In the Book Pages newsletter this week, cookbooks, memories and the work one store is doing to replace what was lost in the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Ken Concepcion and his wife Michelle Mungca at their cookbook store, Now Serving, in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. During the pandemic, after cooking everything I knew how to make at least three times, I realized that somewhere on my journey to cooking excellence, I’d missed the offramp to Flavortown.
My food, I thought, tasted a little blah.I’ve owned some excellent cookbooks: Marcella Hazan’s books on Italian cooking, which have been called “exacting,” “dogmatic” and “perfectionist” by people skilled at using a thesaurus to say she knew what she wanted, can teach you how toa documentary about Hazan premieres today on PBS’s “American Masters” In this May 29, 2012 file photo, chef Marcella Hazan poses in the kitchen of her Longboat Key, Fla., home. Hazan, the Italian-born cookbook author who taught generations of Americans how to create simple, fresh Italian food, died Sept. 30, 2013 at her home in Florida. She was 89. , Anthony Bourdain, and Mark Bittman, not to mention pored over collections like “The Silver Palate Cookbook,” “The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone,” and even the sturdy, informative “A Good Day for Soup.”-scrolling YouTube and Instagram for recipes and cooking tips from Lan Lam, Carolina Gelen, NoMeatDisco’s Sam Jones and evenBut cookbooks can be meaningful in ways that go beyond mere instruction and more as heirlooms and artifacts. My father kept his prized meat loaf recipe inside a disintegrating copy of “The Joy of Cooking,” a stained, scribbled upon and notecard-stuffed wreck held together with a thick rubber band — and I bet someone in your family had something similar, too. told me about losing her personal library of books, 25 years of journals and a wall full of her beautiful, often-used cookbooks “With every book comes a story, you know? Part of what you lose in a fire is your story. You lose all the stories – where I bought that cookbook in Greece and that plate came from Morocco,” she says. “All of that goes in the fire.” In a moving act of support, Walger’s friends came together to raise funds to help her rebuild her lost library.Ken Concepcion and his wife Michelle Mungca at their cookbook store, Now Serving, in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. After the Eaton and Palisades fires earlier this year, the loss of family cookbooks and all the the lore and history they hold was on the minds of“If you’re an impacted individual or family, you can fill out and submit an intake form that’s on our website and request up to 10 books to rebuild your cookbook collection,” says Concepcion, who was collecting donations yesterday morning when we spoke. The effort has kept them busy. “We have over 500 submissions for the intake forms,” he says, which represents thousands of book requests. “If you go on our site, we have a list of books that are available to gift. So it’s almost like a registry,” says Concepcion. “Anyone can go on our site and gift a book to to an impacted individual.” These are among the most popular cookbooks requested by people impacted by the fires. “The document is over a thousand unique titles, which is kind of staggering, and the list itself is really interesting to dig into,” he says. Some of the most sought-after titles include “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” “The Joy of Cooking,” “The Silver Palate Cookbook” and “anything by Ina Garten.”“Before we opened the shop, I worked as a chef,” says Concepcion, who didn’t go to culinary school but eventually spent years working for Wolfgang Puck. “I just kind of learned on the job by working in restaurants and would go home and read books after service. And ‘The Zuni Cafe Cookbook’ really kind of opened my eyes.”But note that the time for dropoffs is winding down: Monday, July 14, is the last scheduled day . The plan is to process the donated books over the next few months and begin distributing them by the end of summer or beginning of fall. Just that morning, Concepcion says he’d received a large donation from a store regular who told him it was gratifying to know the books would soon be part of someone’s new home. “The people who are coming in to donate feel like they are finally able to really help specific individuals,” he says.And as we wrapped up, I asked Concepcion what the store itself might need. “I really appreciate that question. What would help the store is basically for people to buy books and come into the shop and pick up a book or pre-order something that’s coming out in the fall,” he says. Things are tough. Small retail businesses and local restaurants are facing challenges that make the pandemic “look like a cake walk,” he says.https://nowservingla.com/pages/la-wildfiresAnd if you’re interested in buying something from Now Serving – books, gift cards, linens, totes, cards and more – go to the website or head out to the store this weekend as they “Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow is among the top-selling nonfiction releases at Southern California’s independent bookstores. on July 18 at 4 p.m. with “The View from Lake Como” author Adriana Trigiani and audiobook narrator Rebecca Lucas with her sister, our colleague, Emily St. Martin. Miss an episode? Catch up onBooks on the Fourth of July: A mix of fiction for the holiday heatWhen Adrian Tchaikovsky’s gallbladder ‘basically exploded,’ a book series helped his recoveryWork stops and probe starts on tunnel that partially collapses in Wilmington — prompting rescue of 31 workersWith 3% rent hike in effect, Los Angeles tenants call for City Council reform$2.7M COVID fraud scheme leads to arrest of former Wells Fargo banker and his brotherJohn Fogerty celebrates his Creedence Clearwater Revival songs at the Hollywood Bowl
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Estas son las celebridades latinas que se han manifestado sobre las protestas en Los ÁngelesPedro Pascal, Eva Longoria, Chiquis y Maná han compartido sus impresiones sobre lo que viene sucediendo en las calles de L.A.
Read more »
Longest-serving legislative leader in US history to be sentenced on corruption chargesFormer Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court for 10 convictions on bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud charges. U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey will determine the sentence Friday in Chicago. The 83-year-old Chicagoan is the longest-serving legislative leader in U.S. history.
Read more »
Israel is serving the entire world -- taking huge risks to stop Iran from going nuclearGood for Israel, acting as it has before (the 1967 war, the takedown of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program in 1981 and strikes on Syria in 2007) to preempt a clear existential threat to its continued…
Read more »
Serving those who served: Cochise Serving Veterans helping southeastern Arizona for over a decadeAlexis Ramanjulu is KGUN 9's Cochise County reporter. Send your story ideas to Alexis at alexis.ramanjulukgun9.com.
Read more »
Las calles de Los Ángeles cimbraron con mensajes de condena a las políticas antiinmigrantes de TrumpLa marcha, denominada 'Sin Reyes', congregó a miles de personas enfrente de la Alcaldía de Los Ángeles, de donde salieron los manifestantes hacia la plaza Pershing Square
Read more »
“La historia nos vigila”: Niños son educados en las protestas sobre las crudas políticas contra inmigrantesEn una muestra contundente de activismo cívico, miles de habitantes de Los Ángeles salieron este 14 de junio para participar en la protesta “No Kings Day”, un movimiento nacional que cuestiona las políticas del presidente Donald Trump en contra de los inmigrantes sin documentos legales y lo que muchos consideran tendencias autoritarias.
Read more »