Family Style by Peter Som

Obviously, Eliot’s Eats has morphed into a book review blog with an occasional movie post thrown in for Movies & Munchies. Not sure how or why that happened but here we are.

Epicurious’ list of the best cookbooks of Spring 2025 has been my go-to guide recently. That is where I found by Heart by Hailee Catalano (which I did finally have to return to the library).

Today’s featured cookbook did not make the top sixteen on the Epicurious list, but it did make the “other books we’re excited about” list. (Apparently Family Style did make Eater’s 20 Best Cookbooks Spring 2025 list though!)

About the book:

From culinary creator, lifestyle expert, and award-winning fashion designer Peter Som, a stunning cookbook of 100 recipes with unique and creative flavor combinations, paying homage to his identity, heritage, and family.

For Peter Som, nothing is quite as satisfying as the moment when everyone is gathered around the table and platters of food are set down for everyone to dig into together. In Family Style, Peter pays homage to his identity and heritage, with more than 100 powerfully flavorful recipes for breakfasts, dinners, desserts, and more—all unfussy, comforting, and creative. Perfect for an everyday meal at home, yet sophisticated, elegant, and visually stunning to impress any guest.

At the heart of each of the 100 recipes in Family Style are imaginative and personally unique flavor combinations. There are beloved nods to his grandma’s Cantonese flavor profiles, his mom’s deep love of French food, his Bay Area upbringing, and desserts that are “not too sweet”—the highest compliment in his family—and more, with recipes including:

• Burnt Miso Cinnamon Toast
• Radicchio and Fennel Salad with Creamy Miso Maple Vinaigrette
• Roasted Carrots with Gochujang Honey Butter
• Hoisin Honey Roast Chicken
• Lychee Lime Pavlova

A reflection of Peter’s signature sensibility, Family Style is a beautiful and joyful invitation to celebrate with the flavors of his life.  (Edited a bit from Harper Collins)

About the author:

Born in San Francisco, Peter Som is an award-winning fashion designer, culinary creator and lifestyle expert. Long known for his signature use of color and pattern with streamlined feminine silhouettes in the fashion arena, he’s also just as widely known for his entertaining and love of food. Peter’s brand of effortless sophistication has extended to all arenas of the lifestyle space, with recipes and articles featured in numerous publications and digital platforms including Bon Appétit, The Purist (where he is a contributing food editor), Purewow, Vogue.com, Elle.com, T Magazine, Food and Wine, Refinery29 and Pinterest, where his 2.9M followers tune in weekly to watch his cooking content.

Peter’s clothes have sold at top retailers worldwide including Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Moda Operandi and Nordstrom and currently has an ongoing collection exclusively for Rent the Runway. He’s had highly successful collaborations with brands including Kohls, Sferra, Lancôme, Anthropologie and more. He was a finalist in the first CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and twice nominated for the CFDA Emerging Designer Award. Notable women such as Michelle Obama, Beyoncé, Scarlett Johansson, and Maggie Gyllenhaal have worn Peter’s clothing.

Peter lives in New York City and Sag Harbor. (from his website)

What I thought…

I believe that this is his first cookbook.

The first thing that hit me about Family Style was the dedication page. As he praises and thanks his mother and grandmother, the images around his tribute are those of old family recipe cards stained from use and random pages from a memo book. “Feb 25, 1968–Raw Apple Cake” is written on one of these pages. I really think I have a family recipe card with that exact same recipe on it from nearly the same time period. This peaked my interest on what else was within. What is within is truly family recipes with stories about his kin and dining family style: “First of all, calm down. You will get your helping” (xvi).

Throughout the book, Som adds “Try With,” “Hot Tips,” “Mix In,” and “Remix!” notations that are genius. Don’t skip over them. He also adds anecdotes about his grandmothers’ lives with some of the recipes.

He starts us off with the “This and That” section. He always has potstickers in the freezer: “I can go to bed at night feeling OK about my life knowing they’re there” (5). And that’s how he came up with the Potsticker Frittata (5). There are more inventive and fun recipes in the “This and That” section like “Prawn” and Prosciutto, the “prawn” being shrimp chips or crackers (24).

