Hetty Lui McKinnon at the Cambridge Public Library

Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Hetty Lui McKinnon—James Beard Award-winning food writer and cook—for a discussion of her new cookbook Linger: Salads, Sweets and Stories to Savor. She will be joined in conversation by Irene Li—founder of Mei Mei Dumpling Company in South Boston and author of the cookbook Perfectly Good Food.

RSVP for free to this event or choose the "Book-Included" ticket to reserve a copy of Linger and pick it up at the event. Following the presentation will be a book signing.

Note: Books bundled with tickets may only be picked up at the venue the night of the event, and cannot be picked up in-store beforehand. Ticket holders who purchased a book-included ticket and are unable to attend the event will be able to pick up their book at Harvard Book Store up to 30 days following the event. This offer expires after 30 days. Please note we cannot guarantee signed copies will be available to ticket holders who do not attend the event.

“[My] culinary life began with salad. A charred broccoli salad, to be specific. Crispy florets tossed with chickpeas and cooling mint, flecked with red chilli pepper and zested lemon peel, bathed in a garlicky caper oil. That salad inspired me to consider possibilities. It ultimately led me here.”From her salad-delivery days in Sydney to her current career as a food writer and bestselling cookbook author in New York, Hetty Lui McKinnon has long known the power of salads to connect and create community. Salads are meant to be shared; they are what you bring to a gathering of friends or family, the ultimate comfort food.With Linger, Hetty has come full circle. Rather than delivering salads to members of her community, this time, she has invited friends into her home, to share salads, sweets and stories around her dining room table. Linger documents these intimate gatherings, with vegetable-laden, loosely seasonal menus enjoyed and photographed in real time.These salads are not just piles of leafy greens—they are beautiful, rich creations. In fact, one of McKinnon’s salad rules is that salads don’t always have to have leaves. Another salad rule? Anything can be a salad.With over 100 inventive recipes for meal-worthy salads, smaller bites and simple sweets, Hetty invites you to become a part of an unforgettable shared experience of community, food and friendship.

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a Chinese Australian cook and food writer. She is the author of five bestselling cookbooks, including her genre-defining Community; Neighborhood; Family; To Asia, With Love; and, most recently, Tenderheart, which won a James Beard Award and an IACP Award in 2024. Hetty is a regular contributor to New York Times Cooking and ABC Lifestyle and writes the popular weekly newsletter To Vegetables, With Love. Born and raised in Sydney, she now resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Irene Li started a food truck called Mei Mei Street Kitchen in 2012, opened a brick and mortar restaurant in 2013, and evolved that business into Mei Mei Dumpling Company in South Boston. She spent over a decade developing Mei Mei’s ethical sourcing and fair and transparent employment practices and was recognized for this work as the youngest winner of the James Beard Leadership Award in 2022. She has worked on farms, taught in prisons, and is a graduate of Cornell University. Irene serves on the boards of Project Bread, the Independent Restaurant Coalition, The Food Project, and Spoonfuls. She recently released the sustainability cookbook Perfectly Good Food, which she co-authored with her sister.

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.

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