PODCAST · arts
Everything Cookbooks
by Andrea Nguyen, Molly Stevens, Kate Leahy, Kristin Donnelly
A podcast for curious writers, readers, and cooks. Episodes provide behind-the-scenes information and stories about how cookbooks get made.
Episodes
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185: Food Blog to Bestselling Cookbook with Rebecca Eisenberg
Kristin and Molly speak with previous Insider Series guest, Rebecca Eisenberg, about her evolution from blogger to author. After working in media for years, she eventually decided to write for herself and talks about turning The Practical Kitchen blog into a business and all that entailed. Ever...
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184: When Friends Make a Cookbook with Andrea Nguyen and Pim Techamuanvivit
We're turning the hosting reins over to Charlotte Druckman today to learn about Andrea Nguyen and Pim Techamuanvivit's experience collaborating on their new 'instant classic' cookbook, Cooking Thai. Pim shares her original idea for the book, how it evolved and the mission statement she settled on...
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183: Culture Bending Cookbook Making with Joyce Tang and Soleil Ho
Kate and Andrea speak with cookbook collaborators Joyce Tang and Soleil Ho about their new cookbook, Bake Sum. Joyce shares her journey from project manager to bakery owner to cookbook writer and why she wanted to write this book at this time. She describes how she got connected to Soleil who...
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182: Cookbook Design with Frances Abrantes Baca
Kate and Kristin speak with Frances Abrantes Baca about her wide ranging design experience in the food media space. The founding design director of the award winning magazine Gastronimica, Frances shares her thoughts about the design elements that go into a cookbook—color, contrast, titles, page...
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181: Debbie Berne on Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide
This episode is quite special. In fall 2025, Kristin and Kate spoke with longtime book designer Debbie Berne about her work in progress, Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide. She told us about the book in 2024, and we knew back then that it was a book for us. Author Michael Chabon called it a “theme-park...
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180: What's the Deal with Cookbook Publishing?
Welcome to Season 10! Kate, Kristin, Andrea and Molly discuss the upcoming fall cookbook season and some of their thoughts about the current publishing landscape. They talk about price hikes and cookbook sales, AI recipes and their appreciation for the human touch and some of the obstacles that...
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Live from Cookbook Week
This is a live conversation recorded in April 2026 during the first Cookbook Week in San Francisco, a city-wide event co-founded by Brian Hogan Stewart (of the Salt + Spine podcast), Jodi Liano, and Leslie Jonath. Here, Leslie leads the conversation with Jenny Wapner, publisher of Hardie Grant...
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115: Cookbook Trends [re-release]
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...
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102: Lara Hamilton of Book Larder [re-release]
Molly and Kate speak with Lara Hamilton, the owner of Book Larder Seattle's community cookbook store. Lara shares the motivations behind opening the store, why Seattle was the perfect base and how she sees the connection between food and books. We learn the origins behind the name, location and...
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101: Pumpkin Spice and Hot Takes [re-release]
We're back and starting off Season 6 with grab bag of topics with all our hosts. Kristin, Molly, Kate and Andrea discuss the pros and cons of the (potentially overfull) Fall cookbook season and how to emotionally prepare but keep expectations realistic on pub day while prioritizing celebration.…
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89: Insights From Cookbook Editor Sarah Kwak of Harvest [re-release]
Molly and Kristin speak with Sarah Kwak, a senior editor at Harvest an imprint of Harper Collins, to find out what the editing process is like. Sarah shares how she ended up at her current role, the focus Harvest has for cookbooks and what authors should keep mind regarding their proposal…
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75: Food Trends: Do They Matter When You Write a Cookbook? [re-release]
In our last episode of 2023, Kate, Kristin and Molly discuss food trends and how they apply to the cookbook world. Whether it's butter boards, nacho tables, "girl dinner" or baked potato bars these stunt foods can loom large yet die quickly in the public consciousness. They discuss ideas on...
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179: Answering Your Cookbook Questions
The whole team, Kate, Kristin, Molly and Andrea, recap a few of their favorite episodes from this past season and answer listener questions. They chat about their mixed feelings for copy editors, the discussions they had about a recent Instagram story about recipe writing rigor and call out what...
