Inside Tahini Baby: Eden Grinshpan on Veg-Centric Cooking

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This week on Chefs Without Restaurants, I’m joined by Eden Grinshpan, the chef, author, TV host, and culinary creative behind the new vegetarian cookbook Tahini Baby. You might know her as the host of Top Chef Canada, or from her earlier book Eating Out Loud.

In this episode, Eden shares her journey from culinary school to food TV host and cookbook author. We dive into what inspired Tahini Baby, how she brings bold Middle Eastern flavors to her vegetable-forward dishes, and why condiments like tahini, harissa, and pomegranate molasses are key to making vegetables exciting. Eden also opens up about juggling a creative food career with raising two kids, and how her cooking style has changed as a result.

We talk about cookbook creation, food photography, and what makes a good tahini—and yes, she gives some practical tips on what store-bought staples she swears by. This isn’t just a chat about vegetarian food. It’s about food that feels vibrant, satisfying, and full of life. Eden’s energy is infectious, and I think you’re going to walk away inspired to shake up your own cooking.

EDEN GRINSHPAN
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Check out Eden's website Eden Eats
Get Eden's books Tahini Baby and Eating Out Loud

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Chris Spear: Okay. I swear the show is not going to become the Vegetarian Chefs Without Restaurant Show, but today we do have another Veg Forward episode, but we also talk a lot about the food and restaurant industry in general, not just, uh, recipes, cooking and vegetarian dishes. Today I'm speaking with Eden Grinshpan about her new book, Tahini Baby.

[00:00:23] Chris Spear: A book packed with flavor. A lot of personality and yes, a little bit of tahini. This is Chris Spear and you're listening to Chefs Without Restaurants. The show where I speak with culinary entrepreneurs and people working in the food and beverage industry outside of a traditional restaurant setting. I have 32 years of working in kitchens, but not restaurants.

[00:00:43] Chris Spear: I currently operate a personal chef service called Perfect Little Bites, throwing dinner parties in the Washington DC area, so you might know Eden as the host of Top Chef Canada. In fact, I think she was a guest judge two weeks ago on the American version of Top Chef, [00:01:00] which is actually taking place in Canada right now.

[00:01:02] Chris Spear: Or you might know her from her first cookbook Eating Out Loud, or perhaps her travel show Eden Eats that she started, I think like more than 10 years ago. Well, now she's back with a new cookbook called Tahini Baby, which focuses on Vibrant vegetable Forward Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. This is the food that I think is quite often vegetarian and you don't even think about it being vegetarian.

[00:01:25] Chris Spear: We talk about her path from culinary school to hosting travel shows and then running a fast casual restaurant for what she calls a quick minute or something like that, which is a year, and we discuss finding her groove and her place in the culinary world. She talks about finishing culinary school and almost immediately telling her dad that she didn't wanna work in a restaurant.

[00:01:48] Chris Spear: And clearly this is a whole show about people, for the most part, not working in restaurants. We had such a great time talking before the show officially started, but I was already recording, so we never actually [00:02:00] got an official start to the show. So when you listen to it, we're just kind of mid-conversation.

[00:02:05] Chris Spear: But we start out talking about the food industry kind of in general. And of course, since she has a cookbook, we do get into some of the nuts and bolts of that. Not only how the cookbook came about, everything from photography to recipe development, and then I did want to explore some of the recipes in the book and even things like working with Tahini.

[00:02:26] Chris Spear: It's something I think a lot of people know how to use these days, but we did talk about how to store it, some of what she considers the better brands and the recipes she thinks you should definitely be making from this book. So whether you're a chef, home cook, business owner, I think you're gonna find something relatable and hopefully inspiring in our conversation today.

[00:02:48] Chris Spear: And if you are thinking about starting your own personal chef business, make sure to check out my show, personal Chef Business Startup Guide. I'd say that it's a deep dive into everything you need to know to launch and grow your [00:03:00] own private or personal chef career. Right now, I'm repurposing some of my most popular episodes from Chefs Without Restaurants.

[00:03:07] Chris Spear: But I will be having all new episodes coming very soon. As always, thanks so much for listening. I really appreciate it. I hope you have a great week. I loved cooking. I always wanted to be a cook and a chef, but I don't want to be 50 years old, divorced, not know my kids in ill health and broke because I was just like line cooking for 30 years.

[00:03:30] Eden Grinshpan: Well, it is a really, really, really hard job. Um, I also went to culinary school. I loved food and instead of going to college, I went to culinary school. I went to London, uh, the in London. And literally like the day I graduated, I called my parents and I was like, I'm not going to be like a chef in a restaurant.

[00:03:50] Eden Grinshpan: Like I just can't do that. I've worked in a bunch of different kitchens and I know paying your dues is a whole part of it. And I did. I worked in kitchens like on [00:04:00] and off for a handful of years, but like I knew that that wasn't always gonna be like my end goal. And it's just because, like, first of all, I love the community.

[00:04:09] Eden Grinshpan: I love that family setting. I feel like every time I worked in a kitchen, I became so close to all the other cooks in the kitchen because like your hours are insane. You're like stuck with them for like days on end. You talk about everything and you become quickly bonded, especially because you're like, it's like you're.

[00:04:29] Eden Grinshpan: Like, you're sweating. You're like, you know, it, it's, it, there's hot, it's, it's, the energy's crazy. Like during the rush, you're like, you know, you're really in it and you have to kind of like find your rhythm with the other people in the kitchen. So you, and you see these people 

[00:04:43] Chris Spear: more than your family and friends for the most part, right?

[00:04:46] Chris Spear: You're like living your life there. 

[00:04:48] Eden Grinshpan: And like aside from cooking and feeding people, that was a part of it that I truly loved. And this was the time when there weren't as many like open kitchen concepts. It was more like [00:05:00] basement fluorescent lighting vibes. Um, I was like, I need some sun. I need some light.

