The Kai Cookbook
A Love Letter to the West of Ireland
Published on 25. September 2025
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-7384795-5-9 (ISBN)
Description
"Chef, rebel, activist, and all heart - Jess Murphy cooks the way she lives: fearlessly, with fierce flavour and zero pretence. I love her." Yvette van Boven, cookbook author and journalist
The Kai Cookbook is the long-awaited collection of 100 of the restaurant's best-loved dishes, from the legendary Kai fish fingers that they can't take off the menu to showstopper cakes from the irresistible daily line-up on the bar.
Kai is the Maori word for food, and Jess and Dave Murphy opened the door to their award-winning Galway restaurant in 2011 with a simple formula: high-quality produce, sourced locally and cooked intelligently. What's in season will be on your plate.
Part cookbook, part love letter to Jess's adopted home in the West of Ireland, these recipes and recollections, all told in Jess's distinctive voice, will capture your heart, just like this little restaurant has done to all who have eaten there.
The Kai Cookbook is the long-awaited collection of 100 of the restaurant's best-loved dishes, from the legendary Kai fish fingers that they can't take off the menu to showstopper cakes from the irresistible daily line-up on the bar.
Kai is the Maori word for food, and Jess and Dave Murphy opened the door to their award-winning Galway restaurant in 2011 with a simple formula: high-quality produce, sourced locally and cooked intelligently. What's in season will be on your plate.
Part cookbook, part love letter to Jess's adopted home in the West of Ireland, these recipes and recollections, all told in Jess's distinctive voice, will capture your heart, just like this little restaurant has done to all who have eaten there.
Reviews / Votes
Kai is so much like Jess, full of character and stories. The book tells the story of recipes created in the attachment to local sourcing and the wide travels of Jess through the world, creating a very personal cuisine that is a delight to the palate. And more so when it is wrapped up in a real engagement for humanity that is embodied by Jess' philosophy. * Fadi Kattan, chef and cookbook author * Jess Murphy may hail from New Zealand, but her cooking combines all the best things about Irish cuisine: beautiful local sourcing, the delight of confident simplicity, and consistent deliciousness. * Brian McGinn, Director of Chef's Table * On a quiet street in Galway sits one of the finest restaurants in the world, led by one of the finest chefs, Jess Murphy. I adore this woman's food, and I have been waiting for years for her to write a cookbook. This book is something to be truly savoured. It will never leave my kitchen. * Elissa Altman, James Beard Award-winner and author of Poor Man's Feast * Chef, rebel, activist, and all heart - Jess Murphy cooks the way she lives: fearlessly, with fierce flavour and zero pretence. I love her. * Yvette van Boven, cookbook author and journalist *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ireland
Illustrations
Colour illustrations throughout
Dimensions
Height: 249 mm
Width: 195 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
1254 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-7384795-5-9 (9781738479559)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
New Zealand-born chef Jess Murphy has lived in Ireland since 2003 and has been based in Galway since 2005, where she opened her award-winning restaurant, Kai, with her Irish husband, Dave Murphy, in 2011. Kai is a place built on good energy, where happy staff and a busy kitchen combine to send everyone who visits out the door a little bit more content with the world. When Jess is not feeding or minding people, she is quietly fighting for an underdog somewhere here or abroad. She has been a formal High-Profile Supporter of the UNHCR since 2017. Everything that Jess does has a vitality, immediacy and generosity based on friendship, relationships and respect.