Why Aren’t Cookbooks Covered Like the Movies?

Fall preview season is here. There should be more.

Cookbook coverage was different in the era of James, Judith, and Julia

For some people who work in the media of food, July is hardly chill. It’s fall cookbook preview season, and for those on the beat, the spreadsheet is longer than ever this year. We’ve been getting sent PDFs since January, and the influencer boxes are starting to pile up at my doorstep. (Love me some Burlap & Barrel spices.) By late summer, there are hundreds of titles to consider for what often double boils down to a reported listicle. For authors, the preview in their respective season can feel like everything (and nothing at all).

There are, of course, podcast bookings, TV appearances, and feature articles to come, and the media interest in cookbooks is very strong these days. But for authors, the preview is an event, and it’s often the first time the author’s years of work are offered up for critical assessment without the protection of the warm cocoon of a publishing and publicity team.

When it comes to the business of cookbook previewing, many outlets do amazing work. Eater is always excellent, and their Eater at Home editor, Rebecca Flint Marx, has appeared on This Is TASTE a number of times to talk about her publication’s list. Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Esquire, Cup of Jo, Wired, Simply Recipes, Real Simple, and many more put out great lists that are anxiously awaited by nervous authors. Previews start to drop in August, and you’d better believe that these authors are hitting refresh on publication home pages a little more than often—and possibly more than their own Amazon pages for rankings updates.

I’ve been one of these authors three times (in spring 2016, spring 2022, and spring 2024), and while some believe that these lists don’t push massive book sales, it’s still important and extremely cool to be mentioned alongside your friends and publishing heroes. I’ve also been an author omitted from a list and tried to downplay the disappointment. It can sting.

This preview season always gets me thinking about the cookbook publishing industry. It’s the world I work in as both an author and an employee at a publishing company, and one I really love. So I wonder: Why is so little energy given to covering an industry that makes these books—an industry that, according to Marketplace, sells 20 million copies annually in the United States alone? Why does it feel like the fall preview (and spring, to some extent) is the only big event for the industry? The New York Times seems to support this suspicion, with an annual best-of list landing in December and little more offered about the industry.

Okay, sure, 20 million books ($800 million annual revenue, using back-of-the-napkin estimates) is no Hollywood, an industry where A Minecraft Movie alone earned $400 million at the box office. That’s a fact. But it’s an important industry, and the cultural impact of cookbook publishing far outsizes the hard numbers—which, mind you, are still significant.

If you dip into the world of Deadline, Puck, or the Hollywood Reporter, the minutiae covered there is exhausting. The overall deals and Zaslav of it all is also intoxicating, and for somebody who doesn’t work in TV or film but consumes the “trades” with some frequency, it’s fun to read about A24’s struggles and James Gunn’s triumphs like I’m somebody walking into a Century City office on a Monday morning who actually has to know what is going down. Being aware of the industry churn of Hollywood makes me a better consumer of Hollywood—more connected to the tile I’m hovering over on the Netflix home screen. With someone covering the industry a little closer (maybe a lot closer), this growing audience for cookbooks would love them more.

But who is going to put in the work to cover cookbooks like the Hollywood Reporter covers P.I. Moms?

A fall cookbook preview from 2020

First off, this person is not me. I’m too close to the fire, professionally speaking, and my plate is currently a Pizza Hut all-you-can-eat buffet eating challenge. Second, the excellent

Stained Page News

, run by my friend

Paula Forbes

, did cover the industry with heart and curiosity. Paula has put that publication on pause and is now on staff at Texas Monthly as a senior writer and restaurant critic. (Read Paula’s work there; it’s terrific.)

Stained Page News (SPN) blended release news and features that tackled the evolution of spine design and posed questions like “Are restaurant cookbooks back?” There were interviews alongside real critical reviews that bench-tested recipes and reporting about AI recipes. I miss SPN, and perhaps I’m proposing an evolution of what Paula started more than five years back and has had on ice since December 2024. I’m also thinking that this could be written by a legit cookbook nerd, but somebody not working in the industry like Paula and me—to cover the industry critically and with some serious jazz would require a person who loves publishing but isn’t trying to simultaneously sell their own work to the people they are covering.

Gossip would be fun, as would deep dives into the many layers of the cookbook-making process—from agent rejections to proposal success and false starts to profiles of the people on the inside. I am confident there is somebody who can write a spicy 1,000-word post about production editors. I love production editors, the true unsung heroes in the bookmaking process. This industry is incredible and full of characters. A closer look at the copyeditors, editorial boards, marketers, influencer marketing agencies, agents, booksellers, and editors could be offered with some edge and solid reporting. And, of course, the deals, deals, deals. Publishers Weekly is the industry bible for such news, but the coverage of cookbooks specifically is often overshadowed by other genres.

But this proposed publication (which could perhaps live on Substack) would shine most by covering authors on all levels. And I’m pretty sure people would pay for it, and not just industry folk with swipes of the corporate card, but fans of these books and authors who are interested in anything behind the scenes.

Is a well-known food writer shopping their first proposal? Book it. Is a first-time author shooting their first cookbook on location with an entire rookie team? Let’s hear about the steep learning curve. What about the best-selling debut dessert author struggling to land an idea for big book number two? Let’s take a look at the five ideas they have up for consideration. My instinct is that this could make for some hot copy. Does the cookbook industry have a version of “I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Director Responds to Speculation That Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. Didn’t Shoot Together”? That would really be something.

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Akhtar Nawab in 2015

Is Akhtar Nawab New York City’s Most Respected Chef?

Akhtar Nawab is today’s guest on This Is TASTE, and I think I make a case that his influence in NYC kitchens is somewhat under covered. He was a fixture of early Eater, and before that mentored a great many in the industry. He’s currently the chef-owner of the terrific restaurants Wayward Fare and Alta Calidad in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and he previously ran the kitchen at La Esquina (which was better than you may remember). Akhtar moved to New York in 1998 and worked under chef Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern for several years. He was part of the opening staff of Craft (not that is a documentary), and in 2002 he helped open Craftbar, later serving as executive chef. David Chang credits him as a major influence.

While he’d never say it himself, those who follow NYC restaurants understand that Akhtar is a giant in the industry. Humble and hardworking, it was a pleasure to have him in the studio to talk about his amazing work.