Will Write For Food » Recipe Writing

Whole Lotta Lifting Going On

diannejacob — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:57:25 +0000

Increasingly, recipe writers are finding their own content appearing somewhere else.

Part of the problem is how ridiculously simple it is to lift work verbatim. On the net, just copy and paste. Some online companies write code that does it. In print, just retype a recipe verbatim, and present it as yours.

Here’s what Gwen from Bunky Cooks said in the comments of a previous post here in Will Write for Food:

“I was amazed at the number of people who came up to me after I spoke on a panel on ethics at IFBC in New Orleans last year. They said they had no idea that there were ethics they should be adhering to when writing their blogs.

“Isn’t some of this just common sense? Aren’t we responsible for our words and actions just as you would be in a job or at school? Why do some people think the internet is a place where everything is free and anything is yours just for the taking?”

Good questions. At least she and I got the opportunity to educate. I also spoke on an ethics panel for IFBC last year, and talked for 50 minutes on the subject last weekend at Food Blog South in Birmingham, AL.

Here are some new developments from last week where both individuals and companies are involved:

1. Recipes ripped off as an e-book. Elise Bauer got Amazon to shut down a page where someone in Bangkok scraped the content of Simply Recipes into an e-book and sold it on Kindle. A reader of her site tipped her off. One week later, eight more Kindle e-books appeared on Amazon that ripped off Bauer’s recipes.

2. Recipes appear on a recipe database site — surprise! A food blogger emailed me to say she recently stumbled across several of her recipes on Tastebook. She didn’t add them. She has contacted the company but has not heard back from them yet.

Similarly, some big bloggers are fighting with Velvet Aroma and Feastie, which scrape blog recipes into their sites, without permission.

3. Recipes ripped off by a future cookbook author. That’s right, people don’t just steal online content. An editor at a publishing house emailed me to say that, after receiving a cookbook manuscript, she discovered two plagiarized recipes during a taste testing.

“Someone at the table said something like, ‘I swear this is just like a (celebrity chef’s/magazine’s) recipe I’ve made.’ We went online and found the original recipes in a matter of minutes. Everything’s nearly a straight copy-paste, including a typo!

“We had an intern spot-check some of the recipes the author had submitted, and we found a third had also come from the Internet. We talked with the author, who blamed an assistant. The author sent us replacements and assured us they were original recipes and not taken from other sources. The plagiarized recipe we discovered today was one of those replacement recipes.”

I introduced the cookbook editor to Amanda Hesser, who deals with this issue of lifted recipes during Food52 contests. She suggested a search of recipes at Eat Your Books. The site won’t show you the entire recipe, but shows a list of ingredients that appear in recipes in cookbooks, magazines and blogs, so you can take a first step in determining which are similar.

What can you do if you find someone’s stolen your recipes verbatim? First, take a deep breath. Second, read Bauer’s post about copyright theft, and read all the comments. Not everyone who does this is evil. Some people are simply naive. I hope, if this has happened to you, the person is in the latter category.

Photo by chanpipat from Freedigitalphotos.net

Who Gets Paid to Write Recipes?

diannejacob — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:32:53 +0000

In preparation for a recent recipe writing panel for the International Food Blogger Conference, I decided I wanted to know more about career recipe developers and how they work.

So I spoke and emailed with professional recipe developers who work for retail food manufacturers, growers, commodity boards, and commissions such as the California Walnut Commission. My goal was to get more information about corporate recipe writing, and also to understand what kinds of opportunities exist for food writers.

Here’s the first thing I learned: The culinary experts who get these jobs are not necessarily food writers or cookbook authors. These professionals might have backgrounds in nutrition, or they’re dieticians, or they have a degree in home economics or food science. While they may not have been to culinary school, they are skilled cooks who can write recipes using a variety of techniques and styles. They also might be members of IACP’s Test Kitchen Professionals Special Section.

When coming up with ideas, these recipe developers study food trends and know what kind of ingredients are current and which have staying power. They know what level of sophistication clients want, depending on their target audience, and they consider variables such as pan size and substitutions.

Recipe developers might work with chefs to rewrite recipes that work in a home cook’s kitchen. Some have clients who want recipes that conform to dietary specifications or require nutritional analysis. Sometimes their clients ask for product concepts first, which means writing out ideas for recipes, such as five variations on a turkey sandwich. Oh, and don’t even bother with a pannini or a sandwich with pesto or cranberries — they already have those in their files, thanks.

Once clients select the recipes they like, the finished recipes could appear in several places, including:

In a magazine ad
On product packaging
On a company’s website, or
In a press release directed to newspaper and magazine editors who use free content.

