I once interviewed someone for my podcast who shared that cookbooks are a snapshot of a moment in time. Of a family’s history, or of a cook overcoming barriers. Those are the books I want to read - history books that are filled with food!
On recipe testing (outside of baking), I have a contrarian view. I buy cookbooks for inspiration. Rarely will I cook exactly from it without tweaking ingredients to my taste. So yes the recipe needs to functionally work - meat should finish cooking in the time you said it would/should serve the correct people etc. But I’m more interested in the FORMULA behind your dish than the detailed recipe
Well said, Perzen! I wish more folks in the publishing world remembered that cookbooks are historical documents and also art objects (especially if more publishers let them be).
I really wish more cookbooks focused on describing the formula or process more than just the instructions. Although I personally really appreciate throughly written instructions that don’t sound like IKEA furniture instructions.
I like the idea of having clear learning objectives for cookbooks. I try and always at least in the headnote to describe the function of the dish and how it can be created but also deconstructed encouraging readers to make their own version to accommodate their preferences.
The other bit I find annoying in the cookbooks you speak about is the banality of the recipes. Pasta with basil pesto/ with tomato /with squash. It’s all ONE recipe not 3! Teach me how to make good pasta/come up with the flavour combos instead!
Thanks for writing this. There’s so much to unpack around the commercialization of cookbooks. I think that we will start/continue to see counterculture cookbooks crop up.
There’s a heated discussion over in the How to be a Cookbook Author Facebook group. You e caused quite a stir! I think there’s so much more to it than just seeing the lifestyle publishers are “selling” and if you’re wanting to weigh in over there you should. I also encouraged people to come here to your substack to keep the engagement going. It’s intense and has sparked a lovely discussion about the many parts of what goes into a cookbook. I’d be curious if you cooked from any of these books since that’s part of formal reviews IMO. I’m trying to remember the post someone did about what constitutes a cookbook review too. Does that ring a bell?
I had no idea! I will try and find my Facebook password. Have I personally cooked from them? Absolutely. I need to write several follow up posts regarding the recipes themselves! There’s so much to say on this one aspect.
The main takeaway from this post is really the fact that too many cookbooks are engaging in what I call global class theater and the homogenized nature of many cookbooks. I’m excited to write much more on this topic.
As well as share more of my thoughts on aspects that make a valuable cookbook.
That discussion was very much what I expected. You either get it or you don’t. Nuance and context is important and it was a whole lot of unhelpful “who cares” which is fine/and more people need to consider nuance rather than attempting to put things in neat boxes.
I love this and have been having similar thoughts myself recently. For a few years now I have sought out only books which focus on the food and the process of cooking. I don't need to be sold a new oven, thank you nor tousle my hair to be 'Grammable. I was therefore really cross with myself quite recently when I weakened and bought a book from a farmer with a million-plus IG account. the production values of the book are marvellous and his writing (if his) is quite seductive but having lived with it now for four weeks, after an initial liking of it, it's now frustrating me and I can't quite work out why. I've cooked five of the recipes (although fiddled a bit to reflect what's available in Italy versus the UK) and they're OK. Am I disappointed because I broke my own rules or is it just not the book for me? I may retreat to Richard Olney and Marcella Hazan for a while to regain my equilibrium!
Thank you so much for reading Jan! I’m sorry the book turned to be mediocre, and it’s okay to make bad purchases from time to time we are only human and are given limited information to make our decisions. Definitely don’t beat yourself.
I think cookbooks should have a very clearly stated value or purpose in their description so that consumers can make better decisions if they would enjoy or need a cookbook that is promising to do X or Y.
This is exactly why we need more honest cookbook reviews!
Agree entirely about more honest reviews and have decided to take your wise advice and not beat myself up! Shall, however, listen to my instincts much more closely in future. It’s also reassuring to meet like minds such as yourself! 😘
Big fan of "In Bibi's Kitchen" - grandmothers (bibis) from every African country bordering the Indian Ocean share their stories and their best recipes.
Yes! Really important cookbook. I’m a huge fan of Hawa’s work. Would love to do a similar project one day but with Eastern Europe, Balkans, and Central Asia!
