Hi, I'm Lalada

I started this little corner of the internet from a third-floor walk-up in Brooklyn, with a gas stove that runs hot on one side and a stand mixer I inherited from my grandmother. I am not a chef. I am a person who cooks every single night, who tests every recipe a dozen times, and who believes the right olive oil and a hot pan can save almost any week.

For years I cooked privately — out of cookbooks, out of memory, out of the corners of my mother's recipe box. I started photographing it in 2020 because I missed having people over, and the photos became a journal: the lemon ricotta cake I made the week my niece was born, the brothy beans that got me through a hard February, the galette I bake every June without fail.

The recipes here are all mine — written, cooked and shot in this kitchen, photographed entirely on a 35mm camera my dad gave me. Nothing is sponsored unless I tell you it is. Nothing makes it onto the site unless I'd cook it again next week.

Thank you for being here. Pull up a stool, pour yourself something cold, and let's cook a little dinner together.