I’m Writing a Cookbook

I’ve been thinking about writing a cookbook for some time now.

Spicy Indian curry, tacos tacos tacos washed down with ice cold Modelos, delicate and simple hand-made pasta, lamb shoulder marinated in garlic and spices - try cumin and sumac - and slow cooked on the barbie, butterflied and roasted chicken, fresh herbs from the garden, chillies too, burgers - ohhh good burgers, fresh ceviche, fried noodles (tasty ones), prawn dumplings and steamed pork buns, ooh and then garlic prawns and foie gras with the freshest thick cut crusty bread. Gimme gimme gimme.

I love eating food. I love cooking food, I love experimenting with food. And I love learning recipes and techniques from my favorite chefs. I also love cooking for the people I love. Every big event - whether it’s Christmas, Thanksgiving or birthdays - I’ll often take on the role of head chef (often without invitation). I love the festive nature of all getting together and sharing laughter, stories and memories over food that we’ve cooked for each other.

I also love cookbooks - my little collection is something I take much pride in. It all started with Jamie Oliver (back in the days of the Naked Chef) and Nigella Lawson (from Nigella Bites fame) when, after watching their shows with Mum and Dad on the ABC, I would delve into Mum’s cookbooks and try and recreate their dishes.

So I've been thinking of writing a cookbook. And now look, this won’t technically be all of my own ideas, there will be some heavy inspiration from the likes of Jamie, Yotam and Samin, to name a few. But I want to create something that is relevant to the average New Yorker living with an average New York kitchen. Recipes that you can create in your tiny kitchen, with your limited cookware and without a vast pantry to call upon, using seasonable, easily-sourced ingredients.

New York City is an inspiration for food and cooking, and really everything to do with food. Every zip code has a different speciality - the never ending, high-class Italian restaurants of the West Village, the plastic-chair adorned dumpling spots in Chinatown, the Polish bakeries, butchers and diners of old Greenpoint… I have been fortunate enough to eat at some of the best restaurants in the world in this city. I have had my mind blown by taste and my senses satiated. But the best thing about the food of New York City is that you can have any cuisine you want - Italian, Indian, Mexican, BBQ, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, French, anything - at any kind’ve standard. From food trucks, to cheap and cheerful joints with plastic tablecloths, to cute local bistros, to high-end Michelin-starred restaurants. It’s all here.

And I want this to shine through in the Book - recipes drawn from some of my most favorite local spots. From the simple yet underrated Greek Salad at the crowd-pleasing Kiki’s of the Lower East Side, to the star-of-the-show Kale Salad of West Village icon Barbuto. I want to recreate the magic.

New York also has some great farmers markets. And so I want the Book to reflect recipes with ingredients that can be sourced from a Saturday morning trip to your local market. As well as recipes that change with the seasons - what you find at the farmers markets during the bitter weekends of February will be vastly different to the sunny markets of May.

So, wish me luck, and we’ll see you on the other side.