Zuza is a friend! She is a beautiful food writer and food culture scholar 🙌 I worked on her Pierogi cookbook a couple years back as a recipe tester. Her books are phenomenal.
Totally agree and I may be guilty of buying crappy 'bread' (recipe) books probably because of the FOMO factor: "there might be something I don't know that I need to learn". What really pisses me off are books that merely repeat the "Tartine" (Chad Robertson's) process and completely FAIL to even acknowledge that and coopt it like something they've become an exclusive expert on. And call it merely "sourdough bread". NO no no no! That is NOT sourdough bread! Per se. Then all the discard filler recipes are nothing more than generic repetitions of same old same old recipes that come out of The Joy of Cooking except add a 1/4 cup discard.
One more thing I'll rant about here, even though there are many more, is the number of recipe mistakes, they don't work or completely off in proportions. That tells me little testing has actually taken place, or little care has gone forth in accuracy, and that is insulting to me as a consumer and reader.
I am also guilty of buying crappy bread books. I want to write a separate post on bread cookbooks.
I think citation and attribution is a huge problem in the world of cookbooks. It’s getting better but not consistent.
I honestly have greater concerns with the global scale dissemination of the Tartine style bread baking. It created or played an important role in creating a type of homogenized bakery that you can find pretty much anywhere in the world. There’s a cost to the local baking traditions.
Mistakes are bound to happen during the editorial process, editors are only human and they are working on so many projects, but I agree that the majority of cookbooks are just lazy.
Also, sadly, the majority of cookbook authors don’t get enough financial support to hire enough or sometimes any recipe testers, that to me should be an industry standard but it’s not consistent from cookbook to cookbook or publisher to publisher. They also can’t afford (time/ingredients/labor) to test the recipe as many times as it needs to be, which I know begs the question of whether it needs to be published or be in a book, but that’s just got traditional publishing works, until we demand change that is.
I think it’s important to talk, I tried doing a little of that myself, of just how expensive making cookbooks really is. It’s very collaborative and everyone needs to be compensated. It’s like art 🖼️ but no one seems to want to acknowledge this fact and small advances are hurting the quality of cookbooks in addition to signing authors for their popularity rather than knowledge/integrity/experience etc.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on the topic!
I agree about the ubiquitous Tartine-style bread and the glitzy lifestyle cookbooks, ugh. Fortunately, this fixation is mostly an American phenomenon. My pet peeve is what I think of as "cookbook conventions". Things like the obligatory chapters on ingredients and kitchen equipment, which fill up pages that I never glance at. And as you point out, the overuse of photography, again filling up pages.... I yearn for a brief, interesting but not over-romanticized lead-in to a recipe, that starts with a clear summary of What this recipe is, a thumbnail of the process involved, a timeline,....special equipment needed (rather than those intro chapters), and Then the recipe.
And please, the recipes should be non-obvious, non-repetitive, and either truly classic or worthy new work. Not the work of someone whose job title is "recipe developer".
Yes! Well said, Sue. I really appreciate you taking the time to read the piece. I think this trend is spreading and I’m worried what that might mean for publishing world wide.
Your insight about what you value in a cookbook is super helpful, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I have an absurd number of cookbooks and read them regularly. I think cookbooks are targeted to certain audiences and more often than not are successful in meeting their target audience where they are.
It's interesting because I feel like some segment of the published cookbooks have ALWAYS engaged in lifestyle, class, idealism. Think Martha Stewart from the 1980s or Betty Crocker from the 1950s. They were showing us how to be -- in the kitchen and elsewhere -- and what our tables should look like.
There were always celeb cookbooks -- Frank Sinatra! Sophia Loren! Snoop Dogg! -- that's a micro genre that highlights the person (and they're lifestyle) as much as the food they are presenting.
There are books that teach new home cooks how to begin and others that focus more deeply on a restaurant's or ethnicity's or culture's cuisine.
There are always a lot of different types of cookbooks. It's good! We each choose the ones that speak to us, at the time. :-)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Debbie! I am by no means singling out celebrity or parasocial cookbooks. These types of cookbooks are definitely responsible for flooding the market and making it harder for people to find good quality cookbooks. Also, just because something has ALWAYS been around doesn't not justify it's existence and we as a society should always be evaluating the systems within which we operate and that includes publishing.
Lastly the main issue that I tackle in this essay is the following, "The majority of cookbooks are in the business of performing (selling) what I call global class theater—the homogenized, globalized, westernized, sanitized, and devoid of nuance, local context, and actual complexities of the human lived experience. Where is the detail?" So in some ways we are saying the same thing, we need more diversity in the types of cookbooks we are producing especially in the forum of traditional publishing.
Couldn't agree more. There are so many books out at the moment which seem to be by Instagram food influencers and I'm convinced they're all pretty much the same. Same vibe, same aesthetic, very similar recipes. The endless cycle of hype and promotion around cookbooks means people cook barely a handful of recipes from them. One of my goals last year was to cook through a whole cookbook (at least, go through it and make every single recipe I wanted to eat - not the ones I didn't!) and it was a GREAT experience.
Thanks so much for reading, Sarah! I love that! That’s such a great way to get to know the book and its recipes, and immerse yourself in the cuisine of the cookbook.
The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook, by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance. I love this because 1) the recipes are doable in a standard kitchen; 2) there’s lots of narrative text to help you understand ingredients and processes; 3) lots of pictures of the process and food to help you along.
A Grandfather’s Lessons, In the Kitchen With Shorey, by Jacques Pepin.
I love it because it features simple everyday meals you can make for a family with simple ingredients and processes.
The addition of narrative text is so helpful. I am a person who needs a lot of context to understand concepts especially when it comes to understanding how things work or don’t work in baking and cooking.
I can’t thank you enough for posting this Olga, hallelujah! 🙌🏻
I spend far too much time over the course of far too many days trying to release frustrations that arise from the cookbook publishing industry and the same formula I continue to see in books that get published and authors who are hyped. I’ve been actively working on pitching a proposal (a cookbook that actually bears context, value and information helping readers build intuition, confidence & resourcefulness in the kitchen and connect more with our bodies nutritional & emotional needs throughout the seasons and to our locality and environment around us). I call it self-care cooking and it shares unique recipes and vibrant flavors through the intersection of cooking, seasonal cycles and somatic wellness. It’s a healing & habit-building workbook, a motivating cookbook and a visually engaging art book all-in-one.
But, not shocking, my concept is too “out there” and untraditional. My “platform” isn’t big enough. There are too many books about “seasonal cooking” already out there.
But I wonder how many of those books actually resonate with readers and have the ability to profoundly change daily habits and cooking practice and impact our health and true joy around food? I’ve know this in my gut for years, but I find myself more and more looking to independent publishers where I can feel empowered by my creativity and vision. And not swept up by self-doubt by an industry that plays to commercialism rather than content.
Thanks for creating a platform to briefly voice my opinion here. Hope this resonates with some of yall! 🩶🩶
Thank you so much for your kind words, Marissa, and for your willingness to share your frustrations and experiences. I know it is not easy to do especially when trying to create and publish cookbooks, especially as a new author. I think the work your are doing is important and there a creative ways to create cookbooks nowadays such as hybrid publishing, self-publishing, or creating digital cookbooks.
I often wonder the same thing! Cookbooks as agents of behavior change is something that sociologists definitely need to study in more detail. I do believe that having these conversations in the open is important and can lead to actual positive changes in the industry, and society at large. Thank you for being here and sharing!
Thanks, Olga! Yes, I’m exploring other non-traditional publishing options, not exactly sure where to start. I actually published a book with a big publishing house back in 2010 so I know the process all too well. Sometimes I really think having full creative freedom and publishing in a manner that feels best for you (the writer) is priceless and the best route to build an audience who truly feeds you!
I have some really old (like a hundred years old) cookbooks from my Mother’s family. I use them often - but as a kind of research to recipes. They have a lot of the “why” (which I love) and then apply to modify either other recipes or the ingredients I have at hand.
