SHERBURNE – When George Lewis joined the monastery, it wasn’t necessarily to devote himself to God. He’d already answered the call to his life-long ministry – food.

Lewis, a native of Sherburne and veteran of the restaurant trade, spent many years as a chef/major domo at Christ The King Retreat House and Conference Center in Syracuse. While there, in addition to honing his culinary skills, Lewis began weaving together stories from his Chenango childhood, his experiences at the retreat and the recipes he was perfecting ... it seemed only logical that “there was a book in there somewhere.”

And indeed there was. At the urging of longtime friend Bill Craine, Lewis, whose family operates Lewis’ Restaurant in Sherburne (that of the iconic lighthouse fame) tapped into his Lebanese cultural background and started banging out one recipe a week, along with a story to relate to it.

The result is “Cooking at the Monastery: Hommous to Tabouleh in the Garden of Allah,” a self-published tome that’s part cookbook, part history of his upbringing in Sherburne. Lewis will be signing copies of his book tonight at the family restaurant in Sherburne, from 5 to 8 p.m.