Journalist and Chef on the inspiration behind their cookbook

9 Oct 2024 · 1 min

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0:56

A short interview/transcript excerpt from a YouTube video about the origin of a collaborative cookbook. The speakers describe how the project began via text messages (initially conceived as “cooking by text”), how dialogue from those messages appears after each recipe, and they credit a chef named Lish for creating 79 recipes and for being an influential behind-the-scenes recipe tester whose measurements and testing shaped much of cookbook content.

Chapters

It really started with a text. I said, you know, where do I even start? She goes, what do you have in the kitchen, right? I said, I have a little fish. What do I do with the fish? And then we started from there, and it was through text message. I've never shared this. Our first idea for the book was cooking by text, and we were going to share all of our text messages. We joked about a very long time. And so that's why in the book, after each recipe, you see dialogue. Those are real conversations of me. She created 79 recipes, and I'll have to brag on her for a second, because what's not on Google about her is that she is your favorite chef's favorite chef. Lish is a recipe tester, and so recipe testers don't often get the shine. So she really has probably created 90% of what you love in cookbooks. Truly, she is the person, when you see the measurements and all that, that's her mind and that's her creativity. And I'm like, you need to get your shine on. And that's why we have this book together, because she does have a particular set of Liam needs of skills.