“As a cook and writer myself, I experienced Cooking with the Muse as a special sort of revelation. Marvelous meals become great stories— real food, honest words, make every aspect of life better. They are how we celebrate ourselves, each other, and the world that we call home. Taken together, they are the best part of our humanity. Here is a smorgasbord of powerful poems, stories, and memories so delicious, I can taste them. Kornfeld and Massimilla feed so much more than our bellies. I’m hungry. I’m in.”
Hannah Howard, Big City Lit, January 2020
“[A] culinary-reader of delights nested together much like a matryoshka doll. With hundreds of recipes, poetic prose pieces, cooking and poetry notes, and lavish illustrations, this literary-cookbook defies simple classification. Authors Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla offer a lap-filling volume that could be criticized for overreach if it weren’t such a fascinating genre-blending, seasonally-framed journey through history and culture.”
Susan Thurston, Los Angeles Review
2017 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award in Nonfiction
IAN Book of the Year Awards
“Muse casts a wide net into deep waters, submerging the reader into an ardent exploration of an ingredient through its historical roots — such as tracing Brussels sprouts’ popularity during the late Renaissance, paired with a recipe for Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Shallots and Grana Padano Cheese. A single line of poetry can offer the cook inspiration, as evidenced in Osip Mandelstam writing ‘And I was alive in the blizzard of the blossoming pear’ (Christian Wiman translation). Who wouldn’t then want to spoon into warm from the oven Apple-Pear Cranberry Crumble? “
Annelies Zijderveld, Poetry International
“I believe cookbooks can be pleasurable respites and inspiring tools to help you actually feel as if you have more time in your day. No better place to look than the dense book lover’s cookbook, Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla, for pure delectable inspiration. Far more than a cookbook offering quick and tasty meals, this wonderfully curated and carefully organized resource is a delightfully poetic read.”
Emily Walter, Colorado Review
“Though it is certainly more cookbook than poetry anthology, Cooking with the Muse still manages to embody poetry even on pages where no actual poems are present, and is an excellent addition to the poet’s kitchen and the cook’s library alike.”
-Caitlin Pryor, Pleiades
Winner of the 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Award
-The National Indie Excellence Awards
“Cooking with the Muse shows how poetry and food are connected by the cycles of nature, the seasons, the landscape; the stuff poets write about…Stephen Massimilla, a professor and accomplished poet, brings much of his own work to the party… Myra’s banquet of original and sumptuous recipes speaks to the poet in all of us.”
Rozanne Gold, The Huffington Post
2017 International Book Award Finalist in the General / Cookbooks category: Cooking with the Muse
-International Book Awards
2017 Next Generation Indie Book Finalist Award (NGIBA) in the COFFEE TABLE BOOK / PHOTOGRAPHY category
Next Generation Indie Book Awards
“When writing a cookbook, one of the challenges is to curate recipes that will be universally appealing. The authors have more than met expectations in this regard. They take their inspiration from cuisine that hails from around the world, as well as dishes that epitomize Americana. The recipes are approachable for novice cooks and avid chefs alike. Perhaps even more impressive are the irresistible poems and passages. They make it all but impossible to thumb through quickly in search of a recipe, as one’s eye is instantly drawn to the texts. This well-crafted cookbook would make an enviable addition to any kitchen.”
–Jacquelyn Gilchrist, RECOMMENDED review, The US Review of Books
About Cooking with the Muse:
“Reading is in trouble. We see the signs everywhere, from the video arcades to the tables as restaurants where all the diners are staring at their smart phones instead of their dinner companions. Every once in a while, however, something comes along that reminds us that there are certain cases where nothing catalogues, stores, organizes, and presents information as successfully as a well-written published book.Most of the books we review in Green Living Journal are tomes that assist our audience of “friends of the environment” with“practical information” that enables them to live more lightly on the planet.Occasionally,however, we need leaven our lean lifestyles with the exception that makes the rule….”