[00:05:06] Eden Grinshpan: I need to lie down. Um, like all of my clothes, uh, when I was working in kitchens, like, I just remember like everything about me, just like smelt like food, like I just like radiated like, 

[00:05:20] Chris Spear: oh, it's, it's terrible. My wife, um, went to culinary school as well, and when we were there she had a, a part-time job and she worked like the fry station at a fish restaurant.

[00:05:30] Chris Spear: Oh, that's nice. And like she wouldn't even put. The chef jacket, like in the normal laundry, it went like on the floor. And then I remember we hit this apartment and we were moving. I'm like, I think there's like a permanent grease stain on the carpet. Just 'cause like she would come home at midnight just smelling like fried cod and french fries and it was like, oh, this is not good.

[00:05:48] Chris Spear: Right. And she 

[00:05:48] Eden Grinshpan: probably couldn't eat like fish and chips for fucking years after that. 

[00:05:52] Chris Spear: Yes. No, we're, we're not doing that. Yeah, we're for real. 

[00:05:56] Eden Grinshpan: Um, but yeah, it's real, but also like fun memories. We [00:06:00] did it. Yeah. That's hilarious. Um, yeah. So anyways, yeah, I, I do think what's really fun too, but this industry has evolved so much, especially since, like, I also started, I went to culinary school in like 2004 and then I worked in kitchens and I quickly after that actually got into the television industry where I hosted and was the executive.

[00:06:20] Eden Grinshpan: Producer of, uh, travel series for the Cooking channel called Eat and Eats. So I did that in my early twenties. I've been doing this like on and off in different ways, just kind of like trying out different things in the food space for like the last like 15 years as it's evolved. You know, it's, I'm just kind of like trying to go with.

[00:06:41] Eden Grinshpan: Go with the 

[00:06:43] Chris Spear: the flu, go where it's going. You can see go 

[00:06:45] Eden Grinshpan: where it's going. 

[00:06:45] Chris Spear: You know, not everyone evolves and that's fine. Some people are content to, you know, work in a traditional restaurant space and move up through the years. Some people don't want to be on the internet at all. They don't want to create content.

[00:06:57] Chris Spear: They're not into food media, but there's [00:07:00] a lot of opportunities for people who want to diversify and that's why. In addition to cooking, I do some photography, some writing, some podcasting, some community involvement. I, I also like it, but I probably, I probably take on too much actually and could use a, yeah.

[00:07:16] Chris Spear: Hand raise there. Yeah, you could probably use a little more on your team too. 

[00:07:20] Eden Grinshpan: Yeah. I'm, I told my husband, I'm like, when the, after the book comes out the summer, we're ch we are gonna take it from here. To to hear. 'cause I also do have two young kids and um, we're very hands-on. Hence the exhausted look on my face.

[00:07:40] Chris Spear: For real. Yeah. So you have a new cookbook, which is your second cookbook. So where did this come from? I mean, I guess maybe go back to the first cookbook and then how this differentiates from that book. 

[00:07:54] Eden Grinshpan: So, um, I actually was able, uh, eating out loud actually came from, I had a [00:08:00] restaurant for like a second in New York City.

[00:08:03] Eden Grinshpan: I. A second equals a year. Still incredibly proud of that project. I learned so much. Um, and the food part at the restaurant was very successful. And so that actually was, you know, I. The project that led to eating out loud. So I got a lot of interest about me writing a cookbook based off of that food, which is the food that I cook at home.

[00:08:26] Eden Grinshpan: Um, but more of a fast casual environment where it was like contemporary, middle Eastern, fast casual, it was called des. So I created eating out loud from that concept. It's found like a really like loyal, amazing audience. I feel so blessed with that book, especially because it came out during Covid, which was on some level good, but like on the other hand, obviously not great because you know, I didn't get to do like the full like.

[00:08:57] Eden Grinshpan: Book launch, book [00:09:00] tour, the proper like promotion and marketing behind it. Like we weren't like promoting that book because obviously there was so much going on in the world. So when it came out, it just came out and then, you know, it did. It did well, but from that book, a lot of people were really, really excited about my veg forward recipes and the way that I took vegetables and kind of made them more interesting, more flavorful, kind of like star dishes on your dinner table.

[00:09:32] Eden Grinshpan: And so we got the idea that maybe this was a sign to create a vegetarian cookbook. And also to be honest, it was the direction that I was going in naturally. And I talk about that in Tahini Baby as well. Um, because I eat mostly Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food, which is so full of. Vegetables and grains, legume, beautiful breads, dips.

[00:09:57] Eden Grinshpan: It was very orga like organic [00:10:00] for me to just start eating. Mostly veg. Or when you would look at my table, it would be mostly veg with maybe a little meat. Like it was 80. I I say it's like 80 20. My husband keeps asking me, he's like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, 80% vegetables, 20% meat, you know, and or like there he is.

[00:10:23] Eden Grinshpan: Hey. Um, and so I really just like. I became really, you know, excited about this, like, realization. It wasn't something that like I was really planning, it just kind of naturally happened in my home and IO and I and our daughters like, that's just really how we eat. So when I started talking about Tahini Baby, I was like, I think this needs to be a veg based cookbook, and I don't want it to be like, this is.

[00:10:55] Eden Grinshpan: Just for vegetarians. I think this is more like celebrating vegetables and [00:11:00] creating recipes for veg lovers who are just trying to integrate more into their life. And, you know, it's feel good food. Um, almost every recipe I consider everyday cooking recipes. And that's just, you know, you wanna get up and like, you know, this food doesn't like bog you down, doesn't weigh you down.

[00:11:18] Eden Grinshpan: It's like, yeah. It's food that you eat that keeps you kind of like moving and, and like excites you and energizes you. 

