"The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir" published in 2016 by Grand Central Publishing, is a memoir. It is about the operations of a drug empire after Watkins' brother Bip's death, his acceptance to Georgetown University and the struggle to leave the trade behind. It was an editor's pick of The New York Times in May 2016. "Kirkus Reviews" described the book as "A familiar story to fans of The Wire, but Watkins provides a gritty, vivid first-person document of a desperate demographic."