The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope

The celebrated restaurateur Andrés has built his model of humanitarian relief, begun in 2010 in response to a hurricane in Puerto Rico, into an impressive global enterprise. World Central Kitchen partners with local food producers and distributors in dozens of countries worldwide, ready to respond to disasters, including wars and mass migrations, in places as varied as Venezuela, Ukraine, and Gaza (where seven WCK employees were killed in April), by feeding nutritious, tasty meals to thousands of needy people daily. WCK eschews fancy, fine-dining techniques in favor of familiar cooking methods, and relies on readily available ingredients rather than exotic imports. In this handsomely illustrated cookbook, WCK recipes are scaled back to family size and made accessible to reasonably competent home chefs. Recipes are not organized in traditional categories (such as country of origin) but in seven groupings that restate WCK’s philosophy: empathy (comfort dishes cooked slowly), urgency (simple sandwiches), adaptation (paella, chicken pot pie, mac and cheese), hope (warm stews, soups), community (vegetarian dishes to share), resilience (supportive of local farmers), and joy (sweets).