For the love of cookbooks

This is a newsletter about cookbooks. We're here to celebrate cookbooks old and new, the people who create them, and the recipes in them.

I adore cooking from cookbooks to the extent that it’s become part of my identity – not just collecting them or admiring their beautiful photos (though I do that too), but actually opening them up and making the recipes. My childhood memories are filled with cookbook moments: making mud pies for my dolls from Mud Pies and Other Recipes at four, saving up my allowance to buy Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking at twelve, and cooking my way through every single recipe in The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld by the time I turned thirteen. Nothing has changed: I’m always picking up new books and bringing them to the kitchen to try new recipes (and, no doubt, splatter them with sauces).

And while I'm always happy to share my current cookbook obsessions and perennial favorites, I wanted to turn the tables and ask the creators I most admire: what books are you reaching for? What's inspiring you in your own kitchen?

What you'll find here

Guest posts with cookbook recommendations – We'll ask chefs, food writers, and cookbook lovers to share their top picks and tell us why these books matter to them.

Ingredient-focused cooking from books – When you've got too much zucchini in summer or an excess of cabbage in winter, we'll cook our way through multiple recipes from our favorite cookbooks that showcase those ingredients at their best.

Why subscribe?

Because you love cookbooks as much as we do. Because you want to cook from the books on your shelf, not just admire them. Because you're curious about what your favorite cookbook authors or Substack creators are reading and cooking. Or because you want some inspiration on what cookbooks to pick up next. (Also, it’s free!)

The CookShelf app

Full disclosure: This obsession with cooking from my books also led me to build the CookShelf app. We want it to be easy for everyone to actually make the most of their books, finding recipes for the ingredients they have, discovering new great recipes, keeping track of what they’ve cooked.

So while this newsletter is *not* intended to just be an ad for the CookShelf app, if you are interested you can learn more and get the beta app here.