Julia Turshen is a prolific food personality who’s authored five solo cookbooks and collaborated with everyone from Hawa Hassan to Gwyneth Paltrow, but for her latest project, she’s stepping out of her culinary comfort zone and into the booming world of literary romance.

Turshen’s 831 Stories novella Down to Earth, a rollicking, tender, and sexy read about a single mom who moves to the fictional upstate New York town of Sungold and falls for a vegetable farmer, came out this week. Below, find the six books that helped Turshen craft the inimitable and gloriously queer world of Down to Earth, from a food-centric romance novel to a classic restaurant cookbook with a killer roast chicken recipe.

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory

Jasmine Guillory’s books were the first romance novels I ever read, and not only did they introduce me to the genre, but they also instantly made me love it and seek out more. All of her books are so wonderful and feature so much food, but the enchilada scene in The Proposal might be one of my favorite food scenes ever in a romance novel. It’s fun and playful and a great example of how she uses food to bring the reader into the present moment. She even shared the recipe on her Substack!!

The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

I love all of Casey McQuiston’s books. Their writing opened my eyes to queer romance. There’s quite a bit of food in all of their books, but The Pairing really stands out for me because it showed me how fun it is to read a queer love story that’s told through great meals and moments in and around food.

Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food by Jody Williams

Over a decade ago, I got to work on Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food with the incredible Jody Williams (it remains a career highlight). I love everything about Jody (and all of the restaurants she runs with her wife Rita Sodi). Working with Jody meant seeing a fun and loving queer relationship that centered around food up close and personal. In fact, my spouse Grace and I had our tiny, 12-person wedding at the long table in the back of Buvette. Fun fact: The roast chicken salad that Jody serves at Buvette (the recipe is in the book!) inspired the roast chicken scene in Down to Earth.

The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis

This is my favorite cookbook of all time and I think it’s also one of the most important books of all time. No one else could have written it. It’s so tied to Edna Lewis’s extraordinary experience, life, and voice. I reread this book regularly not necessarily to cook the recipes (though they’re great), but to be transported to a time and a place. The respect for ingredients, especially vegetables, is definitely something that inspires me as both a writer of cookbooks and as a writer of romance that takes place at a vegetable farm.

Country Weekends by Lee Bailey

Another one of my favorite cookbooks, Country Weekends is all about the type of relaxed, fresh food that reappears in Down to Earth (think tomato sandwiches). It’s also transportive in the way I hope Down to Earth feels for readers.

Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith

Though it’s not fiction and not a cookbook, Fat Talk absolutely inspired the way I described Frankie, one of the protagonists in Down to Earth. Frankie is the vegetable farmer and is both fat and hot. Paige, the other protagonist, is attracted to Frankie as she is. Full stop. Not despite the fact that she’s fat. This was a critical part of the story I wanted to include and Fat Talk helped me feel confident about how I included it.