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
  

We're pleased to share our very first live show with all of our listeners! Kate, Andrea and Kristin spoke with Toriano Gordon and Anna Voloshnya at the Napa Valley Cookbook Fest earlier this year where they spoke about their individual cookbook journeys and career paths, the challenges that came with their projects and the ways the process felt fulfilling. They share their goals of representing and sharing the people, places and culture they came from, the importance of community and all about recipe creation, writing and naming. Finally they share a few instances of editorial pushback, their cover stories and the one question they encourage aspiring authors to ask themselves before starting their own cookbook journey.

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

Editor: Abby Cerquitella

Mentions

Napa Valley CookbookFest

Episode 25: Inside a Ukrainian Kitchen with Anna Voloshyna

Toriano Gordon

Anna Voloshnya

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

• Vegan Mob by Toriano Gordon
• Budmo! by Anna Voloshyna