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178: Comic Book Cookbooks with Sarah Becan
Molly and Kate speak with Sarah Becan about her illustrator origin story. She explains her early love for sequential storytelling, the book that inspired her to create her own work and what drew her to food as a topic. She shares her love for the medium, how she got into the cookbook sphere by...
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177: Collective Book Studio with Angela Engel and Amy Treadwell
Molly and Kate go behind the scenes of a partnership publishing house as they speak about the Cookbook Collective with its founder, Angela Engel, and its editorial director, Amy Treadwell. Angela shares a bit of her background and her impetus for creating a more collaborative publishing model...
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176: The Author-Editor Relationship with Alana Kysar and Kelly Snowden
Kate and Molly speak with author Alana Kysar and her editor Kelly Snowden about their professional relationship after working on two cookbooks together. Alana shares why she initially didn't think she had a second book in her and what she hopes this new vegetable focused book adds to the Hawaiian...
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175: Inside Ella Quittner’s Obsession with the Best
Kristin and Molly speak with writer Ella Quittner about her new book, Obsessed with the Best, and the work and intent behind it. They get right into the nitty gritty details of the book; its origins, proposal, the research and testing involved and its unorthodox release date and promotional...
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174: On Being a Copyeditor with Melissa Haskin
Molly and Kristin invite our very first copy editor to the show, Melissa Haskin. Melissa talks about getting started in the editing profession, her love of food writing and how her experience working with magazines like Cooking Light informs her work now. The hosts share some of their personal...
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173: Writing a Narrative Cookbook Tanya Bush
Molly and Kate speak with Tanya Bush, the author of Will This Make You Happy, about her cookbook/memoir mashup and how the pandemic contributed to her decision to marry a personal story and a technical text. Tanya shares some the life experiences behind the book, her impetus to create and the...
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172: Blurbs: Do They Actually Matter?
Kristin speaks with hosts Molly, Andrea and Kate about blurbs; the good, the bad and the questionable. The hosts define the term and share their first blurbing experiences before chatting about the purpose and goal behind these endorsements. They talk about a blurb's swaying power, what makes a...
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171: Crowdfunding Your Cookbook with Nandita Godbole
Kate and Kristin speak all about crowdfunding with Nandita Godbole, who has fully funded seven books (and counting) through Kickstarter. Nandita shares how it all began, from her wildly successful supper club to funding her first book in just a few days and takes us through the details, ups and...
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170: Becoming a Food Photographer While Writing a Debut Cookbook with Saeng Douangdara
Molly and Kristin speak with Saeng Douangdara, a personal chef and academic counselor turned online content creator and now, cookbook author and food photographer. Saeng shares what motivated him ten years ago to get into the online food space, why he wanted to show off Lao cuisine and how he's...
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169: Kathy Gunst on What It Takes to Host a Food Writing Retreat
Kristin and Molly speak with Kathy Gunst, a prolific cookbook author, teacher and now leader of food writing retreats, about her varied career and new project. Kathy shares how she got started in the food world by attending London's Le Cordon Bleu, what it is like being the resident chef for…
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168: Domenica Marchetti on Italian Cookies
Kate and Molly speak with Domenica Marchetti about her newest book and finding a niche in the crowded Italian cookbook category. Domenica shares how she got her start as a food writer, bringing her journalistic background and other interests and experiences together in a unique way, and then…
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167: Ifrah F. Ahmed on the Making of Soomaaliya
Kate and Kristin speak with Ifrah F. Ahmed about how the culmination of her expertise in a culture and a cuisine led to her debut cookbook, Soomaaliya. Ifrah shares how a trip to Somalia inspired her to leave law school, create a magazine dedicated to Somali women and start a wildly successful...
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166: Natasha Pickowicz on Writing the Second Book
Kate and Andrea speak with cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz about her second book, how it differed from her first and what she learned during the process. Natasha takes us on her journey from the kitchen to the keyboard as she talks about how her first book came to be, the false starts it went...
