NOON is OUT (and on Broadway)!

I just arrived in New York, happy and overwhelmed, on the publication day of this book that means so much to me.

Noon (and NOON) is a gift to yourself, shape that time of the day so that it fits to your own cravings. Make it yours! Use this 1 hour, or these 30 minutes, to make yourself feel good. We plan so much in our lives, every day, we just refuse to often do so when it comes to our own, our very personal needs. And we all need a break but we associate the creation of that break with even more work. So the solution is to find ways (recipes) to reduce that work and time for the preparation of our lunch so that we actually have more time for ourselves when we finally sit down; time to relax and enjoy. I hope NOON can offer you these recipes, but even more, I hope it offers you inspiration to make noon yours.

If you don’t have your copy yet, you can find all the links to order it online here, or support local and buy, or order the book from any bookstore all over world. The chapters in NOON cover Salads, Vegetables, Soups, Sandwiches, Pasta, Seafood, Meat, and Grains & Bakes - so your midday break will definitely be sorted!

Good noon! Meike xxx

The picture of me on Broadway was taken today - right after I had landed in New York - in front of Rizzoli Bookstore where I‘ll be in conversation with Hetty Lui McKinnon on Thursday, September 7th at 6pm - come join us! (For more information, click here)

If you won’t be in New York this week, but if you happen to be in London on October 5th, you can join my conversation with Helen Goh at Building Feasts, hosted by Hanna Geller, with Lallier Champagne and snacks from NOON! (For more information, click here)

Tomato and Fig Caprese & the NOON Book Tour

No other season inspires me as much as late summer. The mesmerizing abundance of vegetables and fruit in August and September never ceases to wake up my appetite and makes me want to experiment with it in my kitchen. Seeing the colorful fresh produce spread out at the stalls at the weekly farmers market in my neighborhood feels like a holiday for the eyes and the taste buds. Tomatoes in various shapes, colors, and sizes, yellow and green zucchini, bent and plump, apricots, peaches, and figs, and little berries that burst in your mouth when you pop their skins with your teeth. Red and black currants, gooseberries, and raspberries, pair them with a bunch of fresh herbs and a quick vinaigrette and you have an exciting salad ready for lunch in less than five minutes.

The classic caprese, loved and adored every summer all over the world, is kind of the mother of all simple salads. You just need juicy tomatoes, creamy burrata (or stracciatella), torn basil leaves, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and pepper. Replacing the usual mozzarella with burrata or stracciatella, using olive oil that’s so good that you want to lick it off your fingers, and my sea salt from Gozo, are game changers in a simple caprese. One of the most important kitchen rules is so true: the less ingredients you use, the more you have to focus on the quality of each single one of them.

A good caprese is built on ripe tomatoes, picked at their peak, and that’s the tricky part. Even in August, even the prettiest tomatoes from your trusted farmer at the market can sometimes disappoint. And if they taste bland, they won’t make your dish shine either. To avoid this, I’ve come up with various experimental caprese recipes over the years, moving away from tradition and using all sorts of fruits and roots throughout the seasons; summer’s bounty of peaches, berries, and plums, or beet, persimmon, and orange in winter.

Until now, I always refused to pair tomato with another fruit, the combinations never really satisfied me. So at first, I was hesitant when I spotted purple figs lying on my kitchen counter and considered adding them to a classic caprese. But: the result was fantastic! The figs add concentrated sweetness without distracting from the tomato’s own qualities. They just make them taste a bit sweeter, somehow, they make them taste like very ripe summer tomatoes.

It’s a kitchen hack, kind of, that I wish I had figured out before I wrote my new book, NOON. Now the book is printed so I guess I have to use this hack for the next one. But before I jump into new adventures again, I’m ready to fully enjoy seeing NOON enter the world. On September 5th (September 19th for the German book), NOON will be on the shelves of bookstores all over the world (and on sale online) - and I will go on a little NOON book tour: New York, Berlin, and London!

Before I’ll let you enjoy your tomato and fig caprese (recipe below), I’m sharing the tour dates with you and the wonderful people who I’ll be in conversations with - and a quote from an (early) starred review for NOON:

“Move over, breakfast: lunch is about to become the most important meal of the day.”

―Library Journal

If you don’t want to wait until September, you can pre-order NOON here, or support local and pre-order from your neighborhood bookstore.

