Summer 2026 Cookbook Club: From Every Shore: Our Immigrant Roots
Each season of the Kitchen Arts & Letters Cookbook Club is built around a theme, three books, and six evenings of guided conversation on Zoom: two 90-minute sessions per book, led by beloved chef and culinary historian Annette Tomei. Members receive each book at the start of the season, along with menu assignments and supplemental materials from Annette, access to a private discussion group, and recordings of every session. Most months include a bonus Q&A with the featured author.
This summer marks 250 years of the United States. Our three books honor that anniversary through the food immigrants brought with them, adapted, and made American—guided by Annette, whose research centers on the immigrant foodways of New York City and the Lower East Side in particular.
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July: Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor by Hetty Lui McKinnon. The James Beard Award–winning author grew up in Sydney as the daughter of Chinese immigrants from Guangdong, and now lives in Brooklyn. Linger brings that rich identity to the table in twelve loosely seasonal menus which are an invitation to easy entertaining or simply lingering over a delicious meal any time. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, July 14 & 28, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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August: Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen. August is our traditional month of cooking what you like while reading something provocative. James Beard Award–winning writer Mayukh Sen profiles seven immigrant women—among them Marcella Hazan, Julie Sahni, and Najmieh Batmanglij—who reshaped how Americans eat, often without receiving the credit they were due. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, August 11 & 25, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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September: Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking by Von Diaz — Emmy Award–winning documentarian and food historian Von Diaz was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Atlanta. Travel with her through the tropical islands of the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, encountering 125 recipes grouped not by geography but by technique—marinating, pickling, braising, frying, grilling, in-ground roasting—to reveal the shared ancestral logic connecting island kitchens across the world. Meets on Zoom, Tuesdays, September 8 & 22, 7:00–8:30 pm ET.
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