Mon­day Morn­ing Cook­ing Club’s third book, It’s Always About the Food, not only pro­vides the read­er with a book full of won­der­ful recipes, it also cre­ates a sense of belong­ing. Read­ing through the pages is like sit­ting in deep con­ver­sa­tion with a long-lost friend or fam­i­ly mem­ber. The sto­ries feel like our sto­ries. The foods sound like our family’s food. And the humor, love, and pas­sion are most cer­tain­ly like ours.

One spe­cial thing about MMCC’s books is that the recipes are crowd-sourced. From their kitchen in Syd­ney, Aus­tralia, the ​“Sis­ter­hood” reach­es far and wide to tie togeth­er their glob­al com­mu­ni­ty by col­lect­ing and doc­u­ment­ing recipes and sto­ries from the Jew­ish dias­po­ra. Each recipe is accom­pa­nied by the cook’s per­son­al sto­ry and a heart-warm­ing com­ment from one of the sis­ters. The book is meant to inspire gath­er­ing around the table to share in these edi­ble fam­i­ly heir­looms, but what it also inspires is a sense of our din­ing table being large enough to accom­mo­date our entire extend­ed Jew­ish dias­po­ra fam­i­ly. It is easy to see the effects of tech­nol­o­gy on glob­al­iza­tion. It is not always as easy to see the effects of a cook­book, but some­how, It’s Always About the Food makes the big world of Jew­ish recipes feel more inti­mate and connected.

While the recipes may be exot­ic, the ingre­di­ents they call for are all rel­a­tive­ly attain­able and, although some recipes require a day of prep, most are not ter­ri­bly time-inten­sive and are in fact suit­able for a week­day meal.

The dessert sec­tion real­ly stands out. Every­thing from the Wal­nut Hon­ey Tart to Edith’s Plum Cake is a win­ner. Pol­ish, Egypt­ian, Iraqi, and Israeli are some of the her­itages of these recipes. The Coconut Rose Mal­abi is like a quick flight to Moroc­co and the Sweet Pota­to Pie could not be more Amer­i­can. While there are enough desserts to keep your mouth water­ing for days, scat­tered through­out the book are also won­der­ful savory baked goods. The Gougère Crown is an airy and cheesy delight. Saf­ta Fela’s Borekas brown up with a brush of egg wash and a sprin­kle of sesame seeds. If you love but­ter, chal­lah, cheese and all things good, Egg Stra­ta Pud­ding is the recipe for you — think savory Jew­ish bread pudding.

In short, Mon­day Morn­ing Cook­ing Club has done it again. They have filled anoth­er book with fam­i­ly recipes and touch­ing mem­o­ries. More impor­tant­ly, they have linked us to our far-stretched dias­po­ra com­mu­ni­ty through some­thing we all under­stand: food.