Kimchi Grilled Cheese and Honey Garlic Chicken from Umma
The Cookbook That Made Me Cry (In a Good Way)
Welcome to The Flavor Files! 🎉 This is where I dive into my love for cooking, flavor, and food science—because delicious food deserves a little curiosity.
Craving more recipes? Find them all at Nik Sharma Cooks.
Still haven’t grabbed my latest cookbook, Veg-Table? You can get it here—it’s packed with veggie magic. 🌱✨
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Now, let’s get cooking! 🔥
Hey Friends,
Miss me? I missed you! I took a little two-week pause from the newsletter—not to sip a margarita under a palm tree, sadly. I was deep in the cookbook trenches, juggling flour, chestnuts, and a camera. I wrapped up testing and photographing all 100 recipes for my fourth cookbook, and I needed every minute to crank through the mountain of photos. When I shoot, I prefer to tackle one chapter at a time so everything looks cohesive; think of it as visual feng shui but with more butter stains. This also means fewer reshoots, and my book designer is happier.
Then I zipped over to Boston for a few days for rehearsals for Season 26 of America’s Test Kitchen (!!!). I got to hang out with the brilliant and fabulous Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, the queens of calm kitchen confidence. They’re funny, and the most challenging part was trying to keep a straight face during rehearsals. The iconic
popped in the test kitchen on Friday and we worked on something fun with Dan Souza! She tasted the hoshigaki (I made last year with my buddy, Rie) —no pressure at all, offering homemade dried persimmons to one of the greatest bakers ever. She approved! Dorie smiled and said her mother loved persimmons—and would have absolutely adored these. Safe to say, my heart grew three sizes. 🧡
The test kitchen was buzzing like a beehive on espresso. I taste-tested cookies, cinnamon rolls, and pasta dishes—it was carb heaven. I cooked a few new dishes for the team to try and filmed something fun that will be out later this year.
Oh, and on the non-cooking front, we fell into a not-new-but-new-to-me TV obsession: Drops of God. If you’re into flavor (which, let’s face it, you are), this show is a wild ride. Based on a manga series by Tadashi Agi and illustrated by Shu Okimoto, wine tasting is turned into an Olympic-level emotional experience. Expect poetic aroma metaphors, family drama, and plot twists worthy of a telenovela. Highly recommend.
You’ve definitely heard of that book, unless you live under a rock made of uncooked rice. It’s the most talked about cookbook right now, and rightly so.
This week’s newsletter is a special shoutout to one of my favorite upcoming releases: Umma: A Korean Mom’s Kitchen Wisdom and 100 Family Recipes by the dynamic mother-daughter duo Sarah Ahn and Nam Soon Ahn, in collaboration with the wizards over at America’s Test Kitchen (April 2025).
I’ve been following Sarah Ahn on Instagram for a few years now, and from the moment I stumbled across her page, I was hooked—not just by the food (though wow), but by the deep sense of love and family that shines through everything she shares. Her posts always feel like a cozy seat at her family’s table—complete with laughter, kimchi, and the occasional cameo from her adorable dog, MayBee, who might be the fluffiest sous-chef on the internet. (Paddington would be jealous of MayBee’s meals).
When I finally sat down with her new book, Umma, I didn’t just read it—I felt it. I stayed up late that first night, turning pages, laughing, tearing up, and bookmarking nearly everything. It’s a book that hugs you back. It’s something we all need right now.
Last Sunday, we went to Sarah’s book signing at Perilla in L.A. I finally met her (I meet Sarah on Zoom calls for work) and her amazing mom, Nam, the original “Umma.” She’s every bit as lovely and generous as the stories in the book. Watching them together, signing books, and sharing stories was like witnessing a living cookbook in action.
Get Umma: Available on (Amazon/Bookshop).
This isn’t just a collection of recipes. It’s a legacy. A love letter. A reminder that food is so much more than what’s on the plate—it’s who we share it with (pets included).
Get Umma: Available on (Amazon/Bookshop).
Now, let’s talk food. I’ve got two standout recipes from Umma that I can’t stop thinking about, and can’t wait to see you make them.
Kimchi Grilled Cheese – Think melty, crunchy, tangy, funky, and salty, all hanging out in a sandwich that delivers all five tastes and then some. It’s the lovechild of comfort food and flavor science. This isn’t just kimchi and cheese; a lot of flavor magic is layered throughout.
Honey Garlic Chicken—This one’s easy enough to whip up on a weeknight but fancy enough to pretend you planned it. It's sticky, sweet, and savory, and it's the kind of dish that makes you lick the spoon and not even pretend to be sorry.
Big flavors. Big feelings. Big fan.
More delicious things soon,
Nik
I just love the way you write - so generous to everyone you speak about. You remind me of my late friend Floyd Cardoz. He was also very generous. My husband and I took cooking lessons from him at his restaurant Tabla while we were waiting to adopt our daughter from China. We became friends with he and his wife. You remind me of him and just like with Floyd, you have taught me so many things about enhancing flavor. I love all of your books and can't wait to see you on ATK.