Episode 364: The Only Permission You Need to Write Your Cookbook
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to another episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast. Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m not really an expert… who am I to write a cookbook?” or conversely “They’re not really an expert…who are they to write a cookbook? You’re not alone. For years, publishers, editors, and agents acted as gatekeepers, deciding who was “qualified” to write a cookbook. But times have changed. In this episode, I’ll walk you through: The old gatekeepers who kept most voices out of publishing How traditional publishing is shifting and why publishers now want new and unique...
info_outline
Episode 363: 3 Questions Cookbook Writers Are Asking in 2025: Adaptation, Action, and Pricing
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to another episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast. Today on the podcast I share three questions that came up during Recipe Week LIVE 2025: how to ethically adapt recipes, how to move from passive learning to active doing, and how to price a self-published print cookbook on Amazon with confidence. Today on the show, I share: Adaptation & attribution: Why ingredient lists and basic processes aren’t generally copyrightable and how your expression (voice, headnotes, tips, stories, history, technique rationale) creates protectable originality. Simple, honest “inspired by/adapted...
info_outline
Episode 362: @BigFamilyLiving, Backyard Classrooms, and Preserving the Seasons with Holly Capelle
Cookbook Love Podcast
Before we get started, there’s still time to take advantage of the final two days of Recipe Week LIVE 2025 happening now through August 15, 2025. This live event is for anyone who wants to turn what they cook or bake every day into publishable recipes. Today I’m excited to have an interview with Holly Capelle. Holly is a home cook, food preservationist, lifestyle artist, and advocate for sustainable living. She is the founder of @bigfamilyliving, an online community for people who preserve, create, cook, and garden. Holly is the author of the new book Preserving the Seasons, a...
info_outline
Episode 361: The Miami Intersection of Food, Culture, and Wellness with Ellen Kanner
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast. Today I’m excited to have an interview with Ellen Kanner. Ellen Kanner is the author of Miami Vegan: Plant-Based Recipes from the Tropics to Your Table and the award-winning book Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith and What to Eat for Dinner. She writes about the intersection of food, culture, community, and wellness for outlets including HuffPost, VegNews, and Edible South Florida. Ellen is a vegan advocate and culinary instructor, and the creator of the Substack newsletter Broccoli Rising. As a fifth-generation Miami native, Ellen lives with her...
info_outline
Episode 360: Are Your Recipes Cookbook-Ready?
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast. Today, I talk about a question I hear all the time: How do I get my recipes ready for a cookbook? Recipes are the heart of any cookbook. They are what set our books apart from other works of non-fiction. They’re not just instructions on paper; they’re a combination of creativity, story, and trust. So if you are writing your recipes for publication, this episode is for you. In this episode, I’ll walk you through the five stages of recipe writing: ideation, development, writing, testing, and publishing. These stages form the foundation of every great...
info_outline
Episode 359: Garlic, Olive Oil + Everything Mediterranean with Daen Lia of @daenskitchen
Cookbook Love Podcast
Today on the podcast, I’m joined by Daen Lia — home cook, recipe creator, and the author of Garlic, Olive Oil + Everything Mediterranean. You may know Daen from her wildly popular social channels under @daenskitchen, where she shares comforting Mediterranean-inspired recipes with over 6 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Daen Lia learned to cook from her Spanish and Italian mother and grandmother. With the smell of garlic and roasted tomatoes wafting through the kitchen, Daen discovered the alchemy of a few simple ingredients: garlic, olive oil, and whatever...
info_outline
Episode 358: The Philosophies of Mindful Snacking and Home Cooking with Suzanne Lenzer
Cookbook Love Podcast
In this episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast, I’m joined by Suzanne Lenzer, food stylist, writer, and author of Peckish: Suggestions for the Sophisticated Snacker. Suzanne’s approach to food and cooking invites us to consider not just what we eat, but how and why, with more spontaneity and less convention. Suzanne shares how she structured Peckish around “vessels” like On Toast, In Jars, Napkins Only, and more, making it easier (and more fun) to plan a night of grazing or to turn an afternoon snack into a small ritual of care. In today's show we talk about: What mindful...
info_outline
Episode 357: The Dinner Party Analogy: Defining Your Cookbook Concept
Cookbook Love Podcast
In today’s episode, we’re unpacking a concept I teach inside the Get Paid to Get Published program about defining Your Cookbook Concept. Using a powerful metaphor —the Dinner Party Analogy—we’ll explore how to define what your book is really about, who it’s for, what’s on the “menu,” and why it matters in today’s publishing landscape. Today you’ll learn why you, the author, are the host of your book’s journey, how to identify and describe your ideal reader, and different cookbook concept types—from ingredients to holidays, what makes your book stand out in the market,...
info_outline
Episode 356: Three Cultures, One Cookbook with Cristina Carolan of Plant-Based Pacific
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to another episode of the show. Today, I’m excited to welcome Cristina Carolan. Cristina is a plant-based personal chef and author of Plant-Based Pacific, a cookbook that reflects a vibrant fusion of culinary cultures from Japan, Hawaii, and the Philippines. She’s the owner of Chef Veggie, a plant-based personal chef and holistic lifestyle service. A lifelong traveler, Cristina’s experiences living in Japan, visiting her mother’s homeland of the Philippines, and calling three Hawaiian islands home inform every dish and story in her book. In today’s episode, we talk about: ...
info_outline
Episode 355: Trends in Cookbooks for Spring 2025
Cookbook Love Podcast
Welcome to another episode of the podcast! Several times a year, outlets like Eater, Food Network, Epicurious, Publishers Weekly, and others publish their roundup features: What’s hot in cookbooks this season? They’re the pulse checks of the cookbook world and offer a lens into what's resonating now. Today on the show, we’ll dive into trends in cookbooks published this spring, each tied to what cookbook buyers are craving and what publishers are publishing in Spring 2025. Things We Mention in This Episode:
info_outlineWelcome to the Cookbook Love Podcast. Today, I talk about a question I hear all the time: How do I get my recipes ready for a cookbook? Recipes are the heart of any cookbook. They are what set our books apart from other works of non-fiction. They’re not just instructions on paper; they’re a combination of creativity, story, and trust. So if you are writing your recipes for publication, this episode is for you.
In this episode, I’ll walk you through the five stages of recipe writing: ideation, development, writing, testing, and publishing. These stages form the foundation of every great cookbook recipe, and understanding them will help you move from a scattered collection of notes to polished, cookbook-ready recipes.
And if you want to dive deeper, I’ll also tell you about Recipe Week LIVE 2025: Get Your Recipes Cookbook-Ready, happening August 11-15, 2025. This five-day live event is going to change the way you think about recipe writing. Sign up here for Recipe Week LIVE 2025.
Things We Mention in This Episode: