Molly, Kate and Kristin speak with Martin Sorge, the winner of The Great American Baking Show, about his debut cookbook while he is still in the thick of creating it. Martin talks about getting started on his baking journey, the role the show played in his career and what he's taken away from the experience before diving into the process of developing, pitching, testing and writing his cookbook. He shares specific pain points of the process, his approach and then turns the tables onto the hosts ...
Jul 02, 2025•46 min
Kate and Kristin speak with cookbook author Maria Zizka about writing her solo projects as well as the more than forty collaborations she's worked on so far in her career. They chat about the challenges inherent in collaborations, how Maria got her start in the food world and the role letter writing played in getting her incredible internship—recipe testing alongside Suzanne Goin. Maria shares how she balances collaborations and solo projects, the lessons, systems and habits she's established be...
Jun 25, 2025•54 min
This episode Molly, Kate, Kristin and Andrea chat all things comp titles, but first they talk about a recent plagiarism controversy that is rocking the cookbook world. They share their thoughts on copyrighting recipes, including attribution and having respect for 'the canon' of cookbooks. Then they move on to the subject of comp titles: what they are, what they are used for, how to identify them, some dos and don'ts and why publishers may come up with a list of their own. The hosts share some ex...
Jun 18, 2025•38 min
Kate and Molly welcome our first repeat guest, blogger and new novelist Adam Roberts, to discuss his foray into fiction. Adam shares what made him turn to fiction, why his first attempt didn't work and his own experience working as a ghostwriter as he shares the process of getting this book out into the world. He explains where the original idea came from, what parts of himself he infused into his characters and why creating the cookbook within the book was vital to the plot. Finally he shares s...
Jun 11, 2025•46 min
Molly and Kate speak with the self described 'OG Food Creative' Victoria Granof about her vast and varied career in food media. With decades of experience cooking, catering, food styling, writing and directing she is filled with insights, stories and, like her newsletter, delicious tangents as she talks about what she loves about her work, lessons she's learned and a few wild celebrity encounters. She shares what her work looks like today, the origin stories behind both her Sicily books and the ...
Jun 04, 2025•52 min
Kate and Molly speak with Camilla Wynne, a Toronto-based pastry chef, writer and teacher, about her new cookbook Nature's Candy. Camilla shares her unique career trajectory, the book's origin story and why she wanted to write about the niche technique of candying fruit. She explains the challenges and approach to its writing, design, photoshoot, research and recipe testing, along with how she pitched such a specific title to publishers. She talks about why creating an elegant yet approachable, s...
May 28, 2025•49 min
Kristin and Andrea speak with Rick Martínez about his new book, Salsa Daddy, and his thoughts on the state of Mexican cooking and cookbooks in America today. Rick shares why he wanted to write this specific book, how it changed him as a cook and what he hopes to convey with his work. He reveals a few key editorial differences between working on this and his first book, why he is inspired by other cuisines and what the process was like working with his passionate and skilled collaborators and lea...
May 21, 2025•51 min
Kate and Molly speak with podcast host Sutanya Dacres about her debut memoir, Dinner for One, which was inspired by her podcast of the same name. Sutanya shares how her 'anti-fairytale' led to a show and a book, how she developed her writer's voice and her thoughts on what makes a memoir and why her book is unique to the 'American in Paris' lexicon. She describes how finding the arc of the story lies in choosing the right focal points before sharing the challenges inherent in writing about real ...
May 14, 2025•46 min
Molly and Andrea speak with food journalist, poet and new cookbook author, Betsy Andrews, about her recent career pivot. She shares the story behind the book Coastal as it went from idea to article to cookbook and why a bidding war ensued after the proposal. She talks about how her hustle mentality and editorial background helped to craft the aspirational travelogue, the process to 'ventriloquize' another voice and why it was important to include metric measurements, time estimates and ingredien...
May 07, 2025•43 min
Molly and Kate speak with Rachel Belle, a journalist and Seattle media personality who was hired to write Open Sesame, a cookbook all about tahini. She talks about her background in food media, the unique way she joined the project (leave the house!), and how she learned the aspects of cookbook creation on the job. She takes us through the recipe creation and testing process, shares why it was important to inject her signature humor throughout the book and discusses what the most challenging asp...
Apr 30, 2025•51 min
Kate and Kristin speak with Barkha Cardoz about the motivations and intentions behind expanding on her late husband Floyd Cardoz's legacy. She speaks about working with masala spice blends and why a collection of recipes was the next best step to demystify and empower home cooks, even though she has seen first hand the demanding nature of the cookbook creation process. She shares what the collaborative relationship was like with Burlap and Barrel, the experience of crowd sourcing recipe testing ...
Apr 23, 2025•43 min
Kate, Kristin, and Molly speak with Maggie Hoffman, host of The Dinner Plan Podcast, about her varied career in food media and what led to her starting her show. Maggie reminiscences about blogging, editing and working at Serious Eats and Epicurious as well as the ever changing landscape of food media. She shares why she began her podcast, the concept behind it and the intimacy allowed by the audio medium. She discusses her hopes and goals for the show, how it relates to her newsletter and the u...
Apr 16, 2025•52 min
Molly and Kristin speak with Corrie Locke-Hardy about their debut cookbook, which pairs their passion for social justice activism and food. Corrie talks about their atypical path towards publication, the unique approaches of their publisher and how the 'figure it out as you go' method worked during the book's creation. Corrie shares how they balanced the various tones of the book, why they focused on the recipes they did, how they worked with the team on its production, distribution, and promoti...
