Ori Menashe Books in Order

Ori Menashe was born in Los Angeles to Israeli parents, then moved back to Israel with his family when he was eight. He grew up in Ramat HaSharon, in a home where food mattered, family meals ran long, and trips to the market left a deep mark. Those early memories stayed with him.

He did not come to cooking through a neat classroom plan. After finishing his military service in Israel, he spent about a year in South America with friends and found himself doing the cooking. That was the real turning point. When he returned to Los Angeles in 2001, he enrolled in culinary school, lasted only two weeks, and decided he would learn faster by working.

So he went straight into kitchens. Menashe trained in Los Angeles restaurants including La Terza, Angelini Osteria, and Pizzeria Mozza, picking up the kind of education that comes from long prep lists, repetition, and watching better cooks move fast. Italian food became his first big lane, and he learned it deeply, especially pasta, whole-animal cooking, and the quiet discipline behind restaurant consistency.

That practical streak has never really left him.

During those restaurant years he also met Genevieve Gergis, who would become his wife and longtime creative partner. They eventually opened Bestia in downtown Los Angeles in 2012, with Menashe leading the savory kitchen and Gergis shaping the pastry program. The restaurant took off quickly, and Menashe's name became closely tied to handmade pasta, charcuterie, wood-fired cooking, and bold, direct flavor.

His books follow that path. Bestia, published in 2018, brings the restaurant's Italian cooking into cookbook form, with recipes for bread, pasta, charcuterie, sauces, and desserts. Readers who enjoy detailed, from-scratch cooking tend to like how clearly it shows the work behind the finished plate. Bavel, published in 2021, turns toward the Middle Eastern food that connects more directly to Menashe's childhood and family roots, with flatbreads, pickles, spreads, meats, and pastries alongside personal stories.

Together, the two books show a cook moving closer and closer to his own center.

What people tend to like about Menashe's work is pretty simple. The food feels ambitious, but the ideas underneath it are easy to grasp: layer flavor, respect texture, use the whole ingredient when you can, and do not be shy about spice, smoke, or acid. Across his recipes, you keep seeing the same interests return, doughs, live-fire cooking, preserved ingredients, and dishes built for passing around a table. That is true whether he is writing about pasta dough or pita.

These days, Menashe and Gergis are known for Bestia, Bavel, and Saffy's in Los Angeles, the last one named for their daughter, Saffron. He is still closely associated with the city, but the pull of Israel, Egypt, Italy, and the broader Middle East runs through his food. That mix is what makes his small bibliography feel coherent. There are only two cookbooks here, but they tell a clear story about where he came from, how he learned, and what kinds of flavors he keeps coming back to.