The Local Palate Cookbook Club: Reviews

Review Archive

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:46:06 GMT

Cookbook Review Archive:

Cookbook Review: "What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:56:54 GMT

Caroline Chambers’ cookbook, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, was a total success, especially to her hungry audience of loyal readers of her Substack newsletter of the same name. Originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, now residing in Carmel, California, Chambers began writing her Substack to fulfill that ever-present plague of dinner time: what to make when you’re exhausted, mentally overwhelmed, or just not feeling it. The mother of three young boys, Chambers plots out her recipes in time increments ranging from “15-ish minutes” to “a little bit longer” meal plans that can take upwards of an hour.
Committing to her concept and process, I decided to integrate her recipes into the brazen realities of my daily life. Amidst a toddler playing “hop little bunny” around my kitchen, quick sub-outs for missing ingredients, and the relentless laundry pile glaring from the corner, I put Chambers’ recipes to the test. And, yes, even those of us who love cooking experience a frequent lack of inspiration and motivation to put on our weeknight aprons.
My family of three enjoys a wide flavor palate and I like to keep my meal planning centered around seasonal ingredients for diverse dinners that keep things interesting … and leave enough for lunch leftovers. This said, I gravitated towards three very different recipes from What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking: Summer Soup, Crispy Miso Lime Tofu, and I Promise You Can Cook Mussels.

Cookbook Review: "How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 13:54:57 GMT

I was so excited to get my hands on Ari Kolender’s first cookbook, How To Cook the Finest Things in the Sea: Broil, Bake, Poach & Grill Your Way to Exceptional Fish & Shellfish, which proved to be a “what,” “how,” and “why” gateway to all things seafood. Tackling dishes and preparation that feels intimidating and elusive for many home cooks like myself, Kolender walks through how to purchase, store, prepare, and dazzle with a bounty of fish and shellfish dishes. Kolender ferries readers through basic principles of sustainable seafood shopping and techniques for foolproof preparation (with pictures), grouping the recipes by preparation method (i.e. baking, grilling, frying, etc.). Whether it’s a Sicilian crudo, broiled oysters, or fish baked in paper, Kolender adheres to the mantra “less is more.” A squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of freshly torn herbs; fish and shellfish need very little embellishment.

Cookbook Review: "The World Central Kitchen Cookbook"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:56:31 GMT

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope arrived shiny and blue and ready to be spattered with sauce in my kitchen. The award-winning cookbook, written by chef and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés, includes recipes inspired by the organization’s efforts to provide food relief to those affected by disasters across the globe. Andrés, a renowned chef, author, educator, and humanitarian, was inspired to start World Central Kitchen by his time spent in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

All author proceeds from the cookbook go toward the organization’s emergency response efforts. The pages are filled with international dishes, telling stories of cooks and friends who fed countless people in need. The chapters are named after the organization’s values like resilience and urgency, filled with recipes fit for a home kitchen.

Cookbook Review: "Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs & Juice"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 18:53:35 GMT

Reprinted with permission from Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs & Juice by Toni Tipton-Martin, copyright © 2023. Photographs by Brittany Conerly. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.

Dry January is coming to an end! As someone who didn’t participate, I still feel entitled to celebrate with a cocktail on February 1. And Toni Tipton-Martin’s Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs & Juice (Clarkson-Potter, 2023) has plenty of inspiration.
Happily, Tipton-Martin’s introduction to this compilation of recipes inspired by Black mixologists begins on a snowy winter day with a cup of tea, setting the stage perfectly for this season. (In the South, we often have to be content with imagining snow rather than actually getting to enjoy it.) She quickly moves into the realm of the serious, however: the lack of documentation of the roles African Americans played in the 20^th century’s developing art and science of mixology, the association of drinking and Black communities with dereliction.

Cookbook Review: "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:09:12 GMT

Recipes reprinted and adapted with permission from Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson copyright © 2024. Photographs by Kelly Marshall copyright © 2024. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

“I’ve always felt a power larger than myself while cooking.” There are so many lines from Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson (Clarkson Potter, 2024) that I’ve underlined, but this one encompasses the essence of her collection of stories and recipes of Black Appalachia. Wilkinson is a poet and storyteller, a writer and a cook, and Praisesong is both a lovely and powerful literary work that identifies writing a cookbook for what it truly ought to be—one of the highest forms of art.

