Binding Agents: A Cook/Book Shop
908 Christian StreetJoin Binding Agents for an evening with bestselling author, journalist, and home cook Bee Wilson! In Consider the Fork, she explored how kitchen items changed the way we eat; in her latest, The Heart-Shaped Tin, she delves into how these objects become powerful symbols of identity and memory, representing friendship, grief, love, superstition, safety, and even political resistance.
Guests will be invited to bring a kitchen object of their own, to create a crowd-sourced musem of memory.
Wilson will be joined in conversation by Binding Agents owner Catie Gainor, whose home and shop are full of objects from the kitchen of her late mother. Together with the audience, they'll discuss the book, share stories, and marvel at the fundamentally human urge to keep mementos, even in an increasingly rational age.
NOTE: This event will be held at Binding Agents. (Previously, the venue was listed as JNA Institute of Culinary Arts).
About the Book
One August day, months after her marriage abruptly ended, a heart-shaped baking tin fell at Bee Wilson's feet: the same one she had used to bake her wedding cake twenty-three years prior. This discovery struck a wave of emotions that propelled her search for others who have attached magical and personal properties to the objects in their kitchens.
Wilson's best-selling Consider the Fork considered how kitchen items changed the way we eat; in The Heart-Shaped Tin, she delves into how these objects change the way we live. She meets people who open up about a favorite wooden spoon, a salt shaker inherited from a parent, and a vintage corkscrew collection. Our beloved items become powerful symbols of identity and memory, representing friendship, grief, love, superstition, safety, and even political resistance. Crossing continents, cultures, and time periods, Wilson deftly moves between a 5,000-year-old bottle for drinking chocolate and her children's favorite melon baller; a metal spoon made by a Holocaust survivor and her mother's silver-plated toast rack; a bombarded Ukrainian kitchen cabinet and her grandfather's Wedgwood teapot. In telling these stories, she comes to terms with her grief over the dissolution of her marriage and the loss of her mother after a battle with dementia. The heart-shaped tin, in the end, becomes a moving reminder of the power of new beginnings.
Thoughtful, tender, and beautifully written, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a celebration of the fundamentally human urge to keep mementos, even in an increasingly rational age. It will change the way you look at both precious family heirlooms and humble household objects.
About the Author
Bee Wilson is a home cook, journalist, and author of seven food-related books, including The Secret of Cooking. The cofounder of TastEd, she writes for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and New York Times. She lives in Cambridge, England.
Mon, Nov 17, 2025 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Binding Agents: A Cook/Book Shop
908 Christian Street
Binding Agents is Philly's bookshop for cooks and eaters. Located in South Philly’s culinary epicenter, the 9th Street Italian Market, we’re your go-to source for new cookbooks and food-focused reads, plus gifts and goods for making, serving and enjoying. We’re independent, women-owned, fun & funky. Learn more at bindingagentsphilly.com.
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