Francis Lam’s cookbooks always do more than dinner. The editor and writer has ushered some of the best and most inventive cookbooks of the last few years to publication, all of which stand out as better than just a list of recipes — for their introspection, research, and often their humor. Lam dropped by the Eater Upsell studios to talk about the immigrant experience, the writer-editor relationship, and how to spend three perfect hours in the Atlanta airport.

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