Molly Baz Wants To Write About America’s Best Diners

Her cookbooks, or at least one of them, are most likely on your kitchen counter. Her culinary tutorials grace your feed, if not your explore page, and will likely inspire your next meal. Her simple sando recipes live rent-free in your head. The people’s princess of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks knows how to get your attention with food. And when it comes to the internetization of cooking, it’s easy to argue that Molly Baz did it first.

The two-time New York Times bestselling author got her start at Epicurious as a recipe taster. She then went to Bon Appétit as a food editor, where she helped pioneer the magazine’s sensational YouTube page. Like many millennials who grew up on a heavy content diet, she was savvy from the start. Creating short stories around food and capturing recipe tutorials came quickly to the editor, who soon made it on her own as a culinary creatory. She then published her first book, Cook This Book: Techniques that Teach and Recipes to Repeat, in 2021. Her second, More is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen, came in 2023. Now, Baz is working on her third book.

We caught up with the Los Angeles-based chef while she is putting the finishing touches on her forthcoming work. Since becoming a mom, she’s learned to accept a baby palette (spoiler alert: he loves bananas and pickles), but her affinity for making a full, proper Thanksgiving meal remains.

MO: What's the last thing you cooked? As in, right before reading this question. Who was it for and what was special about it?

MB: Real talk, I just finished filming a how to video for this incredddddibly delicious Turkey Au Jus sandwich feat. Ayoh Dill pickle mayo, and your thanksgiving leftovers. After slathering a hoagie roll in Dill pickle mayo, and piling it high with shaved leftover turkey .you dunk the whole thing in a ranchy gravy /dunking broth situation. Oh my god is it good.

MO: What's been the most surprising response thus far to any of your published cookbooks?

MB: The recipes that end up sticking! Sometimes the most seemingly random recipe in the book becomes a breakout hit–it just resonates with people in ways I could never predict. The Cold ‘n Crunchy Green Beans from Cook This Book are a perfect example. People will come up to me on the street and tell me they make them every Sunday night. It blows my mind. I mean, they are outrageous, but who knew green beans would hit??

MO: Who are 3 celebs that you would die to find out they are using your recipes, or someone you were starstruck to find out cooks your recipes?

MB: I recently found out that Sarah Jessica Parker discovered me, and wants to make my recipe for “A Really Great Steak”. She DM’d me asking where she could find it, and whether it was in my cookbooks or in my recipe club. I almost died.

MO: You're a mom now. What is your kid's favorite thing that you make?

MB: At the moment he is obsessed with bananas. Which is kind of disappointing to me, because I want it to be something more on brand. I expose him to so much! And yet his palate craves a banana. His first food was a dill pickle which he loved (followed by a mandatory taste of Ayoh Dill pickle mayo–also a hit), so I gotta give him a lil cred. A few weeks ago he ate an entire pint container of Spanish olives for dinner. That felt really right.

MO: Do you think cooking is a love language?

MB: It’s a cheesy way to frame it but I can’t disagree. Cooking is how I show love to both myself, and my people. I want everyone I can possibly reach (including myself!) to be eating as deliciously at possible at all times. That’s how I show love. I know what it feels like when you eat something truly extraordinary. My whole body starts tingling. I want to share that experience with everyone.

MO: What's your love language?

MB: Physical touch! KISS ME IN PUBLIC! That’s literally all I need, I could care less about actual gifts.

MO: What would younger you think about what you're doing now?

MB: I think she’d look at me and say “I always knew you’d find your way into the kitchen.” That’s my happy place. It’s where I spent my time when my career began working as a line cook, and it’s where I spend most of my days now doing whatever this is that I do. The kitchen is where I go to find magic.

MO: We celebrate writers and their stories at Byline. If you were to write something that was not a cookbook, what would it be?

MB: I’ve always wanted to research and write a book that takes a historical deep dive into America’s oldest, most iconic divey-restaurants, diners, and lunch counters. These are my favorite spots to visit when I’m out of town. I want to eat at the dingiest, most storied restaurant in town. Those types of restaurants that haven’t changed a lick since they first opened and are artifacts of a period in time I can no longer access.