Inside Meghan Markle’s Cookbook Project, ‘Together’

The only celebrity human you should currently care about, Meghan Markle — also known to the world as the Duchess of Sussex — wrote a cookbook. Actually, she wrote the foreword to a cookbook, but because she is taking it upon her very regal self to promote said cookbook, and using the Queen’s funds to sponsor it, we can agree it’s almost like it’s her first cookbook (!!!).

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According to Kensington Palace, the book is really a collaborate effort: Together: Our Community Cookbook features recipes and photographs from the Hubb Community Kitchen, a group of women who cook together twice a week at the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre. (Hubb means “love” in Arabic.) The group formed after their community was shattered in the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which caused 72 deaths. Needing a new place to cook when so many of their homes had been destroyed, their bi-weekly cooking fests helped the whole community heal in the wake of tragedy. Markle joined the women several times, sharing in their cooking and feasting, and befriended many in the group.

Sponsoring a cookbook for a community in need is a generous gesture, even for a Royal whose job is, essentially, philanthropy. But some Brits are critical, as that community lies in the same neighborhood as Kensington Palace. In the fire’s aftermath, controversy swirled when Kensington Palace sold off buildings it owned nearby and made nearly $5 million — more than was spent to protect the Grenfell tower when it was being refurbished by its landlords, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Had more money been spent on its remodel, it might not have gone up in flames, according to a report in the Guardian.

PR campaign or not, Together looks like a beautiful collaboration cookbook for a good cause, and comes out on September 25. Recipes include green chili and avocado dip, coconut chicken curry, eggplant masala, Persian chicken with barberry rice, caramelized plum upside-down cake, and spiced mint tea. Proceeds from the book’s sales will go directly to the Hubb Community Kitchen. Also, watch Markle sparkle in the book’s trailer, below:

• The Duchess of Sussex Supports Cookbook Celebrating Community Kitchen [Official]