CROWN HEIGHTS — It’s a New York foodie’s dream: local chefs talking about their brand new cookbooks to a crowd of people who love to eat.
Beginning in April, the co-founder of Smorgasburg and the Brooklyn Flea is teaming up with the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene to bring a “new culinary literary series” to Crown Heights’ food destination and beer hall, Berg’n.
The monthly “Book Cooks” event will feature popular city chefs — like brothers Max and Eli Sussman of Roberta’s and The Breslin, owner of The Spotted Pig April Bloomfield and George Weld of Williamsburg’s Egg Restaurant — speaking with Flea founder Eric Demby about their recently published cookbooks, organizers said.
Tickets, which range from $30 to $40, include a copy of the featured book and appetizers prepared for the audience by the chefs from their own recipes.
Greenlight co-owner Jessica Stockton Bagnulo said the event is an extension of the brisk business she’s seen in cookbooks lately, bought by a passionate audience of food culture lovers.
“Cookbooks are such a growth area in our store and there’s such a strong foodie buyer market,” she said.
“This is kind of like getting a chance to meet your food book heroes.”
Demby, who co-founded the Flea in 2008 and will host the literary series, said he’s also noticed an uptick in cookbooks being published by local chefs, something he attributes to the “maturing of the Brooklyn food milieu.”
“The Flea is going to be starting its eighth season next month and Smorgasburg is entering its fifth season... These kinds of things have allowed folks that have a restaurant or a store or a small food business to achieve ... almost like a local stardom,” he said.
The first of three scheduled “Book Cooks” discussions will be held on April 2, featuring the Sussman brothers talking about their fourth cookbook, Classic Recipes for Modern People.
On April 20, Bloomfield will discuss her book A Girl and Her Greens, a follow-up to her first book, A Girl and Her Pig. On May 2, Weld will present his new morning cookbook, Breakfast: Recipes to Wake Up For.
The “Book Cooks” series will be held monthly at Berg’n, located at 899 Bergen St. in Brooklyn. For more information or tickets, visit Greenlight’s website.
