Are Restaurant Cookbooks Back?

Howdy cookbook fans!

Today we’re going to dive deep into one of fall’s big titles, which is from one of Chicago’s most-beloved restaurants: The Lula Cafe Cookbook by Jason Hammel. Best of all? The interview below was conducted by an old friend of mine, ! Go check out his newsletter, Something Glorious.

So. Restaurant cookbooks. Supposedly publishers don’t publish them any more: that’s what everyone says, anyway. And yet here we have Lula Cafe, the result of nearly 25 years of serving Logan Square diners, in which chef Jason Hammel shares the story of the restaurant and the food served there. And Hammel is not alone: we have quite a few restaurant books this fall, actually! From Williamsburg’s Diner to Rintaro by Sylvan Mishima Brackett (which yes is the featured advertiser in this issue) to the new Restaurant Gordon Ramsay book, or heck, even books like the Eater cookbook and Signature Cocktails, which highlight multiple restaurants (and bars, in the case of cocktails). Restaurant cookbooks are making tentative moves towards a comeback, it seems.

So, are restaurant cookbooks truly back?1 Let’s explore The Lula Cafe Cookbook and find out.

Today's issue of Stained Page News is brought to you by Hardie Grant North America and Rintaro: Japanese Food from an Izakaya in California (October 10, 2023) by Sylvan Mishima Brackett. The debut cookbook from one of San Francisco’s most acclaimed restaurants, Rintaro translates the experience of a Tokyo izakaya to the home kitchen.

Q&A: Chef Jason Hammel and The Lula Cafe Cookbook

Many of the recipes of the beloved Lula Cafe are finally available for people to make at home. 

—Ari Bendersky 

What started as a project cooking soup has become one of Chicago’s most beloved restaurants, Lula Cafe. Now, nearly 25 years after opening the restaurant in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, chef/owner Jason Hammel has pulled together 90 recipes that represent the DIY, creativity-driven ethos behind his restaurant in The Lula Cafe Cookbook. Hammel, along with his wife, Amalea Tshilds, was a pioneer in Chicago’s farm-to-table movement, and started working directly with local farms to source produce and meats long before that became the norm for many restaurants. And many of the dishes—whether the pasta yiayia (bucatini with feta, brown butter, garlic, and cinnamon), the “Tineka” sandwich ( a vegetable club sandwich with satay sauce), or the chickpea and fennel tagine—often tie back to family or a personal story that