[00:11:26] Chris Spear: Well, I, I love it for so many reasons. Um, I was a vegetarian for like five years or so, and I'm not anymore, but I'm, we're kind of like at my house, like 80 20 now. And you know, one of the things that made me a better chef was exploring so many of these cuisines that were naturally vegetarian or vegetarian friendly.

[00:11:46] Eden Grinshpan: None of this was really like, pushed or forced. It was really just an organic kind of like evolution of the way I cooked for my family. And a lot of people, you know, especially when they are [00:12:00] reducing like, I guess their meat consumption, they're really concerned about protein and about, um, all of those, uh, like those things that usually get from animal protein.

[00:12:08] Eden Grinshpan: But like if you really just like, kind of look at this like kind of. What, what you have in front of you. Like put a grain with a legume, that's a complete protein. Greek yogurt, you have tahini. You know, those are the things that even though they're like part of the cuisine, it is so like beneficial and it adds so much to a dish.

[00:12:31] Eden Grinshpan: It's not just there for flavor. There's also a lot of like benefits from all these things as well. And I do wanna say like Tahini baby. 'cause a lot of people are really. Confused. They're like, is there tahini in every recipe? Right. '

[00:12:43] Chris Spear: cause it struck me, like when I heard the title before looking at the book, is this like a How to Cook with Tahini cookbook?

[00:12:50] Chris Spear: Which, yeah, I, I find, I don't know, maybe 10, 15% of the recipes even had it. Like it wasn't an overwhelming percent. I'd actually say there's more pomegranate molasses in the [00:13:00] book than Tahini. Um, but that's a whole other thing. There's also 

[00:13:02] Eden Grinshpan: so much fucking dill. Like, I need to chill out. 

[00:13:05] Chris Spear: Dill is delicious. I talk about this all the time because, uh, I'm kind of anti microgreens.

[00:13:10] Chris Spear: I feel like chefs like buy these really expensive like microgreens and just throw 'em on willy-nilly, and I'm like, just go buy a bunch of dill for like a dollar. It has way more flavor is way more versatile and it makes sense. Yeah, and it's like 

[00:13:24] Eden Grinshpan: bang for your buck. There is so much flavor that happens in that one herb like.

[00:13:29] Eden Grinshpan: I use a ton of herbs. You know, it's, so, I do wanna like go back to the Tahini baby part. 'cause I do suggest with almost every recipe that it would be great with Garlicy tahini on the side. 

[00:13:41] Chris Spear: You had a pasta with Tahini T, which I think was like the, the most. Interesting use of tahini I'd seen where it's like, okay, we're making this like tomato ish.

[00:13:49] Chris Spear: Is it a harissa tomato or something? It's 

[00:13:51] Eden Grinshpan: nel seed and, but 

[00:13:52] Chris Spear: then like I've never seen like tahini on top of a pasta 

[00:13:55] Eden Grinshpan: dish. Why not? I just saw giata serve like Jimmy [00:14:00] Kimmel chocolate pasta and I was like, okay, we can go now with this. There there like we've opened up the doors. To new and ways to enjoy pasta.

[00:14:12] Eden Grinshpan: So, you know, I have to tell you, it's absolutely delicious. And that's kind of like what I say. So this book is very much kind of like. A lifestyle. I would say it's like the Tahini Baby lifestyle growing up. Tahini I think is, um, really like the, a backbone of a lot of Middle Eastern cuisines. And you find it like if you don't think you've ever had it, but you've had hummus before or hummus.

[00:14:38] Eden Grinshpan: If you've had hummus, you've had tahini. It's a huge part of what makes it creamy, nutty, earthy, and um, and I really do feel like the addition of it with like all of the salads in my book and all the grains and all the legumes, it elevates and it just brings everything to kind of feel like [00:15:00] more complete.

[00:15:01] Eden Grinshpan: And that's kind of just how you eat. Like a lot of these cuisines, you know, you have a variety of dips and pickles and condiments and salads and grains, and you mix and match and you dip and you smear and you get your hands filthy and it's just like, you know, happy, happy eating. Yeah. 

[00:15:19] Chris Spear: I'm a big fan of Mike Solomonov and his hummus recipe is like my go-to, which is a very huge percentage of that is tahini, right?

[00:15:28] Chris Spear: Like if you make that recipe, it's like use one whole 16 ounce jar of it and two cans of chickpeas. It's like, yes. And people who've never had it like that I think are kind of surprised in a good way, but they're like, Ooh, this is like different than going to get like a. Sabra hummus at the grocery store, it has way more tahini in it.

[00:15:47] Eden Grinshpan: Oh, and if you, I actually do, and this may be controversial, but I do feel like if you get really good tahini, then the chickpeas can just be like. Just regular chickpeas. You don't [00:16:00] need to source the special. I use a lot of canned chickpeas that I, 'cause, you know, listen, I'm also a mom of two, so like I'm a cook, but I'm a mom and I'm a working mom and I wanna get yummy, delicious food on the table quickly for my family.

[00:16:14] Eden Grinshpan: And sometimes I don't have time to do like more of the elaborate things that like in my soul I wanna do, um, because I have to be like realistic here. So I use a lot of canned chickpeas. A lot of canned chickpeas, but I source really delicious tahini, so it's always fricking delicious. And my husband's from Tel Aviv, so he signed off, so we're good.

[00:16:38] Chris Spear: I do find that that's one of those things that like probably a lot of people don't know what good tahini is. Their store might not have, uh, you know, a lot of varieties. I know we have some local grocery stores where you can get like the sum tahini. I know there's a couple brands. But it is kind of, it is amazing.

[00:16:52] Chris Spear: It's hard when you go to like a regular grocery store and they maybe have like. I go to Wegman's and they have like Wegman's brand and then they have like one [00:17:00] in the Middle Eastern ethnic ish aisle that is like, I don't know, is it good? Like, what should I be going with? And 

[00:17:07] Eden Grinshpan: you know, I, I talk about a couple brands in my book and I, and I wanted to lean into brands that you can find in, uh, north America just so that people who purchase it here too can like source easily.