I find that despite all the recipe books on my shelf, I end up googling recipes that use the ingredients I have or the tastes I feel like tasting, and then put together with info from old cookbooks to come up with something!
I love this, Sarah! That's how I cook as well. For me organization by ingredient or dish type is probably the most helpful while using cookbooks and online databases to conduct research. I don't know if you use tools such as Eat Your Books, but it is the closest we have come to being able to easily search through physical cookbooks by keywords. As a historian I love reading all the different why(s) or reasons behind the different steps and culinary traditions from different generations of cooks.
Yes! I am not familiar with Eat Your Books but will check it out - thanks!
As a dietitian I am also interested in the history of foods and food preparation and cultural variations etc.
My thing that I discovered last weekend was Lievito Madre so I now have jars of stiff sourdough discard everywhere as I adapt my normal starter to this version 🤣.
The one thing I have never managed to perfect is sausages like my Dad made - he was from the Northeast of England, and his pork sausages were the best!
How absolutely wonderful! Lievito Madre is a wonderful addition to any household ❤️ I would love to perfect sausage making, pork sausages are so good. I partially grew up in Catalonia and pork sausages are a staple and in Ukraine too for that matter.
I have a collection of old cookbooks that were collected recipes from women's groups, church groups etc... Those are usually time tested, authentic home recipes.
I once interviewed someone for my podcast who shared that cookbooks are a snapshot of a moment in time. Of a family’s history, or of a cook overcoming barriers. Those are the books I want to read - history books that are filled with food!
On recipe testing (outside of baking), I have a contrarian view. I buy cookbooks for inspiration. Rarely will I cook exactly from it without tweaking ingredients to my taste. So yes the recipe needs to functionally work - meat should finish cooking in the time you said it would/should serve the correct people etc. But I’m more interested in the FORMULA behind your dish than the detailed recipe
Well said, Perzen! I wish more folks in the publishing world remembered that cookbooks are historical documents and also art objects (especially if more publishers let them be).
I really wish more cookbooks focused on describing the formula or process more than just the instructions. Although I personally really appreciate throughly written instructions that don’t sound like IKEA furniture instructions.
I like the idea of having clear learning objectives for cookbooks. I try and always at least in the headnote to describe the function of the dish and how it can be created but also deconstructed encouraging readers to make their own version to accommodate their preferences.
Thank you for reading!
The other bit I find annoying in the cookbooks you speak about is the banality of the recipes. Pasta with basil pesto/ with tomato /with squash. It’s all ONE recipe not 3! Teach me how to make good pasta/come up with the flavour combos instead!
Exactly! Where is the culinary creativity or expertise or the research.
You nailed it!
Thank you! Means a lot!
Thanks for writing this. There’s so much to unpack around the commercialization of cookbooks. I think that we will start/continue to see counterculture cookbooks crop up.
Thanks again, Sally! I am very excited for more zines and counterculture cookbooks.
There’s a heated discussion over in the How to be a Cookbook Author Facebook group. You e caused quite a stir! I think there’s so much more to it than just seeing the lifestyle publishers are “selling” and if you’re wanting to weigh in over there you should. I also encouraged people to come here to your substack to keep the engagement going. It’s intense and has sparked a lovely discussion about the many parts of what goes into a cookbook. I’d be curious if you cooked from any of these books since that’s part of formal reviews IMO. I’m trying to remember the post someone did about what constitutes a cookbook review too. Does that ring a bell?
I had no idea! I will try and find my Facebook password. Have I personally cooked from them? Absolutely. I need to write several follow up posts regarding the recipes themselves! There’s so much to say on this one aspect.
The main takeaway from this post is really the fact that too many cookbooks are engaging in what I call global class theater and the homogenized nature of many cookbooks. I’m excited to write much more on this topic.
As well as share more of my thoughts on aspects that make a valuable cookbook.
That discussion was very much what I expected. You either get it or you don’t. Nuance and context is important and it was a whole lot of unhelpful “who cares” which is fine/and more people need to consider nuance rather than attempting to put things in neat boxes.
I’m all over that!
Thank you!
