Sisterly Love’s new cookbook event, Cookbooks & Convos, aims to empower Philly’s female chefs, authors

Inside Barnes & Noble in Center City on Monday, Jennifer Carroll, founder of Carroll Couture Cuisine and cohost of Sisterly Love Collective, recalled meeting her culinary idols Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, two Julia Child Award-winning chefs, in the late 1990s during “The Book and The Cook” food festival.

This beloved Philadelphia program, which took place from 1984 to 2007, brought in award-winning cookbook authors and chefs for a variety of events (like cooking demos, special dinners, even beer tastings) over 23 years.

Sisterly Love Collective, an alliance of female restaurateurs and food entrepreneurs, announced Monday a new event inspired by the former festival.

“When Ellen [Yin], Sofia [Deleon], Jill [Weber], and I were talking about something special that we wanted to do, we would bring up cookbooks all the time,” Carroll said at the news conference at Barnes & Noble. “And what better thing to do than to bring back ‘The Book and The Cook’ in a new way.”

For many chefs in Philly, the festival holds a special place in their careers — it was the nexus of their love for books and cooking. The collective, with a mission to celebrate and uplift women, decided to offer the opportunity to learn from and connect with iconic female chefs. “Cookbooks & Convos” will run Sept. 22 to Oct. 24, and highlight female authors and talent with over 20 events at women-owned restaurants, bars, and businesses in Philly alongside male allies.

With a plethora of new cookbooks this year, Carroll told The Inquirer it was hard to narrow down who to invite as hosts and speakers. “There are so many amazing female authors out there in the food, beverage, and hospitality space, so we’re really lucky that we have so many [authors] — so many big names — that are coming to join us,” she said.

“I’m a lover of books,” said Aimee Olexy, owner of Talula’s and the Love, at the Monday news conference. Being able to peer into the lifestyle of cookbook authors, connecting with them, and sharing their dishes at Philly restaurants “was really very neat,” she said.

During the monthlong series, chefs and restaurant owners will host the guest authors, ranging from scheduled conversations, cooking demonstrations of featured recipes from cookbooks, book signings, happy hours, and more.

Tickets will be available online starting Aug. 21 — expect to pay $65 to $125 for events, which include copies of cookbooks.

Monday’s news conference featured a minipanel of top Philly chefs. The panel, moderated by “Chefwise” author Shari Bayer, included Olexy, author Aliza Green, and Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon, and offered a glimpse at what “Cookbooks & Convos” would become.

“[The series] is an opportunity to show why books are important,” said Green, a James Beard Award-winning author of more than 15 cookbooks and executive chef at storied Philly restaurants like Ristorante DiLullo and White Dog Cafe. Green pioneered farm-to-table dining in the city in the ‘80s.

For James Beard Award-winning Suntaranon of Kalaya in Fishtown, writing a cookbook had never been never a thought.

That is until 2020 when Francis Lam, host of The Splendid Table podcast and editor-in-chief at Clarkson Potter, the leading cookbook division within Penguin Random House, came to the restaurant and asked if she wanted to write a book. Suntaranon shared her cookbook plans at the news conference, announcing the book was nearly completed, with Lam serving as publisher and editor.

“Writing the cookbook is a process that I am glad I did because my mind is running a million miles a minute,” she said. “I cook a million dishes in my life, and I never document anything — I wrote it, I throw it away. [The cookbook] turned the reality into words.”

Green always knew she wanted to write. After a while, she felt all her work was “just a bunch of dirty plates at the end of the night.” She wanted “something I could hold in my hand.”

When people ask “why cookbooks” with internet recipes out there, Green asks, “Where’s the story? It’s like listening to a playlist, and you hear one song.” Instead, cookbooks are like an album, which brings the context and the story.

Learn the stories of the country’s top female culinary minds, beginning with Mariana Velásquez, author of “Colombiana,” at West Philly’s Jezabel’s Cafe on Sept. 22. Enjoy tapas-style dishes from a collaborative Colombian and Argentinian menu cooked by Velásquez and owner Jezabel Careaga, and go home with the cookbook.

You’ll find Reem Assil, James Beard Award-winning chef and author of “Arabiyya: Recipes from the Life of an Arab in Diaspora,” with Apricot Stone’s Ara and Fimy Ishkhanian at their Northern Liberties Mediterranean hot spot Sept. 24. The lineup includes Tanya Holland, known to many as celebrity chef, restaurateur, podcast host, and author of “Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West” with Jill Weber at Rex at the Royal on Sept. 27. And Hawa Hassan, Food Network host of Hawa at Home, CEO of Basbaas Foods (a retail line of African-influenced sauces and condiments), and James Beard-winning author of “In Bibi’s Kitchen,” joins Nana Wilmot and Kate Steenstra at Renata’s Kitchen on Oct. 3.

Other guests include cookbook authors Nasim Alikhani, Karen Akunowicz, Leah Koenig, Natasha Pickowicz, Shari Bayer, Klancy Miller, Toya Boudy, and Bricia Lopez.

Nancy Singleton Hachisu, James Beard-winning author of five books including “Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook,” and Vedge owners Kate Jacoby and Rich Landau conclude the series Oct. 24.

With “the breadth and diversity that are coming to the city,” the series offers Philly restaurateurs the invaluable chance to make a connection, Yin told The Inquirer.

“I think a lot of what we’re trying to remind people is Philadelphia is an incredible place to be — we have incredible restaurants,” she said.

Schedule for Coobooks & Convos

Tickets and reservations will be available starting Aug. 21 on online. Expect to pay $65 to $125 for events, which include copies of cookbooks.

Sept. 22: Jezabel’s Cafe (206-208 S 45th St.)

Sept. 24: Apricot Stone (1040 North 2nd St.)

Sept. 27: Rex at the Royal (1524 South St.)

Oct. 1: Fork (306 Market St.)

Oct. 2: a.kitchen (135 S 18th St.)

Oct. 3: Renata’s (3940 Baltimore Ave.)

Oct. 5: Cry Baby Pasta (627 S 3rd St.) 

Oct. 8: Machine Shop (821 Dudley St.)

Oct. 9: El Merkury (2104 Chestnut St.)

Oct. 14: Honeysuckle Provisions (310 S. 48th St.)

Oct. 15: Booker’s Restaurant & Bar (5021 Baltimore Ave.)

Oct. 23: Sor Ynez (1800 N. American St.)

Oct. 24: Vedge (1221 Locust St.)