Some conversations stay with you long after they’re over. Today’s episode is one of them. My guest is Tamar Adler, the James Beard and IACP Award–winning author of An Everlasting Meal; Something Old, Something New; and the bestselling The Everlasting Meal Cookbook. Her newest book, which came out in December, is Feast on Your Life.
If you’ve ever read Tamar, you know she has a rare gift: she can take something utterly ordinary—olive brine, a cut grapefruit, a pot of rice—and reveal the majesty inside it. In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about cooking not as performance or productivity, but as care, presence, and a way of living more fully inside our own lives.
Tamar begins by sharing about her upbringing in a Jewish, Israeli-influenced household where food was constant, generous, and central to family life. Guests were always offered something to eat, and the table was the place where life unfolded. That early experience shaped her understanding of hospitality—and of cooking as something far deeper than simply getting dinner on the table.
We also talk about the title of her new book, Feast on Your Life, which comes from a Derek Walcott poem. The idea is beautifully simple: remembering to offer ourselves the same care, attention, and hospitality that we so freely give to others.
From there, our conversation moves into why cooking matters at all in the modern world. Tamar shares that cooking offers:
Agency—the grounding sense that comes from knowing how to feed yourself
Creativity—the deeply human instinct to make things with our hands
Nourishment that extends beyond nutrients, creating connection to land, people, and self
We also explore the tension between friction and ease, and why feeling nourished, connected, and alive isn’t meant to be effortless. One of my favorite moments in the conversation is when Tamar talks about delight as noticing—how simply paying attention with our senses opens the door to beauty, awe, and pleasure in everyday moments. That awareness doesn’t just enrich life; it can make us better cooks, because we begin to listen to our food rather than simply follow instructions.
Be sure to stay tuned to the end of the conversation, because Tamar offers fantastic tips for cooking when you do want to, letting go of perfectionism, cooking for kids, and creating small acts of ceremony in the kitchen.
I have no doubt this conversation will shift how you think about cooking. More importantly, I hope it helps you find more freedom and joy in the kitchen, which is the mission behind this work. ❤️
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With love,
Nicki
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Links and resources
Tamar’s newsletter, The Kitchen Shrink
Find Tamar on Instagram
Tamar’s new book, Feast on Your Life
