I have a lot of cookbooks but I never cook out of them, people give them to me because they think I will like them. I have never even attempted a recipe out of this book but I love it a lot. Brooks is the chef behind NY fav veggie spot Superiority Burger, and he cut his teeth for years as one of the cities great pastry chefs. I love this book because it’s extremely readable. In between insane Michelin-level recipes, he’ll have stories about his band Born Against (a band I enjoyed in high school!) touring across the world, or just Brooks letting one of his employees share a recipe for biscuits instead of making it all about him. It’s not taking a cookbook deal as the opportunity to change his life and become the next Ottolenghi, he basically made a hardcover zine about his story and how he got to where he is. If you have someone in your life who grew up around punk music and is now old, get them this book. They’ll form a bond with it, even if they don’t know what a Kouign-Amann is. Also, the photography and graphic design are refreshingly honest.