Arts and Culture
GOOD THINGS: An Evening with Samin Nosrat
The bestselling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat in conversation

Spend an uplifting evening with Samin Nosrat as she discusses her new book, GOOD THINGS. Samin will share stories around the inspiration for the cookbook, her development and selection of the recipes, and the culinary rituals she shares with close friends. In an evening about creativity and connection, Samin will remind us how cooking can not only nourish our bodies but also satiate our desire for kinship and community.

Samin will be interviewed by Eve L. Ewing. Samin and Eve have long admired and supported one another’s work from afar, meeting for the first time in Chicago in 2019. In addition to being a brilliant academic, writer, and cultural critic, Eve has also been a long-time recipe tester for Samin, offering thoughtful feedback that’s made its way into GOOD THINGS.

Samin Nosrat:

As an undergraduate studying English at UC Berkeley, Samin Nosrat took a detour into the kitchen at Chez Panisse restaurant that happily determined the course of her life and career. Since 2000, she pursued her twin passions of food and words with equal vigor, aiming to create work that inspires, creates community, and raises cultural, social, and environmental awareness.

Nosrat learned to cook at Chez Panisse, in Italy alongside Benedetta Vitali and Dario Cecchini, and at (the no longer existing) Eccolo in Berkeley. She studied poetry with Robert Hass, Shakespeare with Stephen Booth, and journalism with Michael Pollan. She has said that Alice Waters and farmer Bob Cannard taught her more about land stewardship than anyone else.

Her book, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking was illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton. It is a New York Times bestseller, and also 2018 James Beard General Cookbook of the Year, 2018 Fortnum & Mason Debut Cookbook, 2018 IACP Cookbook of the Year, 2018 IACP Julia Child First Book Award, and Sunday Times Food Book of the Year 2017. A documentary series based on the book is now streaming on Netflix. In 2018 she was named the Eater Chef of the Year. She is a former food columnist for the New York Times Magazine.

In April 2019 she was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019 in the Pioneers category. Also in 2019, Nosrat’s Netflix series, Salt Fat Acid Heat, received the 2019 James Beard Award for Television Program, on Location. Her next book will be Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with the People You Love (Ten Speed Press, September 16, 2025).

Samin Nosrat has spoken about food, art, culture, and cooking at venues as diverse as the Oakland Unified School District Nutrition Services, UC Berkeley, Yale University, SFMoMA, St. Mary’s College, University of San Francisco, the Orange Institute, the Headlands Center for the Arts, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), and Artechef, the Cuban national cooking school. Nosrat is the editor of The Best American Food Writing 2019. In early 2020, during the Covid-19 national shutdown she started a podcast titled Home Cooking with Hrishikesh Hirway to offer suggestions and answer questions related to home cooking.

Eve L. Ewing:

Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of four books: the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919, the nonfiction work Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side, and a novel for young readers, Maya and the Robot. She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. She has written several projects for Marvel Comics, most notably the Ironheart series, and is currently writing Black Panther. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other venues.

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