Perelman's second cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites, was published in 2017. She published her third cookbook, Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files, in 2022. Perelman lives in New York City with her husband Alex.

From the verb coquere came the later Latin noun coquina, meaning “a kitchen.” With some changes in pronunciation, coquina came into Old English as cycene. This became Middle English kichene and finally modern English kitchen.

The main functions of a kitchen are to store, prepare and cook food (and to complete related tasks such as dishwashing). The room or area may also be used for dining (or small meals such as breakfast), entertaining and laundry. The design and construction of kitchens is a huge market all over the world.

Today's professional kitchen is organized into multiple workstations. A workstation is an area in the kitchen dedicated to a particular task, such as broiling or salad making. Workstations using the same or similar equipment for related tasks are grouped together into a work section.