Wilkinson has researched and then imagined to life multiple generations of the women in her family, Black women who have lived in the Kentucky mountains since enslavement. She writes, “I refuse to believe that my grandmothers were just ordinary women who lived, then died, forever lost to me. … I’m closer to them when I cook. I become them when I cook.”

Cookbook Review: "Ed Mitchell's Barbeque"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:07:23 GMT

Known as ‘The Pitmaster’ in barbecue circles, Ed Mitchell has been cooking traditional whole-hog barbecue since he was a teenager in North Carolina. Grounded in his rich heritage and generationally propelled, Ed Mitchell and his son, Ryan, collaborate with Zella Palmer in Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque: Celebrating the Eastern North Carolina Whole Hog Barbeque of My African American Ancestors to produce a cultural, communal snapshot of North Carolina whole hog barbecue.

Cookbook Review: "Still We Rise"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:04:36 GMT

As much as I love a good biscuit, I’ve never been much of a biscuit-maker—I usually leave it to the professionals. It might be because my mom wasn’t a biscuit baker—she, too, left it to the professionals, preferring one filled with sausage and cheese from a certain orange-hued Southern fast-food chain when we were on road trips. My mother-in-law, Becky, whom I adore, inherited her mother’s flour sifting cabinet, which sits in her kitchen—it earned its nicks and pockmarks thanks to many years of handmade biscuits and pies. Early in our marriage, Becky often greeted us with biscuits when we would visit but quickly admitted to me that though she loved her own mother’s biscuits, the ones she served us were usually straight from the freezer.

Cookbook Review: "The Fishwife Cookbook"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 17:02:00 GMT

Recipes excerpted from The Fishwife Cookbook: Delightful Tinned Fish Recipes for Every Occasion © 2025 by Becca Millstein and Vilda Gonzalez. Photography © 2025 by Ren Fuller. Illustrations © 2025 Danny Miller. Reproduced by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

Growing up, when I thought of tinned seafood, I’d picture my grandfather standing in his linoleum-covered kitchen slurping anchovies and watching me recoil. As time progressed, I related cans of tuna with quick college lunches, stuffing StarKist into my pocket as I biked into town. When Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co. launched in 2020, tinned seafood began its unexpected renaissance, moving from lackluster pantry relics to brightly colored boxes in specialty groceries. The term “fishwife” was coined in the 16th century as a term for women who sold fish at the local fishing markets and later developed into a snub for a woman deemed unruly. This drew female founders Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb to the perfect branding for a line of ethically-sourced, premium, North American tinned fish.

After my first tin of smoked salmon, I was hooked. Sustainable, flavorful, and shelf-stable, tinned fish started to make its way into my pastas, dips, and salads. I even splurged on their newly-released white sturgeon caviar in December and loved the buttery, nutty notes.

Cookbook Review: "Baking in the American South"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:48:32 GMT

I met Anne Byrn at a book signing in Charleston, and she was just as sweet and approachable as her new cookbook Baking in the American South. This latest work joins a considerable lineup of cookbooks by Byrn, including A New Take on Cake and Skillet Love. Fellow cookbook author Carrie Morey (of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit) was interviewing the New York Times bestselling writer at the event—-getting to the heart of the story.

Cookbook Review: "South of Somewhere"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:45:33 GMT

Born and raised in South Africa, Dale Gray set her sights on building a life for herself across the world. She writes in her new cookbook, South of Somewhere (Simon & Schuster 2023), “I still remember my words as if they were spoken yesterday: ‘My future husband lives across the oceans and that’s where I’ll start a family one day.’” Sure enough, she moved to South Korea to teach English and met her Louisiana-born husband, who was stationed there in the Army. They moved to El Paso, then Mississippi, and the whole time, Gray explored her new surroundings through ingredients available in the markets and the recipes around her.

Cookbook Review: "Kugels & Collards"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:36:05 GMT

A favorite pastime with my mother is visiting local antique stores and rummaging through treasures and relics. During these excursions, we often come across church-wide cookbooks, typically hand-bound books with quick drawn illustrations and recipes attributed to different congregant members, and we recognize them as sacred snapshots of a community. Kugels & Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina (© 2023 Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey) holds this same communal intimacy.

