Food52 has gone beyond social media juggernaut to become an indispensable daily resource for kitchen and home aficionados. Launched in 2009, the cooking, food, and housewares website has a reach of 25 million people every month across its different platforms. Emma Laperruque is Food52’s food editor and author of the site’s award-winning “Big Little Recipes” column since 2018. She recently adapted and built on the column to produce a book, Big Little Recipes: Good Food with Minimal Ingredients and Maximal Flavor, to be released in November. Raised in Short Hills, Laperruque resides in Maplewood with her husband and test kitchen.
Q: Your first book! It’s all very exciting and overwhelming, I am sure. Before the book there was the column, of course. How did that come about?
Simplicity is an appealing concept. Everyone is busy! I like to cook but there are nights when it’s the last thing I want to do. The whole idea behind “Big Little Recipes” was to lower the stakes, make cooking and baking feel more approachable with as few ingredients as possible.
Q: So, this is 2018, when the column is launching. People are eating out a lot. Buying a lot of prepared foods to take home. Getting ingredient meal kits.
I was excited about the concept but unnerved too. If you only have a handful of ingredients, how far can that idea go? But the more recipes I developed and tested, the more excited I got about all the possibilities.
Q: You aren’t winging it. You test and re-test. Where is your test kitchen located?
I test over and over and over to nail down all the little details, but every kitchen is different. My kitchen is in my house in Maplewood—which I love. I can work in sweatpants. It’s true to where the recipe will end up.
The core of Food52 is our community. It all started with home cooks. I love getting in the comment section as much as I can, troubleshooting questions on the Hotline, feeling like I’m in someone else’s kitchen.
Q: Is the cookbook a greatest hits compilation from the column?
Most of the recipes are brand new. There are a bunch of greatest hits from the column, but all of those were retested or reimagined. We learn new things every year and the community helps us figure out what people like and want in real time. A cookbook is different in that way—there’s no comment section or Hotline.
Q: Food52 has been a major presence in the digital food world, and here you are writing a [print] cookbook.
I love cookbooks. That’s how I learned to follow recipes when I was a kid. I always have a stack on my nightstand to read from cover to cover. I probably own close to 100—it’s a little embarrassing.
Q: Any favorites? Any inspire you?
Lots! Dorie Greenspan taught me so much about baking. Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat answered so many of my why and how questions about cooking. And Renee Erickson’s A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus really gave me a confidence boost when it comes to few-ingredient recipes—her cooking is so inspiring in its simplicity.
Q: Your food interest goes back to high school, doesn’t it?
Since forever, really. I always loved cooking with my grandma and mom, and got super into writing in high school. But it wasn’t until college where it clicked that I could combine both.
Q: Yes, and you had a very cool study opportunity at Hamilton College your senior year.
Hamilton has a senior fellowship program that lets you skip classes and do an independent project instead. So I spent senior year studying cookbooks and writing a manuscript (which is in a closet somewhere). I went from old-school American cookbooks like Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer up through contemporary cookbooks. The style has really changed over time. Today’s cookbooks have a lot more narration and design. They’re like works of art. And I think they’re getting more exciting every year.
Q: After college, you’ve lived in various places including North Carolina and Brooklyn. You moved to New Jersey right before the pandemic. Any initial thoughts on the New Jersey food scene? Notice any changes?
A lot of things are still the same. The Millburn Deli is still the same. So is the Summit Diner. If places like that changed, I’d be so bummed! I love that I can get the same eggs and hash browns at the Summit Diner that my mom got there when she was pregnant with me. But there are lots of cool new places, and I love that too. Like The Bread Stand in Maplewood and Neighbors Wine Shop in South Orange. I go to the Summit Farmers’ Market almost every Sunday and it’s the highlight of my week. I just got this spoon rest from Muddy Paws Pottery and it’s so pretty. I can’t resist pottery for the life of me.
Q: Of course not, staging is important for your food pictures!
Sometimes it’s really nice to know nothing about a place. When my husband and I lived in North Carolina, we explored more because we had never been there before. I want to do that more here as things open back up—act like a tourist in my home state.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from your book?
To resist the temptation to keep adding things, thinking that always makes a dish better. I want cooks to feel empowered by what they already have in the kitchen instead of rushing out for one more ingredient. It’s OK to do less. Because usually it tastes even better that way.
Food52 Big Little Recipes: Good Food with Minimal Ingredients and Maximal Flavor by Emma Laperruque (Ten Speed Press, November 2021)
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