Making a cookbook : Recipe testing

Behind the cookbookery scenes, part 1

Hello! Hello!

As every cookbook author knows and usually writes in her acknowledgements, there may be just one name on the book’s cover, but a cookbook is a collaboration. Some authors say it takes a village, but they’re wrong. It takes a metropolis! I’ve never counted all the people whose hearts, minds and hands go into a book, from the agents and editors, copy editors and proofreaders, production people, art directors, designers, photographers, food stylists, prop stylists, printers, binders, packagers, boxers, shippers, warehouse people, drivers, salespeople, marketers and promotion experts, bookstore people. And more. And more. Maybe even a metropolis doesn’t have enough people to get a book from me to you.

But a cookbook starts small. At least mine do. First there’s an idea. Then there’s a conversation with my agent, David Black. Then, a proposal. And then, if my editor (for years it was Rux Martin and now it’s Sarah Kwak) loves the idea, I get to work for real.

Over the course of t…