In the 1980s she and Rosso wrote, with Michael McLaughlin, The Silver Palate Cookbook, which broke cookbook records by selling 250,000 copies in its first year and went on to sell as of 2009 2.5-million copies, followed by The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, and others. Lukins drew the illustrations for all the Silver Palate cookbooks and her solo cookbooks.
In the 1980s Julia Lukins collaborated with Rosso and McLaughlin on several successful cookbook projects, including The Silver Palate Cookbook, which achieved significant sales of 250,000 copies in its first year and went on to sell a total of 2.5 million copies by 2009, as well as other titles such as The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook.