Elysian Kitchens

A WBUR Hear & Now Best Cookbook of 2024

A lushly photographed cookbook showcasing the intersection of culture, spirituality, and cuisine. Elysian Kitchens bridges diverse beliefs, weaving a modern tapestry of faiths and histories in 100 time-tested recipes.

Monasteries, temples, mosques, and synagogues have long been centers of culinary innovation. No mere relics of the past, they reflect our modern world and are as dynamic and fundamental to our society as they ever were.

Granted rare access to closely guarded religious sanctuaries, Jody Eddy demonstrates how the monastic culinary philosophy can be adopted by any home cook or professional chef interested in integrating sustainable, time-honored cooking practices into their daily lives. Her 100 recipes include dumplings (momos) inspired by the cooking of monks at Thikse, a Buddhist temple in Ladakh, India, nestled in the Himalayas. From Kylemore Abbey, in Connemara, Ireland, she brings instructions for cooking Lamb Burgers with Creamy Red Cabbage Slaw and Rosemary Aioli as the nuns do, with enough leftover sauce to drizzle over smoked salmon bagels the next day. From a Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York, come time-tested kosher recipes, including Potato Kugel and Matzo Ball Soup. Ginger and Ginkgo Nut Stuffed Cabbage Rolls illustrate Zen Buddhist cooking from Eihei-ji in Japan. In Morocco, she finds a Sufi chicken and olive tajine recipe that makes for a perfect dinner. And for dessert, Panellets (tiny sugar-and-almond cookies), courtesy of an 1100-year-old Spanish monastery.

A global story of cooking across communities, Elysian Kitchens contributes to the most important conversations taking place in the food world today by examining a gastronomic heritage that has until now been virtually unexplored. This is a cookbook for anyone eager to discover the traditions of magnificently beautiful, endlessly compelling places that embody the wisdom of the ages and offer the promise of a more optimistic and sustainable future.