I’ve known Oaktown’s Erica Perez since I was just 17 years old — talk about old friends! When, 15 years later, she introduced me to her then-boyfriend John Beaver, I was instantly charmed by his passion for spices and his dream to open an Oakland-based spice shop. Over the years, I’ve been constantly impressed by their ability to educate, create community, and share their love of flavor with cooks in the Bay Area and beyond. So it only made sense for me to ask them to source a couple of the harder-to-find spices I call for in GOOD THINGS. Use whole Calabrian chiles for to get the perfect color and spice level in Calabrian Chile Crisp and grind mahlab into Sarit’s Ashura to add a hint of cherry-almond flavor. Or, grab the gift set, which is packed with some of my most-called for spices: ground cumin, ground coriander, ground cardamom and Aleppo chile flakes. —Samin

OAKTOWN SPICE x GOOD THINGS GIFT BOX

To celebrate her new book, Good Things, we collaborated with chef Samin Nosrat to source a delicious, limited-edition gift box filled with pantry essentials that will help you recreate some of her most beloved and useful recipes.

Includes ½ cup jars of ground cumin, ground coriander, ground cardamom and Aleppo chile flakes.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this product will be donated to Oakland International High School.