Cookbook Review: "Salt & Shore"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:35:11 GMT

Growing up on the North Carolina coast, I was raised on blue crabs and hushpuppies. To this day, I love seafood and Southern eats above all other cuisine, and I couldn’t wait to read a cookbook that feels the same. Salt & Shore: Recipes from the Coastal South, written by chef and mixologist duo Sammy Monsour and Kassady Wiggins, features more than 120 recipes inspired by the food, drinks, and culture of coastal towns in the South.

Cookbook Review: "Bodega Bakes"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:32:44 GMT

Everything about Bodega Bakes cookbook screams fun, and I found myself eagerly flipping through the colorful pages for something to re-create. There’s a slightly Wonka-esque feel, with whimsical recipes that don’t skimp on sprinkles or nostalgia. Author Paola Velez, Afro-Latina pastry chef, co-owner of Providencia bar in DC, and founder of Bakers Against Racism, was inspired by the bodegas of New York City. She has fond childhood memories of enjoying Dominican and Puerto Rican pastries and desserts at her favorite corner store.

Cookbook Review: "Bayou" by Melissa M. Martin

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 16:30:24 GMT

I learned so much within the pages of chef Melissa M. Martin’s second cookbook, Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life (Artisan), which came out in fall 2024. The follow up to her award-winning Mosquito Supper Club cookbook (Artisan, 2020) drops you right into the heart of the bayou communities where Martin grew up, where boucheries and Cajun cookoffs punctuate the seasons, and water surrounds and impacts all.

Cookbook Review: "Classic Cocktail Revival"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:29:10 GMT

As the weather cools down and the days get shorter, I’ve been in the mood for simplicity: nowhere more so than in my cocktail ritual. Fortunately, my copy of Classic Cocktail Revival by Jennifer Brian (University of Kentucky Press, 2025) arrived about this same time, and I’ve kept it close in my quest for a drink that feels special but doesn’t require a lot of work.

Cookbook Review: "Monday Night Mocktails"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:24:43 GMT

With Dry January upon us, my mind is on mocktails. But as I browsed Monday Night Mocktails: 52 Drinks to Welcome the Week (Collective Book Studio, 2024), I realized these zero-proof pours should absolutely be enjoyed year-round, for whatever reason you would like to avoid alcohol. The author, Jen Newens, included a mocktail for every week of the year to make your evenings special “even on a Monday.” The book is thoughtful and approachable, with simple recipes for each season, along with glassware and garnish recommendations for every mocktail.

Cookbook Review: "Scratch That"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:22:05 GMT

What first drew me into Scratch That: Embrace the Mess, Cook to Impress, by Alix Traeger (Union Square & Co.) was actually my daughter. The cover of the book reminded me of how my 10-year-old girl likes to cook—with abandon and little concern for the hurricane of spills, drips, and flour smudges left in her wake. This is not a knock on Traeger, who definitely does not cook like a 10-year-old (neither does my daughter, who has been in the kitchen with me since she could stand and cooks dinner for our family at least once a week), but rather allowed me to see that despite my girl’s zero-interest in the clean-as-you-go method, all that really matters is what you put on the plate. It’s about impressing your diners with exceptionally flavorful food, regardless of how many spills it took to get there.

Cookbook Review: "The Butter Book"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:19:32 GMT

Typically, in any spare time I have, you’ll find me baking—breads, cookies, tortillas, bagels, and other delicious things to keep on my cooling rack or in my bread box. No matter what I’m making, there is always one common ingredient: butter.

Despite always using this yellow gold in my recipes, I didn’t know it could be the focal point. New York-based author and recipe developer Anna Stockwell highlights the importance and versatility of using butter in the kitchen in her latest cookbook, The Butter Book, released on March 17. Stockwell’s book features 10 recipes ranging from savory, buttery dishes to flaky, buttery desserts, proving that butter isn’t just something we spread on our toast or pancakes (even though we definitely enjoy this aspect of butter, too).

Cookbook Review: "Sweet Potato Soul Vegan Vibes"

The Local Palate Cookbook Club — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:16:53 GMT

As the summer heats up, I’m in the mood for light and refreshing meals, and Jenné Claiborne’s Sweet Potato Soul Vegan Vibes: 100 Soulful Plant-Based Recipes for Healthy Everyday Meals (Rodale Books, 2025) is just the ticket. Claiborne has been a vegan since college, and she clearly knows her stuff, from common misconceptions about amino acids to the acknowledgement that vegan doesn’t always mean healthy. Her cookbook, however, is full of from-scratch vegan dishes that I found appealing across the board as an omnivore.