Julie Seyler Dates and Donuts
Julie Seyler Dates and Donuts

J Hirtle The Last Storyteller

Chef and writer Julie Seiler talks with Jim Hirtle about turning years of food blogging and dating misadventures into a memoir full of recipes and humour. They touch on failure, emotional healing in the kitchen, indie publishing and the oddities of modern dating culture.

AuthenticEntertainingInformativeEncouragingHonest

36:09•22 Apr 2026

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Gluten, Heartbreak and Hilarious Dates with Julie Seiler

Episode Overview

Failure in hobbies, cooking and dating is presented as a normal step towards getting better, rather than a reason to quit.
Julie explains how her long‑running food blog grew into a memoir with recipes once the stories demanded more space.
The kitchen is described as a sanctuary and “bomb shelter” where strong emotions, especially after difficult dates, can be worked through by baking.
Julie compares recipe development to writing, stressing the importance of repeated testing, honest feedback and thorough editing.
She outlines why she chose independent publishing, creating her own imprint and hiring professionals instead of waiting years for a traditional deal.

“The book sort of told me where it wanted to go.”

How do different strategies aid in addiction recovery? Here, the focus shifts from substances to sweeter habits, as chef, blogger and writer Julie Seiler chats with host Jim Hirtle about baking, dating disasters and turning personal chaos into creative work. You’ll hear how Jim uses fly fishing, cooking and even failed dates as a way to talk about trying, failing and trying again.

That theme sits at the heart of Julie’s book *Gluten for Punishment: Just Desserts for the Heartbroken, Lovesick, and the Jilted*, a hybrid of memoir and recipe collection born from nearly 18 years of blogging about food and relationships.

What began as a straightforward cookbook grew into a story-led collection when, as Julie puts it, “the book sort of told me where it wanted to go.” Julie shares how her kitchen is her “happy place… my sanctuary… my band-aid” for heartbreak, stress and celebration alike. She talks about pounding dough to work out tension during Covid, feeding co‑workers with test bakes, and spending up to seven attempts perfecting a single recipe.

Writing and recipe testing mirror each other: both need ruthless editing and plenty of patience. The conversation also touches on painful dating experiences, including a brush with the online “manosphere” and the shock of finding misogynistic content tied to someone she was seeing. Yet humour runs through it all, from “morning after vanilla sex danishes” to Jim’s stories of pre‑app dating in the 1980s.

For anyone who’s ever used food, creativity or writing to get through tough emotional seasons, this chat offers a mix of laughs, candour and reassurance that it’s okay to be a work in progress. It might even leave you wondering: what’s your version of a ‘kitchen’ where you piece yourself back together?

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