–Green Living: A Practical Journal for Friends of the Environment
“The spring chapter of Cooking with the Muse opens with Robert Frost and Stephen’s stellar scholarly essay on Frost’s poem ‘Putting in the Seed,’ accompanied by stellar recipes by Myra. And here is a delectable excerpt from an ode to spring artichokes by Stephen after Pablo Neruda: ‘…and the gentle- / hearted artichoke / standing guard / in the Roman / vegetable patch / like a warrior in green armor.‘ Thank you Stephen and Myra for a wonderful evening in support of PSA.”
–Catherine Woodard, Vice President, The Poetry Society of America
USA News Best Book Finalist Award in the Nonfiction and Cookbook categories
-USA Book News
“Poetry and food speak to the same things… They both nourish us, reflect our values and feelings, and are inseparable from our relationships to each other and the seasons… the dishes feature local ingredients and encourage using seasonal produce, wild fish, traditional fats, and meant from animals raised on pasture.”
-Steve Simmons, The Beverly Hills Courier
“[T]he book is absolutely gorgeous. And fascinating. … I have never seen a cookbook that had delved so deeply into the history of food-related poetry; and if you are as fascinated by food culture and history as I am, you’ll enjoy reading Cooking with the Muse, even if you aren’t cooking recipes from it. And as a woman who rhapsodizes on nature and food, and blends spirituality into every recipe, I am in heaven with this book.”
-Margaret Gilfoyle, Pachamama’s Beautiful Food
“Sinking your teeth into Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare gives you the rare opportunity to fill your stomach and fill your soul in one sitting. Chef and cookbook author Myra Kornfeld and poet and scholar Stephen Massimilla combine their talents to bring you 150 seasonal recipes, an anthology of food poems going back to ancient days, food lore and philosophy, and playful and practical preambles to feast on while you cook! …Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla emphasize the richness and abundance of foods and words with which we can nourish our bodies, our senses, our hearts, and our minds.”
–Vicki St. Clair, Fully Engaged
“The perfect coffee table book, Cooking With the Muse by Myra Kornfield and Stephen Massimilla celebrates the deep connection between poetry and food and reveals how literature and poetry honor the glories of fresh ingredients, nutritious cooking and delectable dishes. The reader will find delight in the marriage of writing and cooking — a delicious fusion. The book features 150 recipes inspired by cuisines from around the world. …The recipient will find this literary and culinary work a feast for the heart and the senses, a delectable journey that nourishes the body, mind and spirit.”
-Stephen Fries, New Haven Register
“As we wrote in our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide, Cooking with the Muse is ‘more than just a cookbook with 150 international recipes; it’s a feast of words and images sprinkled generously with poetry.’ The book is a real art piece, and it belongs to a genre of its own. It’s visually beautiful enough to be a coffee table book, but its heft and recipes elevate it to a place that’s far more important.”
–Meghan Harlow, Edible East End
“Know someone whose New Year’s Resolution is always either to cook or read more? This is the perfect gift for him.”
–Edible Holiday Gift Guide (Manhattan, East End, etc.)
“Kornfeld and Massimilla were going to write a cookbook; they made a kind of poem instead. … Here are historical discussions, contemporary observations; course corrections… analyses of fats such as butter, and of K2 (the vitamin, not the mountain); and the sundry ways and means of the culinary arts. Massimilla…put together a collection of his astonishingly original poems on food… With its wealth of detail and its numerous ways of approaching food, this book must surely have been a labor of love.”
– John Paul Russo, Italian Americana
“As a cookbook for poets and a poetry book for cooks, Cooking with the Muse is both a culinary and a literary triumph. Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla make their collaborative efforts accessible and enjoyable for everyone…By inspiring generations of poets, food has created a timeless dialogue of veneration in which the poets of one age go on to impact the next… Kornfeld crafts delicious seasonal recipes…[and] promotes health stem[ming] from her deep devotion to chasing the freshest and most local of ingredients… Both wholly original and a remix of the old, Massimilla’s poetry pays homage to archaic styles and invocations; what had inspired the great, the ancient, the aged now inspires him… His diction and syntax, prosody and rhythm, reveal a deep appreciation for the progression of poetry. …Something is lost with industrialized agriculture. Kornfeld and Massimilla aim to bring us back to our roots.”
