How does a cookbook get published? What goes into creating a cookbook, and what makes a cookbook great? While the author’s job is to write the book and create the recipes, a good editor will nurture the book until it’s in its final form, ready to send to the printers, before it’s sent to bookstores and eventually lands in the hands of readers.
What does an editor do along the way? Why aren’t there metrics in American cookbooks? Why isn’t there a picture to accompany every recipe in every cookbook published? How does an editor (and ultimately…a publisher) decide who gets to be published?
On my podcast, I talk to legendary cookbook editor Susan Friedland, who edited cookbook greats, including Paula Wolfert, Marcella Hazan, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, Anissa Helou, Nick Malgieri, Alice Waters, Richard Olney, Raymond Sokolov, Joyce White, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, Patricia Wells, and Lydie Marshall.
Susan also took a chance on an unknown author and was the editor of my first two books, Room for Dessert and Ripe for Dessert (!).
Now retired, Susan remains a good friend and I enjoy visiting her at home (rather than in her office, although to be honest, we often met in restaurants as we both love eating), surrounded by bookshelves that are loaded with classic cookbooks, many that she’s published and others that she admires and continues to cook from.
For our podcast, we chatted in her New York apartment and discussed the ins and outs of cookbook publishing and how things have changed in recent years, as well as what makes a cookbook a classic, as many of hers have become.
I hope you enjoy our chat!
-David
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Podcast: A chat with cookbook editor Susan Friedland