Heirlooms: Family Recipes from Around the Globe

Cookbooks · 336 pages · Published 2023-09-12 · Avg 3.5★ (6 reviews)

Who knew heirloom recipes could travel so far? Culinary storyteller Catherine Foster unveils a newly expanded edition of her beloved cross-cultural cookbook, gathering handwritten cards, market notes, and kitchen wisdom from Karachi to Kansas City. You'll find 30 new dishes and updates across more than 275 recipes (from masa harina sopes and Kerala ishtu to Viennese plum cake), luminous color photos shot in home kitchens from Queens to Quito, and guidance for building a globally savvy pantry—think gochujang, berbere, and preserved lemons. Every recipe is thoroughly tested for clarity and consistent results, with menus for holidays and weeknights, plus vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-sugar options, and quick bites that make dinner a joy.

Catherine Foster (b. 1983) is a Canadian-American culinary writer, recipe developer, and photographer. Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she studied cultural anthropology at McGill University and trained in professional kitchens in London and Kuala Lumpur. After years reporting on foodways for small magazines and leading community cooking workshops, she launched a Portland, Oregon test kitchen where she develops approachable recipes rooted in diaspora traditions. Her previous titles include "Salt & Citrus" (2012) and "Markets of the Morning" (2017). When not traveling to collect stories, she tends a backyard garden of shiso, sorrel, and currants with her partner and an opinionated rescue dog named Fig.

Ratings & Reviews

Zainab Ortega

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

2025-08-10

For community cooking clubs, multicultural families, and college kitchens building a first pantry, this is a strong pick. The author's voice is generous and the headnotes center the home cooks who shared these dishes, making their stories part of the lesson. Dietary tags for dairy-free, low-sugar, and vegetarian are consistent, and the photos from Queens to Quito show real cookware and plateware, which encourages beginners. Content notes are mild to none, aside from mentions of family history and migration.

Lionel Park

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

2025-03-15

By vibe, it sits between Andrea Nguyen's calm precision and Nik Sharma's exploratory pantry spirit. I liked the flow from quick bites to longer weekend projects, but a few chapters feel baggy and some prep asks for overnight soaking, which slows a weeknight cook. The testing is trustworthy, yet the rhythm can wobble, especially when jumping from a delicate Viennese plum cake to heavier stews.

Greta Nowak

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

2024-12-01

Food travels and remembers.

Foster leans into inheritance and place, and the book hums with that theme. It reads like a chorus of aunties and neighbors, "handwritten cards and kitchen wisdom traveling from Karachi to Kansas City," with a pantry that bridges preserved lemons, masa harina, and ishtu on the same table. The holiday and weeknight menus feel like rituals you can repeat, and the photos in real kitchens give the stories weight as well as flavor.

Priya Calhoun

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

2024-07-09

Beautiful book, tricky in practice.

hard-to-find spices where I live
substitution notes too brief
serving sizes uneven
long headnotes before simple dishes
cramped photo captions

Omar DeSouza

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

2024-02-18

The updated edition reads smoothly, grouped in a way that invites roaming from quick bites to holiday menus. The headnotes are concise and warm; they balance memory with instruction. Ingredient callouts and timing are dependable, and the vegetarian and gluten-free flags are easy to spot. A few steps could use clearer sequencing when frying sopes or tempering spices, but the results justify the effort.

Maya Linford

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

2023-10-05

Foster turns family recipes into a passport with luminous home-kitchen photos and pantry notes that make gochujang and berbere feel everyday.

Clear testing and the 30-dish expansion keep it weeknight-friendly without sanding off its roots.

Generated on 2025-08-22 17:02 UTC