For the cookbook obsessed.
We read cookbooks like bedtime stories and wake up hungry.
Welcome to Cookbook Club: a love letter to the most beautiful books on our shelves. This is a place for anyone who reads cookbooks like novels, collects them like heirlooms, and gets misty eyed when a headnote hits just right or a perfectly styled pasta photo makes them reach for the rolling pin. If your shelves are warping under the weight of cookbooks and your home is dotted with stacks of them - you’re in the right place.
We don’t just flip to the index and pick a recipe (though we do love a good index). We start at the beginning. We savor the stories. We delight in the photography, the typography, the paper choice, the chapter titles. We run our hands over the covers to feel the texture - all that debossed, spot glossed glory. We notice the way the food is styled, the mood of the light, the voice of the writer, and the feeling the book evokes - and then we cook from that feeling.
This is a celebration of cookbooks as creative expressions - part recipe collection, part art book, part memoir, part daydream. We gush over the beautiful work of the authors, photographers, designers, stylists, and editors who bring these books to life. Each post is a heartfelt thank you to the team behind the pages. We know it takes hard work, vision, and a whole lot of behind the scenes magic to make something this beautiful.
And yes, this is a club! A real one! The kind we always meant to start in our actual kitchens but never quite got around to - so we made it here instead. Each week, we pick a cookbook we’re obsessed with and talk about the things we love love love about it: the pages we dog-eared, the recipes we tried, the stories we fell for. And our club happens in the comments - where you can join in, share what you cooked, what you noticed, what you’re craving.
We’re completely, wildly, joyfully obsessed with food. And with the books that teach us, inspire us, and gather us around the table - even if it’s a virtual one. There’s always room for another cookbook lover at our table.
I’m Cortnee Brown. Creative Director by day, cookbook devourer by night (and weekends, and lunch breaks, and vacations). I’ve worked with brands you probably know, wear, and eat, and I’ve also designed cookbooks, photographed food, and gone to culinary school purely for the creative joy of it. I’m currently writing and dreaming up my own future cookbook, with my rescue pup Bean by my side and my man cheering me on. I live and work in California, splitting time between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree - always surrounded by stacks of cookbooks and a very full fridge.
