Cookery Books: Next Gen

I don’t really want to think about Christmas yet, I shun any holiday movies/songs until after Thanksgiving. I even direct my 4 year old to avert his gaze from the shiny shiny currently draped all over Target.

And yet, I have to begin thinking of what I’m going to send as my "holiday card" because it’s rarely just a holiday card. I used to send mock-newsletters that detailed every sniffle and horrible disease we had suffered over the year, but that grew boring. Two years ago I sent a family DVD (complete with a pack of microwave popcorn) and that was a stitch. Last year I did nothing, I bailed completely.

So this year I’m sending everyone a collection of the family’s favorite recipes, complete with photos and snarky comments, natch. I’m thinking of calling it The Hot 12, and I just have to figure out the media: CD, recipe cards, bound book, printed on magnet paper…I’m not sure yet.

But that’s the beauty of the cookbook, it’s evolving along with the way we cook. My shelf of cookbooks, which I peruse regularly, is stacked with everything from glossy chef diatribes to crumbly 1928 vintage antique store finds. I have a file on the Epicurious site that is crammed with hundreds of favorites, and a collection of hand scrabbled notecards housed stylishly in my Russel + Hazel organizer. I use them all, I haven’t given up one way for another, different meals and different situations call for different methods.

And you don’t have to be a food writer to compile your own cookbook. Epicurious has launched TasteBook, with which you download your favorite recipes from the site into a custom book they’ll create for you.

Many uber-creative cooks have been making use of Blurb to realize their dream of authorship. Download the software for free and you can design your own pages in input your own recipes.

If anyone knows about the future of food and cooking, it’s got to be Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago. He’s a big name with those who fancy molecular gastronomy and deconstructionism. He’s a man of atomized shrimp and caramel bubbles, of course he wouldn’t do a cookbook like anyone else. His deal with Ten Speed Press includes a new paradigm for royalties and a web-based addendum complete with video demos and further instruction.

Maybe I’ll try to pull that off next year …