Los Angeles is nearly four months removed from the wildfires that destroyed more than 18,000 homes and structures in January, but much of the damage remains — both emotional and material. One L.A. shop is hoping to provide comfort to those who’ve lost their homes, even if it provides only a semblance of normalcy, by restoring cookbooks.
On Thursday, cookbook store Now Serving announced a new initiative called Friends of the Shop. It’s a call to action that will allow anyone to purchase specific cookbooks requested by those who’ve lost their collections in the fires.
“[It’s] hearing the stories of how they’re attached to [a cookbook] or what it means to them, and just being able to give them a little piece of something that feels familiar,” says Michelle Mungcal, who operates the Chinatown shop with her husband, Ken Concepcion. “We’ll never be able to replace whatever edition of ‘The Joy of Cooking’ your dad gave you, but if you can see that on your shelf and it makes you think of that, it means something.”
In the months since the fires, Mungcal says that Now Serving has seen multiple customers shopping to replace lost cookbook collections; this upcoming series of fundraisers and donation drives might help survivors “build a sense of home” no matter what their current home might look like.
The cookbook shop is joining other members of L.A.’s culinary community in helping those affected by the fires. Authors, chefs and food writers such as Molly Baz, Natasha Feldman Bauch and Jess Damuck have hosted community events and giveaways for kitchen appliances, pantry items and more in an effort to help those who’ve lost their homes rebuild their lives — even as some of them have themselves lost their homes.
The initiative, Mungcal says, has been in the works since they finished processing the experience of the fires themselves. Mungcal, Concepcion and their daughter live in Pasadena, three blocks from the closest burn zone. Friends lost their homes, colleagues lost their homes, their daughter’s teacher lost their home.
“It definitely has impacted the community we live in, personally,” Mungcal says, “so once we settled into our footing a little bit, we knew that we wanted to be able to help in some way.”
The first phase of the project is now live: a questionnaire on the Now Serving website where those who’ve lost their homes and cookbook collections can enter up to 10 book titles they hope to receive, as well as their preference of a new book, a used book or any condition.
The Now Serving team has also begun listing the titles requested, which can then be purchased by those who’d like to help. The process was in part inspired by another local small business, apron company Hedley & Bennett, whose “wake up and fight” initiative helped keep it afloat during the pandemic. For every mask purchased, Hedley & Bennett donated a mask to first responders and other essential workers.
“The reality is that as a small bookstore we can’t give away books, unfortunately,” Mungcal says. “It helps us to sell some books at a time that’s very hard for small businesses, and then also be able to pay it forward a little bit.”
Mungcal also plans to reach out to publishers and authors to inquire about donating specific cookbook titles that have been requested by those in need.
The team also has a plan for cookbooks that might be more expensive to replace, such as rare or out-of-print editions: Merchandise featuring art by Nathaniel Russell — who also designed the announcement poster for Friends of the Shop — will help fundraise, as will raffles, which will be ongoing. These raffles could include Substack subscriptions or cooking classes by more cookbook authors, content creators and others in the food industry. Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, Ruth Reichl, Nik Sharma, Hetty McKinnon and Liz Prueitt are some of the authors who have already stepped up.
Questions of how people can donate their own cookbook collections to the cause are already pouring in; Now Serving hopes to organize donation drives in the future, perhaps for an event in July, six months from the fires’ havoc. They envision a free pickup day of cookbooks and possibly donations from brands of new kitchen items for fire survivors, similar to the Stock That Pantry event that cookbook author Baz hosted in February.
The road to recovery — and even to recovering these cookbooks — will be a long one, Mungcal says; she wants people to know that there will be weeks and months ahead with chances to donate and help L.A.’s cookbook-loving community.
For raffle, event and donation announcements, follow Now Serving on Instagram at @nowservingla. Now Serving is located in Chinatown’s Far East Plaza at 727 N. Broadway, Unit 133.
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