Forty recipes found carved into headstones
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Some people are remembered with a line of scripture. Others are remembered with a recipe.
Rosie Grant found her first one on Naomi Odessa Miller-Dawson's headstone in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn — a marker shaped like an open book, with spritz cookies carved into the granite pages. She baked them. She posted it. The video passed a million views overnight.
To Die For is what came next: forty gravestone recipes, each one visited, cooked, photographed, and traced back to the family who put it there.
40 recipes traced across the US, cooked and photographed by Rosie Grant
Every dish paired with an interview with the family who chose it
Hardcover, 176 pages
Olivia Salzman
This book is amazing anyone who loves cooking, who loves their relatives, who might be grieving or who just loves interesting cookbooks. Amazing stories and great project that the author did.
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To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
Preserved in Stone. Revived in the Kitchen.
Behind every gravestone recipe is a person who believed food was worth remembering. To Die For introduces you to those people while bringing their most cherished dishes back to life, one recipe at a time.
More than a cookbook, it's forty people you'll wish you'd met.
To Die For collects recipes that families thought were worth the cost of stonemasonry. That tells you something before you read a word of it.
Every entry pairs the recipe with a photograph of the grave it came from and the story of the person underneath.
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40 recipes from gravestones across the United States
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Interviews with the surviving families
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Photography of every dish, headstone, and keepsake
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176 pages, hardcover, from Harvest / HarperCollins
Timeless Recipes. Remarkable Stories.
These are not recipes created in a test kitchen or borrowed from celebrity chefs. They were chosen by real people to represent something they loved, remembered, and wanted others to keep making long after they were gone.
Customer Reviews
See what our amazing customers are saying about the book!
Lauren,
45
Verified Buyer
I bought this for my mother for Mother's Day, and she has really enjoyed it! The pictures are very high quality, and the book has been put together very thoughtfully. It's a very unique idea and we cannot wait to try out some recipes.
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Purchased on 19th June, 2026
I.E.S.,
50
Verified Buyer
What a great idea to turn tombstone recipes into a cookbook. The book is lovingly and very respectfully designed for the deceased. It's fun to read. It is recommended to follow the author on social media. Clear purchase recommendation!
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Purchased on 14th March, 2026
D. Womack,
35
Verified Buyer
This is by far one of my most favorite cookbooks. What a wonderful way to pay tribute too your lost love one. A lot of time and work went into this book. I love everything about this. Go ahead and make the purchase. You will be happy you did. Read all the stories about each person and their recipes. This is my most cherished book ever
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Purchased on 22nd July, 2026
Stephanie,
31
Verified Buyer
If you are looking for a cookbook with varied recipes and no duplicates, buy something else. On the other hand, if you are looking for a book with fascinating stories of the people who's legacy includes a recipe so special to their family that they immortalize it in stone, this is the book for you! I have a copy, and just bought another to be sent to a friend across country. My copy will be loaned to several local friends. Don't miss this great read!
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Purchased on 3rd January, 2026
Holly AW,
24
Verified Buyer
I got this for my best friend and she loves it! We both love going to old cemeteries and finding unusual headstones. We have never found any with recipes on them, though! It's a fun book, not sure about the recipes but it brightened her day!
To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes
$59.00
Purchased on 8th July, 2026
The Book, In Numbers
The Book, In Numbers
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Gravestone recipes, each one visited and cooked
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Hardcover pages, photographed throughout
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The year Rosie Grant baked the first one
It started with one headstone in Brooklyn shaped like an open book, with a spritz cookie recipe carved into it. Rosie Grant made the cookies, posted the attempt, and woke up to a million views. Four years and forty graves later, this is the collection.
Why To Die For Isn't Like Other Cookbooks
Recipes with people attached, not a brand.
Why To Die For Isn't Like Other Cookbooks
Recipes with people attached, not a brand.
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To Die For
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A Standard Cookbook
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Every recipe sourced from a real gravestone
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Interview with the family who chose it
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Photography of the grave, the dish, and the keepsakes
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Written by the archivist who visited each site
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Cooked, failed, and re-cooked until it worked
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A book about food and about grief at the same time
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FAQ
Who is Rosie Grant?
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Rosie Grant is an archivist and content creator. She began documenting unusual memorials during a 2021 internship at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC, and holds a Master's in Library Science from the University of Maryland.
Are these real gravestone recipes?
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Yes. Every recipe in the book was either carved into a headstone or is directly tied to a specific grave. Rosie Grant visited the sites herself and, where possible, spoke to the surviving family.
What kind of recipes are they?
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Heavily weighted towards baking — cookies, fudge, pie — because that's what people tend to want carved in stone. There are savoury entries too, including a chicken spaghetti casserole and a cheese dip. It's an honest reflection of what forty families chose, not a curated spread across courses.
Are the recipes actually cookable?
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They are, though many gravestones list ingredients with no method at all. Grant cooked each one — often more than once, and often wrongly the first time — and the book gives you a workable version alongside the original inscription.
Is this a gift book or a cooking book?
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Comfortably both. It works on a coffee table because of the photography, and it works in the kitchen because the recipes are genuinely simple family food. It's a common gift for anyone interested in food history, cemeteries, or genealogy.