How exciting it is to publish your first cookbook, and while The World On My Plate speaks much of the cooking of my life, it inspired me to show and tell more!
The First Small Plate
I didn’t set out to publish a cookbook the first time.
I set out to gather something.
When I think back to my first cookbook, The World On My Plate, I realize I approached it the same way I would plan a dinner party, not with a grand centerpiece, but with small dishes meant to be passed, shared, lingered over. Tapas. Meze. Little plates that invite conversation before anyone even realizes they are hungry.
That wasn’t a trend decision. It was instinct.
Meze is part of my Syrian heritage, part of how I learned that food is not just nourishment or a meal to be served to guests, it’s pacing, hospitality, storytelling. You don’t rush a table full of small plates. You lean in. You ask questions. You remember things you hadn’t thought about in years.
I even sized the hardcover book itself to feel like an appetizer dish, something you could hold comfortably in your hands, something that didn’t announce itself loudly on a shelf but quietly waited to be picked up. I wanted it to feel welcoming, not overwhelming. An opening gesture.
An Invitation Not A Menu
At the time, I didn’t fully understand what that first cookbook would give me back.
Writing it surfaced stories I didn’t know I was still carrying. Family rhythms. Flavor memories. Small traditions that had lived so long in my body I’d stopped noticing them. Recipes became doorways. One would lead to a person. Another to a place. Another to a version of myself I hadn’t visited in a while.
That’s why I believe, truly, that everyone should write at least one cookbook in their lifetime.
Not necessarily to sell it.
Not necessarily to publish it.
But to discover themselves through it.
I Didn’t Mean To Write A Cookbook
Writing a first cookbook, honoring heritage, and starting small.
A cookbook can be a collaboration with siblings, parents, grandparents, children. It can be messy. Incomplete. Opinionated. Full of notes in the margins and arguments about measurements. And in that process, something remarkable happens: stories resurface, voices reappear, traditions are named and preserved instead of slowly fading away.
You end up with a treasure.
Sometimes that treasure stays within a family, passed from hand to hand. Sometimes it finds a wider audience. Sometimes, almost quietly, it becomes something other people want to read, cook from, and hold. And yes, sometimes it even becomes a book that sells.
But the real gift comes earlier than that.
It comes when you realize that writing recipes is also writing memory.
That choosing which dishes to include is choosing which stories matter.
That food, when written down with care, becomes a form of legacy.
The World On My Plate In Small Bites
The World On My Plate was my first invitation, to myself and to others. It was my way of setting out the first small plates and saying, “Come sit. Let’s begin here.”
If you’ve ever thought about writing a cookbook, any kind of cookbook, consider this your nudge. Start small. Start with what you know. Start with what you love enough to remember.
You might be surprised by what shows up at the table.
Everyone Should Write A Cookbook
As I have shared my effervescence with many of you through my blog, videos and even television, (three times a Food Network Chef and 8 episodes on PBS), I wanted to share something a little more intimate with you.
Through my first cookbook; something you can hold in your hand and dog-ear pages, you can experience the heart-felt stories I share with you.
Throughout the colorful pages of my cookbook and my life, you will have the opportunity to sit with me at my table.
Just think what treasure troves you could compile in your own cookbook that would become a legacy within your family. Food has a way of retaining memories we may otherwise have forgotten.
My First Cookbook
The World On My Plate is a collection of some of my favorite recipes for small-plate dining. I promise, you will feel as though you are sitting right here in my kitchen and you will be inspired to make certain that from now on; Every Meal Will Tell A Story!
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.