Recipe developers charge between $300 and $600 per recipe, depending on experience or on complexity of the recipes. Reimbursement for groceries is always separate. Typically, the recipes will belong to the company, not to the writer. And one last thing – the client might have a test kitchen, so the recipe better work flawlessly, be well written, conform to food safety standards, and taste great.

I’m looking forward to learning more by talking with my fellow panelists at this weekend’s IFBC conference in Santa Monica. I’ll be on a recipe development panel with Amelia Saltsman, author and publisher of The Santa Monica Farmer’s Market Cookbook; and Martha Homberg, former editor of Fine Cooking magazine. Hope to see you there!

(A version of this post first appeared in my quarterly newsletter about food writing. My newsletter contains tips and links to helpful articles and resources. If you’d like to receive it, sign up here.)

(Photo courtesy Simon Howden, Free Digital Photos.)

Blogger Quits Day Job, Creates Successful Online Business

diannejacob — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 23:32:36 +0000

Jenny McGruther quit her job as an office manager last year to devote herself to her online cooking business, Nourished Kitchen. (Photo by Kevin McGruther)

Do you dream of making enough money from food writing online to quit your day job? Do you want more income as a self-employed writer and educator?

Jennifer McGruther started down a path to lucrative self-employment in 2006, when she switched to a traditional foods diet. She defines this style of eating as “the foods that your ancestors ate prior to the industrial revolution in the 19^th Century and the green revolution in the mid-20^th Century.” The focus is on raw dairy, cultured and fermented foods, broth, offal, and grains and beans that have been soaked, fermented or sprouted. Protein sources must be grass fed, pastured or wild-caught.

She had trouble finding enough information about traditional foods (Sally Fallon’s Weston A. Price Foundation and her book, Nourishing Traditions, are pioneers). So in 2007, McGruther started a blog as a way to track the recipes she developed.

Based on the amount of interest in her blog and her newsletter (begun in 2009), she launched an online business of teaching people to cook traditional foods. She charges by the month and by the class for her online cooking classes and healthy meal plans. Hundreds of people sign up. Last year, she quit her day job as a Colorado office manager to work full time at her business, Nourished Kitchen.

Today, her newsletter has more than 21,000 subscribers. (Her Facebook fan page has more than 22,000 Likes.) Now she has a full website that sells two kinds of products: meal plans and recipes ($10 per month/ $85 per year) and video cooking classes ($149 for 13 installments), all aimed at an audience interested in pursuing the traditional foods diet.

We spoke recently about how her online business evolved and how it works:

Q. What’s interesting is that your readers are willing to pay for recipes, even though the web — and your blog — offer so many recipes for free.

A. When you develop a relationship with your readers, they are wiling to pay something more. I have solid, well-tested recipes that can be reproduced easily, and people value that.

When I decided to branch into premium content, I had about 2000 newsletter subscribers, and about 80 ended up making purchases. Their feedback was excellent and it gave me the confidence to continue providing premium content in addition to the free content offered on the site.

Q. That’s a good number, as a start. What came next?

A. In February, 2010 I launched free daily emails based on giving up processed food for a month. I increased my newsletter subscriptions by 1500 subscribers and was featured on CNN. That taught me people were interested in getting more involved. They kept emailing me with questions. I realized they didn’t know how to cook unprocessed food.

The daily emails were my pilot program for unveiling cooking classes. I worked with several other bloggers to create online cooking classes. We work together to cross-promote each other’s premium content, which helps us all to reach a broader audience. We also share suggestions, tips and technical advice with one another.

In May 2010, I launched a 12-week video cooking class on preparing traditional foods. There were 24 videos on things like how to truss a chicken, make sauerkraut, and make kombucha. My husband and I shot the videos together.

The new cooking classes are on making cultured and fermented foods. For $149, each class offers between eight and 13 installments, and each installment covers a particular topic, with 3 to 6 videos, print materials, and recipes, which usually amount to about 20 pages of content.

(To see an example of a video, watch this one on How to Ferment Anything.)

Q. How many people will buy these cooking class series?

A. Typically, each cooking class sells to several hundred people.

Q. How did the first one go?

A. There were lots of learning curves. I offered lifetime access to the site. People kept coming back and asking for help, asking if I was offering more classes. They were struggling with time management and kitchen management issues, such as remembering to soak oatmeal for breakfast 12 hours in advance.

Strawberry, rhubarb, eggs and homemade cream. (Photos by Jenny McGruther.)

That’s what led to the meal plan program. I also felt I needed a range of price points, so I allowed people to subscribe to the program for only $10 per month.I found that people couldn’t commit to traditional food seven days a week, so I gave them plans for three days a week.