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165: Inside the Alison Roman and Britt Cobb Design Universe
Andrea and Molly speak with Alison Roman and Britt Cobb, the designer of her new book, Something from Nothing about their collaboration. Alison speaks about her unique approach to her work, how she leans into personhood instead of branding and why this new book is different than her previous…
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164: Being a Cookbook Editor with Rachel Brown of Appetite
Molly and Kate speak with Rachel Brown, acquisitions editor at Appetite, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, about her career journey and insights into the Canadian cookbook landscape. Rachel talks about her education and early editing experience before taking us behind the scenes about...
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163: Before the Recipes: Cookbook Introductions and Front Matter
To kick off Season 9 Molly, Andrea, Kate and Kristin discuss e-cookbooks vs physical editions before diving into front matter; all of the sections of a cookbook that come before the recipes. They talk about the purpose, process and planning that goes into the preface, prologue, forward,...
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95: Recipe Writing with Real Cooks in Mind [re-release]
Originally aired on June 19, 2024 Kate, Kristin and Molly venture back into the user experience arena as they discuss recipe presentation in cookbooks. They highlight the need for this section to delight not distract and prioritize form over function as well as the need to write with a specific...
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28: All About Recipe Headnotes [re-release]
Originally aired on November 9, 2022 Today, Andrea tackles the topic of the ever elusive headnote with Molly, Kate and Kristin. They discuss what a headnote is, how they go about writing them and the pitfalls to avoid while composing. They bring examples of some favorites and also their pet…
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42: How to Write Recipe Titles [re-release]
Originally aired on February 22, 2023 Kate talks with Molly, Andrea and Kristin all about recipe titles. They share what makes one stand out, what is an immediate veto and how these have evolved over the years. They discuss the importance of indexing, the challenge of translation and how grammar,...
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06: Getting Your Recipes in Shape with Tina Ujlaki [re-release]
Originally aired on April 20, 2022 Kristin gets into the fundamentals of recipe writing as she chats with Tina Ujlaki, her mentor and the former executive editor at Food & Wine magazine. Tina explains her recipe writing philosophy, how testing can be the antithesis to cooking and the what bothers...
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05: Getting Started Writing Your Recipes [re-release]
Originally aired on April 13, 2022 Kate leads today's discussion about the recipe development, curation and testing that go into creating a cookbook. Andrea, Molly and Kristin each share their individual recipe writing processes and the tools used behind the scenes to keep everything organized....
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162: The one in which we issue an apology and answer listener questions
Kate, Molly, Andrea and Kristin begin the episode with an apology about a technical snafu that plagued our website's Contact page and some corrections. They go through some listener questions and discuss copyeditors and the other roles editors can play, share advice, ideas, theories and...
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161: A Journalist's Approach to Cookbook Collaboration with Korsha Wilson
Kristin and Molly speak with journalist and cookbook co-author Korsha Wilson about her experiences in the world of food media. Korsha shares the magazine that sparked her initial interest, her educational approach and a behind the scenes look at some of her projects. She talks about her evolving...
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160: A Mindful Cookbook Born from Burnout with Nicki Sizemore
Molly and Kristin speak about merging the physical act of cooking with emotional and spiritual intentionality with Nicki Sizemore, the author of Mind, Body, Spirit, Food. Nicki shares her personal journey and the life changing process she went through that eventually led to this new focus.…
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159: Silk Roads with Anna Ansari
Molly and Kate speak with Anna Ansari, a London based Iranian American writer, about her new book Silk Roads and the major career shift that brought it about. A former customs attorney, Anna takes us from her childhood in Michigan to a stint in Beijing where she discovered Uyghur cuisine and how…
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158: Cookbook Marketing and Publicity with Brianne Sperber and Felix Cruz
Kristin and Kate get the inside scoop on all things marketing and publicity as they speak to the 'dream team' who worked on Kristin's recent book Turtle Island. Brianne Sperber and Felix Cruz — associate director of marketing for Clarkson Potter and Ten Speed Press and publicist for the same—...
