Recipes ‘to die for’

Cherished family recipes are often handed down from one generation to the next. Occasionally someone takes a recipe to the grave with them, but others do the opposite – quite literally. There is a phenomenon of people remembering their loved ones through their special or favorite recipes by inscribing the same on their gravestones. Rosie Grant, the creator behind @GhostlyArchive, spent four years locating such gravestone recipes, speaking with the decedents’ families, and making each dish.

Grant collected 40 of these recipes into a cookbook called To Die For – A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes. These recipes come from around the world, carved into headstones or associated with a grave, each with a story to share. Every recipe is accompanied by an interview with the remaining family, plus photography of the food, the gravestone, and any memorabilia the family wanted to share.

When Grant makes one of the recipes she brings it to the owner’s resting place to honor the person associated with the recipe. Her Instagram and TikTok accounts have amassed over 200,000 followers each, so these recipes have a reach that the owner likely would never have imagined. What a way to leave a culinary legacy.