Imag­ine being mar­ried to some­one who loves food and cook­ing as much as you do. That’s life for Zik­ki and Ben Siman-Tov. Part­ners in mar­riage and in the kitchen, Zik­ki and Ben’s shared pas­sions for com­mu­ni­ty, fla­vor, and good eats are at the heart of their cook­book, EatS­mall Plates.

The Siman-Tov’s food sto­ry is chock-full of diverse, inter­na­tion­al influ­ences. Grow­ing up in Israel, both learned to share small plates, use fresh herbs, and cook with sea­son­al ingre­di­ents. They worked in well-known Israeli restau­rants, like North Abraxas and HaSa­lon, which helped shape their sim­ple, fla­vor­ful cook­ing style. 

Oth­er cen­tral influ­ences include Zikki’s Ukrain­ian fam­i­ly, who intro­duced her to hearty, home­made dish­es like varenyky and hol­ubt­si. The Siman-Tovs trav­eled the world togeth­er, enjoy­ing cuisines in Viet­nam, Thai­land, India, and Cal­i­for­nia, the lat­ter of which, espe­cial­ly, taught them how to high­light sea­son­al pro­duce and fresh, local ingre­di­ents. Their trav­els in Europe, and Italy in par­tic­u­lar, inspired them to prac­tice slow, arti­sanal tech­niques, like bak­ing bread and pick­ling vegetables.

All these influ­ences — Israeli, Ukrain­ian, Amer­i­can, Euro­pean, and Asian — are on dis­play in EatS­mall Plates. The book tracks how the Siman-Tov’s lives, roots, and trav­els have shaped their approach to food, and is a tes­ta­ment to their belief that it is best sim­ple, acces­si­ble, and shared.

The book’s open­ing cat­e­go­ry fea­tures small dish­es meant for shar­ing, like salty baby pota­toes, cau­li­flower with tahi­ni, and burnt beets with feta; bread recipes include focac­cia, chal­lah, and a Jerusalem bagel. The Siman-Tov’s sal­ads are full of fla­vor, exem­pli­fied by the auto­log­i­cal­ly titled ​“The Best Green Sal­ad of Your Life.” Vibrant veg­etable, meat, and fish recipes fol­low, and the book con­cludes with desserts, fea­tur­ing ma’amoul, a Jaf­fa sun­dae, and a cit­rus basbousa.

The pho­tographs through­out Eat Small Plates are warm and inti­mate; they show­case, of course, the beau­ti­ful, col­or­ful dish­es, but also Zik­ki and Ben; tablescapes; and hands prepar­ing food, exhibit­ing the care that goes into each dish. These scenes make one feel like a guest at the Siman-Tov’s table, shar­ing the meal.

Eat Small Plates reads as a per­son­al, gen­uine reflec­tion of the authors’ lives, their love for each oth­er, and their shared pas­sions for food and com­mu­ni­ty. One delights in their down-to-earth hos­pi­tal­i­ty and is nour­ished by the book’s reminder of the beau­ty and pow­er of gath­er­ing togeth­er to eat.