[00:17:18] Eden Grinshpan: And also they're female founded. So I was really obviously into that and I'm friends with, um. Both of these, uh, both of these families that run these companies. So I do love Sum. I think they do an exceptional job. Their tahini is fantastic. Their sesame seeds are from Ethiopia and they like soak hull, uh, toast.

[00:17:40] Eden Grinshpan: And they, uh, grind it in small batches and they're to tahini is like lighter in color. It's sweet. The sesame seeds are actually sweeter. When you shake it, like the oil that like kind of gathers at the top will easily emulsify with the rest of the tahini. So that for me is actually a sign of like quality as well.[00:18:00]

[00:18:00] Eden Grinshpan: If like, you don't know, if you can't get like, access to these names that I'm mentioning, like I like to look for a lighter color. I like to see where my sesame Caesar from. I like to, you know, if I shake it, if it kind of mixes in, um, easier. 'cause I do find. Like some of the tahini that I've seen, that not all tahini are made the same.

[00:18:19] Eden Grinshpan: That's all I'm gonna, most of 

[00:18:19] Chris Spear: them, most of them don't incorporate. I find that's the biggest problem I have is like, you get it, you make a recipe and then the next time I go to make it, it's separated and it's like a brick on the bottom with oil on the top. I don't know how to incorporate that back to, unless I'm just gonna dump the whole thing in like a blender of food processor and blend it up, 

[00:18:37] Eden Grinshpan: is what I'm gonna say.

[00:18:38] Eden Grinshpan: Is that the only thing you can do? I was gonna say. If you're having a struggle, because the longer tahini does sit, the more it will separate. That is just fact. That's just kind of the nature of, uh, how it rolls. But I have a recipe in my book, and I should have called this whipped tahini. I don't know why I didn't.

[00:18:53] Eden Grinshpan: It's whipped. Okay, so you throw it in like a high speed blender with ice water. And this [00:19:00] tahini isn't like necessarily the liquidy tahini that you're used to. This is like almost humus texture. It is thick. It is light as air the ice. It like the whipping of it and adding in the ice. It lightens and it just like, it feels like so smooth.

[00:19:16] Eden Grinshpan: Texturally. My friends come over, they're like, what is this? I'm like, it's tahini, and they just can't wrap their head around it. So if it separates, if it collects at the bottom, throw it in a blunder. Make my tahini. From Tahini baby. 

[00:19:30] Chris Spear: It's delicious. Do you, is it room time? Like are you keep it in the cupboard?

[00:19:34] Chris Spear: 'cause I feel like people wanna put that stuff in the fridge, but you don't put peanut butter in the fridge. Where do you store it? 

[00:19:39] Eden Grinshpan: It's really, it's personal preference and also how quickly you go through it. You know? I think it depends like how big your jar is. If this is something that's gonna be sitting out for a really, really long time, like, I don't think it would hurt if he threw it in the fridge.

[00:19:52] Eden Grinshpan: But I do know a lot of people are opinionated about it. I'm not too, I'm not too particular. 

[00:19:56] Chris Spear: I'm gonna use it enough that even if I keep it out, it's [00:20:00] gonna be like, what, A week two. It's only like 16 ounces. It's not that much. Well, if you 

[00:20:04] Eden Grinshpan: cook from my book, it won't last that long. 

[00:20:07] Chris Spear: Just a couple days. 

[00:20:08] Eden Grinshpan: Just a couple days.

[00:20:09] Eden Grinshpan: But anyways, yeah. So Tahini Baby is really about like having that like veg forward lifestyle and incorporate Tahini and all of its like sister sauces into your day-to-day. 'cause I don't know about you, but like for me. Condiments are kind of fucking like everything. And you know, I, especially for vegetables, when you're trying to like elevate them, give them like a fresh, take a new look.

[00:20:36] Eden Grinshpan: It's about those like simple techniques and those little tricks that you have up your sleeve. Like throw it on a dip. Drizzle it with a schmear, you know, put on like a gorgeous, chunky Herbie dressing. Like it really does help. And those are those little things that don't require any technique but are full of flavor that really can elevate a lot of those [00:21:00] dishes that I focus on.

[00:21:02] Chris Spear: And you have kids, and you know, kids, I mean, let's be real, a lot of adults don't like vegetables either, but if you're just like boiling broccoli and then like a little salt and pepper, like I don't really want to eat that either. It's, it's like brussel sprouts, right? Nobody liked their mom's boiled previous.

[00:21:18] Chris Spear: I talk about its and Sprouts. I talk about it in 

[00:21:21] Eden Grinshpan: the book. I don't even, you have 

[00:21:22] Chris Spear: pom, is it pomegranate molasses butter? Is that what you do on your Yes. 

[00:21:26] Eden Grinshpan: I'm so impressed by your memory. But yeah, so like I grew up being like I wasn't a big fan of Brussels and you know, for me it's really about trying to kind of take those vegetables that I think a lot of people have, like a negative like memory association with it and give it like a facelift of like something that's more modern and fun and like I do think I definitely introduced some new spices in this book, but I do think.

[00:21:53] Eden Grinshpan: Since this cuisine has become so popular, like this kind of cuisine, I do dabble, like it's Mediterranean, middle Eastern. [00:22:00] There's some Greek influences in there as well. Um, a lot of these like ingredients, condiments and spices are so much more available. And if you can't find pomegranate molasses, you can just make your own so easy.

[00:22:12] Eden Grinshpan: You know, just take a bunch of pomegranate juice and reduce maybe some sugar. 

[00:22:18] Chris Spear: I was gonna ask you about that, like Sure. It's great to make everything again. The reality is like we're all busy. So are there things that you recommend? Like buying what? Yeah. Like what are the things that you think are fantastic that you could buy if you maybe didn't wanna make every single thing?

