This site is for people like you. Homecooks who are interested in new cuisines and new techniques in cooking. Wrapped dishes are ubiquitous throughout the world. They are fascinating and delicious. Have you thought about making the Dim Sum-Shui Mai? Or perhaps you wondered what a meal would be like wrapped in banana leaves. You may have wondered about the dishes that can be wrapped in Filo dough. Then this site is for you.

I am just like you, a home cook who had these interests and follow up by researching them and cooking them. I will provide you with background, recipes, and ingredients for wrapped dishes from around the world. In addition this site will also provide interviews with Chefs, local and in other localities. It will also provide other types of recipes as well. Review our site, sign up for our newsletter and be ready to review and buy the Wrap it Up book volume that will be coming in 2023.

Thanks for coming to our site.

John Peppin is a physician with over 30 years of clinical experience.  John has published over 90 articles and books in the medical field.  He has also been a home cook for most of his adult life, taking a great interest in a variety of cuisines and cooking techniques.  He is a voracious cookbook reader with an intense curiosity about cuisines around the world.  Wrapping and the stuffing of foods has become an overwhelming focus for John, and he has researched recipes from around the world.  John is not a chef, but rather a self-taught home cook.

Read John’s blog with the following topics and categories:

• Wrapped  Food Recipes:  There are thousands of recipes that involve wrapping up food.  This Blog will give new recipes on a regular basis from around the world.
• Wrap up the Day Recipes:  When the day ends it is time for appetizers and a libation.  This Blog will give you recipes for both.
• Unwrapped: Sauerkraut Heaven:  Sauerkraut is obviously not wrapped, but it is wonderful for taste and health.  This blog will have different recipes for sauerkraut, pickles, and other pickled or fermented products.
• Unwrapped Culinary Recipes, Tricks and Tips:  Although this web site and it’s attached blogs are about wrapping food for the home cook, this blog will provide some of my favorite unwrapped recipes.
• Wrapping up a Fast:  Fasting is done for both spiritual and physical health.  This blog will have recipes you can provide to your family during religious fasts, especially for Orthodox Christians.
• Wrapping up Culinary Travels:  The cuisine around the world is incredibly varied and creative.  This blog will discuss wrapping recipes around the world that I come across during my travels.
• Wrap Up Interviews:  There are hundreds of fascinating restaurants around the world.  This blog will include interviews with chefs at restaurants in countries I visit.

The history of the development of this book follows my life’s interest in food and cooking.  I have always loved to eat and have developed a great appreciation for experiencing new restaurants, new cuisines and ways of cooking. Since I came from a time when cooking was not “man’s work”, I was taught few basics at home.  It didn’t occur to me that once I left the nest, I would be the one responsible for cooking those dishes that just magically appeared on the table and for which I had such affection.  Once I moved out of the house, I came to the stark realization that I needed to learn how to cook, or I would neither be eating much or well.  My journey has been filled with monumental failures and many successes.  However, if one is not willing to fail, or learn from failure, one will not succeed.  I also have a very curious disposition and love to experience new dishes and ingredients especially from new cuisines.

Pending release:  2023
More information will be posted soon.

Why wrap food?  A question surely on the mind of any reader after they read the title of this web site.  The wrapping of food gives food added flavor, kills off bacteria, is more visually pleasing, allows for different ingredients to be included, keeps food moist and holds in flavors.  However, it has taken centuries for the wrapping of food to develop into a more sophisticated cooking approach current seen around the world.

That clear day in the spring, when I came across an “en papillote” recipe for fish and vegetables, my interest was stimulated. This interest has grown and resulted in the development of this web site and book on the cooking technique of the wrapping of foods. This has not, to my knowledge, been done before, although there are wonderful books on dumplings, and wrapped recipes occur in many cookbooks; no one has taken the time to focus on this fascinating cooking approach.

This first volume, in a planned series of cookbooks on the wrapping of foods,  will describe this technique by type of wrapping. Wrapped in fruit and vegetables, meat, dough, leaves, and other wrappings will be discussed. It will explain techniques and give vetted recipes as well as accompanying  condiments.

Placing an “en papillote” or a banana leaf wrapped packet on a guests plate will elicit amazement and fascination, not to mention a delicious dish full of flavor.

Join us in this first of a series of books on the wrapping of foods.