(For the meal plan program, customers receive three full dinner menus each week: For each menu, there’s one dessert, one ferment recipe, one soup, a to do-list, a shopping list, cooking tips, and make-ahead lists. There’s one slow-cooker meal. See this sample of a meal plan.)

I’ve found that some people stick with the program for six months, and then they have enough recipes. Others make every single recipe every single week. And some use it to access new recipes.

Q. How many subscribers do you have for your meal plan?

A. Several hundred per month.

Q. I can see why. I’m amazed by the amount of information you provide, not just recipes but a lot of handholding and explaining so people can understand exactly what they’re getting. How did you know to create all that material?

A. I determined what I would like to see before I purchase something. With a physical product, you can see it. With digital information, it’s a little more challenging. I did my best to make sure it was very clear to see exactly what people were getting. That helps me create informed buyers who are not confused about the product.

Q. Why do you think your programs are successful?

A. They provide info on what people need, and they know exactly what they’re getting. The price points are effective, between $50 and $200, and work for most people. Plus, I was fortunate to be one of the first people to tap into this particular niche, so my site is more prominent. People get that one-on-one information and attention from a trusted source, and that’s enormously valuable. Also, I’m accessible. If a subscriber called me about cookware recommendations, I am happy to provide one-on-one information.

Q. What is challenging about this new business for you?

A. I get hundreds of emails and it’s really challenging for me to go through all of them. And when I go through them, that’s time I don’t spend developing new recipes for my blog and time I don’t spend with my family. It’s exhausting! I got an assistant for customer service, but an assistant can’t help with specialized expertise. I try to answer emails in two business days. Now I’m looking into an assistant who has specialized knowledge in traditional foods.

When I do a launch, I’m working an 80-hour week. I launch the cooking classes about three times each year with large promotions, though they’re open for enrollment at any time. I haven’t done a large promotion or launch for the meal plans yet, but I promote them periodically by social media or in blog posts.

Q. So what are the lessons for people who are still trying to figure out how to make a living from food writing?

A. They need to build a devoted audience based on their specialized knowledge. Once they have a way to convey that knowledge to their readers, they need to make it very clear about what the product will do for their readers. If they outline it directly and hit a price point that provides substantial value, they’ll be in a good position.

(Disclosure: I met McGruther when she contacted me about working together, and she is a client.)

Getting Paid for Recipes, One Year Later

diannejacob — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:24:56 +0000

Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen (left), says that absolutely, bloggers should charge for recipes. That's Kate McDermott of Art of the Pie in the middle and me on the right. (Photo by Lora Giorgi, Cake Dutchess)

What a difference a year makes. Last year at The International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC), Amy Sherman of Cooking With Amy got a ton of push-back on our recipe-writing panel when she suggested food bloggers should get paid for recipes.

Even I wrote a conflicted piece on giving recipes away for free, which continues to be one of my most-commented upon posts ever.

This year, at IFBC in New Orleans this past weekend, Deborah Perelman of Smitten Kitchen stated, firmly, that bloggers should not give away recipes for free because companies make money from them. There was silence. Hobby bloggers occupied half the room.

And then a woman in the audience, from Wilton, said her company pays for recipes, and that bloggers should always ask for payment. Shauna James Ahern of Gluten-Free Girl, also in the audience, tweeted: ”Love hearing @thesmitten, @katemcdermott, and @diannej encouraging women to advocate for themselves when charging for recipes. #IFBCNOLA.”

That’s an improvement over last year, when people talked about giving away recipes for “goodwill” and “connection.” But complicated questions remain about who is asking for these recipes, what you get from giving them away, and what should you charge or not charge in each case. Let’s look at three examples:

Company or corporations: These firms have budgets to pay for work.The rate is anywhere from $250 to $600 per original recipe, according to recipe developers I spoke to when doing research for the IFBC panel. Groceries for testing are never included in the price, and the company will probably own the recipe. Some companies want to pay you in goods. If so, the goods should be worth more than the fee to make it worthwhile.
Cookbook author. If an author wants to put your recipe in her cookbook, charge him or her a nominal fee, unless it’s for a charity you deem worthwhile. But how much, and what if they say they can’t pay? Decide if it’s worth it. An obscure book with a small publishing company might have few readers. On the other hand, it doesn’t cost you much for a recipe already published on your website to appear in a book. And on the other hand, if you believe inclusion would be prestigious, such as in the Food52 cookbook, then you might find it worthwhile from a credibility standpoint.
Company website. If someone offers to post a recipe from your blog for no pay, should you do it? I’d prefer that the answer is no, but I’ve worked with beginning bloggers who have given away content from blogs because it’s good for their credibility and creates incoming links. I don’t like it, but I understand. I just hope it’s a short-term philosophy that bloggers can use as a stepping stone to paid work.

