This homespun cookbook project feeds restaurant workers in need

Your next favorite meal might not come from your favorite chef, but it could help to feed them. Thanks to a new, grassroots cookbook, you can learn how to make sesame miso tahini dressing from L.A., mjadara from New York City, Spanish tortillas out of Miami or makeshift pho from Fairfield, Connecticut, and 100 percent of the e-book's proceeds feed unemployed restaurant workers around the country.

Part community, part "here's what's working for me" and part aspirational guide, Quarantine Cookbook includes more than 30 recipes submitted by friends and friends-of-friends of the book's organizer, home cook Alexis Weinhaus. They're less of a how-to on restaurant-perfect plating and technique—though there's a little of that, too—and more of a voyeuristic peek into the lives of home cooks around the country making the most of their time in the kitchen.

There are dishes for two (red curry with roasted vegetables), dishes for one (the solo frittata, submitted by Weinhaus herself) and kid-friendly dishes for the family (banana "sushi" wraps), all shared as culinary coping mechanisms for quarantine.

"I was working from home, as most people are, and looking at my Instagram feed constantly and started seeing so many of my friends posting amazing food," Weinhaus says. "Obviously a lot of people were jumping on the sourdough bandwagon, but people were cooking up a storm and posting amazing things. Simultaneously through Instagram I started seeing all of these posts from my favorite local restaurants about how they were pivoting their business and/or closing or having to let go of their employees, and I started to see places like Sqirl in Silver Lake feeding unemployed workers. I thought, 'Wow, what an amazing industry, the way they’re banding together.'"

That connection to Sqirl wound up shaping the project. The tech professional who grew up in a family of cooks wanted this e-book to mean something, to help others and to get aid to industry pros immediately. She set her sights on two organizations helping feed furloughed and out-of-work restaurant employees: No Us Without You, a Los Angeles-based group feeding undocumented workers and their families, and the LEE Initiative, a nonprofit feeding workers in 19 cities across the country—including Sqirl in L.A.

Those looking to get the book in their inbox can make a $10 minimum donation over Paypal, sent to @quarantinecookbook. From there, donations are split evenly between the two organizations, which Weinhaus sends in batches; within a week of book launch, the project sold more than 50 copies and raised just over $1,000.

And while the book spotlights home cooks from all walks, it also features recipes from a few industry pros: Michael Ayoub owns Brooklyn wood-fired pizzeria Fornino, but at home it's all about comfort, so his daughter, Ashley, submitted the goods on how he creates a paprika-spiced chicken cutlet sandwich when keeping things casual for the family. Conversely, Lady Jay's and Three Diamond Door owner Myles Atherton and his wife, Melissa, share a slightly more involved sausage and kale pasta.

"It’s not professional by any means, but I’m proud of how it turned out," Weinhaus says. "I think it looks great, and people are already texting me to say, 'Oh I made the Spanish omelet that’s in the book,' and someone made one of my soups, so it’s nice—people are actually using it."

Quarantine Cookbook is now available for download. Simply send a minimum donation of $10 through Paypal to receive your copy, with 100 percent of the proceeds benefiting No Us Without You and the LEE Initiative.