Today is All Soul's Day, a day when Catholics commemorate their departed loved ones. One of the best ways is to follow the Mexican tradition and making their favorite recipes. it could be a sweet. It could be a savory. It could be a recipe that's over a century old or some out a magazine.
One of the best way to honor one's ancestors and close family members is to continue with their heirloom dishes. If you're lucky some great-great-great grandmother wrote down recipes that were adapted through the centuries for modern cooking.Most families, including mine, relied on the oral tradition of passing down dishes. Memory helps too. Did any of my generation write the recipes down. I did - but only for the posts. Luckily such dishes as my great -grandmother's and great aunt's pumpkin soup recipe were made often. They were also explained step by step, which helps in memorizing them.The family felt that i would make these centuries old Piedmontese dishes when I was ready. Of course there was a bit of nervousness - actually a lot of it , recreating such dishes as risotto and tomatoes provencale in front of the masters. Heaven forbid you mess up a step or accidentally forget a certain spice or herb. Don't ever think of tweaking the recipe.
When I cook these recipes, I think of relatives long gone. It's a connection that everyone should have. This is a gift to the younger generations, especially those who love to cook. Keep in mind that all recipes should now be stored on the computer. Google Docs has a recipe template where you can plug in ingredients and directions. For those that haven't compiled family recipes this template allows you to do so. Another plus with Google Docs is that you can send the recipes to family members who also have it and they can tweak or edit the recipes. Every branch of a family has several recipes. Combine these to create a cookbook that can be given out at family picnics or to welcome a new spouse to the family.If you do this , make sure to include a few blank pages in the back for the newcomer to add his or her family dishes. A nice idea - and to continue a loved one's memory is to make the heirloom dishes for the holidays and important events like engagements and baptisms. There's bound to be a flood of memories as well as great stories too.
Today we remember those we have lost. Another way is through honoring the recipes they left us. We will make favorite and family dishes to make sure they are never forgotten.
Showing posts with label Google docs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google docs. Show all posts
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Getting Burned By Cookbooks
Every cook and baker dreams of having their own cookbook.It's a dream come true to not only share your recipes but also make potloads of money. Yet there is a dark side to this - one that gets many an experienced chef burned - and burned good.
Cookbook author of Indianish, Priya Krishna wrote about this little known problem in today's New York Times Food section. It sounds like a good idea and with any publishing offer - is beyond exciting. Having a published book , especially a cookbook, is the gateway to everything from spots on local morning news shows to YouTube channels. It often means getting picked up from a larger publishing house and huge royalties. However that can be far from the truth. One example is Dallas food blogger, Urvashi Pitri, wrote the popular Indian Instant Pot Cookbook which sold a whopping 100,000 copies.Yet she received no advance for it and was asked to develop fifty recipes in a three month period. To add insult to injury - she had to pay for all the ingredients - some pricey - out her own pocket. Her payment for all of this? Only $15,000 in the two years of its' publication. Bonuses were only given out if book sales reached a certain number. There was one huge plus, however, The book's popularity enabled her to sign a two book, six figure deal with publishing giant Houghton-Mifflin. Some , like Lauren McDuffle, author of the blog Harvest & Honey was approached by London based quantum publishing to write a spice cookbook. Sounds prestigious enough - save for one catch - no royalties. There was only a modest fee.
It seems that these publishing houses prey on, lesser known chefs, food bloggers and reviewers. The Philadelphia chef, Kiki Aranita had Page Street Publishing offer her a meager $8,000 to write a cookbook on Hawaiian food with royalties of ten percent on the first 25,000 copies. People of color may be more vulnerable, she states,because some ethnic cuisines may be too out of the mainstream. However something similar happened to Baltimore cookbook author, Alison Robicelli when Reedy Press asked her to write a book about standout restaurants from Washington DC to Baltimore. There was no pay up front or budget for traveling and dining. All that would come out of her pocket. There was also no payment - only royalties. Some chefs are turning to self publishing which is easy to do. Nick Kokonis , an owner of the Alinea Group in Chicago wrote The Aviary Cocktail Book about his one restaurant's drinks. It was a lavish publishing cost of $630,000 but the return was 3.2 million. A much cheaper alternative is Amazon Self Publishing and Nook. As for formatting you can go to Google Docs and use their recipe template, which also includes for photos. Another alternative is to self publish shorter cookbooks with fewer recipes under a collaborative started by editor in chief , Kevin Pang, of online food publication The Takeout. writers will earn seven to five dollars a book.
These cookbook publishing tales are true horror stories. The best and easiest route is self publishing. It means total control and the chance to have a successful food writing career.
Cookbook author of Indianish, Priya Krishna wrote about this little known problem in today's New York Times Food section. It sounds like a good idea and with any publishing offer - is beyond exciting. Having a published book , especially a cookbook, is the gateway to everything from spots on local morning news shows to YouTube channels. It often means getting picked up from a larger publishing house and huge royalties. However that can be far from the truth. One example is Dallas food blogger, Urvashi Pitri, wrote the popular Indian Instant Pot Cookbook which sold a whopping 100,000 copies.Yet she received no advance for it and was asked to develop fifty recipes in a three month period. To add insult to injury - she had to pay for all the ingredients - some pricey - out her own pocket. Her payment for all of this? Only $15,000 in the two years of its' publication. Bonuses were only given out if book sales reached a certain number. There was one huge plus, however, The book's popularity enabled her to sign a two book, six figure deal with publishing giant Houghton-Mifflin. Some , like Lauren McDuffle, author of the blog Harvest & Honey was approached by London based quantum publishing to write a spice cookbook. Sounds prestigious enough - save for one catch - no royalties. There was only a modest fee.
It seems that these publishing houses prey on, lesser known chefs, food bloggers and reviewers. The Philadelphia chef, Kiki Aranita had Page Street Publishing offer her a meager $8,000 to write a cookbook on Hawaiian food with royalties of ten percent on the first 25,000 copies. People of color may be more vulnerable, she states,because some ethnic cuisines may be too out of the mainstream. However something similar happened to Baltimore cookbook author, Alison Robicelli when Reedy Press asked her to write a book about standout restaurants from Washington DC to Baltimore. There was no pay up front or budget for traveling and dining. All that would come out of her pocket. There was also no payment - only royalties. Some chefs are turning to self publishing which is easy to do. Nick Kokonis , an owner of the Alinea Group in Chicago wrote The Aviary Cocktail Book about his one restaurant's drinks. It was a lavish publishing cost of $630,000 but the return was 3.2 million. A much cheaper alternative is Amazon Self Publishing and Nook. As for formatting you can go to Google Docs and use their recipe template, which also includes for photos. Another alternative is to self publish shorter cookbooks with fewer recipes under a collaborative started by editor in chief , Kevin Pang, of online food publication The Takeout. writers will earn seven to five dollars a book.
These cookbook publishing tales are true horror stories. The best and easiest route is self publishing. It means total control and the chance to have a successful food writing career.
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