Tenderheart is a book about vegetables. It is also a story of unbreakable family bonds, love and loss, and the legacy of food as a way to stay connected to loved ones, including those who have passed.

In this masterwork from Australia’s most respected vegetable-loving food writer, Hetty Lui McKinnon takes readers on a vegetable-by-vegetable journey, packed with clever and inventive ways to combine ingredients, flavours and texture. With practicality, accessibility and economy in mind, Hetty devotes one chapter to each of her 22 favourite everyday vegetables, from Asian greens to zucchini. As is Hetty’s signature, the flavours are globally inspired, with an emphasis on simple yet inventive weeknight cooking.

180 new, inspired and always delicious recipes will change how you see the humble vegetable and what it is capable of, forever. This is the ultimate vegetable bible from Australia’s reigning salad queen.

7pm arrivals for 7:05pm start.

Tickets: $15 per person, which is redeemable on the night towards your cookbook purchase.

Pick up your $15 coupon when you check in at the front door. This coupon is only valid during the event on 27th September.

Please note: Eventbrite will add a small service fee. This does not count towards your coupon.

Fitted face masks are highly recommended when attending author events in the bookstore. If you are in need of a mask, one of our staff members can provide you with one.

Hetty Lui McKinnon is a cook and food writer with a passion for vegetables. In 2011, she established Arthur Street Kitchen, a local salad-delivery business run out of her home in Surry Hills, Sydney. In 2015, Hetty and her family relocated to Brooklyn, New York City, where she continues to cook and write about food.

Hetty is the author of four bestselling and award-winning cookbooks: Community, Neighbourhood, Family and To Asia, With Love. She is also the editor and publisher of food journal Peddler and hosts its podcast ‘The House Specials’. She is a regular recipe contributor to ABC Everyday, New York Times Cooking, Bon Appétit, Epicurious and Food & Wine.

Jennifer Wong is a Chinese-Australian writer, comedian, and MC based in Sydney. As a food enthusiast with a love of wordplay, she’s the presenter of Chopsticks or Fork?, a six-part AACTA-nominated ABC series on Chinese restaurants in regional Australia.

Jennifer has performed stand-up all over Australia, and in Edinburgh and Shanghai. Her most recent stand-up show, How to English Harder, sold out at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Belvoir St Downstairs.

As a broadcaster, Jennifer’s a regular guest on ABC Local Radio programs, and her work has aired on ABC Radio National shows such as Books and Arts, and Corona Tales. In 2016, she hosted 40 episodes of ABC iview’s Bookish, where she interviewed local and international writers about reading and writing.

She’s a regular guest on The Cook Up with Adam Liaw (SBS) and Celebrity Letters and Numbers (SBS).

As a writer, her work on mental health, food, and cultural identity has been published by ABC Everyday, ABC News, The Guardian, Broadsheet, Monocle, and SBS News. She currently writes a column for SBS Food called The Mostest.

Jennifer is also the curator of In Other Words, the writers and big ideas festival as part of the 2022 OzAsia Festival in Adelaide.