The best approach, the panelists said, is to ask, “What is your budget?” Sometimes after saying no, companies come back with a budget. This moment can be the turning point for many food bloggers, who thought of themselves as hobbyists, and then find that people are willing to pay for their work. And they should. Just because writing recipes is your passion doesn’t mean you should do so for free, outside of your blog.

What is your experience? Has anything changed from last year? Are companies still asking for recipes for free, or is it more common to offer payment now? Are you at the point now where you won’t give away any content for free?

* * *

For more posts about IFBC New Orleans and recipe writing, see:

Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman on What She Learned by Writing a Cookbook

diannejacob — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:59:25 +0000

Deb Perelman turns in the manuscript for her first cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, at the end of this month. I caught up with her to ask her how writing a cookbook has been different than writing her blog.

You can meet Perelman at the International Food Blogger Conference in New Orleans August 26-28. She, Kate McDermott of Art of the Pie, and I will be talking about recipe development.

Q. What percentage of recipes will come from the blog?

A. Very few recipes, maybe 10 to 15 percent. I have to put in the greatest hits or it wouldn’t feel like the Smitten Kitchen cookbook.

Q. Where did you get your inspiration for new dishes?

A. I have no shortage of ideas. I have a long list of recipe ideas I’ve been building on for a decade, and I keep them all in Google Docs. I can reach them from any computer, from the phone and from the grocery store.

Besides cookbooks that I know and love, the web is a great tool to research recipes. I gravitate towards recipe sites that have reviews, like the Food Network, Allrecipes and Epicurious. It’s not that I’m looking for new ideas. It’s more like I have my recipe for pancakes, and I wonder if the salt level is too high or how much milk other recipes use.

I get a lot of ideas from restaurants too, where there’s something about the dish I like, like the combination of ingredients.

Blueberry Yogurt Multigrain Pancakes. (Photo by permission of Deb Perelman.)

Q. How is the cookbook different from the blog?

A. There are things I’ve pulled from the cookbook because they were going to be really complicated to make. I didn’t think I could test out those recipes 20 times this summer to get them right.

In a cookbook, I get to do things I wouldn’t do on the site, like a gathering of meal ideas, certain kinds of sidebars, and a nice layout.

Also, when I’m remaking things from the website, I make them different now.

Q. What is the difference between the way you write a recipe for the book and for the blog?

A. It’s not terribly different. I have to add more detail because I’m not going to have process photos for each recipe.

Q. What have you learned from writing the cookbook?

A. Writing the book has changed the way I do the site. I’ve gotten more aggressive with my recipe testing and my writing.

My recipes in the last 1.5 years are different.The first couple of years, I was clueless about recipe copyright and adapting. I would use a recipe from somewhere and change very little. I used to feel it was disrespectful to the cook to change the recipe — that you’re supposed to give credit and compliments. As the site went on, I became a better cook. Now I’m working hard on recipe development.

My next project is going back to older recipes on the site and reworking them to make them true Smitten Kitchen recipes. They’re a minority.

Q. What is your definition of “adapted?”

A. It means you’ve changed things. If I haven’t changed the recipe, I won’t use it. I really try to detail in the headnote what I’ve changed. If someone loved that recipe from Ina Garten, I want to give them a heads up that I did not make it the same way.

Q. Are you in charge of the photography, and is it different from the blog also?

A. Yes, I’m doing the photos too. On the website, I will publish imperfect photos. Mostly I’m looking for a good top picture. If they’re not perfectly lit and the focus is not where I want it, that’s okay. But for the cookbook, I have to reshoot it.

Q. Who is your editor at Knopf?

A. Her name is Lexy Bloom. It’s her first cookbook. Judith Jones has been advising her a little bit about process. She talks about what she did with Julia Child! She likes to come to the kitchen with her authors see how they work. So now Lexy’s come over and we have a couple more visits scheduled.

Q. Did you use recipe testers for your cookbook?

A. For the site I’ve always done my own testing and I guess I’ve been very lucky because people like the results. For the book I’m more nervous so I’ve brought in two recipe testers. I’m not giving them all the recipes, just as many as I feel nervous about and want to get their home cooking notes.

It’s hard for me. I’m not good at sharing. I don’t understand the concept of rough drafts. Recipes are either done or I leave them in my computer.

Cauliflower Gratin (Photo by permission of Deb Perelman.)

