All. Things. Cookbook!

As promised, dear Gingis, we are talking all things cookbook today - including kitchen, inspiration, marriage, and parenthood. Before we jump, we want to thank you all for supporting us. We don’t talk about it often, but Eat Small Plates is a family business and every purchase of our book, supports our work more than you know and allow us to keep showing up for you (and hopefully writing loads more yummy cookbooks)!

So now…back to the good stuff. How do two alphas personalities come together to create a book within the sphere of their marriage, while navigating the 1st year of parenthood? Good question. Respect, patience, creative freedom, a excellent division of labor focusing on our strong suites, and a little (WHOLE LOT of) help from our friends.

So without further ado, the Q & A! So excited to finally be able to talk about all these beautiful chaotic moments.

What inspired you to write "Eat Small Plates"?

Ben and I have collaborated in work from the very first moment we met. The wheels were culinarily spinning from our first evening together. Truthfully, it was my dream to write a cookbook and Ben, turned that dream from vision to reality. From our early days in Italy, we were always hosting friends and somehow everything (besides the main) always ended up on small plate. Those evenings hosting friends, our table was always covered with an abundance of small plates, holding little treasures that we created that week. Unknowingly we were living the title of our book, far before we sold it! - Zikki

How did early parenthood influence the writing and creation process of this cookbook?

Our daughter Tami, was truly the greatest “kick in the butt” ever. Starting the day with her smile, and ending the night with her tiny snore reminded us daily that we wanted to live out of wildest dreams to show her, that anything is possible in life. On a practical level, it was challenging, because one of us had to be away from her sometimes for long periods of time. Zikki spent months writing from dawn to sundown. And during our long shoot days, we both had to be away. But we were very lucky - we had the most extraordinary village helping us - so Tami was always happy and loved. Not to mention, knowing we had her to impress, there was no option to fail. - Ben

What was the most challenging part of creating the cookbook?

Figuring it all out on our own. I think people assume that when you sell a cookbook, someone hands you a sheet of paper that says “This is How You Write a Cookbook.” LOL, no that is not what happens. You do have loads of help, mentors, agents, and guidance, but that manuscript is fully your job. You design everything. It is quite literally a life time project. It is YOUR job to write your own story and that requires one to peek deep inside oneself, sometimes exposing your most vulnerable feelings. You learn to produce work and how to be extremely and meticulously organized. Grateful to our outstanding team of world class industry leading professionals including our photographer Dan Perez, our stylist Amit Farber, our literary agent Sarah Passick and the team at Random Penguin House Publishing who guided us through the creative process, amongst many others! THANK YOU!

I will say, the second time around, I feel like we have a much better understanding of where to start. - Ben

And the most rewarding?

Without a doubt, the finished copy. Knowing that we created this project together (as partners in life and business) from start to finish. Took a lot of trust, love, and respect. And showed us we can accomplish anything together.

It is sort of like pregnancy and having a baby. When you see the finished copy, you forget how much work went into making it and can’t wait to just relish in the final copy. Not to mention…the eagerness to write another one. (lol) - Zikki

How did you decide on the dishes to include in the book?

Eat Small Plates takes a lot of inspiration from the Israeli “salatim” rooted in Arabic hospitality. The book began as “100 Small Plates” and so our thought process was exactly that. What are the best 100 “salatim” to serve on small plates? We were already serving many of them (made in our own way) at our catering company, so that was the perfect launch pad. From there we added Zikki’s beautiful salads like “Not Your Grandma’s Fruit Salad”, some of my favorite childhood classics, and dishes that we have recreated over the years from some of our favorite culinary moments together. The idea is that you can pull one recipes from each chapter to create an effortless dinner party! -Ben

What's one thing you hope readers take away from your cookbook?

That creating a special moment with food and friends, doesn’t have to be a production! Also many of the recipes are based in technique. So our hope is that you take those techniques and implement them in your daily cooking, with your own creative touch! - Zikki

What was an unexpected, challenging, and simultaneously uplifting thing that happened during your photo shoot?

The silver lining…Our cookbook photoshoot happened over a course of a few months broken into several parts, 2 in Israel, and 3 in New York. But the most memorable was the two week power shoot we hosted at our New York City apartment. It was two weeks after October 7th, so we had to cancel the shoot in Israel and we flew the whole team to New York. It was a devastating time and we all had very few answers about the future. Our photographer came with his whole family and together with our stylist, we hosted them all here in New York for two weeks. We were grateful to be all together during such shaking times, and by chance our shoot fell during Thanksgiving. At first we didn’t give any thought - may be just power through? BUT alas. Zikki decided to host Thanksgiving in our tiny apartment, insisting we all deserved an excellent meal together. She cooked the whole thanksgiving meal in 3 hours, Amit Farber, our stylist set the table, Dan Perez, our photographer captured the moment as we partook in an absolutely delicious and incredibly memorable Thanksgiving moment together - complete my father in law, our neighbor, and the tiny Tamster! I’m so happy we made it happen, because years later all we remember is the sweetness of that night. - Ben

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