Publishing my dream cookbook

Food, and cooking, has been my passion since I was 14 years old. Since the year 2000, I have been working in the food sector. My expertise is in speciality food ingredients and creating recipes for organic companies, including my brand, TeaLoveSpices. Vanilla, saffron, basmati, and heritage rice from different countries, tea, and spices were my passion and work areas. The journey in my professional field was always exciting. Discovering quality ingredients in different countries, and travelling into rural areas for them, has been a valuable part of my life. Farmers have contributed a treasure of knowledge in this process and inspired me. All through, as a culmination of all these experiences, my dream was to write a cookbook.

In 2020, I had a book ready with 200 recipes, from coastal and rural India, which addressed the contemporary trends of Slow Food as well as healthy and varied, healthy regional recipes. Another one is dedicated to one speciality ingredient. Despite beautifully created manuscripts, in full colour & with representative recipes, it was an extremely difficult and a disappointing process, catching the attention of the multitudes of publishers to which I had sent the manuscripts. One audaciously told me; they could not publish my book because I do not have thousands of followers on my Instagram. At my age, this would be an uphill task, and I refuse to become a performing monkey to get followers when there are many more interesting things to explore and write about. On top of that, I refuse to have my expertise, creativity, and talent to be judged by an Instagram jury!

Emmen aan tafel in a kitchenstore

Then came the COVID pandemic, and I had a lot of free time on my hands. Reports of co-morbidity related to hospitalisation was in the news regularly. At the same time, the province of The Netherlands whire I live (Drenthe), was in the news for the highest obesity and unhealthy population rate in the country. It triggered a thought process, that the expat international community living in my town Emmen, could, through their cultural heritage regarding food, contribute an insight into freshly cooked food. Not factory produced, which a lot of Dutch consume out of habit. I thought the cookbook would be an answer to this dilemma. Plus, my years of work in the food sector, and insight about ingredients, could deliver an inspirational cookbook for the people to use as a guide.

Thereafter, were two questions: financing such an endeavour and finding someone to work with me, as my Dutch is good, but not good enough for writing a book in the language.

Both issues were resolved quickly and creatively. Our local council, a Dutch bank, and some NGO organisations working in the area of the betterment of health for the people in our province donated to the book’s cost of printing & production. I financed the rest.   

My dear friend Dijana, who comes originally from the Balkans but has studied here, was proficient in correcting my language where necessary. Also, she was very excited about this project and helped me with interviewing some of the various nationalities in her network. Hence, from the onset, she worked with me closely, due to which she is naturally a co-author of the cookbook. Of course, in the end, we also had two more language editors for the text.

 

Oriz u tepsiju / North Macedonia

The concept of my cookbook was to talk to the emigrants, get to know about their stories of how they arrived in this part of The Netherlands, as well as get to know their food culture.  Thereafter, they generously shared one of their favourite healthy recipes. Some of the countries represented via recipes in this cookbook are Argentina, Azerbaijan, Balkans, Brazil, Columbia, Iran, Iraq, USA, Mexico, etc. As well as people from other provinces of The Netherlands, that live in my town. Of course, some of my own recipes from India are featured in the cookbook. In all 60 recipes spread over salads, soups & sauces, mains, fish, meat and desserts.

Dimer baigun bhuna/ Bangladesh

The criteria were to cook healthy recipes with fresh ingredients, without using any factory-made packets, as well as use affordable ingredients that could be procured in all the supermarkets/ local shops. It was an exciting year, meeting these interesting, warm, and wonderful people. In the process, I made new friends and got to learn many new recipes too!

Since many of us just cook off-hand, the recipes acquired had to be test-cooked 2–3 times to get a perfect recipe. The standardization process I had learned in my profession, helped me all along to write a recipe for 4 persons so that the most inexperienced cooks could achieve a perfect dish of food every time.

The next crucial step:  Photos. A constraint was that professional food photographers charge anywhere around or above €1500 per day, this was beyond my budget. Having said that, one non-negotiable element was that every recipe should feature a photo. I never buy cookbooks that do not have a photo of the recipe. Not only are photos helpful to visualize the result, but they also make it very attractive, they create a cookbook you would love to open and browse through with an irresistible compulsion. Fortunately, my early education in an art academy contributed to an aesthetic sensitivity and helped me visualize the impression as well as the result I was striving for. Having gone through more than 100 cookbooks in my collection, detailed research was carried out on arranging a photo, what props were needed, light quality, and a basic colour scheme in mind during the whole year that I cooked and photographed. Shopping for ceramics and other elements was just another exciting journey.

Photography for the cover of the cookbook

Professional photographs: For the cover of the book and the section dividers, I was sure I needed a professional!  As providence would have it, an Indian food photographer, Krati Agarwal, living in The Netherlands, saw my Instagram posts and came into contact. It is one of those moments when cosmic energy just brings two people together at the right time! During the very first conversation we clicked, and further still when I saw her work, I found it to be just the perfect style and in conjunction with my vision of the cookbook. I felt blessed to have found her. We had such rollicking fun together, besides the long hours on the day of the shoot. Tables and her kitchen counter were piled to the edges with many colourful and vibrant fresh and dry ingredients. A big learning curve for me was to see her arrange, combine fresh produce, and adjust light and angles. Food photography is a high art form in itself. I have learnt to appreciate it all the more.

Krati at work for the centerspreads

Get Local- Spend local: Additionally, since the subsidy for the cookbook came from local organisations of Emmen, I also was continually conscious that the money should benefit locals. In Emmen. Hence, the graphic designer and the printer, were sourced locally. Both were superb in their deliverables!

Design and layout: All along, my son, a graphic designer in Mumbai, and another who is a chef trained at Cordon Bleu, staying in Japan, were always there to brainstorm and receive advice and encouragement for my venture.

A dear friend, Jitska, living a lane further, a talented graphic designer who brainstormed and interacted with me right from the first day, was a source of comfort and inspiration too. Jiska did an expert job of the layout of the cookbook. Day by day, word by word, and page by page, we went through it all. With intense and incessant interaction, we moved on to complete the layout. That was an immense amount of work and long hours each day. I was so thankful that someone close by was at hand to do this vital task, without having to travel anywhere. Jiska did a fantastic job, without which the cookbook would not have been as beautiful, and contributed to the success it achieved. At this stage marcel & Annet (a gourmet cook herself), as well as Wytse and Marchien edited the text not only for the language, but also the tweaks needed to fit in the text on one page!

Every step of the way, I was surrounded by people who contributed wholeheartedly and selflessly to such an attractive cookbook. That felt like being showered with blessings and love!  Published in October 2022, the cookbook Emmen aan tafel (Emmen at table), has become an iconic symbol of this town, according to our mayor “ a visiting card for Emmen”. The mayor’s office has bought many copies as a gift to visiting dignitaries, as well as a representative gift from Emmen and its cosmopolitan residents.

The first edition was sold out in a record 7 weeks, and we went on to a second print. Once again, sponsored by a local health enterprise as a CSR action.

The cookbook, Emmen aan tafel, has been a teamwork, with contributions from all players who worked on it with love, drive and enthusiasm. Plus, the product of professional expertise and a lot of dedication and hard work! My sincere thanks to all who helped make a success of this cookbook.

Having finished one book, it has given me the confidence to take on one more soon!

To always end on a sweet note: Yemeni Baklava- crisp and mildly sweet (not soggy!)

Leave a Response

Your email address will not be published.