I like the wide variety of meals from around the world. It looks like it is covering a lot of favorites I have tried at restaurants before and also has a ton of recipes I have never made or tried before.

What a lovely cookbook! But The Kitchen Without Borders is more than a cookbook. The chefs profiled in its pages are all refugees and immigrants to the United States. They are part of a catering company in New York City (Eat Offbeat) that “hires talented refugees who have come to call New York City home, and serves their dishes to businesses and individuals across the city.” The book provides interesting backstories of the various chefs along with their recipes. The photography is absolutely gorgeous and mouthwatering. I just wish the photographs were labeled to show which dish or dishes are being illustrated. Sometimes it was quite easy to tell, but sometimes it wasn’t, especially when more than one dish was in the photo. Also, not every recipe has a photo. That is the only reason I didn’t rate it a full 5 stars.

The chefs are from a number of countries. Among them are Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, Nigeria and Venezuela, so you have quite a variety of cuisines represented. I tried the Baba Ghannoush recipe and it was both simple and delicious. The recipes do sometimes have an unusual ingredient or two. Some use ingredients that most well-stocked pantries will have, so not all the recipes feature unusual ingredients. The book provides a good explanation of the more unusual ingredients and suggests substitutes for many of then, as well as a couple of online stores to try. In addition to the ones listed, I found a number of the spices available from penzeys.com, my favorite spice retailer.

2% of the purchase price goes to a fabulous cause, the International Rescue Committee (rescue.org), through May 15, 2021.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book because of the storytelling that it provided along with the colorful images. One of my goals for this year was to expand the foods I eat and this book did a great job of allowing me to easily navigate that goal. I like that it listed the country of origin for the recipes though I assume that there may even be some overlap across regions and even family recipes. It was easy to navigate and follow along with the instructions. I would recommend to any friends who are looking to elevate and educate themselves from stories and recipes from refugees and immigrants.

I will not be recommending this book for a classroom use.

However, The Kitchen Without Borders is fabulous. The stories from the chefs along with the recipes that look like they will be delicious sold this cookbook for me. I cannot wait to purchase a copy of it and start exploring more foods.

I don't typically read a lot of cookbooks, but I'm trying to change that! I love to eat but I don't love to cook, so I'm seeking inspiration in cookbooks where unfamiliar recipes can strike me as a must-make, must-have. The Kitchen Without Borders is a perfect example of this - chock-full of recipes from refugee and immigrant chefs from all walks of life, it's a lovely introduction to cuisines that get less representation in the American foodie mainstream, like Afghan, Iraqi, and Lebanese food.

The book itself is well designed and neatly organized, with recipes sorted by dish - appetizers, vegetarian mains, desserts, etc - and peppered throughout with photos and profiles of the chefs, giving the food a human aspect and reminding the reader that there is a cook and a story behind each dish.

The recipes here are fairly simple and would be accessible to beginner cooks (like me) but you better make sure to have a well-stocked spice cabinet before you dive into this cookbook! Many ingredients can be found at speciality markets, and many of the recipes offer alternatives if you can't find a particular ingredient. I really appreciate the book's goal of showcasing less mainstream cuisines to home cooks - with recipes this delicious, who could resist?

This cookbook does a great job at including kid-friendly, adults-(probably)-only, and DIY to everyone’s own tastes. Many of the recipes also have notes at the end for substitutions and other tips. It’s a great cookbook to give as a gift to new families or more established families who may need some new staples.

I am so sad that I was not able to access this book, it did not work on any of the usual places I read my book. I will be looking out for it in the future and will then give an updated review.

This was a fascinating book that had a lot of great pictures and personal stories. I felt like most of the recipes were accessible for the average cook.

A vibrant cookbook full of big personalities, love of food and people. This project came from the heart of refugees and migrants who want to share their culture and passions through their food. It's a lovely read, full of feels and hearty spicy dishes that breath home comfort and nostalgia from around the world.
A lovely book to own, with beautiful pictures, though not all of recipes do have one, which is a shame, when we have never heard of a dish it is so much easier to recreate it with a photograph.

A beautiful cookbook with a wide variety of recipes from around the globe. The recipes are easy to follow and well set out

This book is a great collection of recipes and wonderful stories of people who are immigrant entrepreneurs. A family owned catering company that employs other immigrants. Some of the basics are even great, like the pomegranate molasses. There are some recipes that are very common for middle east foods such as hummus but overall, really nice variety of food. The pictures of the cooks and food are beautiful!

