So… what is Life, Death & Dinner?

Shit happens in life, and you still have to get dinner on the table. Life, Death & Dinner is—first and foremost—the place you’ll find reliable, accessible, unfussy recipes for everyday meals and any occasion or occurrence that comes your way.

Instead of complicated techniques, my recipes highlight good ingredients prepared simply—but with enough flair that some of your friends will call them “restaurant-quality.” (I know this from experience!) And yeah, you’ll end up learning some pretty cool, useful techniques along the way.

Life, Death & Dinner is other things too: It’s a memoir-in-progress about remembering loved ones through food and about cooking through grief and coming out the other side. It’s a podcast that asks chefs to talk about what in their lives motivated them to do what they do with food. (I’ll be rolling out a new season in the coming months.) It’s photography—of delicious dishes, sure, but also of captivating faces and places.

Who is Liza Schoenfein and why this Substack?

I'm a longtime food writer and recipe developer for publications including Elle, Epicurious, Civil Eats, Cooking Light, Cool Beans, Country Living, Fitness, New York magazine, Rachel Ray, The Robb Report, Saveur, and Self. I’m a former executive editor of Saveur, editor-in-chief of Goodhousekeeping.com, and food editor of the Forward. I wrote the “Cooking Light Healthy Sides Cookbook” and edited large sections of the great Mimi Sheraton’s “1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die.”

But who am I, really?

For a moment, I guess that was the question. When I was in my 40s and the beautiful life that I’d built began to unravel and ultimately fell apart, it was recipes that became the blueprint for gluing it back together. One minute I was testing recipes out on my magazine-editor husband and our kids, our friends, and extended family—my work and home lives very happily intertwined. The next, a series of compound losses—first of my mother, then a suddenly ruined marriage five months after a breast cancer diagnosis—left me with a life I hardly recognized. In that confounding sea of chaos, the act of planning and making meals—and keeping a record of the dishes I created and the circumstances that inspired them—became my anchor. At the stove, I’d feel the pressures of the day dissolve into whatever aromatic puddle of onions, garlic, and olive oil I stood stirring with a wooden spoon.

As I cooked, I came to understand that while life is full of impermanence, food can be a kind of scaffold, lending comfort and sustenance as needed, and that recipes—little chronicles of flavors and memories passed down over generations—could connect me to my family history while, crucially, rooting me firmly in the moment.

It occurred to me pretty quickly that cooking, for me, was about putting one foot in front of the other. Things happen in life, and you still have to get dinner on the table. That’s why I called my writing project Life, Death & Dinner.

I’ve been sharing recipes and menu ideas with readers, friends, and family members at every skill level imaginable for ages. That’s in large part what grounds me. I hope this accounting of my food doings will help inspire you in your own cooking journey, and maybe even offer you an assist during difficult times.

What you’ll find here

There will be recipes that I hope you’ll follow—while putting your own spin on them and hopefully sharing your experience! There will be images that I hope will spark your imagination and inspire you. And there will be a roll-out of the book I’ve been writing. (For me, that’s the scary part—an irony because I’m a private person who’s planning to share my most personal life experiences with anyone who cares to read them!)

Welcome to my world. It’s going to be a delicious ride.

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