Move over, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson — the unknown author is making an impact on the cookbook market.
Becca Spry, who edits cookbooks for Mitchell Beazley, is convinced that the market is changing. ”In the UK, certainly, the TV focus on cooking is really on the decline, and celebrity chefs are less in the public eye. Nobody really knows why.”
Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson are two who made their names as writers before turning to television, but others, such as Jamie Oliver, rose to superstardom on the small screen. Then there are the restaurant chefs, including Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White, whose heavyweight names ensure a book’s success.
Faced with such glamorous competition, ordinary cookbook authors hardly seem to stand a chance. Yet a growing number of well-researched and evocatively written books are appearing on the shelves, and disappearing as armchair foodies develop a more in-depth passion for cooking.
The cookbook market’s international potential allows Mitchell Beazley to take on books by little-known authors, if they are sure they will sell in more than one language. One such book is Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry, a television producer who had only dabbled in food journalism before writing this exploration of the magical side of Mediterranean cooking.
Chapter headings such as Fruits of Longing and Fragrance of the Earth reveal a sensual approach, which grew not out of extensive travel but her love of London’s ethnic food shops. But the writing isn’t everything — luscious photographs play a big part in selling the book.
”In terms of marketing, photography is hugely important,” says Spry. ”It’s another way of saying what you want to say.
”Food is such a sensual thing — it’s linked to the air we breathe, to the landscape, to our cultures and traditions — and a lot of photographers are trying to link food to other aspects of our lives. Ten years ago, out-of-focus food photographs were in
fashion; now it’s less about the technical side and more about telling a story.”
Another recent success published by Mitchell Beazley is New Tapas by Fiona Dunlop, a journalist with a house in Spain who became aware of a tapas revival. Her profiles of tapas chefs, with recipes that range from the traditional to the avant-garde (duck’s liver with sweet pears and Sichuan pepper), are authoritative enough to have been translated into Spanish.
Spry is not against restaurant books if the recipes are tested for home kitchens. She is currently working on a book with the chef of the London restaurant Real Greek, Theodore Kyriakou, who is flying to Greece to explore the domestic recipes that inspire his food.
Another publisher to take risks on highly-illustrated, armchair-travel food books has been Conran Octopus. Full-time food writer Clarissa Hyman’s critically acclaimed Cucina Siciliana and The Jewish Kitchen have sold well, if not by the million; both draw in the reader with storytelling and striking images.
The Jewish Kitchen makes a particularly fascinating read, as Hyman visited Jewish communities around the world to stand by cooks as they told the story of a dish. On one page is green masala chicken curry from Bombay, on the next, Persian jewelled chicken with rice.
It’s not easy to find a balance between words and pictures, Hyman says. ”My first editor battled on my behalf to have more words, and luckily the designer was sympathetic — most designers just want lots of white space. I was willing to compromise too, but sometimes I think I would really love to have more space.”
Hyman finds the popularity of celebrity chef cookbooks ”a bit depressing, really.” For her, ”writing the book is half the battle, promoting it is the other half. It can be the most brilliant book in the world and be completely ignored. Most chef’s books are ghostwritten, not properly tested in a home kitchen, and only selling because the chef is a real babe or on the telly. Some are good, and that’s fair enough. But the market has been saturated.”
BBC broadcaster Fuchsia Dunlop learned how hard it was for an unknown author to sell a cookbook when she came back from China, having been the first Western student to study at the Sichuan state cooking school, and had her proposal rejected by several publishers.
She repackaged it and had two offers. Published by Michael Joseph, Sichuan Cooking is a fascinating, heavily researched and beautifully written look at the boldly spicy and occasionally numbing cooking of this province. Here again, photographs push the reader from the armchair (or the bed, a favourite place for cookbook reading) into the kitchen.
Cookbooks have come a long way since the 1950s, when Elizabeth David’s sober paperbacks brought then-exotic foods such as aubergine and pesto to the masses. With only the occasional line drawing, her books relied on mouthwatering description to conjure up the robust flavors and dazzling colors of the Mediterranean.
Proof that some authors are timeless is the planned release by Penguin of a newly discovered manuscript by David on Christmas cooking. Fifty years later, her writing is just as relevant — and that’s what today’s best cookbook authors are aiming for, despite the constraints of the market. – Sapa-AFP