Q. What do you want them to check?

A. More complicated recipes, baking recipes. Or ones where each time I tested it, it came out a little different. I’m going to have weights measurements in the book, so I want them to verify the weights, and the cooking times. I want them to let me know if there are gaping holes in the recipes.

Mostly I want to know that their results are the same. These people live in Brooklyn, and I really want to take a bite of what they make but I can’t run over there (DJ: Perelman lives in Manhattan)!

One thing I’ve found is that I have to be true to the way I make it. One tester said a bread wasn’t cheesy enough. But I have to remember that I made it three times that way and my family and I loved it. And I’ve always published recipes to my taste.

Q. Will you feel like you have reached some new level of credibility with the published book? That you’re not just a blogger?

A. I’ve never felt like I’m just a blogger.

I’m sure I will feel that way. My drive has never been to be famous, though. I just want to do work that makes me happy.

Q. What do you say to people, particularly bloggers, who want to write a cookbook?

A. I was very glad I waited for a fairly developed audience (DJ: Perelman says Smitten Kitchen has 2.5-4 million unique views a month. She started the blog in 2006.). I had a lot more opportunities, more people were interested, and could develop a book into what I wanted. As a result, the cookbook reflects my vision for the site, my vision for cooking, and how I feel about cooking.

Blogger Stalks and Copies Another Food Blogger

diannejacob — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:54:11 +0000

Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Strohmeyer of Virtually Vegan Mama.

What do you do when another blogger copies your recipes, ideas, and even gets the same freelance gig? That’s the situation food blogger Jennifer Strohmeyer of Virtually Vegan Mama found herself in recently, when another blogger took Strohmeyer’s recipe ideas for her own blog, and even got the same freelancing gig at the same website where Strohmeyer contributes.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. We’ve had lots of discussions here about adapting recipes. Everyone modifies everyone else’s recipes, it seems. Maybe Strohmeyer was imagining things?

I think not. Let me tell you what happened.

But first, a little background on Strohmeyer. She started her blog in mid-January (full discloser: Strohmeyer is a former client), sending photos to Food Buzz and other photo sites to drive traffic. She got higher visibility all right, when another blogger noticed Strohmeyer’s site. These four coincidences happened, one more infuriating than the next:

Qinoa Date Nut Truffles. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Strohmeyer of Virtually Vegan Mama.

1. The case of the similar truffles

In March, Strohmeyer wrote a post on quinoa date truffles. She sent her photo to Food Buzz, where it appeared. Shortly, a photo of similar truffles with a different offbeat ingredient appeared on Food Buzz. “She pretty much ripped off my content and made it into the Top 9, “ Strohmeyer recalls.

At my suggestion, Strohmeyer left a comment on the blogger’s truffle post, saying something polite about how fun it was that she had used a similar unusual ingredient (I’m not linking to her blog because I don’t want you all to go postal on her). The point was to make the blogger aware that Strohmeyer knew about the similar recipe. The comment appeared, but then the other blogger removed it.

2. The case of the similar pie crust

Soon after, Strohmeyer blogged about a no-bake date almond pie crust. She wrote that she wanted to make tarts, but she didn’t have tartlet pans. A week later, the other blogger wrote a post about tartlets with a similar crust, but made with a different nut. Her photo made the Top 9 in Food Buzz again.

“She was obviously reading my blog and getting inspiration from it,” said Strohmeyer. “Ethically she should have acknowledged my recipe.”

3. The case of the mentioned pasta dish

Two months later, Strohmeyer wrote in the comments of her pasta post, “I’m making Penna Alla Vodka next…yum!”

Guess what happened? Yep. The other blogger made that same sauce, using a different title, and posted it on her blog. “This one was kind of an F U,” said Strohmeyer. “Was it a coincidence? I don’t think so. I’m not crazy.”

“I thought, ‘How dare you? You took my next post. ‘I didn’t do the next post on that subject.”

4. The case of the same freelance gig

Strohmeyer landed a gig where her blog posts appear on a website that attracts vegans. She added that info to her bio. Soon, the other blogger’s vegan recipe posts began appearing on the site as well.

Was it a coincidence? No. Strohmeyer figures the blogger read her bio and pitched the site.

So what’s a blogger to do? Should she contact the other blogger and confront her? “I don’t want to start a whole big blog war,” says Strohmeyer. “I don’t want the negativity. I try not to look at her website, but I see her photos on Food Buzz, Foodgawker and Tastespotting. I don’t know if people are going to make the connection.”

“She has a great blog,” Strohmeyer concludes. “She has a lot of great things going on. I feel like: Do your own thing.”

