Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. A James Beard Foundation finalist, she is the author of four other cookbooks, including the much-loved To Asia, With Love (2021), the award-winning Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Food to Nourish Every Day (2019), Neighbourhood: Hearty Salads and Plant-Based Recipes from Home and Abroad (2017), and Community: Salad Recipes from Arthur Street Kitchen (2014). Hetty is also the editor and publisher of multicultural food journal Peddler and the host of the magazine’s podcast The House Specials. She is a regular recipe contributor to The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Epicurious.com, and ABC Everyday; and her recipes have appeared in Food52, the Guardian, The Washington Post and more. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.
"Tenderheart delivers on everything we have come to expect and love
from the force of nature that is Hetty Lui McKinnon: gorgeous, down
to earth, vegetable-driven dishes that strike the most delicious
balance between fresh and exciting, and cozy and approachable. What
Tenderheart also reveals are the beautiful stories about Hetty’s
family and upbringing that will have you reaching for the tissues
before opening up the pantry. Prepare to be utterly moved by this
book." –Molly Yeh, Food Network host and NYT Bestselling author of
Home Is Where the Eggs Are and Molly on the Range
"A love letter to vegetables and almost a memoir through recipes,
this truly special book speaks to the soul as much as to the
stomach. I loved it more than I can say!" –Nigella Lawson
"Oh joy, oh joy, oh joy!" –Dorie Greenspan, author of Everyday
Dorie
"At its core, this is a book about vegetables and how to treat them
in the kitchen with the love and respect that they deserve.
However, there is a deeper parallel story here, told through Hetty
Lui McKinnon’s personal journey of love, loss, and grief -- and how
transformation through healing and grace makes us evolve as people
and teaches us how to be better humans." –Nik Sharma, James Beard
Award-nominated author and photographer of The Flavor Equation and
Season
“[When] I don’t know what to cook for dinner, I can always cook
something of Hetty’s. . . . She’s a beautiful writer. . . . Come
for the recipes, stay for the stories. Delicious!”
—Emma Straub, on NBC's Today Show
"[Hetty Lui McKinnon’s recipes] prove that vegetarian cooking is
anything but boring. The book is an ode to her late father, a
fresh produce supplier who passed away when she was just 15 . . . .
Incredibly touching and relatable. . . . What I appreciate
most about Tenderheart is how McKinnon highlights
different ways to use Asian vegetables beyond how they’re typically
prepared: stir-fried, poached, or stirred into a casserole. . . .
If you’re looking for creative ways to eat more
vegetables, Tenderheart is a great place to begin."
–Genevieve Yam, Bon Appetit (23 Best Cookbooks of 2023)
“A very moving book about family love and how everyday cooking is
built into that. Hetty McKinnon is never sentimental. She truly
understands how to nurture - deliciously - with vegetables. When
you cook out of this book you can’t not think of that. You feel as
if every dish is you make is a tribute to this approach to life.”
– Diana Henry
"Stunning. . . . The combination — fresh produce given
powerful injections of flavor from smart pantry ingredients — is
the backbone of virtually all of her cooking."
—Joe Yonan, The Washington Post
"This approachable tome of vegetarian recipes will teach you how to
make fruits and vegetables taste really, really good. The dishes
are doable for just about every culinary skill level and use few
ingredients—many of which are inspired by Lui McKinnon’s Chinese
Australian upbringing. . . .
Packed with interesting-yet-approachable ways to use vegetables,
this delicious book of true comfort food represents everything
we’ve come to expect from Lui McKinnon’s coveted recipes."
