Rachel Simons Reads Cookbooks in Bed, Cover to Cover

And now with Sesame she has a highly readable one of her own.

If invited to name my favorite dessert in New York City I wouldn’t say the chocolate mousse at Libertine (although it’s fantastic) or the iconic Brooklyn Bridge cake at The River Café (even though I got married there, and it’s delicious).

My favorite dessert in the city is a an ice cream sundae served over a counter at a food hall—the tahini sundae at Seed + Mill in Chelsea Market, to be precise. It’s SO good, and actually pretty straightforward. Halva is crumbled into a small cup and topped with an oat-milk based tahini soft serve. The whole thing gets a tahini drizzle, and more halva is pressed into the side. Every bite is an adventure, some combination of the cool, creamy ice cream, the soft crumbly halva, and the luxuriously smooth tahini with its delicious kiss of bitterness. I’m typing this at 7 AM and wish someone would just hand me one of these sundaes.

My point? I’m a Seed + Mill superfan. The tahini and halva are the best I’ve ever tasted. I get excited about brands that do a small number of things consistently perfectly. And I have Rachel Simons to thank for it.

Rachel is one of three women who co-founded the company, and now she has her first cookbook, aptly called Sesame (Bookshop/Amazon). The book isn’t a Seed + Mill cookbook, but a celebration of the mighty seed that I think I’ve taken for granted all of my life. The recipes feature sesame in at least one of three forms: seed, oil, and/or paste (tahini).

Rachel talks more about the cover below, but look closely at the details at the upper right hand corner and below the author name.

Most of the recipes are Rachel’s own, but she also reached out to food world friends to contribute recipes. For example, Ayesha Nurdjaja of Shukette shared the Pistachio and Whipped Feta (recipe below). I made the dip for my cookbook club a couple of weeks ago, and it was a huge hit, as was the Tahini Caramel Popcorn that my friend

Emily

contributed to our feast. Other recipes I’ve marked include the Pull-Apart Date & Tahini Rolls, Deconstructed Baba Ghanoush, and Sesame and Miso Peach Crumble.

There are so many thoughtful details in the book—a photo of Rachel as a child with her grandfather in his garden, a lush spread sharing the global history of sesame, the mix of photos and illustrations, the fact that the pages with recipes that come from others are tinted a different color than the pages with recipes from Rachel. The only thing the book is missing is a recipe for tahini ice cream. ;)

Rachel is a native Australian who was a corporate lawyer before co-founding Seed + Mill in 2016, and now she’s a cookbook author too. Thanks for chatting Rachel, and congratulations on the book!

Photo: Alan Benson

The Cookbookery Q&A with Rachel Simons

About how many cookbooks do you own?

RS: I currently have about 100 on my bookshelf in New York. I sadly had to leave my older collection back in Sydney when I moved to New York 10 years ago.

How do you organize them?

RS: Color coded. I feel silly writing that out, but they look pretty!

What are you most proud of when it comes to Sesame?

RS: I'm proud to have included the recipes and stories of a number of other chefs, home cooks and food luminaries from around the world. It was very important that I was able to celebrate the seed from a global point of view and inviting the support and inspiration from a number of others is symbolic of the way food bridges cultures, geographies and religion. It really is the ultimate vehicle for getting to know others.

What is the first cookbook you remember cooking out of?

RS: Cooking with my grandmother, out of her handwritten recipes that she brought with her from Prague in Czechoslovakia is a very early childhood memory for me. The first cookbook that I remember purchasing with my own money was The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (Bookshop/Amazon) by Mollie Katzen. I think I was around 14 and had decided to become a vegetarian and needed inspiration.

What kind of cookbook reader/user are you?

RS: I love reading cookbooks in bed, cover to cover.

What do you find boring in a cookbook?

RS: I honestly can't think of any section of a cookbook that is boring! Each book is slightly different and our needs as readers will vary. For example, I don't personally find the 'Pantry Essentials' section helpful or relevant for me, but I understand why others might need more guidance.

What’s a cookbook that changed the way you cook?

RS:

Yotam Ottolenghi

’s Plenty (Bookshop/Amazon) gave me a profound sense of confidence that vegetables can definitely be the star of the show.

What's a cookbook cover you're obsessed with?

RS: I LOVE the cover of Bavel (Bookshop/Amazon) by Ori and Genevieve Menashe. It was very much an inspiration for my own cookbook design.

Speaking of covers, tell me about Sesame's! It's so beautiful. How did you decide to use an illustration there instead of a photo?

RS: I had to fight hard for an illustrated cover. They're far less common in the US. My inspiration was a series of vintage food posters. I wanted to tell the story of an ancient ingredient and needed the cover to have a sense of patina or age to align with the history of the seed. If you look closely, I have also included the word 'sesame' in over 30 languages on the cover to reinfoce the fact that sesame is a flavor and ingredient beloved across the globe. The illustrator was Evelina Edens, who works at Seed + Mill as our Marketing Manager and illustrates on the side!

What's a cookbook that you think didn't get enough attention?

RS: Open Kitchen (Bookshop/Amazon) by

Susan Spungen

You’re only allowed to cook from three books (aside from your own) for the rest of your life. What are they?

RS: Anything by Ottolenghi (I know I'm cheating here!), How to Eat by Nigella Lawson, and The Book of Jewish Food (Bookshop/Amazon) by Claudia Roden

Interview has been lightly edited. If you purchase a book through one of these links, I may receive a small commission.

More to Nibble On

• The Dinner Plan
  ’s interview with Rick Martinez about his new book Salsa Daddy. I’m so into the book’s maximalist design.

• The LA cookbook shop Now Serving is helping replace cookbooks for people who lost them in the fires.

• This week’s NYT Bestsellers: Today Loves Food (#2) and Life-Changing Salads (#10, although this one has that little dagger after it)

• Recipes I made this week: Zero. As you’re reading this I’m on a press trip on a cruise in the Mediterranean (my first cruise!). I haven’t been cooking, but I have been eating extremely well. I’m sharing pics on IG.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please click the little heart! It makes me happy and helps the newsletter get seen more widely. Thanks for reading!

Recipe from Sesame: Pistachio and Whipped Feta

Recipe shared by Ayesha Nurdjaja
Serves 4 to 6
Time: 20 minutes

1 cup raw pistachios
2 tablespoons tahini
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
1 garlic clove
½ cup crumbled feta
1 bunch cilantro, leaves only
Zest and juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Freshly ground pepper
Pita bread or grilled protein, for serving

1. In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until finely ground, about a minute. Add the tahini, salt, and garlic and pulse until evenly combined.

2. Add the feta and cilantro. Pulse a few times to bring the mixture together. With the food processor running, slowly stream in the lemon juice and olive oil to emulsify. If the dip is sticking to the sides of the food processor, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water and pulse again to thin out. Fold in the lemon zest and season with pepper and more salt to taste.

3. Serve with the pita bread or the grilled protein.