Front-of-Closet Recipes With Peter Som

Plus, the fashion-designer-turned-cookbook-author’s #1 dinner party tip.

“Lots of garlic, miso, and butter. I mean essentially, that’s almost it.”

With those ingredients involved, you know Peter Som’s talking about a good dish. Specifically, though, he’s getting himself hungry talking about his quick lemony garlic shrimp, and luckily he let me reprint the whole recipe below.

In this week’s podcast episode, I talk to Peter—a fashion legend who has moved over to the food side of things—about his stylish dinner parties and his go-to simple, improvisational weeknight meals, the essential condiments that crowd his fridge, and his food memories from growing up in the Bay Area. If you scroll down, you’ll find his riff on his grandmother’s famous Lemon Chicken, simplified a bit from the version in her meticulous recipe notebooks.

I ask Peter, who recently published Family Style, if there’s an overlap between designing clothes and developing recipes.

Peter says there’s a “term called ‘front of closet clothing.’ You know, that sweater you want to wear all the time, those go-to pieces in your wardrobe. And that's how I approach my recipes. I want them to be your go-tos, your back pocket recipes, the ones you’re going to make over and over and over again, hopefully, until you probably memorize the recipe. You know, it’s not the evening gown kind of recipe where it’s four days of work and then you’re exhausted.”

He looked for a throughline in the recipes he included in the book; his cuts and additions, he felt, weren’t that different from the way you cull and shape a fashion collection.

This stylish host has lots of dinner party tips to share as well, but first and foremost, he emphasizes the importance of mellow lighting: “Nobody wants to feel like they're dining at a CVS.”

Win a copy of Family Style

You could be gathering friends around a platter of broiled asparagus and fennel with gribiche-y dressing, or casually throwing together Peter’s creamy kimchi risotto.

But first, you’ll need a copy of the book.

All you need to do to enter to win: Become a paid subscriber of The Dinner Plan by Thursday May 22nd, 2025.

Giveaway winner will be alerted by Substack DM and email—be sure to check your messages! U.S. addresses only, 18+. Giveaway not sponsored or administered by Substack. Ends Thursday May 22, 2025.

Can’t swing it right now? You can still support this work by hitting ‘follow’ on the podcast wherever you listen, or making a purchase through the affiliate links in this newsletter or this epic list of guest-recommended cookbooks.

Hitting that ❤️ button at the bottom of this newsletter helps other readers find it—thank you!

Peter mentioned:

Crispy Chicken Thighs with Green Olive and Walnut Salsa Verde
Colu Henry’s Roast Cauliflower with Feta, Almonds, and Olives (NYT Cooking gift link)
Hetty Lui McKinnon’s Miso Leeks with White Beans (NYT Cooking gift link)
Peter’s Burlap & Barrel spice blends
MìLà soup dumplings
Peter’s Vacation Cherry Tomato Pasta
Reverse spatchcocking
Peter’s Slow-Roasted Salmon With Vanilla Brown Butter and Sage or with Grapefruit, Fennel, and Chile
The New Basics by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, especially the vegetable lasagna and Moroccan chicken
Joy of Cooking especially the beef stew and chocolate chip cookie
The Woks of Life, especially the char siu and sesame crusted tofu

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Maggie mentioned:

Joshua Bousel’s Extra Tangy Tartar Sauce (Serious Eats)
Melissa Clark’s Baked Fish and Chips (NYT Cooking; gift link)
Food + Wine on the difference between US-made and imported Kewpie mayo; Kewpie mayo discussion on reddit
Peter’s Sweet Spicy Tofu and Broccoli
And from the ad break: Use code DINNERPLAN for 10% off at MadeIn Cookware

Photo: Linda Xiao

Lemony Miso Garlic Shrimp

From Family Style by Peter Som. Copyright © 2025 by Peter Som. Reprinted by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Serves 4

A total winner of a Tuesday dinner. What takes the longest is the marinating of the shrimp—the rest happens in 5. How can you beat that?

6 garlic cloves, minced (about ¼ cup)
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, divided, plus lemon wedges for serving
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon miso
¼ teaspoon chili flakes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound extra jumbo (16/20) shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails left on if desired)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Steamed jasmine rice or grilled bread, for serving

In a medium bowl, combine the garlic, lemon zest, half the lemon juice, olive oil, miso, chili flakes, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Whisk until the miso is dissolved, then add the shrimp and gently mix to coat. Let marinate for 15 minutes.

In a large cast-iron skillet or other heavy pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the remaining lemon juice and mix to combine, then add the shrimp in a single layer, along with the marinade.

Cook the shrimp for about 2½ minutes per side, or until opaque and cooked through and the garlic is softened. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the parsley and cilantro.

Add the lemon wedges and serve the shrimp from the pan, with rice or grilled bread alongside.

Photo: Linda Xiao

Famous Lemon Chicken

Serves 4 to 6

This recipe is based on my grandma’s favorite and often-made lemon chicken. My mom tells me that Grandma tested her recipe for weeks. Each time, she would tweak the recipe a bit and together Grandma and Grandpa would eat the dish and brainstorm.

More lemon? Maybe a thicker sauce? I imagine Grandma and Grandpa in their dining room on Funston Avenue in San Francisco taking bites of this dish, carefully considering each and every component. In fact, Mom recalls the family eating lemon chicken for five nights straight when Grandma was working on it. So, no surprise it’s since become a family staple that’s been passed down. '

The original recipe calls for the whole bird, but I’ve adjusted it to chicken thighs, which cuts down on cooking time, and I’ve amped up the pucker-factor with double the lemon. The result is a satisfying yet light dish—the sauce is zingy, a touch sweet and a touch sour, and the lemon slices are cooked down and tender and so utterly delicious. Serve with steamed jasmine rice to soak up all that sauce.

8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 lemons
1 tablespoon neutral oil
3 scallions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, thinly sliced
¾ cup honey
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
2½ teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Use a vegetable peeler to peel 1 lemon and reserve. Juice that lemon, plus a second lemon (you should have about ½ cup). Thinly slice the third lemon and set aside.

In a large cast-iron skillet or other ovenproof pan large enough to fit the thighs in a single layer, heat the oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add the scallions, ginger, and reserved lemon peel and sauté until the scallions and lemon peel start to turn deep brown on the edges and the ginger is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the lemon juice, honey, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, and 1 cup water. Season with salt and pepper, stir to combine, and let simmer for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the lemon slices, then place the chicken thighs skin side up in the pan. Transfer to the oven and roast for 35 minutes, or until the chicken skin is golden brown and the internal temperature is 165°F.

In a small bowl, stir together the cornstarch and 11/2 tablespoons water. Remove the pan from the oven and use tongs to transfer the chicken thighs to a serving platter with sides. Use a spoon to skim the fat off the surface of the pan juices. Place the pan over medium-low heat, add the cornstarch mixture, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and glossy, about 2 minutes.

Transfer some of the sauce and the lemon slices to the platter, making sure to spoon some sauce on top. Garnish with additional scallions and serve.