-Linda Kim, Pirene’s Fountain
“Cooking with the Muse is…blanketed with poetry, packed with historical facts about food writing and ingredients, and the recipes are a varied collection of comfort food, elegant offerings and everyday fare. …every page holds something delectable to excite your palate or to engage your mind.”
-Jenny Hartin, Eat Your Books
“Their new book, Cooking With the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare (Tupelo Press), looks to works of literature for cooking inspiration. Their recipes focus on seasonal produce, borrowing a page from verse and prose throughout history that have referenced said vegetable or fruit. Kornfeld often gives cooking tips and nutrition facts, while Massimilla relates interesting tidbits from literature and different cultural traditions about the ingredients. … In this time of family gatherings, at times joyful, at times stressful, Kornfeld and Massimilla remind us of these words from novelist Oscar Wilde: “After a good dinner, one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” So bring on the turkey, and the green beans, and the stuffing, and the pies, and let good cheer prevail.”
-Channaly Philipp, Epoch Times
“What sets this book apart is the added literary component of culinary poetry on food, cooking and eating, making it my pick as the best cookbook of the summer.”
-Diane Roseen Worthington, The Chicago Tribune
“Rejoice, literary-minded locavores. Stephen Massimilla and Myra Kornfeld have written the cookbook of your dreams.”
–Kelly Ann Smith, Edible
“You place an emphasis on what you call ‘Returning to Real Food’ …so the real foods philosophy or approach really manifests itself in your own daily lives. [For instance], you make a few different stocks or broths, and then you freeze them, and you’ve got them for the month. …And the book is really a complex mosaic… It’s a big beautiful book and great for a dinner party. You have some people over, and you’re choosing some of the recipes in the book, and you have the poems and other things that go with them, and the photos. It’s a great conversation piece for people who love to eat and love to read. I think it’s for everybody.”
-Beth Sobol, How to Live Agelessly
“Reflecting the cooking instructor Myra Kornfeld’s background in real foods traditions and nutrition, these dishes highlight fresh, local ingredients and encourage the use of seasonal produce, wild seafood, traditional, healthy fats, and meat from pasture-raised animals … And thanks to Stephen Massimilla’s venerable career as scholar and poet who also lectures and teaches about food, history, and the environment, the authors revel in the culinary and literary cross-fertilization of cultures.”
–Broadway World Books
“[C]hef Myra Kornfeld and poet Stephen Massimilla [are]the authors of Cooking with the Muse (Tupelo), a book that presents food with a side of poetry. Kornfeld and Massimilla expound on recipes and culinary poetry, such as John Milton’s lines on fennel from Paradise Lost, “[A] savoury odour blown / Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense/ Than smell of sweetest Fennel,”… paired with a Butternut Squash, Pear, and Fennel Soup with Fennel Oil and Blue Cheese.”
—Publisher’s Weekly: what to do, see, and read
“This title released earlier this year is a beautiful book warmed with poetry, packed with historical facts about food writing and ingredients, and the recipes are a varied collection of comfort food, elegant offerings and everyday fare. Cooking with the Muse will be a valued addition to your collection for its fantastic content as a literary work and its delicious collection of recipes that are approachable by a cook of any level.”
–Jenny Hartin, The Cookbook Junkies
“The Prize for the most literary cookbook I have seen this year goes to Cooking with the Muse… Lots of food for thought here.”
-T. Susan Chang, Noteworthy Titles, The Level Teaspoon
“This book is also Paleo-friendly and gluten-free-friendly throughout—while remaining a delight for omnivores. All the recipes have been thoroughly tested and are a snap to follow. They will appeal to casual and experienced cooks alike.”