[00:22:36] Chris Spear: Like, I quite often will buy like a harissa paste or something. I can't think of having ever made my own. It just doesn't make sense for me. 

[00:22:44] Eden Grinshpan: Well make mine from Tahini baby. 

[00:22:47] Chris Spear: Okay. 

[00:22:47] Eden Grinshpan: Let me tell you why from my first book, eating Out Loud, I have this amazing harissa recipe and there are definitely things that you'll see that I've reached.

[00:22:57] Eden Grinshpan: Listen, I reach for these staples [00:23:00] over and over again. This is how I cook. So I took this opportunity to kind of find like a cheap version or an easier version in order to be able to like whip it up and actually use it in the moment with more accessible ingredients. And so like I think in eating out loud, I have Guillo chilies that I rehydrate and I was like, you know what?

[00:23:20] Eden Grinshpan: For this book I'm gonna take a bell pepper. And I'm going to mix it with some toasted spices, some lemon juice, tomato paste, some chilies, and a lepo pepper. And we're gonna blend that up and we're gonna see what goes on here. And my, actually my food stylist that helped me work on my book, he goes, your blended condiments, you're like, easy blender, blender, condiments.

[00:23:42] Eden Grinshpan: He's like, those are like for me, like some of the star part of your book. So these are really quickly. Have it in like less than 10 minutes sauces. And I'm, I'm telling you, the harissa is really delicious. Like I double it up for my husband. He could drink that shit [00:24:00] and he fucking does. 

[00:24:01] Chris Spear: Well, I'll put it on the list because those are the things that I really love that just, you know, like how do you turn cauliflower from boring to wow.

[00:24:10] Chris Spear: And if you just had a head of cauliflower, like chop it up, toss it in oil and throw it in the oven. And when it comes out like. Little a sauce on top. Yeah, it's a totally different dish. 

[00:24:19] Eden Grinshpan: Like take that harissa and then make my roasted. Um, carrots with the carrot top. Gremolata with pistachios on top of Labate.

[00:24:27] Eden Grinshpan: It's fucking delicious. 

[00:24:29] Chris Spear: That sounds great. I already do harissa, roasted carrots. I found a recipe. It's a harissa roasted carrot, white bean dip. Yummy. So almost like a hummus, like you puree up like can beans with roasted, um, carrots that have been tossed in harissa and then like garlic, lemon juice. There you go.

[00:24:44] Chris Spear: Amazing. 

[00:24:45] Eden Grinshpan: Sounds gorgeous. And I think this is like, I think what makes this, what makes this kind of cooking so fun is it's playing around with those staples, spices, condiments, ingredients. And just like making really like [00:25:00] straightforward dishes. See a little bit more elevated, a little bit more excited.

[00:25:05] Eden Grinshpan: You know, 

[00:25:06] Chris Spear: where are you finding inspiration? Like when you create something that's not fully, and I don't love the terms like authentic or traditional, but you've strayed off the path. I mean, obviously there's tons of cookbooks out there that have a lot of Middle Eastern dishes and you want to do some new stuff.

[00:25:20] Chris Spear: So where do you get your ideas from? 

[00:25:22] Eden Grinshpan: Um. Yeah, I definitely, I always say this is like my interpretation, like loose, loose, big time, you know? And I'm not really good at doing anything like super traditional anyways. I'm not a traditional person, so, uh, I kind of feel like. That's always been like my comfort place, but I definitely get inspiration from travel, from eating out, but from other cooks.

[00:25:45] Eden Grinshpan: I'm a creative and I'm always doing things and I'm always picking up little like combinations or taking one of those like classic dishes and just kind of a spinning it a little bit, making a little bit more contemporary. Um. There's also a lot of like [00:26:00] straightforward dishes in this, in this book that aren't necessarily like, too crazy different.

[00:26:05] Eden Grinshpan: They're like kind of more classic with a little bit of my twist. Um, I think recipes that like people would just wanna reach for over and over again. 

[00:26:14] Chris Spear: Yeah. I feel like people, especially if they lean more towards like the home cook, want like a reference point. Like I think in your book there's a, it's like an eggplant parmesan, right?

[00:26:22] Chris Spear: But it's not a traditional marinara sauce. Right. So. You could say like, it's like eggplant parm, and there's a tomato ish kind of topping. Like it helps sell it to people. 'cause I do the same as a personal chef. I want to be creative, I want to be, you know, unique and adventurous. But people are hiring me without having like met me, seeing my food.

[00:26:41] Chris Spear: So I just send them a list of things I want to do. And if they're reading it and don't understand what any of these question are, you have to 

[00:26:46] Eden Grinshpan: give them context. 

[00:26:47] Chris Spear: Yeah, I have to give them context. So it's like, think of like shrimp and grits, but what would be a Spanish twist on it, you know? Yeah. So like there's gonna be manchego cheese and Serrano ham and like a bravo sauce.

[00:26:57] Chris Spear: But if I just say like, give it some weird name, [00:27:00] nobody's even gonna select it. So like, yeah. Where is that reference point where they kind of understand, but they're gonna get something a little more interesting. 

[00:27:07] Eden Grinshpan: Yeah, and also, to be honest, I was incredibly passionate about this because I, you know. This is my second book.

[00:27:15] Eden Grinshpan: So when you do your first one, you learn a lot. Right. And I realized that I had so many star dishes that just didn't get any love because there were no photos. Hmm. And so this book is heftier because we took a picture for every recipe I. The reason is like, you know, like everyone else, we're visual people.

[00:27:35] Eden Grinshpan: We need to have, um, an idea of what we're gonna make. You wanna bring someone in, you wanna get them excited, you know, like you see how that. Carrot should look once it's roasted. You see how that texture of the dip needs to look or how I, I'm suggesting you plate it. I don't wanna just talk to you about it and let you use your imagination.

