Author: Heng Ou

The First Forty Days is a cookbook built on zuo yuezi, the Chinese practice of keeping a woman warm, fed and largely still for a month after she gives birth while other people do everything else. Ou grew up with it and set out to make it usable for readers who had never heard of it: broths, congee, warm and simple food, and a structure for who does what. The recipes belong to the tradition and the framing is her own, and the book is clear that this is a cultural practice with a long history rather than a clinical protocol.