—Motherhood Moment
“Here’s what to do. Go out and buy this book. Go to the best market you can find and buy up the ingredients suggested in some of these recipes. Get together with the people (or person) you love the most. Take turns in the kitchen while another person reads aloud to you from the book. Eat your fill and go to bed happy.”
–Ruth Danon, Wild Violet journal
“The way that Massimilla writes about artichokes seems to capitalize their first letter, elevate them to Artichokes, Artichokes, something not merely worthy of praise or anthology, but of worship, Our Lady of Holy Artichoke. If this sounds like hyperbole, it is only because Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla’s Cooking with the Muse, out from Tupelo Press, leaves the reader exulting in every meal they remember relishing, connecting the experience—of shopping for groceries, preparing a mise en place, simply stirring a soup or stew, of spooning the first hopeful bite into the mouth, and then of sighing happily after meal that followed—of food with something both historic and lyric…. Cooking with the Muse does everything I love about food and good writing, and it does it in a way that insists on being read both practically and poringly. Massimilla and Kornfeld have done something remarkable; moreover, they have imbued a poetry anthology/cookbook/collection of essays/study of food with real passion and love.”
–Chloe Ann Campbell, StorySouth
Mass Poetry: GETTING TO KNOW STEPHEN MASSIMILLA, MYRA KORNFELD, AND THEIR NEW BOOK COOKING WITH THE MUSE
–Mass Poetry
“Cooking With The Muse is the perfect cookbook for ALL seasons… Something for everyone here, from poetry to folklore to delicious food.”
-Kelly’s Thoughts on Things
“Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla’s cookbook is a feast for the cook, and poet, alike… The tome — lovingly and carefully filled with 150 original recipes, countless poems and essays and delectable photographs — is described by its authors as a ‘literary cookbook,’ with an anthology of poems. It’s a kind of perfect marriage of the culinary and literary; in a way, like Kornfeld and Massimilla.”
–Lindsey Hollenbaugh, The Berkshire Eagle
“It’s a hefty book that I can see becoming a college text in addition to a lovely coffee table book, a great gift for anyone with an appreciation of both literature and food.”
–Stephanie Weaver, Recipe Renovator
“The table of contents of Cooking with the Muse reads like poetry…Braised Sunchokes with Fennel, Olives, and Thyme; Warm-Hearted Pea Cakes with Sesame Crust and Garlic-Piquillo Pepper Sauce; Mango Chia Seed Pudding with Cashew-Coconut Cream…these are words that roll gently around the tastebuds, as well as the imagination. The authors freely intersperse recipes with historical and artistic references, lore and verse to inspire your culinary liaison. The richness of the text ensures the recipes will nourish soul as well as body in this love affair between food and literature.”
—Whole Life Magazine
“Cooking with the Muse offers a smorgasbord of delicious cuisine for any occasion all year long.”
-Gary Roen, Senior Reviewer, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
“If you love literature as much as you love food, this might be the book for you. Co-authors Myra Kornfeld, a cooking instructor, and Stephen Massimilla, a scholar and poet, combined their talents to create this cook’s literary book and book lover’s cookbook… It explores ‘the powerful connection between food, poetry, and nature,’ said Chef Sara Moulton…”
—Catering Magazine
“In COOKING WITH THE MUSE: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare, co-authors Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla explore the full potential of a complete seasonal cookbook, one that celebrates real food and the rich cycles and traditions behind it. Here the glories of fresh ingredients, nutritious cooking, and delectable dishes are honored as never before…. Compared to other seasonal cookbooks, this volume has extraordinary added value: interesting and beautiful literary pieces about food, cooking and eating, each treasure perfectly paired, like a fine wine, with each dish.”
—The Gilmer Mirror
“Chef Myra Kornfeld and poet Stephen Massimilla have put together a luscious cookbook illustrating how poetry, prose and food have been inspirational throughout history… The 500-page book, Cooking With the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry and Literary Fare, is divided by seasons. It pairs 150 recipes with culinary poems, essays and historic anecdotes.”