So far Strohmeyer has put on her big-girl pants and looked the other way. What would you do in this situation?

* * *

Food Blogs Should Inspire and Surprise, says Aran Goyoaga of Cannelle Et Vanille

diannejacob — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:25:14 +0000

A romantic image typical of the style of Cannelle Et Vanille (Photo used with permission of Aran Goyoaga)

I first discovered Cannelle Et Vanille two years ago, when I methodically went through every single blog listed on the The London Time’s list of “50 of the World’s Best Food Blogs.” Aran Goyoaga’s blog was second on the list, and she had only been blogging for a year.

Her sun-lit, romantic photos of desserts and fruit drew me in, as did the stories about her family, travels, and baking. I learned that Goyoaga had been a pastry chef for a Ritz-Carlton, then started blogging and taught herself photography.

Since that prestigious list catapulted her into the public eye, Goyoaga’s blog has attracted the attention of magazines in Europe and the US, as well as Gwyneth Paltrow‘s Goop newsletter, which praised the blog’s gluten-free theme, expert recipes and gorgeous photography. Last fall, seven publishers vied to publish Goyoaga’s upcoming cookbook. Little, Brown & Company will publish the book in fall, 2012.

I caught up with Goyoaga right before BlogHer Food, where she was a guest speaker:

Aran Goyoaga of Canelle Et Vanille (photo by Txomin Goyoago)

Q. You’ve been blogging since 2008, less than three years, and have attained so much success. I’m sure many new bloggers want to know how you did it.

A. At first I want to say it’s for the photography, but before that I had a following because of the recipes. I was a trained professional chef who left her career to take care of her children at home. I was trying to merge professional pastry chef techniques at home. Then I became very interested in photography. We’re all very visual people, and people come to my blog to see how I photograph.

Also my blog has a nostalgic tone to it, because food has always been a connection to my family. I left everyone to come to the US. My grandfather had a bakery and the family gathered there. When I left the Basque country I had an MBA, but nostalgia for food drew me back, and my blog has that tone and sentiment. People like to read about my background, my childhood, and how I relate to food. I have this romantic idea of food — growing your own food and being close to nature. Dad’s side of the family was farmers, so they probably don’t romanticize it.

We all like to feel close to home, we like to be nurtured, we all think about our families and upbringing. Maybe it’s the time we live in, where we want comfort and home-cooked meals.

Q. Do you think it’s an advantage to have worked as a professional pastry chef and graduated from culinary school, when it comes to developing recipes?

A. No. Culinary school gives you a lot of technique, but you don’t necessarily need that to develop recipes. You can learn that from reading a book, watching TV or watching people cook. Culinary school opened a lot of doors and I was able to find work in (restaurant) kitchens. I worked with French and German chefs. I already knew a lot of the things in culinary school, maybe because I grew up with chefs.

Developing recipes can come from your sensibilities, how open you are to tasting and learning from other people. The more you cook, the better you get at it.

Q. What is the essence of a good food blog? What do you look for?

A. I’m interested in stories. I like the background story of how writers got to their recipes, or what that recipes means to them. So any blog that has great recipes and styling, I also appreciate.

Summery photos by Aran Goyoaga (used with permission).

I own a million cookbooks, but honestly, I don’t have time to test other blogger’s recipes. But I like to see what that person is thinking. I want to read somebody who’s always going to surprise me with combinations, or inspire me.

For example, Shauna’s blog has a very different food reference memory to me, because she combines flavors and textures I didn’t grow up eating. Heidi has a San Francisco Asian reference. It’s kind of foreign to me, but I go to her for that kind of inspiration.

Q. I talked with two moms recently who quit full-time jobs to become food bloggers and they hope to make money at it. What advice would you give them?

A. You can’t compare yourself to other bloggers. You have to be your own person and maybe the stars will align. Having a voice is really important. You can’t keep copying other people because they’re moving on. You have to listen to yourself and what you have to offer.

Q. Many food bloggers hope to write a book some day. What does it take to have seven publishers fighting over the right to publish your book?

A. I waited for a long time to write a proposal until I knew what I wanted to write about. An agent and publishers approached me earlier, but at the time I didn’t think I had anything new to say. Then when I became gluten-free, I wanted to write a biographical, visual book. I felt like there was a niche for a book like that. The gluten-free is secondary, because it’s easy and healthy, with my own spin, which is Basque. Publishers thought it was a good idea, something that was missing. It was the right moment. Maybe one or two years ago my proposal would have been rejected.

I’m doing the recipe development, the writing, the styling, the editing, and the photography. My cookbook is kind of like a labor of love, another child. The manuscript is due August 15, and the photos are due September 15.