I love this and have been having similar thoughts myself recently. For a few years now I have sought out only books which focus on the food and the process of cooking. I don't need to be sold a new oven, thank you nor tousle my hair to be 'Grammable. I was therefore really cross with myself quite recently when I weakened and bought a book from a farmer with a million-plus IG account. the production values of the book are marvellous and his writing (if his) is quite seductive but having lived with it now for four weeks, after an initial liking of it, it's now frustrating me and I can't quite work out why. I've cooked five of the recipes (although fiddled a bit to reflect what's available in Italy versus the UK) and they're OK. Am I disappointed because I broke my own rules or is it just not the book for me? I may retreat to Richard Olney and Marcella Hazan for a while to regain my equilibrium!
Thank you so much for reading Jan! I’m sorry the book turned to be mediocre, and it’s okay to make bad purchases from time to time we are only human and are given limited information to make our decisions. Definitely don’t beat yourself.
I think cookbooks should have a very clearly stated value or purpose in their description so that consumers can make better decisions if they would enjoy or need a cookbook that is promising to do X or Y.
This is exactly why we need more honest cookbook reviews!
Agree entirely about more honest reviews and have decided to take your wise advice and not beat myself up! Shall, however, listen to my instincts much more closely in future. It’s also reassuring to meet like minds such as yourself! 😘
Listening to our instincts is harder than we often admit. Happy we found each other.
Big fan of "In Bibi's Kitchen" - grandmothers (bibis) from every African country bordering the Indian Ocean share their stories and their best recipes.
Yes! Really important cookbook. I’m a huge fan of Hawa’s work. Would love to do a similar project one day but with Eastern Europe, Balkans, and Central Asia!
Zuza Zak, “Amber & Rye.A Baltic food journey”. And “Polska.New Polish cooking.”
Zuza is a friend! She is a beautiful food writer and food culture scholar 🙌 I worked on her Pierogi cookbook a couple years back as a recipe tester. Her books are phenomenal.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/in-bibi-s-kitchen-the-recipes-and-stories-of-grandmothers-from-the-eight-african-countries-that-touch-the-indian-ocean-a-cookbook-julia-turshen/14132600
Totally agree and I may be guilty of buying crappy 'bread' (recipe) books probably because of the FOMO factor: "there might be something I don't know that I need to learn". What really pisses me off are books that merely repeat the "Tartine" (Chad Robertson's) process and completely FAIL to even acknowledge that and coopt it like something they've become an exclusive expert on. And call it merely "sourdough bread". NO no no no! That is NOT sourdough bread! Per se. Then all the discard filler recipes are nothing more than generic repetitions of same old same old recipes that come out of The Joy of Cooking except add a 1/4 cup discard.
One more thing I'll rant about here, even though there are many more, is the number of recipe mistakes, they don't work or completely off in proportions. That tells me little testing has actually taken place, or little care has gone forth in accuracy, and that is insulting to me as a consumer and reader.
I am also guilty of buying crappy bread books. I want to write a separate post on bread cookbooks.
I think citation and attribution is a huge problem in the world of cookbooks. It’s getting better but not consistent.
I honestly have greater concerns with the global scale dissemination of the Tartine style bread baking. It created or played an important role in creating a type of homogenized bakery that you can find pretty much anywhere in the world. There’s a cost to the local baking traditions.
Mistakes are bound to happen during the editorial process, editors are only human and they are working on so many projects, but I agree that the majority of cookbooks are just lazy.
Also, sadly, the majority of cookbook authors don’t get enough financial support to hire enough or sometimes any recipe testers, that to me should be an industry standard but it’s not consistent from cookbook to cookbook or publisher to publisher. They also can’t afford (time/ingredients/labor) to test the recipe as many times as it needs to be, which I know begs the question of whether it needs to be published or be in a book, but that’s just got traditional publishing works, until we demand change that is.
I think it’s important to talk, I tried doing a little of that myself, of just how expensive making cookbooks really is. It’s very collaborative and everyone needs to be compensated. It’s like art 🖼️ but no one seems to want to acknowledge this fact and small advances are hurting the quality of cookbooks in addition to signing authors for their popularity rather than knowledge/integrity/experience etc.
