Savoring the soak
We talked to the new crop of cooks feeding bathers' heightened appetites
You sweat. You soak. You crave. For centuries, bathing came with its own menu: sausage sizzled over sauna coals, borscht served piping in the banya, sulphur-soft onsen eggs. It wasn’t just tradition—it was recovery. Just as people are reimagining bathing practices and rituals, now a new crop of cooks is reviving the post-soak table, one savory mouthful at a time.
A wild sauna feast
Cook and caterer Mike Richardson serves a Wild Food Feast from the back of his horsebox sauna parked close to the tide line in Margate, England. Mike has always been drawn to cooking and hosting, even converting the top storey of his London flat into a 30-seater supper club. After moving to the coast, Mike built a sauna with a kitchenette on the back and hosted sauna and mussel cook-ups for friends. Now his feasts are a bit more elaborate.
Before the feast day, Mike prepares salt scrubs from foraged seeds such as abrasive sea spinach, or alexanders (a plant used since Roman times but now largely forgotten) with their distinctive scent of myrrh and cumin, and makes kelp sauna whisks. After several rounds in the wood-fired sauna and dips in the sea, a kelp-infused gin and tonic eases the transition from sauna to feast. Then come briny Essex oysters, smoked mussels, and a coastal bisque made with catch sourced from a local fisherman – crab, clams, cockles – and foraged maritime plants such as sea aster and purslane, all cooked on a charcoal grill bang in the middle of the dining table. For Mike, “this is a fun project amongst the day-to-day of heavy catering work, purposefully small scale and uncommercialized. I keep it occasional and special to keep the joy in it. And relatively affordable.”
Book here for upcoming dates.
From löyly to lunch
Cooking over a fire next to the sauna is common, but what about cooking in the sauna? Finnish writer, academic and trained archaeologist Katariina Vuori is pioneering a resurgence in the tradition of cooking inside the sauna. She even schooled Hell’s Kitchen host chef Gordon Ramsey in how to cook reindeer balls on the sauna kiuas (stove). Inspired by her grandmother’s tales of this once-common practice, Katariina’s book The Sauna Cookbook (in German and Finnish) is a collection of recipes, stove tips, anecdotes and inspiration for cooks wanting to put their sauna to culinary use. Katariina believes that cooking in the sauna is part of an “embodied” experience, “you get clean, you get relaxed and the same heat provides you with the food. That’s a fantastic combination.” A favorite recipe is her grandmother’s freshwater bream wrapped in baking paper and layers of wet newspaper and roasted in the sauna fire. Or a slow-cooked vegetable casserole. Any sauna stove will do – electric or wood-fired. But cooking is strictly after bathing unless you want to smell like a kipper.
Bread, steam, soup, tea
It’s no secret we are fans of Washington Baths and in our recent post we touched upon their ambient bathing program. For founder Asher Woodworth “bathing is the anchor for a multi-faceted social space. It pays the bills, and allows the team to try the risky stuff at the fringes”. The café, led by cook and co-founder Izabel Nielsen, is an integral part of that. It’s a transitional space between the clothed and unclothed world. Each day the café serves freshly baked Sauna Bread - a malted Finnish-style rye loaf, house-pickled veg, comforting lentil dal and their own tea blend Holy! Holy! Holy! – a cooling and grounding mix of tulsi, birch, mint and hyssop. Izabel also hosts Bread Soup Cake, a $25 feast that’s an act of community building, more about people coming together than the bread, soup and cake itself. At Washington Baths, delicious food is a given, but the emphasis is firmly on nourishing a social space, and one reason for people to talk and maybe linger a bit longer than planned.
We asked Izabel to share her ideal post-bathing feast:
“My first kitchen job was at a soup restaurant in a rural town in Vermont. The first thing I learned there was that soup when you’re hot is actually a good idea. It may seem counterintuitive after a shvitz or in the middle of summer, but hot soup cools you down and regulates your system, just like sauna does.
I also find soup to be magic. You put in good ingredients and some love (corny, but true), and you’ve got solid sustenance. It’s also easy to stretch and feed a crowd with. It’s a social dish—perfect for a bathhouse. After sauna I only want simple things. My go-to is a bowl of dal. Hearty and unfussy. Even though it’s packed with warming spices (ginger, turmeric, cardamom, chili...), it’s still a plain dish and gets to the point—deep nourishment. There’s also nothing better to me than a “one-pot” kind of meal, especially when you are in a post-sauna state. I put dal on the menu every day at Washington Baths. I never get sick of it.”
“After sauna I only want simple things. My go-to is a bowl of dal. Even though it’s packed with warming spices (ginger, turmeric, cardamom, chili...), it’s still a plain dish and gets to the point—deep nourishment.”
Izabel Nielsen, Washington Baths
Bathhouse Bites: Salty, Steamy, Snacky
We asked Courtney Wittich, a fellow Substacker and bathing connoisseur, for her favorite post-soak recs:
Akari, Brooklyn: Best drinks: kettl teas, Pocari sweat, and sparkling water.
Wi Spa and Crystal Spa, Korean spas, LA: The hot stone bibimbap is the perfect feast. I love when the rice gets crunchy! Sometimes I splurge on sweetened shaved ice for dessert.
Russian banyas: Pelmeni dumplings are a classic. Banya No.1 in London has some of the best pelmeni and borscht around.
Tokyo, Japan: After a cedar enzyme bath, I was served salted plums and an array of teas and drinks for natural electrolyte replenishment. Mouthwatering.
Remedy Place, Soho, NYC: Their bone broth in winter keeps you warm long after you leave the sauna.
Honorable mention to Elahni for their creative adaptogenic tonic bar (herbal drinks that help the body adjust to stress).
Stars, stripes and steam
A cowboy, a rapper, and a New York City pizza chef walk into a sauna. Sounds like the setup to a steamy bar joke? Think again. Welcome to a new era in American wellness culture: Aufguss, with stars and stripes.
Aufguss has become a blockbuster part of European wellness culture in recent years (if you’re unfamiliar, see our primer). The Aufguss World Masters is the annual Olympics-meets-Eurovision extravaganza in which national ‘aufguss masters’ compete for the crown. This year, the US will be sending competitors for the very first time.
I was lucky enough to attend the US Championships (@aufgussUSA) organised by Design for Leisure at the newly expanded Bathhouse Williamsburg. Many of the performers put a distinctly American spin on the ritual. Nico Fiery (@nicolasfiery), a dancer from France by way of New York City, gave a hip-hop-inspired show incorporating graffiti, breakdancing, and some very shiny kicks. The Irvine Sisters from Las Vegas (@thewellnessblend), winners in the team category, told a tale of fire and ice with choreography showcasing their Cirque du Soleil talents. And Bathhouse’s own Alonzo Solórzano (@aufgussmaster.alonzo), solo champion, gave aufguss a wild, wild west spin replete with hats and boots.
Judging by the long lines and packed saunas on a weekday afternoon, America is ready for aufguss action.
Adam Bamba Tanaka
@abathingadam
News
How to Choose the Perfect Swimsuit
New York Times Magazine, June 13, 2025
‘Turning into a little Finland’: chilly New Zealand gets the hots for beachside saunas
The Guardian, June 20, 2025
The Joy of Swimming With Strangers
New York Times, June 21, 2025
One last thing
This is getting us inspired for upcoming posts exploring contemporary Chinese bathhouses. More to come!
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Yumm. Multicultural and love how you captured the oneness of enjoying food after sweat bathing from around the globe.
Such a fun piece! Now I’m hungry 😋 guess I’ll have to spa