Q. In your blog, you reference your moleskin notebooks as the place you record recipes, ideas and inspiration. Did you go back to them for your book, or did you have fresh ideas? What is the ratio?

The Moleskines are tiny. I can carry them in a bag. I make three revisions of each recipe, then type it into the computer. The book will have all new recipes.

Even before I wrote the proposal, I knew a book would come. I started recording recipes I didn’t put in the blog. I kept building.

Q. Many new food bloggers have trouble getting people to comment. Why do you think so many readers comment on your blog?

A. When I first started the blog, I had more time, and I commented on people’s blogs. It’s like going to somebody’s house and saying hello. Some people will visit. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had time to be an active commenter.

Without sounding too pretentious, I’m kind, and that comes across in the blog, so when people come to my space, it’s kind of an unspoken thing. My voice is warm and inviting, so it makes people say hello. I don’t do harsh social commentary. It’s romantic, family oriented, and warm.

Q. Many bloggers want to write about whatever interests them about food. Do you think people should have a particular focus for a blog?

I talk about what I want to talk about, but it so happens that I’m very focused. People are blogging what they live, and it has to be authentic. Everybody has a style, and it has to come out when they start writing recipes.

I don’t like blogs that are constantly adapting from other recipes. I like to see how that person cooks at home. I want to see their soul in the recipe. You have to show yourself. You can only be yourself. Who else are you going to be?

Q. You’ve changed the focus of your blog to gluten free. It seems like the change evolved organically, the way your life was evolving.

A. It wasn’t intentional. I started blogging when I had one kid, and it was focused on pastry. I started to get work as a stylist and photographer, and then I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I just incorporate it into how I cook at home. I never made a big deal about it.

Q. How long do you spend on a post?

A. I often spend six hours on a post. I might photograph for two days. I photograph before it’s cooked, I style everything, and I edit the photos. Writing is very difficult for me. It’s probably a day’s worth of work. I enjoy every minute of it, though.

Q. Did you think food blogging would turn out to be a career?

A. I wanted this, but I didn’t know what shape it would take. I just did what felt good to me and what felt right in the moment, and I was eager to learn.

My dad and my brother are painters. I have always been exposed to art, and I have always been very visual. Although I was very artistic, I didn’t materialize my art as a painter. Food has been my vehicle.

I think you have to be modest in life. You have to be kind. I never had a specific goal. It’s always been about what I’m doing, not about where I’m going to end up.

5 Ways to Write Recipes that Sell Without Selling

diannejacob — Thu, 12 May 2011 03:09:35 +0000

It’s a quandry. You want to entice readers to make your recipes, but you don’t want to just hit them over the head with sales pitches.

Fortunately, there are more subtle ways to attract people to a recipe. Here are five methods cookbook authors use to draw in readers:

1. Make them salivate. Describe the food and how it’s cooked so readers can not only imaging tasting it, but they see it, smell it, hear it, even imagine touching it. Here’s a headnote for South Indian-Style Eggplant Pickle, from Cradle of Flavor by Saveur Editor-in-Chief James Oseland that gets the senses going:

“This south Indian-style pickle is popular in Malaysian kitchens, although the sugar in it is a decidedly Malaysian addition. Similar to caponata, the Sicilian eggplant relish, it’s made of chunks of Japanese eggplants in a lavishly spiced sweet-sour pickling base. Coriander, fennel, cumin, chiles, ginger, and cinnamon all vie for dominance, creating a lush layering of flavors. The eggplants are fried and then put in the pickling base, rather than cooked in it. Japanese eggplants, which are commonly used in Malaysian cuisine, cook quickly, so frying them first give you more control, ensuring that they won’t come out mushy.”

Notice his evocative description, so specific that you can almost taste the eggplant. He assumes you may not know caponata, so he describes it too. Then he tells you how to cook the dish, so you can visualize it, like a movie. Oseland finishes by reassuring you that with his technique, you’ll create a superior dish.

2. Building on that last point, give readers the confidence to make your dish. Here’s the headnote from Alice Medrich’s Molten Chocolate-Raspberry Cakes from Bittersweet:

“Have you ever ordered one of these sexy little desserts in a restaurant only to find that the anticipated molten center has morphed into a cake instead of flowing sauce? Because small desserts are more easily overbaked than large ones, and because baking ties vary with different kinds of chocolate, I’ve concluded that the bet and simples insurance against disappointment (congealed sauce) is the buried-truffle method. During the short time in the oven, the truffle in each small cake melts to form a luscious sauce, while the cake gets fully baked. Although it sounds like a completely separate step, the truffles are actually created with a portion of the cake batter, so the whole process is quite efficient.”

