Madeleines and mussels, beer and Bolognese are among the recipes beloved North Shore eateries, renowned chefs, and accomplished home cooks have contributed to To Nourish, a new hardcover cookbook on sale this season to raised much-needed funds for Lynn soup kitchen My Brother’s Table.
The lineup includes Massachusetts First Lady Lauren Baker’s chicken piccata, James Beard Award winner Jamie Bissonnette’s paella Valenciana, and Paul Wahlberg’s “My Mom’s Chicken Thighs and Tomatoes,” as well as offerings from many North Shore favorites including Bambolina, Bent Water Brewing, Cafe Avellino, Eat Well Kitchen, Finz Seafood & Grill, G Bar + Kitchen, Mission on the Bay, One Mighty Mill, Opus, Periwinkles, Sea Level Oyster Bar, Settler, and Tides.
The hardcover cookbook was professional designed and laid out by a dedicated group of volunteers who put their professional graphics skills to work for the organization, creating a book that would be at home on a shelf next to volumes by Ina Garten and Mollie Katzen.
“We said, ‘Why don’t we do a cookbook people would be happy to have out on their counter, or even on a coffee table,'” says Dianne Hills, executive director of My Brother’s Table.
To Nourish is priced at $35, and proceeds will be used to provide meals for guests of My Brother’s Table. Other gourmet gifts – including tea towels, serving trays, and oven mitts – are also available in the organization’s shop, a perfect complement to the cookbook for holiday giving. Shop for the cookbook and other gifts online at mybrotherstable.org/table-shop.
The largest soup kitchen on the North Shore, My Brother’s Table was founded in 1982. It has now been open for more than 13,000 consecutive days and served more than 6.2 million hot, free meals to those in need.
The project began early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when the organization had to cancel previously planned fundraising activities and started looking for a new way to keep the operation running. Creating a cookbook turned out to be not only a way to raise money, but a way to keep the organization’s staff and supporters connected and motivated during the difficulties of pandemic life, Hills says.
“It was a way we all connected together during that time when people were physically disconnected,” she says. “I love this book – I love everything about it.”