ABOUT

Meike Peters I Eat In My Kitchen

Meike Peters is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, food and travel writer. She started her food blog, Eat In My Kitchen, in 2013, wrote her first book of the same name (published by Prestel) in 2016 and won James Beard General Cookbook of the Year in 2017. In October 2019, she returns with a new cookbook, 365 – A Year of Everyday Cooking & Baking, to treat yourself to a year of home cooking, with a recipe for every day of the year. 

Together with her partner, Jamie, she lives in Berlin and in Malta. “His father’s American, his mother from Malta, and uniting the best from both continents in an irresistible mix, he brought the Mediterranean into my (very German) way of thinking, my cooking, and especially into my humor.”

“Food has been one of the greatest passions of my life since the day I was born – according to my mother – and it continues to be so thanks to my bottomless appetite, to traveling to kitchens around the world, and all the inspiring people that join this journey.”

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My food is in my hands. Whatever I buy, whatever I cook and eat—it’s all up to me. My mother and grandmothers introduced me to the marvelous everyday pleasures of the kitchen. I was a young child, but watching them create fantastic treats with such ease and satisfaction impressed me and sparked my lifelong love of food. Through them I understood that it is a sensory process that leads to an unforgettable meal. The idea for a recipe is only the start. Before the cutting, searing, and stirring even begins, smelling and choosing fresh fruits and vegetables at the market, or picking a nice piece of meat at the butcher or a warm loaf of bread at the bakery is what turns a simple dish into something greater. When I sit down at the table, on my own or with family and friends, I enjoy every single bite to the fullest. It is pure bliss created by my own two hands. If there isn’t much time, I keep it simple, with only a few ingredients tossed together in half an hour, but I won’t skip it. To cook, to bake, to eat, and to treat is my daily feast.

My culinary education is rooted in hearty German comfort food, with strong influences from French and Italian cuisine. It all started with my mother who is my biggest inspiration in the kitchen. She’s a fabulous cook, a wonderful host, and she introduced my young taste buds to the pleasures of fine olive oil and the generous use of Mediterranean herbs and garlic, along with France’s elaborate classical dishes and Italy’s simple but scrumptious pastas. Although I grew up in western Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia, most of the traditional German recipes I cook originated in the South of the country. I learned to love them through my Swabian stepfather who brought wonderful treats like Spätzle and Maultaschen to our table. Our lavish family gatherings aroused an unstoppable appetite for traditional homemade cakes, and led to my huge passion for baking, which I continue to indulge in, especially on cozy weekends.

My kitchen journey continued when my man came into my life, bringing with him the culinary traditions of his Maltese mother and American father. Spending summers in Malta, on the warm edge of Europe, sixty misty miles from Sicily, easily changes the mind, humor, and cooking of a German girl. My Mediterranean family brought lots of love and laughter into my life and many new recipes and habits into my kitchen. Similar to Sicily, the cuisine of Malta has strong Arabic influences and features warming spices like cumin, coriander, and fennel, as well as the concentrated zest and juice of lemons, tangerines, and oranges, which add depth, flowery fruitiness, and tangy edge. For this reason, I use citrus in almost everything, especially when it comes from my Maltese mama’s garden. My partner’s American family bestowed upon me a new love for luscious sandwiches, chunky cookies, and Sunday morning muffins. The size of my burgers also grew dramatically, but besides this, I learned to be more free and experimental and less traditional in how I think about ingredient combinations for my recipes.

This is my culinary map and I’m thankful for every single influence and experience. I combine and make use of everything I’ve learned—cooking, baking, and eating based on what I’ve seen, smelled, and tasted in the world. New ideas, trusted family classics, and culinary traditions melt into each other and turn into delicious treats to be savored at the long wooden table in our old flat on one of Berlin’s wide boulevards.

The seed for my deep fascination with food was sown early—maybe it’s been there from the start. An old photograph from when I was a baby—I couldn’t even walk yet—shows me toothlessly licking the last pieces off a chicken bone with such persistence that it seems obvious where my passion would take me. Years later, in November 2013, I decided to write about my kitchen adventures, and share my experiences here on my blog, on eat in my kitchen. Not knowing what it would lead to, I simply enjoyed exchanging tips and recipes with readers all over the world. We are all connected through the universal language of food, and inspire each other with our different cultures and creations.

I love to end my day in the kitchen; it relaxes me. Listening to music, enjoying a glass of wine with some nibbles—a bit of cheese, some olives or grapes—turns the cooking experience into a greater pleasure. The meals that follow are some of my most treasured memories, and are a big part of who I am. The food we choose to create and eat, the way we set up the room where it all happens, and the importance we give it in our lives says a lot about who we are. This is what I was curious about when I started the interview series Meet In Your Kitchen on the blog. Each guest shares a personal recipe and their views and stories about food, so it offers a real and honest insight into someone’s life through their kitchen.

I feel thankful for all the great feedback I receive and I love to hear your questions and suggestions if you tried out some of my recipes. If you have any questions about eat in my kitchen please send me an email. If you don’t want to miss any of my posts feel free to subscribe here. If you want to share one of my pictures or recipes, whether online or in print, please get in touch for permission first. Thank you.

Meike xx

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COMING OCTOBER 2019

(in English and German) READ>>

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER

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2017 JAMES BEARD GENERAL COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR 

Eat In My Kitchen cookbook