Tenderheart

McKinnon’s most ambitious and acclaimed work. Tenderheart is a 528-page tribute to her late father, a Chinese immigrant who worked as a fresh produce supplier in Sydney. Each of the twenty-two chapters focuses on a single vegetable or fruit, and the book contains over 180 recipes that range from simple weeknight preparations to more involved weekend projects.

Why Read This

If To Asia, With Love is McKinnon’s homecoming, Tenderheart is her masterwork. The book won the 2024 James Beard Foundation Award for Vegetable-Focused Cooking and the IACP Award, placing it among the most celebrated vegetarian cookbooks of recent years. The writing is deeply moving, blending memoir, grief, and cooking in a way that few cookbooks attempt and even fewer achieve.

The botanical organization, with chapters on everything from Asian greens and eggplant to celery, turnip, and seaweed, shares a structural kinship with Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy. But where Madison approaches from the perspective of a gardener and scientist, McKinnon brings the lens of a daughter trying to preserve her father’s legacy through food.

What to Expect

A substantial, beautifully produced hardcover that functions as both cookbook and memoir. Over 180 recipes organized by ingredient. The difficulty level is slightly higher than To Asia, With Love, with some recipes requiring more time and technique. Winner of the James Beard Foundation Award and IACP Award. Named one of Bon Appetit’s Best Cookbooks of the Year.