By Matthew Wexler
Years ago, a good friend introduced me to Diana Henry. Not in person—that would come much later over a stunning meal at Anita Lo’s West Village restaurant, Anissa. I believe that first encounter was through Henry’s Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and North African-inspired cookbook, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons. But I may be totally off. I could have been Simple, or her ode to chicken, A Bird in the Hand. Over the years, despite being very gay and an ocean apart, Henry has been my bedfellow. Her writing about food is as intoxicating as the recipes themselves. Dare I say erotic?
I lived with a boyfriend (pre-Diana Henry), and we’d lie in bed, him flipping through design magazines and me reading Food & Wine. He was a bit of a Francophile, so Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking—both volumes— lived on our packed bookshelf. That winter, he toiled over boeuf bourguignon for an intimate dinner party that was so crowded in my pre-war walk-up that guests had to climb over the couch to get to the bathroom.
While Child’s writing is utilitarian and includes in exhaustive detail every detail you need for a successful cheese soufflé or tarte tatin, Henry loves a sheet pan, a knob of butter, and an eclectic pantry packed with finds from her travels.
Now, she’s gathered two decades’ worth of essays for Around the Table (Mitchell Beazely, October 14, 2025), a richly detailed food and travel log that forgoes recipes for evocative prose. If you’re a food lover but prefer to be the guest rather than the chef de cuisine, Henry’s collection of 52 essays spans a cornucopia of ingredients, spices, and geographic influences from cardamom (“a flavour best yearned for”) to cobblers, to Clarke’s in London, when in the 80s and in the throws of her first job, she’d take the Tube to jot down Sally Clarke’s daily menu, though she couldn’t afford to eat there.
I tossed an advance copy of Henry’s book in my backpack as I bolted to the airport en route to a cruise through the Greek Islands. Henry’s writing has a transformative quality. Even though I was in Greece, I was also everywhere her palate was taking me.
Around the Table: 52 Essays on Food & Life is available for pre-order and will be published on October 14, 2025.
It wants better content.