This has everything I want in a cookbook - great stories, clear instructions, and gorgeous photos, though I could always use more. Though it would ostensibly look like more steps, I wouldn't mind some of the steps separated into more than one so that each step doesn't read like a whole paragraph. Everything else is great and the recipes look delicious.

Thank you, Netgalley and The Eat Offbeat Chefs, for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion! The opinion below is entirely my own!

First of all, the concept of Eat Offbeat is fantastic! I love trying new foods and learning about the culture where the food comes from. Also, having refugee and immigrant chefs on the team not only makes for some out-of-the-box dishes, but is also something that takes us back to the historic roots of the U.S./New York as a country of immigrants.

The books starts with the history of Offbeat Chef and its founders which in itself is super interesting. Then it goes on to tell you about the ingredients, how to source them, and--most importantly--how to substitute. I really like that the book includes links to some businesses where you might order ingredients if you can't find them in your local grocery store.

What follows are recipes from countries such as Nepal, Iraq, Lebanon, Iran, Venezuela, the Central African Republic, etc. with instructions that are easy to follow. The chefs also include some useful tips and even immigration- or refugee-related tidbits of information.
Now here comes my reason for only giving 4 stars. While the book does include some amazing photos (of the recipes, chefs, the employees while they are working, etc.), there are no photos of all dishes. Sometimes I was a bit confused which dish the photo showed because it seems that they included the photo after some of the dishes and some of the photos included multiple dishes without any caption. Many people, including myself, like seeing what the dish looks like after making it. So there is room for improvement of the book there.

The book contains an entire section of vegetarian dishes and that is AMAZEBALLS. I, myself, am not a vegetarian, but I do like going meatless every now and then and like getting ideas of what to make.

I think it was a great idea to also include a conversion chart for temperatures and measurements and a list of the recipes sorted by chefs since the book itself is divided into types of dishes (desserts, meat dish, vegetarian, salads and soups, etc.).

Overall, this is a fantastic cookbook that helps you explore the dishes and the culture at the same time, and it raises awareness for immigration and refugees--it shows that they are not just a topic on the news, but introduces you to some immigrants and refugees which makes this a more personal way to raise awareness.

Beautiful. I am going to recommend this book right and left. From the very first sentence, this book stood out as something special. The recipes are wonderful, but the human stories are what makes it so unique. There is a warmth to this book that is missing from so many cookbooks. The memories and the stories are what make it special - like grandma's homemade hummus versus the storebought variety. Thanks so much for the ARC and an amazing read.

This cookbook has amazing recipes and great photos. If you are looking to expand your culinary skills and try new dishes, this is the book for you. Unfortunately, it does not work with my cooking style, which leans more towards the Chopped style of what do I have in my pantry. Many recipes need a lot of ingredients, far more than my average of 5. Also, the ingredients are not very common, so unless you have the patience to find multiple recipes with the same ingredients from this book, then you would have a lot of random ingredients in your home that do not lend towards other recipes.

This is a great cookbook but it is just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Workman Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

The Kitchen without Borders by The Eat Offbeat Chefs which was started by immigrants from Lebanon.


This cookbook is a compilation of recipes from the immigrant chefs of Eat Offbeat Catering Company. These recipes are personal to each chef and their home country. Represented among the recipes are Nepali, Iraqi, Syrian, Sri Lankan, and Eritrean dishes. Also some South American and African dishes.

Kudos that proceeds of each cookbook will be donated to the International Rescue Committee.

#TheKitchenWithoutBorders #NetGalley

Special thanks to NetGalley and Workman publishing company for providing me with ARC.

This book is so lovely and surprising. I loved that the recipes are by the refugees, i read a lot of books about cooking but this book is so different.

Overall, this is a lovely recipe book that I know will challenge me to push out of my cooking comfort zone. This is the type of book that shows the reader how connected we are as people to the comfort of home cooking, and the richness we can experience when we branch out and explore what others find most comforting. I'm excited to try out a few of these recipes myself!

The kitchen without borders book is a collection of recipes from different cultures for us all to try, enjoy so that we can appreciate their tastes and learn about culinary variations in our world.

This was a surprisingly delightful read. I anticipated just recipes going in but the profiles on the chefs were by far the best aspect of this cookbook. The mixture of cultures, the different paths each took to get to where they are now and their willingness to share a bit of home with us is truly endearing.

I also appreciate that there are alternatives to harder to find ingredients as well as the provided locations where we can attempt to find the necessary spices if one isn't located in an area that has access to Asian or African markets.

This is truly a cookbook with heart and even though I've received this copy from netgalley, I'll also be purchasing a hard copy for my own bookshelf.