[00:27:58] Eden Grinshpan: Think people are done just [00:28:00] guessing. They wanna just be like, this is this. Let's go. And, sorry, I, if, if I'm, I got that wrong. Maybe I'm just talking for myself. I'm tired of making like guesses. I want someone to be like, this is this. Go do this. Let's go. 

[00:28:16] Chris Spear: But it's added a whole new element. And obviously like a cost to making a cookbook.

[00:28:21] Chris Spear: I mean, you know, I grew up, my mom's books were like zero pictures, right? Yeah. And it was maybe like a 400 page volume. And now you flip through and you see this dish and it gets your eye, like you were saying, and you wanna make it. But if you're hiring a photographer, a stylist, now you know, the texture of a cookbook with photos is different than if you just had like.

[00:28:39] Chris Spear: Written recipes. So it has made it a bigger endeavor and I'm sure clearly longer to make a book because you're doing the shoot to go along with it. 

[00:28:47] Eden Grinshpan: But that's the best, honestly, that's one of my favorite parts too. Like, you know, I mentioned before I like, I loved working in kitchens with people. I love the community.

[00:28:56] Eden Grinshpan: I love. Being in a busy [00:29:00] room with creatives, bouncing ideas off and creating and just, you know, when we, we shot the entire thing in my home and my dining room was covered in props, just like covered at my daughter's couldn't even come in here. The floors were covered, the chairs, everything was just. These gorgeous props that my prop stylist brought in.

[00:29:21] Eden Grinshpan: And I had a food stylist and I had a bunch of different cooks, um, to help like prep, because we had to shoot a over a hundred recipes in 10 days. 

[00:29:33] Chris Spear: That's insane. 

[00:29:34] Eden Grinshpan: It's in, that's a lot fucking insane. And it was just so fun because we're like, look at this chair. Let's shoot on it. Let's see what, let's see what the texture looks like with this light.

[00:29:45] Eden Grinshpan: Let's see how the, you know, the sandwich looks. Um, let's do a poll. Let's see if, you know, like these conversations, like I live for that shit. I love that part of the process. 

[00:29:56] Chris Spear: Stylistically it, it has a vibe. Everything was like [00:30:00] brown tone, kinda like warm light su like, it could be like a summer evening.

[00:30:05] Chris Spear: Like there was clearly a vision of like what you wanted this to look like. Yeah. And the colors and the tones and the feel, and then bringing your family and you know, not a lot of people are gonna have, you know, their kids in a cookbook and shoot with them. So I really liked how it looked and it's something that I think makes it stand out from other books.

[00:30:24] Eden Grinshpan: Thank you. I appreciate that. It was, you know, it's, it's a long process. There's a lot of thought that goes into every detail. Obviously, you know, I developed the recipes and we write, like I write the headnote. I actually have someone helping me write the book. Her name's Rachel Holtzman. She's unbelievable.

[00:30:42] Eden Grinshpan: I worked with her on eating out loud. She tests the recipes after I develop them. So there's a lot of back and forth with testing, retesting, testing more. What's the yield? What's this yield? So like making all the recipes and then putting together like. This [00:31:00] amazing team of talented people. 'cause to create a book, it takes a ton of people and a ton of collaborating and I feel really lucky 'cause I was able to really secure like, such an amazing team of now people that I can call dear friends.

[00:31:17] Eden Grinshpan: Uh, so very intimate, intimate experience. Everyone in your home making a book. 

[00:31:23] Chris Spear: Yeah. Do, do you recommend that like for, you know, everyone. Maybe not everyone, but a lot of people on the internet today, especially content creators, like everyone says they wanna write a book and they're coming out at like a really fast pace.

[00:31:36] Chris Spear: Some of them great, some of 'em mediocre, some not good at all. But, um, do you recommend doing a book? 

[00:31:44] Eden Grinshpan: You know, I tried to sell a book like, I don't know, 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Yeah. And I got no interest. And I looked back at that proposal and it was just a bunch of like recipes and ideas [00:32:00] and I really didn't have like a strong POV and I, I had an opportunity to have a popup, so I started in television and then I had a popup in Brooklyn, this restaurant called Lucy Rouge, and I made.

[00:32:13] Eden Grinshpan: Um, you know, contemporary Middle Eastern, Mediterranean food, and it was really a successful popup. And because the popup did well, I went and I competed at Burger Bash at South Beach, uh, one, like a shawarma style burger. And I was like, wait a minute. People seem really interested in this food. They seem interested in what I'm like bringing to the table table.

[00:32:33] Eden Grinshpan: And then that got me interested in de and opening up a fast casual Middle Eastern Mediterranean. So I kind of found like my culinary voice. And I feel like that's when things started to really line up and that's when the energy started to kind of just like come together to create my first book. And then, because that book, you know, the Veg Forward Dishes did so well, that's a Tahini Baby happen.

[00:32:57] Eden Grinshpan: So I think that I. [00:33:00] It's just about knowing kind of like your POVI think a little bit is a really great place to start if that is the journey that you go on. Like what separates, I guess, your style and your book from the other books that you can really lean into and talk about. Because writing a book, you gotta talk about it a lot and a reason why you are, you know, making that particular book.

[00:33:24] Chris Spear: No, definitely. I mean, again, like, you know, I'd even mentioned it like there's a ton of Middle Eastern cookbooks out there already. There's a lot that are even skewing towards vegetarian. How do you differentiate, you know? Yeah. When someone goes to a bookstore, goes on Amazon, why pick your book versus someone else?

[00:33:41] Chris Spear: And I think finding a way to connect with people like what is this? What is. The story being told, like, what is this person's POV? Yeah. And figuring that out because, you know, people who don't know anything about this business will say like, I love your food. You should, have you ever thought of writing a cookbook?