—Northwest Indiana Times
“I requested Cooking with the Muse for review as soon as I read about it. I love the intersection of food and literature. Heaven. … Honestly the book is difficult to sum up–but easy to recommend. It is full of color photographs and would make an excellent coffee table book, as well as genuine inspiration in the kitchen. And for the thinking cook, it inspires us to slow down and appreciate what we are working with in the kitchen.”
–Laura Tabacca, The Spiced Life
“COOKING WITH THE MUSE [comprises] 150 recipes and lots of poems, food lore, culinary tips, bibliophile culture. Gorgeous and useful.”
–Ron Slate
“Cooking With The Muse by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla, subtitled “A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare,” draws you into a large hardback that combines recipes, stories, history and poetry and literature, even how-to illustrations. There’s nothing this book can’t do.”
—GoErie.com
“Accompanying the recipe for Mediterranean Cauliflower-Kale Roast with Feta, Massimilla provides a few passages from Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey and recounts how the cheese, which dates back to before the 8th century BCE, was originally aged and brined to keep it from spoiling in the hot, arid Greek climate. And, he notes, the way it was made has changed very little since Odysseus first entered the Cyclops Polyphemus’s cave.”
–Jane Ammeson, The Herald Palladium: “Book combines poetry, prose and food”
“Gluten-Free Summer Salads: Make the most of fresh greens with mouthwatering salads.”
—Gluten Free and More
“First up, we speak with Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla about their new book Cooking with the Muse, which not only offers 150 international recipes, but also contains a plenitude of imaginative poetry about food along with enlightening essays and culinary and historical notes.”
—Write On! Radio, KFAI 90.3/106.7, Minneapolis . St Paul
“Both a culinary and a creative achievement, Cooking with The Muse is a perennially seasonal feast for the senses, a delectable journey that nourishes the body, mind, and spirit.”
–Joint Forces Journal
“This gargantuan effort to pair recipes, photos and poetry together with culinary history is a treasure that needs to be added to everybody’s bookshelf.”
-Fully Booked Biz
“Cooking with the Muse by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla: This book offers 150 nutritious international recipes with … imaginative poetry about food and ingredients, along with enlightening literary essays, playful culinary and historical notes, and 200 beautiful full-color photographs. Here’s a feast of words and images, with easy-to-follow steps for preparing individual dishes and whole meals.”
–Bob Howard, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“This gorgeous 500-page cookbook with 150 international recipes and full-color photographs contains culinary poetry, essays and historical information relevant to the ingredients in the recipes. Not only do the appealing recipes use seasonal produce, pasture-raised animals, wild seafood and traditional fats, but this book is one hell of a good read.”
-Rosie Saferstein, New Jersey Monthly (“Table Hopping with Rosie”)
Cooking with the Muse, by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla (Tupelo Press) shows that inspiration can strike anywhere; and when it happens in the kitchen, our taste buds reap all of the benefits … This book is truly a feast for all the senses and will inspire you, just as the muses do, to cook up palate-pleasing creations. Bon appetit!
-Barbara Bellesi, Bella Magazine, the Beauty Issue, featured as one of her “five top titles.”
This is our most delicious post yet, combining two of my favorite things—poetry and food… Very recently published by Tupelo Press, the cookbook features seasonal recipes and culinary poems, as well as essays, lore, and notes on the poetry of food. Kornfeld is a chef, author, and cooking instructor, and Massimilla is an award-winning poet, artist, and scholar.
-Alisha Kaplan, Washington Square
“Our collective global food history is really interesting. And you have capitalized on and condensed such a wealth of information in just forty-one pages. I love books in which, if you just read the introduction, or the first chapter or two, you’ve got your money’s worth right there. And the introduction to the book in forty-one pages does that in spades! Really cool stuff. …a killer book. And the pictures, oh my goodness.”
