Noah Galuten - The Dont Panic Pantry Cookbook

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF

Copyright 2023 by Noah Galuten

Photographs copyright 2023 by Kristin Teig

Foreword copyright 2023 by Iliza Shlesinger

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.aaknopf.com

Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cover photographs by Kristin Teig

Cover design by Jenny Carrow

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FOREWORD

iliza shlesinger

I mean, of course. Of course I am going to say this book is wonderful and so is my husband. It would be great if everyone loved this cookbook and we sold a billion copies. I want everyone to know Noahs delicious recipes and see how talented he is.

But, to be honest? I dont love food, not the way Noah does. Ive never taken a real interest in cooking or getting up at 6:00 a.m. to go to a farmers market for lettuces, and I had never even thought about pluralizing lettuces before I met Noah.

And, if Im being honest, it wasnt until we made Dont Panic Pantry (our livestream cooking show) that I got a true sense of Noahs passion for food. Prior to the pandemic, Noah cooked and I ate. It was awesome and I respected what he did, but Noah had his passions and his career and I had mine.

Then the pandemic hit. At the start, everyone felt so helpless, and I said to Noah, Lets do a cooking show. I can entertain people and you can teach people how to cook. It will be something to do. We wanted to do our part with the resources we had. I had an audience and Noah had culinary skills. Together we created a mini world where people could come every day and cook along with us. Well, with Noah, while I talked. Every recipe he wrote, everything he made, was simple and comforting. We were trying to encourage people to stay home more and not run to the grocery store every day. The whole idea behind Dont Panic Pantry was dont panic, you can use alternative ingredients. Dont panic, you can use what you have. Dont panic, we are here to entertain you. Dont panic, you can be of one culture and cook from another. Dont panic, you arent alone and you can hang out with us in our kitchen for about a half hour every day. We are going to get through this together. Our show, like Noahs food, started out with the purest of intentionsto share information about cooking and make people feel good. And this cookbook is an extension of that show and of Noah. This book is a deeper look at his culinary world. Its a peek into how and why he cooks how he does.

When people find out my husband is a chef, they always ask, Does he cook for you? I always say yes, but the real answer is that he doesnt cook as much as he creates. He creates recipes and he really takes time to understand what he is making. Theres thought and love behind his dishes thats all so impressive to me. Whether hes seeking out education on the cultural history of a dish, the origin of his produce, or putting a thoughtful twist on someone elses recipe, Noahs food has integrityit has heart. These recipes arent intimidating; theres nothing overreaching. Thats what I love the most about this book. Noah makes cooking accessible without compromising on what he is doing.

Im proud of the show we created. Im proud that he committed to cooking and sharing recipes for our audience for more than 230 episodes. Im so proud he was able to turn the show into this gorgeous, heartfelt, and informative cookbook. Most important of all, Im proud to be his wife and eat his food.

INTRODUCTION

What am I supposed to eat?

As the world changes around us, we are negotiating constantly with two different versions of ourselves: the one who wants to be healthier and the one who wants to be excited, or comforted, by the food that we eat. Our reflective selves are at odds with our impulsive selveswe eat impulsively and then we diet impulsively. We toggle between extremes, never feeling great about either decision.

The truth is that food is very personal. It is tangled and mixed up with how we feel about our bodies, our pleasure, our shame, our feelings of social responsibility, our relationships with our motherseverything. Trying to figure out what to eat is, frankly, overwhelming. We all want to eat better, in every sense of the word. But what does that mean? How do you do The Right Thing when there are ten different versions of The Right Thingand they are often in direct opposition to one another?

When we try to face these questions on our own, the answers are endlessly confusing. The Internet only seems to offer solutions in the form of self-promotion or righteous indignation. Personal trainers tell you to eat the boneless, skinless breasts of horribly treated chickens, portioned out like dystopian protein cubes; vegan solutions can arrive in the form of chorizo-flavored soybeans piled onto fried corn chips with cashew cream; ketogenic dieters tell you to eat canned sardines for lunch at your desk and mozzarella balls for breakfastall of them promising that this will somehow lead to a better life.

So where is the rational middle ground? What does good for you even mean? How do you worry about your diet, your body, the planet, your happiness, and your schedule all at the same time? What if you like the idea of being a vegetarian but also want to eat meat sometimes?

This book is here to tell you:

Dont Panic.

Dont panic about learning how to cook. Dont panic about environmental sustainability. Dont panic about nutrition. I want you to know that trying matters; that perfection does not exist and that better is enough. I believe that extremes are not the answer and that the truth, as always, lies in the gray area.

Enter: The Dont Panic Pantry Cookbook. In this Too-Much-Information Age, I have simplified my home cooking philosophy into a few key, pragmatic points:

1. Too much of any one thing is bad.
2. Balance is good.
3. Refined sugar is bad (and it is hiding everywhere ).
4. Heavily processed food is bad (this is where the sugar is hiding).