You sense immediately that she knows exactly what she’s talking about, that you can make this cake and it will turn out just as well as hers. And you’re drooling by now, right? You see your fork cutting into the dark cake, and the shiny middle oozing out. She’s evocative even though she’s giving you straight-forward, trusted instruction.

3. Set a scene that transports people. Take them to a place you love, and give them a vicarious thrill. Here’s part of Carol Field’s headnote for Bagna Cauda, in Celebrating Italy:

“When the air in the vine-covered hills of Piedmont was thick with the aroma of newly made wine, workers once used to gather to share a pot of bagna cauda set over heat in the middle of a table. They would dip crisp raw autumn vegetables into the steaming garlicky mixture (yes, I know) of oil, butter, and anchovies. This rustic dish is part of an authentic gastronomic tradition persisting to this day…”

It’s a simple recipe for a sauce of butter, olive oil, garlic and anchovies, but now I’m right there with the workers, sitting on a bench in the crisp air of the countryside, dipping my fennel slice into a warm bowl of garlicy goodness, enjoying the view of rolling hills covered with grapevines.

You don’t have to go to Italy to write a headnote. Set a scene in Chinatown, around your best friend’s table, or at the beach. The point is to take your reader there and describe it specifically enough so they can imagine it.

4. Bowl readers over with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is contagious and gets people excited about your recipe. I love the conversational style of Ina Garten’s cookbooks, like she’s your best friend letting you in on her secrets. Here’s a partial headnote for Jeffrey’s Roast Chicken, from How Easy is That? It shows how much she loves to cook and how she thinks everyone else should love it as well:

“Recently, I met some beautiful young women from Glamour magazine. They make a roast chicken they call ‘Engagement Chicken’ because every time one of them makes it for her boyfriend, she gets engaged! How wonderful is that? That’s the best reason I ever heard to roast a chicken…”

It’s like you are sitting next to her at a restaurant bar, drinking wine and wearing your Sex in the City shoes, trading stories and laughing. She exaggerates a little for effect, another time-honored tradition of storytelling. Even though her style is casual, though, she’s dead serious about getting you to make that chicken.

5. Extol without resorting to vague words like “wonderful” and “delicious.” Use specifics instead. Here’s a partial headnote from Susanna Hoffman’s cookbook, The Olive and the Caper, for Classic Shrimp and Tomatoes:

“Hardly a dish exists on the honor roll of Greek cuisine with more names than shrimp baked with tomatoes and feta…The proliferation of names gives testimony to one thing: a dish so popular, widespread, and classic certainly must sing with flavor. And it does. Few cheeses go with shellfish, but sheep’s milk feta blankets the tender shrimp with a sharp tang the way a wash of lemon juice cannot…”

I like the way she glories the dish, not her version of it. And she tells you why it’s wonderful, rather than resorting to using the word.

Do you love a particular cookbook because of its headnotes? Tell me which one and why.

Barefoot Contessa’s Dogged Recipe Testing

diannejacob — Wed, 04 May 2011 04:26:21 +0000

Think your readers will make your recipes flawlessly simply because you’ve made them more than once?

Mega-star and cookbook author Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame doesn’t, even though she has worked in the food business for more than 30 years. She still relies on an assistant and her friends when developing new recipes.

In How Easy is That ?, Garten says once she’s tested a recipe repeatedly, she hands it over to longtime assistant Barbara Libath. Then she watches Libath make it.

“Every time I do that, I learn something about how someone at home, with only the printed recipe in front of them, might make the dish,” Garten writes. She’s careful not to make assumptions that her target reader cooks the way she does, even though, like them, she is not a professionally-trained chef.

In her cookbook, Garten explains how she watched Libath make a tomato dish where she tossed the tomatoes, as she sliced them, into a pan to saute for 5 minutes. As a result,”The first tomatoes were overcooked and the last ones weren’t done enough.” So Garten changed the instructions to cut the tomatoes, put them in a bowl, and add them all at once so they would cook evenly. It’s a small change, but enough to make her feel more confident about the recipe’s success.

Garten also road tests every single recipe for her next cookbook on her friends, “so I know everyone loves the dish before it even gets into this book.” And she doesn’t mind doing so right on her show. In this episode, a friend tests her soup recipes on his guests.

I wanted to talk to Garten more about her testing techniques, but her publisher said she’s too busy.

By the way, Garten’s assistant Barbara Libath has appeared on a few episodes of the Barefoot Contessa. Here’s a photo of her, prepping on the set. She’s the one in the blue shirt.