—Ali Francis, Bon Appetit (12 Best Vegetarian Cookbooks of All
Time)
"Multiple times while reading and cooking through Tenderheart,
Hetty Lui McKinnon’s brilliant new volume of produce-forward
cooking, I remember thinking, Now this is how you write a
cookbook. Blending a deep and pathos-filled personal history with a
truly interesting approach to vegetarian cuisine
(chocolate-eggplant brownies? pea and kimchi falafel?), it’s a
crowning achievement in a career spent working in plant-based
recipes. . . . If you love vegetables and Asian-influenced cuisine,
you’re probably already a huge fan of Hetty McKinnon (or are soon
to be)...The opening sections are some of my favorite literature
I’ve read this year, full stop; this book makes me want to trick
out the crispers of my fridge at full force and cook for everyone I
know." —Adam Rothbarth, Vice
"[McKinnon] has written a vast collection of endlessly adaptable,
always approachable recipes that front-load vegetables not as
replacements to meat but as stars in their own right." —Danielle
Cohen, The Cut
"Author of four best-selling cookbooks. . . McKinnon has a
knack for flavoring familiar dishes with simple yet intriguing
twists. And her latest project, Tenderheart, uses these
twists to help you appreciate vegetables at their core." —Anikah
Shaokat, Epicurious
"[Tenderheart] will be forever filed on my kitchen shelf, next to
her 2021 award-winner To Asia With Love. I read her books when
I want a warm, instructive voice telling me stories that point me
toward what to make next; I cook from her recipes when I’m craving
something innovative and surprising (but not gimmicky, an important
distinction!); and I’d say that my whole family, by extension, gets
an embarrassing amount of joy sparked from all of this. Her books
are capital-K Keepers." —Jenny Rosenstrach, Cup of Jo
"McKinnon (To Asia, with Love) returns with a cookbook that is
deeply personal and uniquely vegetarian. Organized by the star
vegetable, recipes are easily homed in on based on season or
garden glut....A variety of flavors can be found throughout the
distinctive dishes, such as fennel and black pepper ice cream and
Broccoli Forest Loaf, which are equally whimsical and comforting.
McKinnon’s voice is very friendly and will be familiar to fans of
her writing as she invites readers on her journey to explore
ingredients and raise up vegetables....Home cooks will love the
versatility and innovation she delivers, whether they are
vegetarians or not, while readers will revel in the sweetness and
beauty of her story...Calling all vegetarians and veggie lovers;
this is the inspiration you have been looking for. —Sarah Tansley,
Library Journal
“In the stunning pages of Tenderheart, Hetty McKinnon takes readers
to the origins of her love for vegetables, teaching us to view them
the way she does: brimming with memories and the intractable things
life inevitably brings our way—loss, resilience, determination, and
joy. At the center of each recipe is McKinnon’s father, Wai Keung
Lui, known in Australia as Ken, and the man who Tenderheart is
named for: a generous and affectionate caretaker who made a
livelihood working in a wholesale fruit and vegetable market, had a
love for photography, and shared with McKinnon a passion for food.
The stories McKinnon weaves about food and family—through her
recipes and the narratives that she welcomes us into—allow her
father to live on. A wonderful, moving tribute to the people and
tastes that indelibly shape us. I will be cooking from Tenderheart
for years to come.” – Kat Chow, author of SEEING GHOSTS
"I love Hetty’s recipes for how brilliantly accessible, thoroughly
researched, touchingly personal, and vibrant and fun they always
are. . . . Tenderheart delivers mightily on recipe expectations
with a whopping 22 chapters and 528 pages. . . . Her touching
reflections, and the artful way she has infused the book with his
presence, makes this hefty collection of useful recipes much more
than just a cookbook: it’s a uniquely personal and moving work of
memoir, too." —Lukas Volger, Family Friend by Lukas Volger
"Few people understand the healing qualities of food better than
cookbook author Hetty McKinnon. All of her cookbooks are deeply
personal and [Tenderheart] serves as an ode to her father, who
she lost as a teenager, through vegetables." —Leslie
Stephens, Morning Person
"In the pretty pages of Tenderheart, McKinnon weaves her love story
for vegetables with playful, assertive recipes that honor her late
father and explore the gentleness of love, human resilience and
unbreakable family bonds." —Hira Qureshi, The Philadelphia Inquirer
(9 must-read cookbooks for your summer cooking)
"[Tenderheart] offers an abundance of brilliant recipes as well as
brief but thoughtful essays on family, grieving, rituals, and, of
course, the 22 vegetables featured in this collection. McKinnon
brings a global perspective rooted in Chinese culture and the
flavors of her family into every page of this beautifully
photographed (by the author herself) and well-written cookbook and
memoir. . . . For fans of McKinnon's work or those just discovering
her, Tenderheart is sure to delight with mouthwatering dishes and
beautiful reflections on the many legacies that can be found around
a dining table." —Sara Beth West, Shelf Awareness
"Even though it’s 525 pages
long, [Tenderheart] contains zero (that’s 0)
recipes that I do not want to make. . . . Rather than turn
vegetables into something else, McKinnon puts them centerstage
and shines a beautiful spotlight on them." —Emily Nunn, The
Department of Salad
"Tenderheart is such a precious cookbook, at once unique and
utilitarian." —Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study
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