NOON BOOK TOUR

NEW YORK

• September 7th, 2023, 6pm: at Rizzoli Bookstore, with Hetty Lui McKinnon, RSVP here (not required, but seating is limited and will be first come, first served)

BERLIN

• September 19th, 2023: in conversation with Billy Wagner of Nobelhart & Schmutzig (by invitation only)

LONDON

• October 5th, 2023, 7pm: at Building Feasts, with Helen Goh, hosted by Hanna Geller, ticketed event (to book a ticket, click here or email Hanna at info@buildingfeasts.com)

Thank you, Lallier Champagne, for sponsoring the NOON Book Tour!

Tomato and Fig Caprese

Serves 1

• 3 medium, very ripe tomatoes (preferably in various colors), sliced

• 2 figs, cut in half lengthwise

• 4 ounces / 110g burratta (or stracciatella or mozzarella di bufala)

• olive oil

• balsamic vinegar

• flaky sea salt

• ground pepper

• a small handful of red or green basil leaves

Spread the tomatoes on a large plate and arrange the figs and burrata on top. Drizzle with a little olive oil and vinegar, season with a little salt and pepper, and sprinkle with basil. Enjoy immediataley!

NOON - my new cookbook

I decided to write a new cookbook! It's called NOON, it will come out in September 2023, and it's published by Chronicle Books (US / UK / World, out on 9/05/2023) and by Prestel Verlag (Germany, out on 9/20/2023).

Since my last book, 365, came into the world in 2019, a lot has changed. Globally, personally, it felt like the world turned upside down and I turned with it. So for a long time, I had no idea if I would ever write a book again and if so, what this book would be about. Until January 2022. A dinner at my place with my friend Gabi changed everything. Gabi runs a cafe in my neighborhood, which I visit often, rather daily, for a good cappuccino and an even better chat. Over the pandemic and many conversations about food, the arts, and life in general, we became friends.

During our dinner, we munched on oysters, braised beef shanks, bone marrow on crostini, and cheese - and discussed Gabi's lunch misery when she's at work. Although I've always worked from home, it wasn't new to me that many are struggling making satisfying lunch choices, being at home or out at work. So for days I didn't think about our conversation; until one cold afternoon, when I was sitting on a bench in a park close to my flat. It had snowed the night before, the sky cleared up, and the low winter sun was hitting me right in my frozen face.

I will never understand what exactly happened in that moment but all of a sudden the vision for my 3rd cookbook was fully there. The title, NOON, the concept and angle, and the 115 recipes came together in less than a week. It didn't actually feel like work, I just had to sit down and let it pour out of me.

For updates about Pre-Ordering NOON and about my NOON Book Tour, click here.

So here I am, not even four months later, sitting right now in the cafe where everything started, chatting with my friend Gabi while I'm writing these words. All the recipes are written down and cooked, the pictures are taken, and I think I never felt happier, more satisfied, and more at ease with a book of mine than with NOON. I still love my first two books, eat in my kitchen and 365, but I think I've never been so at peace with myself as I am now, which makes the work flow very intuitive.

But what is this book about? The recipes are fun, quick and simple, perfect for lunch - but also for dinner. The dishes are based on exciting flavors and combinations, not many ingredients; rather choosing the ones that enhance taste and decrease stress and labor. The focus is on vegetables but there are also meat and seafood dishes. It's basically about food that makes us feel good, that we can share with others but also enjoy just for ourselves. NOON stands for a feeling, recurring during the cycle of each day, a desire for a break, for something uplifting, for some time for ourselves and our very own needs.

NOON is dedicated to 3 women and a 3-year-old: For Anne, her daughter, Gabi, and Laurel. To friendship.

Seeing that I always share a recipe in a blog post, I will share one of the first recipes that led to NOON. It's so simple, using pantry staples, or products that are easy to get. It seems like the weirdest combination - but it‘s genius. Hummus and (uncooked) sauerkraut on a slice of crusty dark bread. It‘s so good that I couldn‘t believe it and had to turn to my friend Laurel Kratochvila of Fine Bagels in Berlin for consultation: “Hummus and sauerkraut? I‘ve never had it before but it makes sense – a good hit of acid!“ You can use homemade hummus or get it from your favorite deli.

The picture of me is by Anne Deppe.