I Wrote a Cookbook

. . . . What I did not realize is that I’ve been doing it for over six years! The traditional way to go about this would be to sit down and write a proposal, with the goal to write a book, which eventually would be published. Instead, I blogged—for six years non-stop, covering many stories, thoughts, memories and almost always sharing a recipe’s creation.  

When San Francisco-based Hyperink approached me with the proposal to collect some of my memorable stories and recipes from the blog and compile them into an ebook, initially I was not convinced. However, as I got discussing the idea with their incredible team, it all began to make sense. It’s rather ingenious, and very innovative.

Bloggers pour hours and hours of time into writing hundreds of posts for their blogs. Carefully researched, written and, in cases of photographers, beautifully photographed posts are all easily accessible on the Internet. However, the biggest disadvantage—and much to the dismay of the bloggers—is that blog posts have a very short shelf life. Within a fleeting moment much of the content disappears into the black hole of the web, often never to be found again. Some of these posts are extraordinary, emotional and extremely informative; it does not matter, the Internet demands to be fed with fresh new content. Hyperink is changing all this with their “Blog to Book” series, partnering with blog authors and carefully putting together a series of books that cover a variety of topics in ebook format—and are doing this very successfully.

Together with my lovely editor Michaela (she was a gift sent from the book-writing heavens!), I’ve been working on this book since last year. Both of us had the same visions for the book: I labeled it a “storybook that thinks it’s a cookbook” or a “cookbook that tells a story”—you decide what it is when you read it. It brings many of my stories, passionate childhood memories and thoughts together in a way that reads like a seamless book. It is peppered with several recipes and vivid images from the blog and also includes a few new recipes never before published on the Internet. Integrated between the stories and the recipes are many of my valuable tips, tricks and personal notes about the dishes, methods of cooking or the history. One of the best parts however, is that we have incorporated reader comments from the blog for many of the recipes. Yes a few of you make an appearance in my book!

I think it has turned out quite nicely. It was great to see it come together like a big jigsaw puzzle and I was amazed to realize that, yes, I have indeed written a book. This might not be the book, but it is a true pleasure to see over 300 pages of my work edited into a beautiful read and the photographs set in a different scene than the blog, ready to touch a wider audience. I am stoked to say the least.

The title of the book? What’s for lunch, Honey?—what else?
The book will be available on Hyperink’s online store, of course, but also on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, for just $4.95.

Hope you enjoy it!

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