–The Good Life with Guy Bower
Some are so moved by the poetic nature of food and cooking that they’ve written a whole cookbook inspired by the relationship. Cooking with the Muse by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla explores poetry and cooking by pairing fantastic recipes with thematic verse. One of our favorites is a celebration of spring onions—perfect for this time of year.
–Food 52
“Kornfeld, a chef, educator, nutritionist, cookbook and author, and Massimilla, an award-winning poet and critic, who teaches at Columbia University, take us on a fascinating food journey of poetry and literature, from the Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation eras in Europe to the New World and modern times. Entertaining essays and Poets’ Notes interspersed among their more than 150 recipes add even more flavor. Their superb pairing of poems and recipes makes this book a feast for all our senses.”
-RUTH TABER, El Paso Times
“Poems and recipes both celebrate the glories of nature, ingredients at the peak of ripeness in the optimal environment. And the outcome of each, whether through language or ingredients, is something that’s magically blended.”
–Hue Magazine
“Cooking with the Muse by Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla is a beautiful 500-page volume for any Mom or Grandmom to enjoy. The book is organized seasonally celebrating real food and the traditions behind the dishes… Not only do you have wonderful recipes in this book, but you also have a taste of culinary poetry and literary fare.”
—Kelly Burroughs Grad in Epicurus, voting Cooking with the Muse the first of her seven top picks for Mother’s Day
“We receive over three hundred books a month. This is a book we’d never have expected to be written.”
Ann and Peter Haigh, On the Menu
“When I first read Stephen Massimilla’s poems about food . . ., I was fascinated by the evocation of smell, taste, and touch—the happy marriage of language and the senses. . . I’m a poet and not a cook. It’s a testament to the delectability of this volume that I found it nourishing, no matter. But I also passed along a few recipes from my advance copy to Kees de Mooy, expert cook, gardener, and spice enthusiast, who declared the recipes to be transcendent—in the way of all great poetry.”
—Meredith Davies Hadaway, The Summerset Review—
“The Caribbean Islands offer some of the freshest and healthiest foods on the planet. Fruit is abundant: coconuts, limes, mangoes, papayas, passionfruits, pineapples, bananas… Try the following recipes. With their fresh and tropical flavors, they’re perfect for the warmer weather.”
–Taste For Life
“Intellectually, I know nutrition is the best medicine but putting it into practice every day is difficult even when I suffer the consequences. I need all the inspiration I can get. That’s why I am so happy with the cookbook, Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry and Literary Fare. … At nearly 500 pages, the book is a masterpiece… [B]ased on principles put forth by Weston A. Price, DDS, who wrote Nutrition and Physical Degeneration in 1939…., the recipes in Cooking with the Muse perfectly illustrate this way of life. [They] don’t deprive the palate of anything, but embrace all food in its most original form… The “Poet’s Note” at the end of [each] recipe goes deeper… and the “Cook’s Note” offers tips…, which is why I love this book so much. It’s so much more than a cookbook.”
–Kelly Smith, Staff Writer, The Southampton Press
The contents range from “A Brief History of the Poetry of Food” to a year’s worth of recipes, essays, and poetry organized by seasons. It is more than splendiferous, folks! It’s a food-prose-poem orgy! Get busy and buy this for yourself or someone you love.”
Jilanne Hoffmann, The Writer’s Shadow
A great cookbook is meant to be devoured as much while reading on the couch as while pacing in the kitchen; a great poetry anthology is an inspiring by the stove as in the living room. Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare, a compendium of 150 recipes, 200 full-color photographs, poetry about food and cooking, culinary and historical notes, and literary notes is at home in every room of the house, the stuff of dreams and of action, thinking and making.
—Grace Dane Mazur, ArtsFuse.org—
This creative and vibrant effort marries two highly imaginative endeavors.
—Barbara Jacobs, Booklist—
Get good ingredients a French chef might say, and try not to screw them up. The heart of this big beautiful book beats with that philosophy, but also this: respect the food, and please, slow down, and don’t forget to read some poetry along the way.
