Table of Gods

In a 4,000-year-old myth, the moon god Sin visited his father Enlil and was offered crescent cakes. But whenever the Akkadians or Assyrians referred to cakes, they meant sweet baked goods in a broad sense. Anything from the smallest cookie to the largest cake would fit that description.

This is one of 60+ Mesopotamian recipes from my upcoming cookbook, Table of Gods. Want to try it? Visit tableofgods.com/sin

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Table of Gods

Measuring the depth of debossing. We need to go deeper.

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Table of Gods

In one of the world’s oldest myths, the Mesopotamian gods created a wild man from clay. They named him Enkidu—and his purpose was to fight the tyrant king of Uruk: Gilgamesh.

But when Gilgamesh heard of this wild man roaming with the gazelles, he sent the temple woman Shamhat to tame him. She taught him human pleasures—how to love, drink beer, and eat bread.

This is one of 60+ Mesopotamian recipes from my upcoming cookbook, Table of Gods. Want to try it? Visit tableofgods.com/enkidu

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Table of Gods

Second day in China. I'm blown away by the people, the culture, the nature, and the quality of art book printing.

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Table of Gods

First day in China. Visiting art book printers and eating great food. It doesn’t get much better.

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Table of Gods

The earliest references to frying food in oil appear on clay tablets from Mari, around 1800 BC.

It’s no coincidence that this tablet was found in the palace of Mari. Olive oil and sesame oil were frequently offered to the gods in the city, but the average person probably didn’t even know what these oils tasted like. That’s how rare and expensive they were.

So using several liters of olive oil to fry food would be insane. But if you were a king 4,000 years ago and wanted to show your allies how wealthy you were, serving them deep-fried dough topped with tahini and date syrup would definitely earn their respect.

Visit tableofgods.com/delicacy to get the recipe!

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2 days ago | [YT] | 2,212

Table of Gods

After visiting the most renowned art book printers in Europe, I’m off to China 🇨🇳 I met with several Chinese printers in 2025 when I visited the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. I was impressed by their vast knowledge and the art books they’ve printed (some of which have been on my shelves for years).

European printers can’t match Chinese printers in scale. That’s for sure. But what I want to find out is how Chinese printers compare to European ones in quality.

I’ll keep you posted. This is gonna be fun 😃

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Table of Gods

This is a 3,000-year-old Assyrian cake known as ziqqurratu. It was named after the massive temple towers of Mesopotamia and was baked exclusively by sha-siqqurratēšu—meaning “ziggurat specialists”—a title held for over 500 years in Assyrian palaces.

One clay tablet reveals it took over 12 liters of sesame oil to make just one cake. Others mention ingredients like grapes, pomegranates, and a date-filled bread called muttaqu, used as the base. The ziggurat cake appears on the White Obelisk of King Ashurnasirpal II—making it the first cake ever depicted in human history.

This is one of 60+ Mesopotamian recipes from my upcoming cookbook, Table of Gods. Want to try it? Visit tableofgods.com/ziggurat

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3 days ago | [YT] | 3,289

Table of Gods

In Belgium for the first cover tests ✈️ 🇧🇪

I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time perfecting the cover for Table of Gods. I’ve visited several paper mills that have run countless lab tests to create a cover paper with the right color, texture, and embossing pattern. The goal is to make the cover look and feel like the surface of a clay tablet.

We’re also working with designers, historians, and 3D artists to create a brass die with the same cuneiform signs as those on the tablet holding the world’s oldest recipes (meaning that if you can read Akkadian, you can read the world’s oldest recipes straight from the Table of Gods cover).

The brass die is pressed into the cover to make the cuneiform signs look as though they were impressed by an ancient scribe. Our goal is to make the signs go deep without making the paper tear. It’s not easy, and we’re now producing our third brass die, in which the signs will be 0.2 mm higher than the last and the sharpest points just sliiiiightly rounded to keep the paper from tearing.

It’s all in the details and we won’t stop until we reach perfection.

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3 days ago | [YT] | 1,893

Table of Gods

Traveled to Belgium to run print tests on the latest Heidelberg press—the same press I considered buying until I learned it costs over 5 million euros 🤣

We’re running several tests on art papers in various weights, textures, and shades. The goal is to make the food photography in the book as vivid as possible. Sometimes the differences are subtle, but even the smallest details add up.

These tests are rare in publishing due to the high cost of creating printing plates and setting up the machine. But when you think of your work as something that will exist for thousands of years, you don’t cut corners.

If you haven’t secured your ticket to ancient Mesopotamia, join the waitlist at tableofgods.com/yt. Pre-orders open in August.

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4 days ago (edited) | [YT] | 1,400