[00:33:55] Chris Spear: It's like, uh, that's not for everyone. You know? You kinda have to think of like, also, I love your [00:34:00] food. Open 

[00:34:00] Eden Grinshpan: a restaurant. I'm like, oh, 

[00:34:02] Chris Spear: that's, yeah. No, 

[00:34:05] Eden Grinshpan: like the amount of work, the day to day, the grind, the, like, all of that. It's, it's a lot of it. And like it's, first of all, it's such a compliment, you know?

[00:34:15] Eden Grinshpan: Like they want more of your food. And I like, I love that, but it's just, listen, all of these projects are huge investments in time and emotion and like money and like all these things, but. Personally, I would say if you have the opportunity, you live once, fucking go for it. Like do it. Why not? And then you have that experience under your belt and you get to look back at your life and say, I did this.

[00:34:44] Eden Grinshpan: Like, I think that's really cool. I. The truth is, if you are having fun and you're putting down things that you care about and you're proud of it, and like I, I really think it comes down to like, you can't really control how everyone else responds to it. If you're go, you feel [00:35:00] good about it and you're enjoying the process, like I think that's really kind of like the goal.

[00:35:05] Eden Grinshpan: And then also you're always an author. Once you have a book, you're a cookbook author, and that's really awesome. 

[00:35:10] Chris Spear: Yes. Um, what are you doing now besides the book, like in the TV media space? What do you have cooking? 

[00:35:18] Eden Grinshpan: Well, I have, I'm working on a. Really detailed, long, um, incredible book tour because I didn't have a book tour for eating out loud.

[00:35:30] Eden Grinshpan: We have gone crazy for Tahini Baby, and I'm ready to finally be with people in real life. I swear I have like 200 signed books of eating out loud. Like I can't wait to just tear it up. I think it's nine cities within like two weeks. And then I'll be touring in Canada after that because it's a simultaneous North American, US and Canada release.

[00:35:55] Eden Grinshpan: So right now I'm shooting a lot of collabs with a lot of talented [00:36:00] people that I really look up to. So I'm really excited about that 'cause I'll be releasing those videos really soon. I'm actually flying to LA in a couple hours. Most of what I'm focusing on is like. Media events for the book, book tours, and I host Top Chef Canada, so I'll be shooting that right after my book tour, which is very exciting.

[00:36:19] Eden Grinshpan: So all of June I'll be doing that. I have like three days off when I shoot that show. So it's really exciting and it's great because. They bring in so many amazing, first of all, like the talent that I get to like get introduced to from around the country is unbelievable. I love all the judges I work with, and then they bring in guest judges from all over the world that I really admire as well.

[00:36:45] Eden Grinshpan: So we get to have like lots of one-on-one really great time with them. And then I think this summer, I'm gonna try and take it easy, but I have my website, eden eats.com, and I have a Substack newsletter called the Sunnyside with Eden, [00:37:00] where I post about a lot of different things. Also, I interview a lot of really great people that I really look up to.

[00:37:07] Eden Grinshpan: And, um, uh, you know, working on some other projects. I have a lot of ideas of things that I wanna do, but it's really at the beginning stages. So 

[00:37:16] Chris Spear: nothing going on, nothing going on. 

[00:37:18] Eden Grinshpan: And I'm a mother. I know that, like, I also really, like for me, I told my husband, like, I feel fortunate that I cook a lot from home for my job.

[00:37:28] Eden Grinshpan: And, um, just to be able to be here for, you know, breakfast school, drop off school pickup dinners. So kind of creating that balance for me is really, really important. 

[00:37:41] Chris Spear: Yeah, that was one of the big things with doing what I do. I mean, you know, I'm. Yeah, when I go to work, I don't leave my house till four, five o'clock.

[00:37:49] Chris Spear: Yeah. You know, working as a personal sh like I don't have to be a 12 hour day at someone's house. Like, a lot of what I do is like grocery shopping and menu planning and that kind of stuff. So I take the kids to school in the morning. I pick them up almost every [00:38:00] day at three o'clock when they get out, like I'm, I can make my schedule around their things.

[00:38:04] Chris Spear: So it's like, you know, Saturday's a typically busy day, but if my daughter has a school play, like I can book that day off and just, it's given me a lot more time with my kids. 'cause. You know how many chefs say like, oh, I didn't even see my kids the first 15 years of their life. Like, I don't want that for me.

[00:38:20] Chris Spear: Well, that's another 

[00:38:20] Eden Grinshpan: reason why like this particular section of what we do, you know, like you private chef or I create a lot of like online content that kind of gives us a little bit more freedom and a little bit more control over like schedule. I think it's just like a good option if you're going to be in the food space to consider that.

[00:38:38] Eden Grinshpan: 'cause I do now, like I didn't before. As much. But after having my daughter, I had to really consider like, what do my days look like? And don't get me wrong, I'm traveling a lot, which I love too. But when I'm home, I'm, I'm very much like hands on. 

[00:38:56] Chris Spear: It's so nice and I'm glad that we've both found, you know [00:39:00] that, that there are options.

[00:39:01] Chris Spear: I'm glad that there's so many more options today to work in food, if you love food and not have to give up. I think everything else, right? Like 

[00:39:09] Eden Grinshpan: sacrifice, like, yeah. Don't get me wrong. There's always gonna be some sort of sacrifice and you can't. Always have everything. I laugh because they're like, like, how can you have it all?

[00:39:19] Eden Grinshpan: You know, everyone wants to have it all, but like there really is no such thing. But I think it's really about trying to create like some sort of balance. 

[00:39:27] Chris Spear: Just wait until your kids get older. Mine are at the age where they're, they've even started working with me a little bit and you know, I mean, hopefully they'll enjoy it, but I can see, you know, when they get to that age, instead of going to, you know, work at Burger King at 16, like I did like.