Read more…
—Josh Cook, Foreword Magazine—
If I ever had the chance to take off a year and spend it in the country with my family, the one cookbook I’d pack is Cooking with the Muse. Preparing recipes from this book will persuade you to slow down and appreciate the powerful connection between food, poetry, and nature. Come to think of it, wherever you are–enjoying the fantasy vacation of your dreams or anchored to herth and home–Cooking with the Muse will provide you with a tasty new seasonal recipe, and poem, every night.
—Sara Moulton, chef, cookbook author, television personality—
This vertiginous, seductive, learned book surprises the palate on every page. Its ranging, awakening recipes and awakening, ranging poems would be more than enough to satisfy any cook or reader. The added notes, though… These are an education, invitation, and testament to the peregrine splendors of human hungers of every kind—for dishes and flavors, for knowledge and history, for the transformations and sustenance that both cooking and literature bring. The only dilemma is where to shelve this—in the kitchen among the cookbooks, or in the library next to Dickinson, Hopkins, and Heaney.
—Jane Hirshfield, poet, essayist, and translator—
A sensual chef-d’oeuvre of culinary prowess seasoned with the cultural notes of poetry and nutritional wisdom–you will savor every page of this holistic masterpiece.
—Kathie Swift, leading nutrition author and speaker—
I have fallen in love with Cooking with the Muse. What a treasure trove of recipes, poems, quirky and fascination literary references and reflections on food and its meaning in our lives. I don’t knowwhen a cookbook has been such a good read! I find myself underlining my favorite bits, like this from Lucile Clifton: “I taste in my natural appetite/the bond of live things everywhere.” I want to give this book to every poet and cook I know.”
—Ellen Bass, poet and teacher—
Delicious and captivating–the perfect source of inspiration–literary and culinary arts. What a great gathering of the gifts of poetry and cooking!”
—Barbara Sibley, Co-Founder of The San Miguel Poetry Week and Chef-Owner of La Palapa Restaurant—
Part love song, part practicum, part history lesson, Cooking with the Muse is a delightful page-turning compendium heralding the life-giving joy of cooking with the seasons.
—Mary R. Cleaver, The Cleaver Company, The Green Table, Table Green at The Battery—
Prepare your appetites! This glorious compendium of recipes, food lore, poetry, and history offers savory layers of enjoyment in every category –It’s a delicious feast of love.
—Naomi Shihab Nye, Poet and Novelist—
Cooking with the Muse is a book I want to cuddle up with in bed until it becomes tattered and splattered.
—Liz Lipski, PhD, Author of Digestive Wellness, Director of Academic Development Nutrition Programs, Maryland University of Integrative Health—
Cooking, like any other art, requires the Muse. She leads us down misty paths of green herbs, tantalizes us with the smells from a simmering cauldron, drizzles sweet rosewater dew on our tongues. Alas, all too often, the Muse escapes us, and we experience a culinary cul-de-sac. In this mouth-watering book, Kornfeld and Massimilla generously mix rich poetry and prose, irresistible recipes, vibrant photographs, and timeless nutritional wisdom to reaswken the sleeping Muse within us. She entices us back to the kitchen, whispering in our ears the long-forgotten names of beloved flavors, inspiring us on every level: to listen, to taste, to celebrate, to cook, to love, and to eat.
—Jessica Prentice, Co-Founder Three Stone Hearth Community Supported Kitchen—
A golden idea comes to the table in Cooking with the Muse. Of course there is poetry in cooking! Recipes even look like poems–the lines distince and the outcome magically blended. Literally delicious, Cooking with the Muse delights, entices, comforts and enthralls. Each dish is a poem in itself.
—Molly Peacock, poet, author, speaker—
Cooking with the Muse not only guides you through the seasons showing you how to make inspired dishes with global flavors; it does so with wordsof poetic inspiration, providing a multicultural view of the pleasures of cooking and eating. Cooking with the Muse offers a combination that satisfies both stomach and soul.
—Richard Ruben, Seasons to Taste, LLC, author, The Farmer’s Market Cookbook—
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