Hi there, happy Thursday!

What I’m Reading…

* Food photographer extraordinaire Eva Kolenko (who’s shot more than 50 cookbooks) has a new Substack and she’s pulling back the curtain on her work. (Eva joined us in our Behind the Spine series back in 2022.)

* Cookbook author Marian Burros died at 92 this week. NYT obit. While she authored a dozen-plus cookbooks in her career, the strongest remembrances are around her iconic plum torte, which she published in the Times in 1983 and has remained one of the paper’s most-popular recipes. You can read Pete Wells paying tribute here—or, better yet, bake one yourself.

* We’re right in the heart of fall cookbook season, and this year’s lineup is especially rich—stunning, memorable works that I’ve been lucky to dive into (nearly 100 new books have already crossed my desk!). For a taste of the top titles, check out new roundups from Eater, Epicurious, and Saveur. I’ll be chatting with some of the authors on Salt + Spine and can’t wait to share those conversations with you.

Episode 173: Deuki Hong & Matt Rodbard

This week, chef Deuki Hong and journalist Matt Rodbard join us to #TalkCookbooks! Deuki’s latest restaurant SŌHN is an “all-day cafe and multi-use gathering space” in San Francisco. Matt is a writer who also hosts the prolific TASTE podcast (required listening for food lovers).

When their first collaborative book, Koreatown, came out in 2016, it captivated food publishing. For many readers, it was the first time Korean American food culture was presented with such energy, personality, and depth. Eight years later, Deuki and Matt returned with a new, wider-lens look.

The authors are quick to note that the new book, Koreaworld, isn’t a sequel. It’s a dispatch from a moment when Korean food and culture are everywhere: K-pop topping the charts, Parasite winning the Oscars, Seoul cafes setting global coffee trends, and a Korean tasting menu taking the top U.S. spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list this year. As Deuki and Matt write in the opening to Korea World: “You are about to read the story of a culinary revolution.”

In our conversation, Deuki and Matt take us behind the scenes of the ambitious project—from their travels through locations like Jeju and Seoul during the pandemic, to profiling the chefs and artisans who make up what they call “Korea World.”

🎙️ | We’ve got a great chat with Deuki and Matt—and of course, we put them both to the test in our signature culinary game! Find this episode here on Substack and anywhere you get your podcasts.

Koreaworld: A Cookbook by Deuki Hong & Matt Rodbard

A vibrant exploration of Korean cuisine, both in Korea and in Koreatowns around the globe, with more than 75 bold, flavor-packed recipes and stunning photography from the New York Times bestselling authors of Koreatown.

“The wide range of modern Korean food is on display in this fascinating book that is as electric, sumptuous, and diverse as the cuisine it portrays.”—Edward Lee, chef and author of Bourbon Land

Join chef Deuki Hong and journalist Matt Rodbard as they take an insider’s look at the exciting evolution of Korean food through stories of chefs and home cooks, as well as recipes that are shaping modern Korean cuisine, including sweet-spicy barbecue, creative rice and seafood dishes, flavor-bombed stews, and KPOP-fueled street food.

In Koreatown, Deuki and Matt explored the foods of Korean American communities across the United States. Now with Koreaworld, they show how Korean cuisine today is nothing less than an international culinary revolution, from the ancient plant-based cooking of famed Buddhist monk-chefs to modern charred-greens rice rolls and pork-stuffed fried peppers.

Koreaworld takes readers into the bustling metropolis of Seoul, where the modern-day barbecue scene is pushing into new territory with recipes like Smoked Giant Short Ribs cooked over hay and where the city’s third-wave coffee culture is exploding. Deuki and Matt also visit Jeju Island, where seafood dishes like Jeju Whole Fried Smashed Rock Fish rule supreme, and they explore the plant-based temple cuisine found in the rural province of Jeolla-do, with dishes such as Cold Broccoli Salad with Ssamjang Mayo. The tour continues with late-night food adventures in Los Angeles and stops in the kitchens of innovative chefs from New York City to Portland who are putting modern spins on Korean classics with dishes like Rice and Ginseng–Stuffed Roast Chicken, Grilled Kimchi Wedge Salad, Kkaennip Pesto, and Pineapple Kimchi Fried Rice. Filled with recipes, stories, and conversations of Korean food’s global evolution, Koreaworld is essential reading for anyone curious about the future of food.

We 💚 local bookstores. Pick up your copy of Koreaworld here:

This week, Substack subscribers can access two featured recipes from Koreaworld:

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