As a bona fide cook­book lover, I can tell you that it is rare that I would describe a cook­book as ​“sexy.” How­ev­er, sexy is exact­ly what Jake Cohen’s new, host­ing-for­ward cook­book is. With an inside bind­ing that is leop­ard print, an assort­ment of menus with cheeky titles like ​“Grills Gone Wild” and ​“Meat­balls to the Wall,” and a seem­ing­ly end­less assort­ment of pho­tographs of Jake and friends star­ing long­ing­ly into the cam­era while hold­ing forks laden with every­thing from roast­ed cab­bage to falafel to lush choco­late cake shroud­ed in vel­vety choco­late icing and topped with a crown of rasp­ber­ries, Din­ner Par­ty Ani­mal is unde­ni­ably flir­ty and irreverent. 

Din­ner Par­ty Ani­mal offers a range of breezy and healthy-ish menu plans for all sorts of meals Cohen envi­sions you hav­ing. The book starts strong — in a nod to his large­ly Jew­ish fan­base — with a menu titled ​“Bagel Bonan­za.” The menu itself amps up tra­di­tion­al dish­es — wasabi lime tuna and dirty mar­ti­ni-cured salmon — but oth­er­wise sticks to the clas­sics. As with his pre­vi­ous cook­books, Cohen brings Per­sian influ­ences into play and remains mind­ful of dietary restric­tions. One of his menus is entire­ly veg­an and gluten-free, fea­tur­ing kale sal­ad, tofu cur­ry, and hal­va-stuffed dates for dessert. Cohen brings the same ener­gy to these alter­na­tive options as he does to the more tra­di­tion­al crowd-pleasers. Meat eaters can rest assured there are many options for them as well.“Steak and Cake” anyone?

In keep­ing with his user-mind­ed approach to cook­book writ­ing and recipes, the back of the book includes a com­pre­hen­sive list of every recipe in the book. Cohen’s saf­fron pan­na cot­ta, roast­ed toma­to hal­lou­mi sal­ad, and steamed white fish with caramelized fen­nel and green olive sal­ad are excel­lent choic­es for this hol­i­day season. 

While the cook­book includes many Jew­ish influ­ences — there is a whole menu devot­ed to updat­ed Ashke­nazi clas­sics (“Shtetl Chic”) — this is Cohen’s first cook­book that is not explic­it­ly Jew­ish. While there are a few menus, as men­tioned, with Jew­ish ele­ments, there is noth­ing inher­ent­ly Jew­ish about din­ner par­ties (although one could argue Shab­bat is, in its essence, a big din­ner par­ty). Hope­ful­ly, more peo­ple than ever before will enjoy Jake Cohen’s recipes.