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157: Helen Goh on Baking and the Meaning of Life
Andrea and Kate speak with Helen Goh about her thirty years of working in the food and hospitality industry and why she chose now to write her first solo book. She speaks about her time working with the Ottolenghi brand, her hesitation at embarking on a solo venture and the pros and cons of…
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156: Writing History Through Recipes with Jessica B. Harris
Molly and Andrea speak with the iconic culinary historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris about her career and newest work, Braided Heritage. After discussing the 'more' than recipes that make a cookbook a cookbook, Dr. Harris also shares why this book is important at this point and what interested her…
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155: Aran Goyoaga on the Art of Gluten-Free Bread
Kate and Molly speak with author and photographer Aran Goyoaga about her new, groundbreaking book The Art of Gluten Free Bread. Aran talks about her experience as a pastry chef, where her gluten free journey began and starting her blog Cannelle et Vanille. She discusses the inspiration behind…
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154: Cookbook Writing is a Long Game
Kristin, Molly, Andrea and Kate look back at the cookbook media landscape of 2025 and discuss the Anthropic settlement, their thoughts about AI in the food media sphere and share their inclinations about its usage. Each of the hosts share some wins they had this year with Kristin speaking about...
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153: Making a Niche Baking Book with Maureen Abood
Andrea and Kate speak with Maureen Abood about her new cookbook Lebanese Baking. She speaks about her Lebanese American heritage and why this project allowed her to know, cherish and preserve that identity for herself and future generations. She shares why she went niche, how long the selling...
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152: Following Your Culinary Curiosity with Emiko Davies
Molly and Kristin speak with Tuscany based cookbook author and wine bar owner Emiko Davies about her varied career and newest cookbook. Emiko shares her globetrotting journey to food writing and how her shifting interests over time show up in her work. She talks about including her passion for…
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151: Capturing Family Heritage in a Cookbook with Polina Chesnakova
Molly and Kate speak with cookbook author Polina Chesnakova about her newest and most personal work yet, Chesnok. Polina talks about falling in love with her family's food which led her to writing, teaching and, eventually, a cookbook deal. While her first two books were less personal, this one…
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150: Entertaining Cookbooks
Molly, Kate, Kristin and Andrea get together to discuss the new trend towards entertaining cookbooks; what they are, what they need and what problem they can solve. The hosts discuss some standouts, how they personally use them and what they hope to see in future iterations. While this genre can...
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149: Soju Party with Irene Yoo
Kate and Molly speak with chef, food writer, recipe developer and bar owner Irene Yoo about her debut cookbook Soju Party. Irene talks about her varied media career, the bar pop-ups that led to her opening a bar and writing this book. She's explains why she never thought she'd write this type of...
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148: Heartland Masala with Jyoti Mukharji & Auyon Mukharji
Molly and Kate speak with mother and son duo, Auyon & Jyoti Mukharji, about their new cookbook Heartland Masala. Jyoti shares how her popular cooking classes inspired a book and Auyon describes how he got involved and how the project eventually took on a life of its own. They talk about working...
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147: The Most Iconic Italian Cookbook Ever Written with Raquel Pelzel and Michael Szczerban
Kate and Kristin speak with Raquel Pelzel and Michael Szczerban about bringing an iconic Italian cookbook to America. The Talisman of Happiness was written in the 1920s by Ada Boni, "one of the most groundbreaking, pioneering women in food history." The book has influenced some of the most…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A podcast for curious writers, readers, and cooks. Episodes provide behind-the-scenes information and stories about how cookbooks get made.
HOSTED BY
Andrea Nguyen, Molly Stevens, Kate Leahy, Kristin Donnelly
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Everything Cookbooks have?
Everything Cookbooks currently has 210 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Everything Cookbooks about?
A podcast for curious writers, readers, and cooks. Episodes provide behind-the-scenes information and stories about how cookbooks get made.
How often does Everything Cookbooks release new episodes?
Everything Cookbooks publishes regularly with 210 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Everything Cookbooks?
You can listen to Everything Cookbooks on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Everything Cookbooks?
Everything Cookbooks is created and hosted by Andrea Nguyen, Molly Stevens, Kate Leahy, Kristin Donnelly.
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