About Book + Salt

Believe it or not, I've had a food blog for almost ten years now. Ten!

So Book + Salt isn't so much a brand-new venture for me as it is a unification of the writings and cookings of my younger years (ah, youth), 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 me and my bonkers dreams of doing this thing more or less full-time. 

For that new life, I wanted a simple name that was precise enough to feel like it was mine, but expansive enough to give itself room to grow.

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

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

I thought 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.

This is... lofty. A name I hope I can begin to live up to. 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.

Follow Book + Salt on Instagram