Melia Marden

Melia Marden is the executive chef at The Smile and The Smile To-Go. She is a graduate of Harvard and the French Culinary Institute. She and her food have been featured in GQ, Vogue, the New York Times, and more. She lives in New York City.

MODERN MEDITERRANEAN: Easy, Colorful, Full-Flavored Home Cooking (2013) 

Melia Marden grew up in New York and Greece, where she enjoyed great seasonal food and a family that loved to entertain. As executive chef at New York City's hotspot, The Smile, she develops an ever-changing seasonal menu rooted in Mediterranean flavor that has been raved about by Frank Bruni and Padma Lakshmi and is loved by celebrities. Now, in Marden's first book, she presents 125 easy Mediterranean-inspired recipes for the home cook. From Minted Snap Peas to Watermelon Salad to Summer Steak Sliced Over Corn to Almond Cream with Honey, these are recipes calling for fresh ingredients and bold flavor but requiring no special techniques or equipment. Including 100 photos, this is a gorgeous, unique package that will charm and inspire home cooks everywhere.

“Modern Mediterranean is a stylish, no-nonsense guide to creating some rather choice staples. . . . The Smile regulars will find a few familiar meals amid the pages, as well as memories of Marden’s fond experiences with certain dishes, how she amended them and made them her signature, and old photographs of her families sprinkled among the recipes.”  —Interview

“This book, by Melia Marden—the executive chef of the trendy Bond Street restaurant the Smile, and daughter of the artists Brice and Helen—is a new favorite of mine. Modern Mediterranean is one of those cookbooks that makes you lust after everything within it.” —The New Yorker

“An intimate, easy-to-follow guide.” —W.com

“It’s a culinary scrapbook of Marden’s favorite recipes.”—Nowness.com

“When Modern Mediterranean landed on our desk, we were just as enamored by the bright, happy colors and gorgeous photographs of chef Melia Marden’s stylish recipes and eclectic home as we were by her fairy-tale backstory.”—Metro

Rights: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, North America