Read an Excerpt

Introduction

Kismet means a little bit of magic, a feeling of fitting, a just rightness. Quite literally, it’s fate. It’s what we named our Los Angeles restaurants, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s our shared understanding of how we work and live in the world of food.

Concisely, here’s what we’re all about:

Untraditional food that understands tradition.
Craveability and comfort.
Source well and shop small (if you’re able).
Lots of vegetables, a little meat.
Minimal waste (and minimal shame).
Never settle. But sometimes settle.
Food is better shared. So is cooking.
Things change. Work with what you’ve got.
Simple, but make it sparkle.
Always be learning.
Food is community.


This book brings together family recipes, longstanding Kismet and Kismet Rotisserie menu classics, and newly developed ideas, all of which reflect our particular perspective on food. Our recipes have broad-ranging influences—Mediterranean and Middle Eastern being the most prominent—and illustrate our obsession with produce, a penchant for assertive and bright flavors, and our love of family-style meals where tables become tapestries of little dishes. Imagine swiping a piece of just-off-the-grill flatbread through ranchy labneh, biting through the flakes of phyllo surrounding a lemony chicken-andpine-nut pie, then locking eyes with a lamb meatball, an array of spiced pickles and vegetables awaiting your fork’s arrival. That’s the vibe.

There are certainly dishes in this book from our restaurants, but they aren’t exactly how we’d make them there, nor should they be. Restaurant cooking is different from cooking at home—that’s true for us, too. We made every recipe in this book (several times!) in our no-dishwasher, no-frills home kitchens, adapting them for ease without sacrificing creativity or deliciousness.

These recipes are meant to keep you company for the long haul, from casual weeknight meals to party starters, from perfect potlucks to celebratory feasts. We hope these are dishes you keep coming back to, that these pages become stained with the pomegranate molasses smudges of meals past.