Chloe Flavor

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t love food, which makes the inclusion of a cookbook in The Library somewhat unexpected.

Chloe became my place in New York after I discovered her truffle avocado toast. I went back for it again and again, and shared the experience with a lot of members of my family. Chloe Flavor gave me a way to make some of the food I liked at home as well as a record of the time that we spent there together.

Cookbooks also document a particular moment in how we eat. Chloe Flavor was published in 2018, when vegan food was moving much more visibly into the mainstream, and Chloe was an important part of that shift. Her food never asked you to give something up in order to eat vegan. It made you want what was on the plate.

Maybe that is what it takes for a cookbook to make it into my library. I don’t need to be interested in cooking for its own sake. I love how books—and objects—can become visual reminders of experiences that we’ve had with people that we love.