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts on the topic!
Well said!!
Thank you, Majed!
If you see a chia pudding recipe. Run!
This made me laugh! Hard agree, tho.
I agree about the ubiquitous Tartine-style bread and the glitzy lifestyle cookbooks, ugh. Fortunately, this fixation is mostly an American phenomenon. My pet peeve is what I think of as "cookbook conventions". Things like the obligatory chapters on ingredients and kitchen equipment, which fill up pages that I never glance at. And as you point out, the overuse of photography, again filling up pages.... I yearn for a brief, interesting but not over-romanticized lead-in to a recipe, that starts with a clear summary of What this recipe is, a thumbnail of the process involved, a timeline,....special equipment needed (rather than those intro chapters), and Then the recipe.
And please, the recipes should be non-obvious, non-repetitive, and either truly classic or worthy new work. Not the work of someone whose job title is "recipe developer".
Yes! Well said, Sue. I really appreciate you taking the time to read the piece. I think this trend is spreading and I’m worried what that might mean for publishing world wide.
Your insight about what you value in a cookbook is super helpful, thank you for sharing your thoughts.
“Pop Palestine Cuisine”. A traveling cookbook that is also the only way to see again what was before the genocide.
The true power and value of cookbooks.
I have an absurd number of cookbooks and read them regularly. I think cookbooks are targeted to certain audiences and more often than not are successful in meeting their target audience where they are.
Maybe, but I believe we can do better.
It's interesting because I feel like some segment of the published cookbooks have ALWAYS engaged in lifestyle, class, idealism. Think Martha Stewart from the 1980s or Betty Crocker from the 1950s. They were showing us how to be -- in the kitchen and elsewhere -- and what our tables should look like.
There were always celeb cookbooks -- Frank Sinatra! Sophia Loren! Snoop Dogg! -- that's a micro genre that highlights the person (and they're lifestyle) as much as the food they are presenting.
There are books that teach new home cooks how to begin and others that focus more deeply on a restaurant's or ethnicity's or culture's cuisine.
There are always a lot of different types of cookbooks. It's good! We each choose the ones that speak to us, at the time. :-)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, Debbie! I am by no means singling out celebrity or parasocial cookbooks. These types of cookbooks are definitely responsible for flooding the market and making it harder for people to find good quality cookbooks. Also, just because something has ALWAYS been around doesn't not justify it's existence and we as a society should always be evaluating the systems within which we operate and that includes publishing.
Lastly the main issue that I tackle in this essay is the following, "The majority of cookbooks are in the business of performing (selling) what I call global class theater—the homogenized, globalized, westernized, sanitized, and devoid of nuance, local context, and actual complexities of the human lived experience. Where is the detail?" So in some ways we are saying the same thing, we need more diversity in the types of cookbooks we are producing especially in the forum of traditional publishing.
Couldn't agree more. There are so many books out at the moment which seem to be by Instagram food influencers and I'm convinced they're all pretty much the same. Same vibe, same aesthetic, very similar recipes. The endless cycle of hype and promotion around cookbooks means people cook barely a handful of recipes from them. One of my goals last year was to cook through a whole cookbook (at least, go through it and make every single recipe I wanted to eat - not the ones I didn't!) and it was a GREAT experience.
Thanks so much for reading, Sarah! I love that! That’s such a great way to get to know the book and its recipes, and immerse yourself in the cuisine of the cookbook.
I highly recommend Claudia Polo’s “ENTORNO”. It’s currently only in Spanish but I think you’d love it 🥰
Ps: couldn’t agree more with this newsletter!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Thank you! I need to get my hands on a copy. I have a bunch of baking specifically bread baking books in Spanish, but not that many cookbooks.
Two of my favorite (go to) cookbooks.
The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook, by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance. I love this because 1) the recipes are doable in a standard kitchen; 2) there’s lots of narrative text to help you understand ingredients and processes; 3) lots of pictures of the process and food to help you along.