[00:39:44] Chris Spear: You can come work with me and I'll pay you better. You know? I 

[00:39:46] Eden Grinshpan: love that. Oh, I have my daughters, both of them are cooking in the kitchen with me already. My eldest loves it. I treat her like my sous chef. I'm like, can you zest this lemon and then I need you to put olive oil in these [00:40:00] vegetables and season with salt, please.

[00:40:01] Eden Grinshpan: And she's like, okay, mom. I actually went to culinary school because I wanted to bake, and my dad was the one that was like, well if you're going to like go to culinary school, why don't you also learn how to cook? And I was like, that's a good idea, dad. Life 

[00:40:16] Chris Spear: skills. I, I tell people, even if you get nothing out of it professionally, like everyone should know how to cook.

[00:40:21] Chris Spear: I mean, 

[00:40:22] Eden Grinshpan: well that's hopefully you don't have to 

[00:40:23] Chris Spear: pay a hundred thousand plus to go to culinary school to learn how to cook. But 

[00:40:26] Eden Grinshpan: no, you can also work in a kitchen. Yeah. Uh, spend like a summer, like just kind of trying it out or work. Like how, why don't you try and get a catering, like work at a catering company, like just, I think it's the practice.

[00:40:39] Eden Grinshpan: You know? Obviously there's those skills that. You do learn at culinary school that are definitely important and you learn about the sauce and the knife skills and all that stuff, and just like the basics. But you know, if you know someone that knows that you can sit with them if they have the time and the patience to teach you.

[00:40:58] Eden Grinshpan: And it really is about [00:41:00] practice. Like you have to put in the time to practice. There are things that I still need to work on like that I'm working on. You know, it's, it's, and that's what I love so much about this industry as well. Like you're never done learning. You're never done learning. 

[00:41:15] Chris Spear: I think the hardest thing as a non-professional chef is you don't have the repetition, and that's what I tell people all the time.

[00:41:20] Chris Spear: Let's say someone's gonna make something from your book. Let's just say it's that pasta with the tahini and like it comes out okay. Even if it was great, they're probably not gonna make it for a month. I. Maybe and are they still gonna have on 

[00:41:32] Eden Grinshpan: repetition? 

[00:41:32] Chris Spear: You know, like, are they gonna have it? Yeah. Are they gonna have it in their mind's eye of like what it tasted like, or, Hey, last time the pasta was a little al dente go five minutes more.

[00:41:41] Chris Spear: I just don't think home cooks have that repetition, so it makes it a little harder. Well, that what that is. 

[00:41:46] Eden Grinshpan: Yeah. But that is, that's the author's job to make it and to try and get them to as close as you possibly can. It. To what you envisioned. 

[00:41:57] Chris Spear: Yeah. 

[00:41:58] Eden Grinshpan: Um, and hopefully it [00:42:00] translates, you know, I, like, sometimes I put recipes online and people are like, what do you mean by this?

[00:42:05] Eden Grinshpan: I'm like, you know what? Thank you for asking me that question. I'll clarify a little bit more in my directions, but I think that that's obviously the goal of having like a successful cookbook is being able to kind of like translate exactly the vision that you have. 

[00:42:21] Chris Spear: I think the great thing about putting recipes on the internet is like you were saying, people will ask you questions that you think are sometimes common sense.

[00:42:29] Chris Spear: Like the amount of times I put something and they're like, what are you, what is that? What are you talking about? And to me it seemed like super clear and I'm like, oh, okay. And then I can edit it in the caption or edit it on my website like really quickly. You get this fast feedback loop. Um, are kidding because the things seem common 

[00:42:45] Eden Grinshpan: sense.

[00:42:45] Eden Grinshpan: Are kidding. I have, do you know many people? Have written me and they're like, what's Ivo? And I'm like, Evo, extra virgin olive oil. Like if I just write EVO, I mean, didn't 

[00:42:57] Chris Spear: Rachel Ray do that like 30 years ago? Like wasn't [00:43:00] that her thing? Yes, 

[00:43:00] Eden Grinshpan: exactly. I was like, I thought this was common knowledge. Like, you know, I was like, okay, just EV.

[00:43:05] Eden Grinshpan: Like I have to also, sometimes I don't always use it, but like sometimes the caption is too big, so you have to try and make it smaller in order for it to fit. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, EVU. People are like, what the fuck is Evu? I'm like. 

[00:43:23] Chris Spear: Yeah, I thought everyone knew, but here we are. Thank you for informing me and all of our listeners who.

[00:43:29] Chris Spear: Probably, I'm hoping already knew what that was. Well, the book looks amazing. 

[00:43:34] Eden Grinshpan: Thank you. Thank you so much. And the book comes out April 22nd, and I hope everyone can pick up a copy of Tahini Baby. And obviously tag me when you cook the food and let's like be on this journey together. And thank you so much for having me on.

[00:43:48] Eden Grinshpan: This has been such a lovely conversation and I hope we get to do it again soon. 

[00:43:53] Chris Spear: You're welcome, and as always, to all of our listeners, this is Chris with Chefs Without Restaurants. Thanks for listening and have a great week. [00:44:00] You're still here. The podcast's over if you are indeed still here. Thanks for taking the time to listen to the show.

[00:44:07] Chris Spear: I'd love to direct you to one place, and that's chefs without restaurants.org. From there, you'll be able to join our email newsletter, get connected in our free Facebook group, and join our personal Chef Catering and food truck database so I can help get you more job leads. And you'll also find a link to our sponsor page where you'll find products and services I love you.

[00:44:26] Chris Spear: Pay nothing additional to use these links, but I may get a small commission, which helps keep the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and organization running. You might even get a discount for using some of these links. As always, you can reach out to me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants, or send me an email at Chefs Without restaurants@gmail.com.

[00:44:44] Chris Spear: Thanks so much. 

I.