Apr 09, 2025•42 min
In this first episode of Season 7 Kristin, Molly, Kate and Andrea sit down to ask the question: What happens when we start with Who instead of Why? They share the readers they had in mind when they wrote their first books and why its important to identify an audience instead of writing to the market. They share a few tips to research such as demographic data, awareness level and niching down as well as the tools and actions that could be helpful when either identifying or building an audience fo...
Apr 02, 2025•36 min
Kate and Kristin discuss all things hybrid publishing with Vasudha Viswanath, the author of The Vegetarian Reset. Vasudha shares a quick rundown of the typical routes of publishing and why she chose to go down the hybrid path. She talks about the pitching process, what partnership publishers cover (and don't), the recipe development steps and how she assembled her creative and publicity team. She describes the part her book plays in her business strategy and her experience learning as she goes i...
Mar 26, 2025•48 min
Andrea leads today's chat about selling a cookbook and all the nitty gritty elements that go into it. Kristin, Molly and Kate share some of their own insights and lessons learned about advances, royalties, contract negotiation, and how to keep the right amount of tension there. They discuss how to gauge the value of your idea, morality clauses and what to look out for when looking over a contract. Finally, they answer a listener SOS and Kate gets the lowdown on the angst of butter measurement. H...
Mar 19, 2025•34 min
Kristin leads today's discussion all about the cookbook proposal, sharing her own first experience with the process. Molly, Kate and Andrea each describe their own firsts as well as how they format their more recent versions. They review all of the elements that go into a proposal, the three vital things to highlight, how long the process can take and how a project can morph as it leads into its first draft. Finally, a listener's salt based SOS leads to many strong opinions and some helpful tips...
Mar 12, 2025•44 min
In this repeat episode, Kate and Kristin talk with literary agent Sally Ekus. A lot has changed in Sally's professional life since we last had her on -- the Ekus Group is now part of the Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, and Sally is a senior agent there. What hasn't changed is the great advice she gives in this episode for emerging cookbook writhers. We talk to Sally about her career path, what she brings to the table for her clients and peek into a day in her life. Sally shares how agents help c...
Mar 05, 2025•40 min
Molly starts out today's episode with an interview with Rica Allannic, a literary agent with editorial experience. Then, Kristin and Kate share how they've navigated their own agent relationships while Andrea explains how she works without one. We get into the many roles of an agent, how to find the right one and some things to consider at various stages of a cookbook author's career. Finally, Andrea shares a recipe writing tip and Kate lets us know her recent favorite cookbook. Hosts: Kate Leah...
Feb 26, 2025•49 min
Molly, Kristin, Kate and Andrea talk about the idea behind the cookbook. After sharing some shelved ideas of their own, they workshop submissions from listeners to highlight considerations on topic, marketability, expertise and "the hook" for each premise. They brainstorm and discuss structural considerations, format, audience appeal and comp titles to give listeners insights into the vital first step of the book creation process. Hosts: Kate Leahy + Molly Stevens + Kristin Donnelly + Andrea Ngu...
Feb 19, 2025•44 min
We've noticed that 'burnout' is seeming more and more prevalent these days so Kate, Kristin, Molly and Andrea are using the final episode of Season 6 to speak all about it. They discuss how to identify it, how it manifests for each of them and share some ideas on what to do about it. They speak about how the blending of life and career as freelancers can exacerbate feelings of constantly being 'on', perfectionism and excessive people pleasing along with the pressure to constantly be creating con...
Feb 12, 2025•39 min
Kristin and Molly speak with photographer Clay Williams about the financial realities and logistics around cookbook photography. Clay shares what he wishes authors knew before embarking on the photography portion of their book and what spurred his viral Thread about the finances behind photoshoots. He speaks about assuming the role of project manager, unexpected expenses, his typical workflow and the essential roles on a set. He shares why he continues to be interested in cookbook photography, h...
Feb 05, 2025•43 min
Molly and Kristen speak with Jenny Rosenstrach about her family focused approach to food writing. She talks about her long running dinner diary, how her first book was a real time project and what went behind the decision to continue working around that theme. She explains why she includes a 'hook' in her recipes and how she landed on her unique recipe structure as well as the idea of a 'text test' for writing instructions. She shares her approach to recipe development, how she's built an audien...
Jan 29, 2025•42 min
Kate and Kristin speak with Nicola Lamb her debut cookbook, Sift, and writing the book you want to read. Nicola talks about her passion for baking, learning and teaching before diving into the book creation process. She shares the lengthy proposal writing process, working from her Substack and a post-it wall, the importance of trusting your team and the resources she used while writing. She also speaks on the differences in releasing a book in the US versus the UK, some insights into the America...
Jan 22, 2025•52 min
Molly and Andrea speak with Joe Yonan, the Food and Dining Editor at the Washington Post, about his new book, Mastering the Art of Plant Based Cooking. As they discuss the idea behind creating an authoritative resource, Joe explains why he wanted to write this particular book and concentrate on this topic as a cuisine instead of a lifestyle choice. He shares why he wanted to shift the narrative around this often polarizing topic and how he used his lifetime of experience and expertise to create ...
Jan 15, 2025•55 min
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 ...
Jan 08, 2025•46 min
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 ...
Jan 01, 2025•36 min
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 pro...
Dec 18, 2024•49 min
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...
Dec 11, 2024•48 min
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 appre...
Dec 04, 2024•42 min
