Hetty McKinnon on the cookbooks that are speaking to her right now
From childhood classics that opened windows to other cultures, to the beautiful design and prose she seeks today
These days, I probably reach for Hetty McKinnon's cookbooks more than any others on my shelf. Her five vegetarian books consistently deliver on both flavor and creativity, with recipes that have that rare quality of feeling both comfortable and surprising. She'll add an unexpected element that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before, and it never feels like a gimmick. I find myself relying on her books equally for quick weeknight dinners and more elaborate celebratory meals, and they just work, every time. But they're more than great recipes – her prose sticks with me, especially her gorgeous essay about her father in Tenderheart (probably my favorite of her books). She’s also the writer of the excellent Substack, To Vegetables, With Love.
Her upcoming book Linger (August 26 in Australia and New Zealand, October 7 in the US, UK and elsewhere) features 100 salad recipes plus desserts, bakes, entertaining menus and personal essays. As someone who loves to linger around a dinner table almost as much as I love cooking, I can’t wait to dive into this book in October. Preorders are open now in the US (if you’re in the US, check out the links at the bottom of this post for an awesome pre-order bonus), Australia, and UK.
I'm definitely a bit star-struck here, and so honored that Hetty agreed to share her thoughts on cookbooks with us! I hope you enjoy her essay as much as I did.
-KT
I didn’t grow up in a home with cookbooks. My mother cooked rabidly and constantly, and it was clear that food was a way for her to express her creativity, her independence and her love for her family, and perhaps most importantly, a tether to the home she left behind. Her knowledge of Cantonese food and flavors was immense but her culinary knowledge was gained from oral traditions and in her own words, “from watching” her elders.
My first experience of cookbooks came from the iconic Australian Women’s Weekly cookbooks. These inexpensive, thin paperback volumes are as classically Australian as Vegemite, each one themed by cuisine or occasion. I came across them at my local newsagent (a cross between a newsstand and stationery store selling newspapers, magazines, greeting cards, books, snacks and more), where I spent most of my pocket money as a teenager. I purchased the Middle Eastern edition, which featured dishes, spices and flavors which I’d never even heard of before. Cooking from that book was an adventure. I purchased some spices and lentils from my local supermarket and made mujadara (spelt megadarra in the book, I think), a dish that felt vaguely familiar because there was rice, but the lentils and caramelized onions were completely new to me. The book opened my eyes to what we can all learn from cookbooks – to understand a culture different to our own, to travel the world through flavor, to push ourselves out of our comfort zone. It also taught me that it is often good to feel uncomfortable by what we are seeing on the page – whether that be techniques, ingredients or flavors – because those are important learning moments.
It is The Australian Women’s Weekly Kid’s Birthday Cake cookbook which I count as one of my most treasured. I bought it to make a cake for my oldest child’s first birthday. The book is beloved in Australia, one of those which you’ll find in almost every household. The book is not about baking, but purely about decorating children’s-themed birthday cakes. In the weeks leading up to my daughter’s first birthday, I slaved over the instructions collecting the candy and supplies I would need to make ‘Ginger Neville’, the orange cat. The book recommends using box cake but I made a chocolate sour cream cake, which I decorated in lashings of orange buttercream. Licorice was used for the whiskers and to outline the eyes and mouth, blue jellybean for the eyeballs. After weeks of planning, Ginger Neville came to life and she was worth all the effort. I’m not sure my daughter was that impressed, but I was thrilled with my efforts. That book became my lifeline over the next decade and more, the source of inspiration for many of the birthday cakes I made for my three children.
I love cookbooks for different reasons. One of the things that really draws me to cookbooks is the design and photography. Art direction is such an essential part of the cookbook’s story, a way to establish a sense and place for the book. When it comes to design, the book I come back to again and again is Breakfast, Lunch, Tea by Rose Carrarini. It is one of the first cookbooks I bought when I became interested in cooking and for me, it ticks all the boxes of what a great cookbook should – story-driven, comforting, inviting, and human. The layout is very simple, and that minimalism works with the design which is really carried by reportage style photography of Toby Glanville. Glanville’s point of view is so unique – as someone who has also worked in portraiture and documentary, his photos bring an intimacy to the book. It almost feels like a ‘day in the life of’ Rose Bakery. In this same genre, I’d add a cookbook called Atelier September which is from a café in Copenhagen, which I visited a couple of years ago. The cookbook is published by the indie publishers Apartamento and it is such a special production – it is oversized, with gorgeous art direction, lots of negative space in the design, and a very strong sense of place.
The other big draw for me is writing. I love a cookbook I can get lost in, to be satiated and comforted by both the food and the words. No one brings more romance to food writing than Nigella Lawson. Her books would be my desert island picks. Her writing transports me. Her recipes are just as captivating. It is hard to choose which book of hers I love the most, and my answer changes constantly, but today I will say Cook, Eat, Repeat because her brilliant essay about ‘brown food’ is on my mind. I also love the sandwich loaf recipe in that book. Alongside Nigella, my other food writing hero is Diana Henry, who has such a vivid way of bringing contrast and nuance to her descriptions of food, places and people. I started collecting her writing and recipes when I lived in London 20 years ago – I would clip her recipes from the Telegraph and paste them into a scrapbook. I love all her books but How To Eat A Peach, her book about menus, is one that I pick up constantly, maybe because I love the furry cover (to mimic peach skin, of course).
I don’t have time to cook a lot from cookbooks nowadays. That is because most of the time, I am cooking dishes from my own personal repertoire, which happens to be the recipes in my books! But if I am to dive into a cookbook, I will pick up Sebze by Özlem Warren. It is full of vegetarian Turkish recipes and it’s full of the flavors and food I want to eat. So many vegetable filled recipes which honestly remind me of the Turkish food we have in Sydney. I also adore Rachel Roddy’s A-Z of Pasta. I love the way she writes recipes, so pared back and succinct. Often when I’m lacking inspiration, I will turn to that book. Her fava bean paccheri and pasta with lentils are two family faves.
I’m not a huge baker so I’m all about simplicity and recipes that I know are 100% going to work. Lately, these two have not let me down – Fat & Flour by Nicole Rucker and Sift by Nicola Lamb.
The cookbook I wish I’d written? The Vegan Chinese Kitchen by Hannah Che has provided context to so many of the dishes I grew up eating. When you grow up only knowing the names of foods in another language, it is difficult to translate these foods to our Western upbringing and vernacular. I love that Hannah has brought so many of these dishes to life for me, so I now have a point of reference for them.
As someone who deeply loves the art and tradition of cookbooks, coming up with a list of ‘favorites’ is very difficult, a near impossible task. So, whenever I am asked this question, I try to give myself the freedom and grace to offer the books that are speaking to me, at this moment. This is my list of ‘favorites’ today, but tomorrow, it might be something completely different. That is the beauty of a good cookbook, they evolve and grow with us as we get older, as our palate changes, as we discover new cravings.
If you’re in the US, you should also check out the super cool preorder bonus Hetty is running in partnership with independent cookbook stores!
Participating stores:
Book Larder / Now Serving / Kitchen Arts and Letters / Archestratus / Bold Fork Books / Vivienne Culinary / Read It & Eat / Omnivore Books on Food / Binding Agents
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