A Grandfather’s Lessons, In the Kitchen With Shorey, by Jacques Pepin.
I love it because it features simple everyday meals you can make for a family with simple ingredients and processes.
Thank you so much for sharing your favorites!
The addition of narrative text is so helpful. I am a person who needs a lot of context to understand concepts especially when it comes to understanding how things work or don’t work in baking and cooking.
I can’t thank you enough for posting this Olga, hallelujah! 🙌🏻
I spend far too much time over the course of far too many days trying to release frustrations that arise from the cookbook publishing industry and the same formula I continue to see in books that get published and authors who are hyped. I’ve been actively working on pitching a proposal (a cookbook that actually bears context, value and information helping readers build intuition, confidence & resourcefulness in the kitchen and connect more with our bodies nutritional & emotional needs throughout the seasons and to our locality and environment around us). I call it self-care cooking and it shares unique recipes and vibrant flavors through the intersection of cooking, seasonal cycles and somatic wellness. It’s a healing & habit-building workbook, a motivating cookbook and a visually engaging art book all-in-one.
But, not shocking, my concept is too “out there” and untraditional. My “platform” isn’t big enough. There are too many books about “seasonal cooking” already out there.
But I wonder how many of those books actually resonate with readers and have the ability to profoundly change daily habits and cooking practice and impact our health and true joy around food? I’ve know this in my gut for years, but I find myself more and more looking to independent publishers where I can feel empowered by my creativity and vision. And not swept up by self-doubt by an industry that plays to commercialism rather than content.
Thanks for creating a platform to briefly voice my opinion here. Hope this resonates with some of yall! 🩶🩶
Thank you so much for your kind words, Marissa, and for your willingness to share your frustrations and experiences. I know it is not easy to do especially when trying to create and publish cookbooks, especially as a new author. I think the work your are doing is important and there a creative ways to create cookbooks nowadays such as hybrid publishing, self-publishing, or creating digital cookbooks.
I often wonder the same thing! Cookbooks as agents of behavior change is something that sociologists definitely need to study in more detail. I do believe that having these conversations in the open is important and can lead to actual positive changes in the industry, and society at large. Thank you for being here and sharing!
Thanks, Olga! Yes, I’m exploring other non-traditional publishing options, not exactly sure where to start. I actually published a book with a big publishing house back in 2010 so I know the process all too well. Sometimes I really think having full creative freedom and publishing in a manner that feels best for you (the writer) is priceless and the best route to build an audience who truly feeds you!
I have some really old (like a hundred years old) cookbooks from my Mother’s family. I use them often - but as a kind of research to recipes. They have a lot of the “why” (which I love) and then apply to modify either other recipes or the ingredients I have at hand.
I find that despite all the recipe books on my shelf, I end up googling recipes that use the ingredients I have or the tastes I feel like tasting, and then put together with info from old cookbooks to come up with something!
I love this, Sarah! That's how I cook as well. For me organization by ingredient or dish type is probably the most helpful while using cookbooks and online databases to conduct research. I don't know if you use tools such as Eat Your Books, but it is the closest we have come to being able to easily search through physical cookbooks by keywords. As a historian I love reading all the different why(s) or reasons behind the different steps and culinary traditions from different generations of cooks.
Yes! I am not familiar with Eat Your Books but will check it out - thanks!
As a dietitian I am also interested in the history of foods and food preparation and cultural variations etc.
My thing that I discovered last weekend was Lievito Madre so I now have jars of stiff sourdough discard everywhere as I adapt my normal starter to this version 🤣.
The one thing I have never managed to perfect is sausages like my Dad made - he was from the Northeast of England, and his pork sausages were the best!
How absolutely wonderful! Lievito Madre is a wonderful addition to any household ❤️ I would love to perfect sausage making, pork sausages are so good. I partially grew up in Catalonia and pork sausages are a staple and in Ukraine too for that matter.
Only their own books, but Ottolenghi also allows you to search through the books you own, and the service is free.
I have a collection of old cookbooks that were collected recipes from women's groups, church groups etc... Those are usually time tested, authentic home recipes.
Couldn't agree more, Christine!