Berkeleys Best Takeout and Delivery
Hello and happy back-to-school time! I know that some people lament the waning days of summer, but I am here for early fall. I love the rituals of September—new backpacks still stiff in the straps, clean white sneakers, freshly sharpened pencils at the ready. When I was a student, I relished the predictable and familiar cadence of the school year, and I am only now realizing how much I’ve missed it over the past decade. My oldest son, Arthur, started his first days at preschool last week, so I feel like our family is just at the starting line of a whole new crop of school years to come, and I am pumped for them!
Speaking of school, by the time you are reading this, I’ll be teaching my cookbook class at L’Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, Italy. The masters students come from all over the world to study in this program, and I can hardly wait to meet them and learn about their particular interests. It’s such an honor to share what I know about cookbooks and recipe writing and publishing. Sometimes I feel like this job must be a dream?
The weeks leading up to our travel abroad have been busy. I’ve reviewed copyedits for my next cookbook, which is a follow-up to The Newlywed Table (coming in 2024!), and I cannot wait to tell you lots more about that. I’m also working on a very exciting new book project, a collaboration with a wonderful person who is inspiring me at every turn. More on that book soon too!
And to be candid, I haven’t been spending a whole lot of time in the kitchen lately. Even just cooking something (anything!) for dinner feels like a small miracle when there’s a cute toddler running around and a snuggly baby who really just wants to be held all the time. I do occasionally miss the slow, almost meditative style of cooking, but I know I’ll do it again one day.
So! Instead of offering a recipe for this month, I thought I’d share something a little bit different: my favorite takeout restaurants in Berkeley. When we were preparing for baby Lewis’s birth, our friend Shawna put together a meal train for us (you can read more about that here) and included a list of our favorite local take-out and delivery spots. This list seems too good not to share with you! Whether you live in the Bay Area or are planning to visit Berkeley sometime soon, I hope you find these recommendations useful.
In no particular order, my favorite Berkeley (and some Oakland) restaurants that offer excellent takeout are:
The taco truck that parks next to the Hotsy Totsy
Happy eating! Now, if you’ll excuse me, when I taught my class in Italy last year, I was newly pregnant with Lewis and couldn’t enjoy the country’s incredible wine. I need to make up for it this year!
See you in October,
Maria
P.S. I’ve been loving seeing my new book, COOK COLOR, out in the world! Thank you for sharing your pics of it in bookstores across the country and thank you for cooking such beautiful foods from it. If you don’t yet have your copy, right this way:
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