About us
Cookbooks worth cooking from.
ChefCravings started with a love of cooking, and a frustration we could never shake. Every cookbook we owned was full of recipes we'd never make. You buy a book for three hundred dishes to get the twenty you actually cook. The rest just takes up space on the shelf.
So we did something about it.
Our story
Over the past few years, we've built something we're proud of: a library of thousands of genuinely good recipes. Authentic dishes, real flavors, the kind of food you actually want to cook. Not filler. Not padding. Recipes that earn their place.
And then we handed it to you.
Instead of buying someone else's cookbook and hoping you like enough of it, you build your own, choosing only the dishes you love, from a collection we've spent years perfecting. Your favorites, your cuisines, your book. No recipe you'll never make. No pages you'll never open.
Real pages
This is what a recipe looks like in the book.
Not a mockup. Three recipes from our library, rendered in the same layout that goes to print: the photo on one page, the ingredients and the method on the other.
Baked Feta Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
The dish that arguably started the whole era of one-pan viral dinners, and it has stayed in rotation because the method genuinely works. A whole block of feta roasted until it slumps emulsifies with the burst tomatoes into a sauce with no cream involved. Use a block in brine rather than pre-crumbled, which is drier and will not melt the same way.
35–55min
Time4
servingsEasy
LevelMain
TypeIngredients
11- 14oz block of feta, in brine
- 13/4 lb cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cupolive oil
- 6garlic cloves, whole and peeled
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspcrushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tspfine sea salt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 14oz rigatoni or penne
- Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- A large handful of fresh basil, torn
- 1
Heat the oven to 400 F. Put the cherry tomatoes and whole garlic cloves into a baking dish.
- 2
Toss them with 4 tbsp of the olive oil, the oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- 3
Push the tomatoes to the edges and set the whole block of feta in the middle, then pour the remaining oil over the cheese.
- 4
Bake for 35 minutes, until the tomatoes have burst and the feta has slumped and browned at the edges.
- 5
Meanwhile cook the pasta according to the package, reserving a cup of the water before draining.
- 6
Mash the hot feta into the tomatoes with a fork, crushing the softened garlic cloves in as you go, until it forms a sauce.
- 7
Add the drained pasta with a good splash of the reserved water and toss until every piece is coated.
- 8
Stir in the lemon zest and juice, then serve with plenty of torn basil.
Chopped Cheese Sandwich
The New York bodega sandwich that finally got its due outside the five boroughs. What separates it from a cheesesteak is that the beef is chopped flat on the griddle with the edge of a spatula while it cooks, so it stays crumbly rather than sliced. Melt the cheese directly onto the meat in the pan, then scoop the whole thing into the roll in one go.
15–35min
Time4
servingsEasy
LevelLunch
TypeIngredients
13- 11/2 lb ground beef, 80 percent lean
- 2 tbspvegetable oil
- 1large onion, finely chopped
- 2 tspfine sea salt
- 1 tspblack pepper
- 1 tspgarlic powder
- 8slices American cheese
- 4sub rolls, split
- 6 tbspmayonnaise
- 2 tbspketchup
- 1head iceberg lettuce, shredded
- 3tomatoes, sliced
- Sliced pickles, to serve
- 1
Whisk the mayonnaise and ketchup together and spread it inside the split rolls.
- 2
Heat the oil in a large flat skillet or griddle over high heat and add the beef in one mass.
- 3
Let it sit untouched for 2 minutes to develop a crust, then start chopping it flat with the edge of a spatula.
- 4
Keep chopping and spreading for 4 minutes, until the meat is in small crumbly pieces and browned throughout.
- 5
Add the onion, salt, pepper and garlic powder and cook for another 4 minutes, chopping it into the meat as it softens.
- 6
Divide the mixture into four rough piles in the pan and lay two slices of cheese over each one.
- 7
Cover the pan for 1 minute so the cheese melts completely, then scoop each pile into a prepared roll in one motion.
- 8
Top with shredded lettuce, tomato and pickles and serve immediately.
Crookies
A Paris bakery split a croissant, packed it with cookie dough and broke the internet. It works because a day-old croissant has dried out enough to absorb butter from the dough without collapsing, so fresh ones are actually the wrong choice. Use raw cookie dough, not baked cookies, and press it right into the layers.
30–50min
Time8
servingsEasy
LevelBaking
TypeIngredients
11- 8day-old croissants
- 11/3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cuplight brown sugar
- 1/3 cupgranulated sugar
- 1egg
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 13/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tspbaking soda
- 3/4 tspfine sea salt
- 9oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 tspflaky sea salt
- 1
Beat the softened butter with both sugars for 3 minutes, until pale and light.
- 2
Beat in the egg and vanilla, then fold in the flour, baking soda and fine salt until just combined.
- 3
Fold in two thirds of the chopped chocolate and chill the dough for 15 minutes so it firms up enough to handle.
- 4
Heat the oven to 350 F and line a sheet pan with parchment.
- 5
Split each croissant almost in half lengthwise, leaving a hinge at the back, and open it out.
- 6
Press a generous spoonful of cookie dough into the middle of each one, right into the layers, then close it and press another spoonful onto the top.
- 7
Push the remaining chocolate into the dough on top and set the croissants on the pan with space between them.
- 8
Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until the cookie dough is set at the edges but still soft in the middle, then scatter with flaky salt and cool for 10 minutes.
What you get
A real cookbook, composed to order and printed on demand, so what arrives is genuinely yours. Your name on the cover, your recipes inside, printed on warm, quality paper and made to be used.
The kind of book that lives on the counter, gets splashed and dog-eared, and gets cooked from on an ordinary Tuesday night.
That's the whole idea: not a cookbook full of recipes you'll never make, but one built entirely from the ones you will.