Kate and Andrea speak with the editor in chief of New York Times Cooking, Emily Weinstein, about all things recipe writing and recipe curation for the new book Easy Weeknight Dinners. They chat about what makes a great recipe, what are missteps, if there is a formula and all the formatting considerations involved in writing recipes. Emily talks about curating this collection, the idea behind the book, avoiding 'dull and dutiful recipes' and why they decided to bring the NYT comment section into print form. Finally, she shares her thoughts on upcoming home cooking trends and a quick tease of future projects.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Emily Weinstein

• Website
• Instagram
• Five Weeknight Dishes Newsletter

New York Times Cooking

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• Easy Weeknight Dinners by Emily Weinstein
• The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes by Sam Sifton
• Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz

Happy New Year! Molly, Kristin, Kate and Andrea take a look at the past year in cookbooks and share their thoughts on the trends they predict for 2025. They discuss how the pandemic affected the cookbook market, how they see production costs and finances changing and share some insights from editors and agents about what publishers are looking for in 2025 (hint: platform!). They talk about speciality markets, single subject expertise, branded and restaurant books before sharing a few teasers of our upcoming season.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

110: Sarah Fennel on bringing an online platform to the page

Attention Economy Substack

The Dinner Plan Podcast

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• Champagne by Peter Liem
• The Bean Book
• King Arthur Baking Company
• The Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook
• The Cake Bible
• Africali
• Islas
• Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen: A Cookbook
• The French Laundry Cookbook
• Coastal

Kate and Molly speak with blogger, writer and MasterChef alum Hetal Vasavada about her atypical career journey. She shares stories and lessons learned from her time on the tv show, how she got around the limits of her contract after it aired and why it was important to foster a community. Hetal talks about the differences between book one and book two, the advice she got during recipe development and how she learned food photography skills to shoot her own books before diving into the design process. She discusses working with the designer, choosing a title, her unique brand of flavor combinations that yields dishes that have minimal effort but maximum payoff and leaves us with a few of her ideas for book number three.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Hetal Vasavada

• Website
• Instagram

Would You Write a Cookbook for Next to Nothing?

Swasti Creative

Milk & Cardamom Linen Collaboration at Kaapus Co.

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• Desi Bakes by Hetal Vasavada
• Milk & Cardamom by Hetal Vasavada

Today things get a little bit spicy and steamy as Kate and Molly speak with debut romance writer Sarah Chamberlain. Sarah shares her experience working to "American-ize" foreign cookbooks and how she brought that food world expertise to her fiction writing. She discusses stepping into the romance world (reading and writing), the inspirations for her novel and how she landed on the cookbook details that were central to the plot and character development. Finally, she talks about the role food can play in fiction and where she sees this done well before giving us a sneak peak at her next book and some advice she has for aspiring writers in the food world.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Episode 63: On Rejection and Recovery

Sarah Chamberlain

• Website
• Instagram

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Marian Keyes

Sarah MacLean

Mhairi McFarlane

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• The Slowest Burn by Sarah Chamberlain
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
• Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
• Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Kristin, Andrea and special co-host Elsa chat with Priya Krishna about her fresh and unique kid's cookbook 'Priya's Kitchen Adventures'. Priya talks about approaching this project without kids of her own and why she wanted to create a physical book instead of going the video/social media route. She shares how writing for kids made her a better recipe developer, how she decided on the format, recipe titles, difficulty levels and cuisines to highlight while Elsa talks about the specifics she appreciated and enjoyed in the book. We learn about the recipe testing process and photoshoot that both involved kids and Priya talks about how she fit writing this book in with her New York Times work. Finally, she talks about the different approach to promotion that this called for and why she feels this may be her last cookbook, though hopefully not her last book.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Priya Krishna

• Website
• Instagram
• New York Times
  

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• Priya's Kitchen Adventures by Priya Krishna
• Indianish by Priya Krishna
• Cooking at Home by Priya Krishna

Kristin, Molly and Kate chat all about that often dreaded activity, networking. They talk about the stressors involved, their individual approaches and what they focus on to build relationships and why re-framing these as learning opportunities can help with imposter syndrome. They discuss some specific resources and advice along with some personal experiences that they've learned from to build a community of mutual support before ending with their Thanksgiving plans and traditions.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

"How to Network When You're an Introvert" by Kristin Donnelly

Episode 107: Caroline Choe on Banchan

Episode 32: Co-Authoring Cookbooks with JJ Goode

Episode 106: Caroline Chambers on Building a Substack Platform

IACP

Cherry Bombe Membership

How to be a Cookbook Author Facebook Group

The American Institute of Wine & Food

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

Kate and Kristin speak all things platform building and content creation with Sarah Fennel as we learn what should come first, the audience or the book? Sarah shares her definition of 'content', her path from hobbyist blogger to business owner and what areas she focused on on to build her platform. She speaks about tipping points in her career, how she balances creating persona forward vs food forward content and why she decided now was the best time to write a cookbook. Finally, she talks about shooting the photos for the book, working with her team and leaves us with some wise and inspiring advice and a hint into what she is working on next.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Sarah Fennel

• Website
• Instagram
• TikTok

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel
• Hungry Authors by Liz Morrow and Ariel Curry
  

Kristin and Molly speak about the newest release from America's Test Kitchen "When Southern Women Cook" with its editor, Morgan Bolling, and its forward writer, Toni Tipton-Martin. This is a newer format for ATK so Morgan and Toni share its journey from idea to publication, where the concept and title came from and how late night conversations inspired its creation. They talk about working with a historical consultant, the process of balancing over 300 recipes with all of the contributing essays and how it was almost split into two volumes. They share the lessons learned for the future, how investigative curiosity is involved in both recipe development and story writing and the pride they felt in bringing the expertise of so many individuals to this project.

Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Nguyen

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Southern Foodways Alliance

Cook's Country

Visit the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to purchase a copy of the books mentioned in the show

• When Southern Women Cook by ATK, foreword by Toni Tipton-Martin, edited by Morgan Bolling
• Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin
• Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice by Toni Tipton-Martin