I’m not a New Year’s resolution person, but the past two Decembers I’ve made a custom Bingo card, each square filled with something fun or meaningful I’d like to do (I’ll share my 2026 and 2027 Bingo cards with you at the end of the year!). They’re not necessarily goals, just a reminder of ways I’d like to spend my time. One square that has yet to be checked off (or, more accurately, marked with a tiny ladybug sticker) is, “Cook a recipe from each of my cookbooks that I’ve never cooked from before!”
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I LOVE cookbooks. I love flipping through them on the couch, ogling the colorful, perfectly styled food photographs and tucking strips of ripped-up junk mail between the pages of recipes I’d like to eventually cook. I love chortling at the grotesquely styled photos in vintage cookbooks, recipes that often have the word “surprise” in the title, while pondering if my own cookbook will look similarly antiquated in 20 years, inspiring people to point at my (currently beautiful!) photos and exclaim, “Ewwww!”
I love cookbooks, but I don’t always cook out of them, often turning to my trusty New York Times cooking app or searching for recipes online. But there are a few books I go back to time and time again. Here are a couple of my favorites, plus an interview with Julien Perry, author of the brand-new cookbook Seattle Eats + Drinks: Favorite Recipes from the City’s Top Chefs. Newsletter subscribers get access to the full interview, plus chef Brendan McGill's meatball recipe from the book. If you're not a subscriber, sign up here.
Eden Grinshpan is a chef, host of Top Chef Canada, and an absolute delight to follow on Instagram if you like happy weirdos who make irresistible-looking food! I have cooked more recipes from Eden’s two cookbooks than any others – her veg-forward, bright, modern Middle Eastern-style food speaks directly to my cravings. I have made her Whole Roasted Sweet Potato with Sunflower Gremolata and Lemony Sour Cream countless times, I love the tender crumb of her Pistachio Cardamom Coffee Cake and I served her Halloumi, Citrus, Fennel Salad with Allepo Honey and Mint and Charred Brussels with Pomegranate Butter as a part of a winter feast last December. Eden was also a guest on my podcast Your Last Meal!
The Woks of Life was (and still is!) an award-winning Chinese cooking website before it was a best-selling cookbook, lovingly created by a family of four on the East Coast. The dad is Chinese American, specializing in Chinese-American classics that he learned growing up in his parent’s Chinese restaurant, the mom is a Chinese immigrant who offers up traditional recipes from across her home country, and their two adult daughters offer all that and everything in between. If you’re craving any Chinese dish, anything from Kung Pao Chicken to Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup, chances are they’ve got a fantastic version of it. Everything I’ve made has been absolutely delicious: my childhood favorite Shrimps and Lobster Sauce (spoiler alert: this dish contains zero lobster!), Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Smashed Cucumber Salad are favorites.
If you’ve ever wished you could get the recipe for one of your favorite Seattle-area restaurant dishes, you might just find it in Seattle Eats + Drinks, the third cookbook by Julien Perry, featuring local spots like Deep Sea Sugar and Salt, Musang, Sunny Hill and Elliott’s Oyster House.
Julien has been chronicling Seattle's food culture for more than 20 years as the former editor of Eater Seattle, food and dining editor at Seattle Magazine and restaurant reporter for KOMO Newsradio.
Is it a straight up cookbook or are there essays as well?
At its core, yes, it’s a cookbook that features more than 70 recipes from 36 chefs, bartenders and bakers from around the Seattle region, designed with the home cook in mind. But it also features insights and stories from the people themselves. I spent about an hour with each one and really tried to distill their story into short profiles that get to the heart of who they are and why they cook what they do. I got really good at editing!
I am thrilled with the way it turned out! The recipes span from casual cook to hardcore kitchen maestro. There is really something for everyone, regardless of what level of cook you are. But whether you’re whipping up Maximillien Petty’s (Bin 47) shaved fennel and stone fruit salad with smoked honey vinaigrette or Brett Phillip’s (Cornelly) salmon-filled triangoli, you’re going to look impressive! There are also a lot more cocktail recipes in this book than Seattle Cooks, several of which are zero-proof.
The cookbook is a time capsule of the city's restaurant scene in 2026 — when someone flips through the book in 20 years, what themes will emerge?
This is really a celebration of Seattle’s restaurant industry post-COVID; a celebration of resilience, endurance, and community. Not that the industry is out of the woods — there are so many other hurdles businesses face post-pandemic — but there is so much hope in these pages. There is also a lot of diversity; BIPOC- and women-owned restaurants doing really interesting things in the kitchen and taking big risks with flavors. In [my last book] Seattle Cooks, which came out in 2018, it was more of a yearbook of the chefs helping to define Seattle during the tech boom. Now, it’s such a different snapshot, but one that is more dynamic, in my opinion. I think the industry is still figuring out what it can be. And that’s exciting.
Restaurant recipes are notoriously more complicated than recipes written for home cooks. Are the recipes in this book exactly how they're made in the restaurants or have they been adapted for home cooks?
The chefs were required to edit their recipes until they got to the point where they were clear, concise, and easy for the home cook to understand. And that includes converting weight measurements (which chefs use in restaurants) into volume measurements (which home cooks usually use). There is often a huge gap between recipes chefs can understand and prepare, and recipes you and your friends can pull off! We want everyone to succeed with this cookbook.
Are there any particular dishes that people were requesting as you were compiling the recipes for this book?
I really left it up to the chefs to decide which recipes would reflect them and their restaurants best. That looks like De La Soil’s halibut with tom kha, Bar Dojo’s lao lao noodles, and Cedar + Elm’s cumin chicken sandwich, which chef Luke Kolpin loves to make for himself. Many of these recipes rotate on and off menus, and some are just dishes the chefs like to cook or have made in the past. I think a lot of these dishes will become Seattle favorites if they’re not already.
What recipe from the cookbook were you most eager to get your hands on, that you selfishly wanted so you could make it at home?
I went to baking and pastry school many years ago (RIP Art Institute of Seattle), so I gravitate toward breads (Cottage Bakery) and sweets. And I appreciate anything plant-based (Il Nido’s roasted sunchokes with apple salsa verde, and zuppa fredda). I am excited to make the cocktails in this book, specifically the Hey, Ya! from Sunny Hill, which I’ve had in-person and I think is easy enough that even I can make it!
For newsletter-exclusive content, like the rest of my Q&A with Julien and a recipe from the new book, subscribe here!
Have a food- or drink-related question? (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
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Rachel Belle
