No. 002 : Home is Where the Eggs Are
A very cozy personal look at one family's food life.
7 things I’m loving in Home is Where the Eggs Are
Feels like a Hardcover Novel
The initial feeling you get when picking up your copy of Molly Yeh’s Home is Where the Eggs Are is that you are about to dig into a great novel. The size and scale of the book fits more into a classic novel category than a coffee table cookbook. Even once you break into it, it has a flow to the layout that feels cozy to read through page by page - which is exactly what I did upon receiving it. Hats off to book designer Renata De Oliveira for breaking the traditional cookbook layout of full bleed images side by side recipes. The page flow she created breaks with these norms while still seamlessly incorporating imagery, illustrations and recipes in a way that invites you to read - rather than flip - through.
Food Memoir-esque Headnotes
If the design choices in the book weren’t enough to give this a novel feel, then Molly’s headnotes before each recipe seal the deal. I found myself reading through the entire book, hooked on her stories, before I even cooked a single recipe. There is not a single headnote shorter than a paragraph and most are multiple paragraphs, if not pages, long. They cover her inspirations, experiences, and the funny or charming stories from her life that led her to create each recipe.
Very Personal Voice
’s blurb for this book is so spot on. In many ways it felt more like Molly’s journal that she keeps in her kitchen cataloging the things her family loves to eat. From the humorous voice in her personal stories to her signature sprinkles showing up in everything from in Jam-Filled Sprinkle Cookies to Seedy Halva Fairy Toast, this book just feels like its author. Even for someone like me who was new to Molly when I opened this book, I felt like I knew her by the time I had finished it.“Molly Yeh’s work has always felt like it couldn’t come from anyone else - it’s specifically her, full of heart and personality.”
Beautiful Blend of Influences
Molly is of Jewish and Chinese heritage and spent years living in New York. She married into a family of Scandinavian heritage with deep multigenerational roots in the upper Midwest. These influences are her “biggest sources of inspiration” and you can see that reflected throughout the stories and recipes shared in this book.
Homey Accessible Photography

All the images in this book transport you into Molly’s kitchen and her family’s real life. Scenes depicted in the early morning with the whole family still in jammies making smoothies, or seated around the table laughing over dinner give the book an authentic feel. It makes sense that the images come from lifestyle editorial photographers Chantell + Brett Quernemoen. Seeing Molly with her daughter Bernie on her hip while she makes lunch with one hand sums up the theme of the book perfectly. The food photography they captured also feels very homey and true to life, with images showing the cooking process, or eating the final result standing at the kitchen counter. Food stylists Barrett Washburne and Lauren Radel did a phenomenal job as well making the food feel seamlessly un-styled and accessible, while looking mouth-watering and beautiful.
Adorable Illustrations
Throughout the book are lovely illustrations by Lisel Jane Ashlock. From the front and back end papers, all the way through to helpful illustrations detailing the steps or ingredients of a dish, each illustration is finely detailed, beautifully colored and retains just enough playfulness to suit the whole books aesthetic. I particularly love the kitchen tools illustration in the intro.
Very Cookable Recipes
Some cookbooks are inspiring for their storytelling or imagery, but they don’t necessarily get you to pick them up and cook. Not this cookbook. Nearly every recipe feels extremely cookable and makes you want to try new things. Chicken and Stars Soup inspired me to try shapes in my own chicken soup recipes. Pretzel Chicken Salad has entered our regular dinner rotation. Hand-Pulled Noodles with Potsticker Filling Sauce was a revelation. I’d never had a Hotdish before, but now I have an entire chapter of them to try including Chickpea Tot Hotdish. I also have a lingering urge to put sprinkles on just about everything.
Home is Where the Eggs Are: Farmhouse Food for the People You Love is by Molly Yeh
You can find more about Molly on her blog my name is yeh, her Instagram, and on her Food Network show Girl Meets Farm.
CLUB CHAT
Do you have a favorite recipe from Home is Where the Eggs Are?
What did you learn while reading or cooking from Home is Where the Eggs Are?
What various personal influences inspire your own home cooking?
I haven't read this cookbook yet but I do love Molly Yeh's recipes and was a frequent mynameisyeh blog visitor over the blog years. I have to shout out her cardamom cake with cream cheese frosting which has become our family's traditional birthday cake and known by my children and their friends as "your cardamom cake" now and I'm sorry not sorry Molly - I don't correct them.