About Kitchen Arts & Letters and Its People
Welcome!
Kitchen Arts & Letters is a New York City bookstore specializing in food and drink. We are a cookbook store, but we are also much more. We are proud of our range of food history and scholarship and we have a terrific array of great food writing.
We want a visit to our website or to our shop to introduce you to wonderful books you never knew existed.
What We Do Differently
First, for most books on this website, our description tells you what we think about a book. Why is it a good choice, and for whom? Does it excel at something? Does it have a weakness? We know that no book is the right book for absolutely everyone and we want you to find the book that will help you the most.
You will see some book descriptions which begin, "This is what the publisher tells us about this book." This means we've used the copy supplied by the publisher, which is the same copy you'll see on almost every other bookseller's website.
Publisher's copy is sometimes inaccurate, if for no other reason than it is written long before a manuscript has been turned in, and written by someone who has never read more than a summary of what the book was originally supposed to be about.
On our website, we use publisher copy most often when a book is in pre-release, so we have not seen it yet. Or it's a recent arrival and we have not had a chance to spend enough time with it to form an opinion.
We often have very strong opinions about books. We're more likely to tell you about the books we think are great than complain about the ones which are not.
Who We Serve
Kitchen Arts opened in 1983. Julia Child, James Beard, and Laurie Colwin were among our early customers. Ever since we have been helping people who are serious about food–or who are getting curious–find books they want, need, and will enjoy.
Today our customers include Michelin-starred chefs from around the world and neighborhood home cooks who want to put a good dinner on the table.
We also actively track down out-of-print and otherwise scarce books. Ask us for anything you're looking for: there is never an obligation.
If you don’t see what you want among the books on this site, please call or email us.
Our phone number is 212-876-5550; you can write to letters@kitchenartsandletters.com
Find Us
The store is located at 1435 Lexington Avenue, between 93rd and 94th Streets in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on Manhattan's Upper East Side. You can take the 6 train to 96th Street, or the 4 or 5 trains to 86th Street. Also, the Q train stops at 96th Street and Second Avenue.
What Other People Say About Us
If you would like to learn more about us, check out these features:
Our Team
Nach Waxman, Founding Partner
Nach opened Kitchen Arts & Letters in 1983, having previously worked in book publishing for eighteen years. Most of his time during the 21st century was devoted to KAL’s out-of-print business. Although he enjoyed nearly every aspect of the world of food, he particularly relished food history and culture, which is reflected in the store’s substantial stock in those areas. His cooking passion was the many cuisines of India, although he was more than casually interested in Jewish food traditions as well. He was a member of the James Beard Foundation’s Hall of Fame.
Sadly, he passed away in August, 2021 and is deeply missed. His obituary made the front page of the New York Times website. Like so many mentions of Nach, it talks about his famous brisket recipe.
You can watch an online tribute to Nach which was sponsored by The New School for Social Research here.
Matt Sartwell, Managing Partner
Matt came to Kitchen Arts & Letters in 1991 after a career as a book editor. He’s the store generalist, doing a lot of weeknight cooking, occasional sweet and savory baking, preserving, and dabbling everywhere. Cookbooks are to him as shiny things to a magpie.
Matt handles most new title ordering, both domestic and foreign.
He is a former chair of the book committee of the James Beard Awards and a member of the IACP's Culinary Classics committee. He has sometimes been a guest on the Cooking Issues podcast, where he discusses classics in the field, noteworthy food books which may not be well known.
Laura Jackson, Sales Associate
Originally from the Southwest, Laura made her way to New York City to attend The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. Her initial interest in whole-foods based, vegetarian cuisine was superseded by an enduring sweet tooth, leading her to become a pastry chef.
After over fifteen years in restaurants, Laura is pursuing her food-related interests outside the professional kitchen. She assisted Nach with the out-of-print operations at Kitchen Arts & Letters for several years and now leads that program herself.
Gil Calderon, Sales Associate
Former chef, artist, and book collector–Gil Calderon has trained as a filmmaker at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and as a chef and butcher within Brooklyn's farm-to-table movement.
Born in the Upper East Side and raised between Queens and Toronto, Gil developed his cooking instincts at a young age by dint of unsupervised cooking sessions and untamed kitchen experimentation. He went on to produce large-scale food events throughout the Northeast during his decade-long cooking career.
Gil's culinary interests now center around nutrition, hyper-local and seasonal eating, as well as traditional cooking methods and techniques, in particular, regional home cooking and food preservation.
Chris Fry, Sales Associate
After graduating from The Culinary Institute of America in the mid-aughts, Chris spent years in the kitchens, wine cellars, and dining rooms of some of NYC’s most lauded restaurants.
Prior to his culinary career he received a degree in cultural anthropology and his interest in the local cuisines and customs of the world carry through to his interest in cookbooks. He’s always hunting for new flavors and time-honored recipes wherever people and food converge.
Amanda Whitt, Sales Associate
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Amanda is a historian and a tropical fruit enthusiast who came East to work as a barista back when latte art and cortados were still new and novel.
After working in New York and competing in barista competitions at a national level, they transitioned into bartending and worked at iconic bars within the craft cocktail world. They are now working on a masters degree in history, with a focus on oral history.
When they aren’t at work they love to draw, attend concerts, and enjoy cool snacks.
Renee Cohen, Sales Associate
Renee spent the first six years of her career in procurement for ice cream and condiments brands, managing relationships with suppliers and problem solving supply chain hiccups. Feeling the urge to be more hands-on, she attended the University of Gastronomic Sciences in northern Italy and received her Master’s in Applied Gastronomy: Culinary Arts.
Her curiosities then led her to Denmark, where she designed food experiences with a food artist. After graduating, she immersed herself in southern India, exploring the diversity of its regional food scene by visiting different communities and meeting people who grow and make food.
