All hail

Shop: The King Cookbook

FOUND GIFT GUIDE • FOUND Object

The King Cookbook, out this month from the trio behind the beloved edge-of-Soho restaurant (Annie Shi, Jess Shadbolt, and Clare de Boer), contains very few pictures. It’s a rare quality, given the current state of cookbooks. Most try to include a photo for every recipe, while some have even manufactured ways to continue the experience off the page with QR codes and video content.

The King book is a simpler affair. It reminds me of the classic cookbooks my grandparents cooked from: text-heavy, full of recipes with multiple ingredient variations (there are four separate recipes for socca), and made for utility, not just bookshelf decor.

Like the restaurant, the book is allergic to flamboyance. With restrained, sweet pencil-line drawings throughout, the book’s tone runs earnest and sincere without being stern. Certain ingredients are given obsessive treatments; there’s an entire chapter dedicated to rabbit. Preparation of the 200-plus recipes may be intensive, but the ingredient list is mostly simple. You can choose to make the homemade stocks and foundational doughs, or skip right to the showstopping, photo-finish dishes like Pissaladière.

While you don’t need to know King to appreciate the book, fans of the restaurant will recognize a number of favorites, because, lucky for us, the King ladies don’t gatekeep. From carta di musica (the flat bread that starts every King meal) to tarte tatin, the book holds the key to all the dishes that’ve helped King coolly reign supreme, after all these years. –Sylvie Florman

→ Shop: The King Cookbook • $39.99.