About Book + Salt

Book + Salt is a unification of the writings and cookings of my younger years melded with the sort of ruthless practicality that parenthood demands of all of us, plus the new life that motherhood seems to have breathed into my bonkers dreams of doing this thing more or less full-time. It’s the blog with recipes you see here, and it’s also the business entity for my cookbook work and other writing.

To make the name make sense, I only have to tell you what’s on my mind.

I think a lot about the love I have for cookbooks, not just as a source of inspiration and beauty, but as a way to transmit wisdom.

I think about the way that mothers and grandmothers, fathers and grandfathers pass down wisdom about and in the kitchen, about how ingredients fuse and work together, about this actually very sacred earthly alchemy we conduct daily.

I think about the idea of “salty optimism,” a phrase I once read and which immediately resonated with me, a salty optimist if ever there was one.

I think about salt itself, an essential ingredient in all kitchens, making flavors come alive, working real alchemical magic.

I think about salt's role in alchemy, and how if you’re embarking on that strange, ancient process, salt is what you start with if you intend to make gold.

Book + Salt is named after the pieces you need to start a process. A journey. A life.

So it’s... lofty. But if the hero’s journey starts with the sleepy leavings of an old vision and a couple rocks in your pocket, the image of a book and a bit of salt felt like the right way to start mine.

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