#58: Kitchen Arts & Letters

A bookstore that's scrumptious

Kitchen Arts & Letters

Upper East Side, Manhattan: 1435 Lexington Avenue

Way up in the east 90s lives a cozy little bookstore dedicated to the culinary arts. Kitchen Arts & Letters has been around since the 80s, serving up all kinds of books about food. The cookbook selection has both classics and new favorites from myriad corners of the gastronomical universe. But this store has even more than cookbooks– books about food, zines about food, vintage-y food posters and ads, and even custom aprons. The staff here is all about finding the right book for the customer. My casual request for “something easy” turned into a highly involved conversation about my existing cooking skills, my cooking goals, and culinary preferences! You’ll leave this store hungry for food… but full of books!

What I Got:

Jacques Pepin: Quick and Simple

Okay I didn’t just ask for “something easy,” I actually asked for “the most amateur level cookbook you have.” One pleasant conversation and several options later, I was presented with Jacques Pepin’s Quick and Simple. The P-man’s been writing cookbooks since the 1960s and appearing on PBS since the 1990s. He has the perfect French chef vibe. This book is one of his most recent and lives up to its title. So far I’ve applied my limited culinary skills to a mustard vinaigrette salad dressing and chicken thighs with mushroom sauce– both turned out highly edible, delicious even!