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Is Cookbook Criticism Possible? A Roundtable Discussion
In the friendly and social media–driven food media of 2025, is there room for cookbook criticism? Is there money for cookbook criticism? Cookbook authors are the celebrity darlings of this cultural sector, but are we infantilizing them by keeping all criticism to DMs and whispers? Can food be taken seriously if it’s not discussed in a critical manner? What is criticism anyway?
To have this conversation, I’m bringing together Charlotte Druckman, food writer and creator of the cookbook tournament The Piglet; Leslie Brenner of Cooks Without Borders; and Tim Mazurek of the blog Lottie + Doof, who wrote a piece called “Cookbooks and Criticism” last year that helped clarify many of my own concerns.
From the Desk Members attend free using the code available here.
WHEN
Tuesday, October 21, 11 a.m. EST
All who sign up will be sent a video link. From the Desk members receive the full video link and text transcript.
WHERE
Zoom
Please sign up with the email you want to be contacted at with information. You will be sent the Zoom link a half-hour before the event begins.
WHO
Charlotte Druckman is a journalist, author and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Town & Country, and Food and Wine, among others. She conceived and edited the award-nominated collection Women on Food and is the author of Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen. She's also penned two cookbooks of her own along with an award-winning newsletter about cookbooks and, fun fact, was the creator of Food52's Tournament of Cookbooks (a.k.a. the Piglet, R.I.P.). She lives in New York City, where she was born and raised on a steady diet of daily and prime-time soap operas. Her next collaboration, Love in the Afternoon... and Evening, a book of essays on exactly that subject, arrives in May 2026 from W.W. Norton.
Leslie Brenner is founder of Cooks Without Borders, a Webby Award-winning international cooking website and Substack newsletter. In her past roles as Food Editor for the L.A. Times and Restaurant Critic for the Dallas Morning News, Leslie has dished out her fair share of constructive, pull-no-punches criticism (cookbook reviews as well as restaurant reviews), provoking the wrath of more than a couple thin-skinned chefs and chef-authors. Winner of two James Beard Journalism Awards, and with an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University, she is author of six books, including The Fourth Star: Dispatches from Inside Daniel Boulud’s Celebrated New York Restaurant, and an acclaimed novel, Greetings from the Golden State. Besides Cooks Without Borders, Leslie also has a robust Dallas-based restaurant consultancy, Leslie Brenner Concepts, and she’s co-founder of New York-based ThreeBeanGroup, a food & beverage consultancy.
Tim Mazurek is the creator of Lottie + Doof, a popular (and sometimes controversial) food blog that he has run since 2008 and never optimized for mobile devices. He has worked as a freelance writer, recipe developer, instructor, recipe tester, and photographer, and has contributed to several cookbooks. He frequently hosts cookbook author talks in Chicago and regularly collaborates with restaurants in town. But all of that is secondary to his work in higher education where he advises undergraduates and is an adjunct faculty member. He earned his MFA from Northwestern University in Art Theory and Practice, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois with his husband and about 400 cookbooks.
HOST + MODERATOR
Alicia Kennedy is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of the best-selling No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, and her memoir On Eating: The Making & Unmaking of My Appetites will be out in spring 2026. Her newsletter on food culture, politics, and media, From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, is read by over 30,000 people weekly.
In the friendly and social media–driven food media of 2025, is there room for cookbook criticism? Is there money for cookbook criticism? Cookbook authors are the celebrity darlings of this cultural sector, but are we infantilizing them by keeping all criticism to DMs and whispers? Can food be taken seriously if it’s not discussed in a critical manner? What is criticism anyway?
To have this conversation, I’m bringing together Charlotte Druckman, food writer and creator of the cookbook tournament The Piglet; Leslie Brenner of Cooks Without Borders; and Tim Mazurek of the blog Lottie + Doof, who wrote a piece called “Cookbooks and Criticism” last year that helped clarify many of my own concerns.
From the Desk Members attend free using the code available here.
WHEN
Tuesday, October 21, 11 a.m. EST
All who sign up will be sent a video link. From the Desk members receive the full video link and text transcript.
WHERE
Zoom
Please sign up with the email you want to be contacted at with information. You will be sent the Zoom link a half-hour before the event begins.
WHO
Charlotte Druckman is a journalist, author and editor whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Magazine, Town & Country, and Food and Wine, among others. She conceived and edited the award-nominated collection Women on Food and is the author of Skirt Steak: Women Chefs on Standing the Heat and Staying in the Kitchen. She's also penned two cookbooks of her own along with an award-winning newsletter about cookbooks and, fun fact, was the creator of Food52's Tournament of Cookbooks (a.k.a. the Piglet, R.I.P.). She lives in New York City, where she was born and raised on a steady diet of daily and prime-time soap operas. Her next collaboration, Love in the Afternoon... and Evening, a book of essays on exactly that subject, arrives in May 2026 from W.W. Norton.
Leslie Brenner is founder of Cooks Without Borders, a Webby Award-winning international cooking website and Substack newsletter. In her past roles as Food Editor for the L.A. Times and Restaurant Critic for the Dallas Morning News, Leslie has dished out her fair share of constructive, pull-no-punches criticism (cookbook reviews as well as restaurant reviews), provoking the wrath of more than a couple thin-skinned chefs and chef-authors. Winner of two James Beard Journalism Awards, and with an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University, she is author of six books, including The Fourth Star: Dispatches from Inside Daniel Boulud’s Celebrated New York Restaurant, and an acclaimed novel, Greetings from the Golden State. Besides Cooks Without Borders, Leslie also has a robust Dallas-based restaurant consultancy, Leslie Brenner Concepts, and she’s co-founder of New York-based ThreeBeanGroup, a food & beverage consultancy.
Tim Mazurek is the creator of Lottie + Doof, a popular (and sometimes controversial) food blog that he has run since 2008 and never optimized for mobile devices. He has worked as a freelance writer, recipe developer, instructor, recipe tester, and photographer, and has contributed to several cookbooks. He frequently hosts cookbook author talks in Chicago and regularly collaborates with restaurants in town. But all of that is secondary to his work in higher education where he advises undergraduates and is an adjunct faculty member. He earned his MFA from Northwestern University in Art Theory and Practice, and lives in Oak Park, Illinois with his husband and about 400 cookbooks.
HOST + MODERATOR
Alicia Kennedy is a writer from Long Island. She is the author of the best-selling No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating, and her memoir On Eating: The Making & Unmaking of My Appetites will be out in spring 2026. Her newsletter on food culture, politics, and media, From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, is read by over 30,000 people weekly.