW •After unsuccessful attempts to get a decent photo of @goblin.band during their set at Folklore Kent (too goblin-y to be so easily captured) I accidentally took this shot of two of @bowerstreetmorris transforming themselves into wildflowers during an impromptu reel to the strains of the Albion Country Band; I only saw them emerge in the darkroom today.I’m selling a limited number of 8”x10” silver gelatin prints of HAL-AN-TOW for £30 inc. mainland UK p&p; DM if you’d like to buy one or to ask about Margate pickup or international delivery! Shot on Ilford HP5, developed in fennel extract & pasta water, and printed using sustainable chemistry. Thanks to @sustainabledarkroom and @curiosolab for sharing their research through their posts and publications. by @thomeagle

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2 months ago

For next month’s Ferment the Seasons we’ll be returning to one of my favourite preserves from last year’s sessions, using one of my favourite ingredients full stop - nettle miso!For the last couple of weeks I’ve been immersing myself in nettle lore for my residency with @mialarocca at setteuarciate, learning recipes and medicines and making cyanotypes, film developer and cheese with them, dyeing leather and paper but mostly my hands, and it feels fitting to cap it off with a session at @wcgmargate.Among their many other qualities nettles are surprisingly high in protein which makes them a perfect sub for the beans in a simple spring / summer miso - we’ll pick our nettles as we wander round the gardens and then settle in to prep them for miso together. If there’s time and the sun agrees then we can have a go at nettle cyanotype too!You can book your ticket via the link in my or Windmill’s bios - hope to see you there by @thomeagle

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2 months ago

When Cooking (in) the Garden meets Fermenting the Seasons 🥒🫜🧄Last Sunday we had the pleasure of hosting a rather wholesome hen-do at Windmill Community Gardens: we made pasta from scratch, ate together and then prepared a big batch of different pickles and ferments that will be served at the wedding.A nice way to kick off the new season of cooking sessions in the gardens. ✨️Thank you Isobelle for trusting us! 💚 by @thomeagle

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“I should have been a nettle farmer,” my father would say mournfully whenever some crop or another didn’t grow as expected. From that I understood that if you hope for weeds you’ll never be disappointed.Thom is a writer, cook, grower and photographer interested in fermented, foraged and discarded ingredients. A bagful of nettles from an overgrown garden in Pacentro have been fermented, pounded, boiled and pressed, changed into images.open studio, may 8 + 918:00 - 20:00 vico i san francesco, 15 pacentro—"Avrei dovuto coltivare ortiche di professione,” diceva mio padre con aria sconsolata ogni volta che un raccolto non era abbondante come previsto. Da quel momento ho capito che se confidi nella crescita di erbacce ed erbe spontanee non rimarrai mai deluso.Thom è uno scrittore, cuoco, ortolano e fotografo; interessato in qualunque cosa venga fermentata, raccolta e abbandonata.Le ortiche, trovate in abbondanza in un giardino incolto a Pacentro, sono state trasformate: prima fermentate e pestate, poi bollite e pressate, sono così tramutate in immagini.studio aperto, 8 + 9 maggio18:00 - 20:00 vico i san francesco, 15 pacentro by @thomeagle

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