Quick Pickled Cukes (22) was a food memory that most all of Som’s family remembers. It’s a simple recipe. Som says: “They were always on Grandma’s dining table, and for good reason—they’re the perfect easy bit to add tangy goodness to any meal, and take no time whatsoever”(22). These were the first recipe I made. The recipe just spoke to me and also reminded me of own grandmother’s cucumbers (only she added lots of onions).

These pickled cukes are delicious!

Next up was “Have You Eaten Your Vegetables?” which he divides into Salads and Not Salads. Most all of the salads screamed summer at me, especially the Summery Corn with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette (41).

The corn is grilled along with the limes before you squeeze them for the vinaigrette. This is the perfect summer salad. Som suggests serving it alongside the Char Siu Bacon Cheeseburger (170) so I had to do that!

The Char Sui sauce is amazing and of course we used the pickles as well.

The “Not Salads” are vegetable sides but none are boring. There’s roasted Broccoli with a honey chili crisp dressing and parmesan crisps (59). There’s Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Grapefruit (60)!!!! There’s Cauliflower Marbella (64)! I could go on and on.

Som calls rice his “staff of life” (81). He also recalls family lore about how important rice was to his grandparents, mother and aunt during the WWII era. The Rice Bowl section is extensive.

I loved his tips on fried rice. We all know to use leftover and not just-cooked rice but did you know you should cook your eggs first and then remove them from the pan? (Som cooks them in a single layer and then cuts them into ribbons.) Fried rice can take on anything leftover in your fridge, but his recipes are just genius. (I feel like I am overusing that word.) Add butternut squash, corn, and turmeric for Golden Fried Rice (82) or add leftover lump crab, frozen peas, mozzarella, cheddar, and American cheese (along with a sauce of gochujang, oyster sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, etc.) for Cheesy Crab Fried Rice (84). Beyond the fried rice, Som lets his fusion flag fly: Cacio e Pepe Sticky Rice with egg (90), Rice Cake Pizzagna Bake (93) and One-Pot Creamy Kimchi Risotto (94).

What’s next? “Use Yer Noodle” is about all noodles—traditional Udon to couscous to pasta. He pairs Udon with Charred Sardines and Pecornino (98); rigatoni with lap cheong (106); and macaroni and cheese with lemon, yellow miso and soy (109). I totally hearted his Easy Roasted Garlic Pasta (105). As he says, “I love a dish where the oven—and one ingredient—basically do all the work” (105). That one ingredient is the roasted garlic but he elevates the dish further with fish sauce and anchovy paste. (Yes, both.)

The next section, “The Mains,” left me a bit confused because up to this point, all of the above dishes could be the center of the table. (We seriously ate those Quick Pickled Cukes for lunch…solely.) But, “The Mains” include fish, fowl, meat and no meat. I must make his Spicy Beef Chopped Cheese (169) and Chickpea Bourguignon (189). One of the fish recipes that I earmarked was Caramel Cod (116) but I will probably try it with halibut because I’ve got steaks in the freezer. (Plus he suggests serving this dish with those Quick Pickled Cukes!)

Finally, dessert: (Not Too Sweet) Sweets! To his grandmother’s apple cake he adds salted maple caramel (204). Other desserts that need to be highlighted are Miso Roasted Carrot Slab Cake (208) and the Chocolate Hoisin Cake (214).

I’m not buying another cookbook but I did love this one. I hope this review has prompted you to find a copy of Family Style. If for nothing else you need it for those Quick Pickled Cukes! In my opinion, Som should have found himself at the top of the list!

I’m linking up with Foodies Read for July.

What’s coming up? Look for reviews of some other top cookbooks here sometime during the rest of the summer.

• Setting a Place for Us: Recipes and Stories of Displacement, Resilience, and Community from Eight Countries Impacted by War by Hawa Hassan (May 13, 2025)
• Sesame: Global Recipes + Stories of an Ancient Seed by Rachel Simons (April 29, 2025)
• Cook Once, Eat Twice: Time Saving Recipes to Help You Get Ahead in the Kitchen by Nadiya Hassain (March 18, 2025)

Plus whatever new ones come in to the library.