Book Deals: Bravetart! CJ Eats! NYT! Carla Hall!

Howdy cookbook fans!

How’s it going? I’m having an exciting week, full of lots of recipe testing and meetings and also tomorrow I will be teaching a Milk Street digital cooking class on PICKLES with chef Steve McHugh! We will talk pickles, fry some pickles, drink some pickle cocktails. The recipes are all from our cookbook, Cured: Cooking with Ferments, Pickles, Preserves & More. Join us! It will be fun. Also you’ll get to see my kitchen! And y’all get 25% off just for being SPN readers, use the code SPNCURED!

ALSO! For those of you who have asked, yes I will be at Cookbook Fest in Napa in a couple weeks. More below!

This week we’ve got approximately 700 book deals (including some very exciting ones!!) so let’s get to it!

This issue of Stained Page News is brought to you by the first-ever Cookbook Fest, coming to Napa Valley, California June 21 to 23! This unique festival combines incredible storytelling with some of the most captivating cookbook authors to bring your favorite cookbooks to life. What's in store:

• Meet your culinary heroes: Authors like Jessie Sheehan, Bryant Terry, Kristina Cho, and Martin Yan (and dozens more!).

• See your favorite podcasts in action: Including live recordings of shows like The Sporkful and Everything Cookbooks.

• Cookbook-inspired culinary experiences: From a pizza lunch inspired by Khushbu Shah's new book Amrikan to a barbecue completion hosted by Tyler Florence.

• Industry sessions and networking: Work in publishing? There's a whole track of sessions for authors, photographers, editors, publishers, agents, and more.

• Book signings: Get your favorite cookbooks signed and personalized.

• Delicious food and drinks, live entertainment, and so much more!

Don't miss out on this one-of-a-kind experience! Grab your tickets today and get ready to celebrate the world of cookbooks like never before. See you in Napa!

Blue Star Press Buys Sasquatsch Books from PRH

I don’t pretend to know much about the big picture machinations of publishing houses, so forgive me if I mess up some of the details here. Seattle-based Sasquatch Books has been acquired by Oregon-based Blue Star Press from Penguin Random House. This is pertinent to your interests because Sasquatsch is the publisher of many design-forward cookbooks, mostly written by PNW-based authors. I’m a big fan of their books! (BSP seems to have a handful of cookbooks under their belt as well.) According to Publishers Weekly, Sasquatsch will continue to “operate autonomously and maintain its editorial independence, while also allowing Blue Star to add scale to its existing operations.”

Coming Attractions: BRAVETART!!!! PIM!! CJ Eats! NYT! Carla Hall! Matteo Lane! Hoosier Mama!

• Talk about a dream team: San Francisco chef Pim Techamuanvivit and veteran cookbook author Andrea Nguyen to write Cooking Thai, “a cookbook featuring the building blocks of Pim’s approach to classic Thai cuisine.” Techamuanvivit is the author of 2009’s The Foodie Handbook, while Nguyen is the author several cookbooks, mostly on Vietnamese cuisine. Ten Speed, pub date TBA.

• I was just wondering the other day what Stella Parks is up to these days and the answer, delightfully, seems to be…writing a cookbook?! Her debut title, Bravetart, is one of the all-timers and a frequent go-to for me. This new one will be 100 recipes “for delectable treats made without a mixer or any fancy ingredients.” Norton, pub-date TBA. Can’t wait.

• I’m only covering the major influencer deals these days, and this one is certainly Major (it got a “major” deal, which is the highest category, which means the advance is more than $500k). Anyway! Chris Joe aka CJ Eats (1 million followers on both TikTok and Instagram) to write CJ Cooks with Carolynn Carreńo. CJ is a Chinese-American whose recipes typically, but not always, incorporate Asian ingredients; top recipes on his homepage right now include air-fryer chicken thighs, “the best meatloaf with the perfect glaze,” egg drop soup, and bok choy with garlic sauce (“restaurant style”). Avery, pub date TBA.

• THREE BOOK DEAL ALERT. Over at the NYT, Emily Weinstein has edited a collection of recipes culled from her Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, to be called Easy Weeknight Dinners. More on the book here. Ten Speed; first book is out in October, TBA on the other two.

• Comedian Matteo Lane to write Al Dente, a book that “[distills] the author's rich Italian culture and humor into a collection of 30 delectable pasta-filled recipes, stories, observations, and asides.” 30 is low for a cookbook, so I expect there will be a lot of comedy/storytelling on the side. My spidey sense tells me we’ll see more of these as comedians go viral on Instagram/TikTok and look for other routes to capitalize. Chronicle, Spring 2025.

• Everyone loves Carla Hall, right? Well, she’s the next author on Bryant Terry’s 4 Color Books imprint, writing Carla Bakes, which is just what it sounds like, with the added intrigue that the recipes have been “perfected and personalized over the course of the author's career.” Pub date TBA.

• Unclear to me if this is technically a cookbook, but I’ve been to Multnomah Whiskey Library in Portland and enjoyed it, so what the hell: Jacob Grier and Brett Adams to write The Bartender’s Library, a “guide on curating your own connoisseur-grade home bar using the finest distilled spirits in the world, including an in-depth look at the intricacies of production, style, and bottle value and insights on how to mix exceptional cocktails.” Chronicle, pub date TBA.

• Rebekah Lowin to write A Year of Jewish Joy, “a guide to hosting modern, elegant Jewish holidays and celebrations.” In addition to recipes, there will be decor ideas, DIY projects, and more. Harvest, fall 2026.

• Martin Sorge, winner of The Great American Baking Show in 2023, to write Great Bakes, full of “modern Midwestern recipes, baking tips, and stories to guide beginner and experienced bakers to build a repertoire of great bakes.” I love Midwestern cookbooks (duh)! I understand the utility of but am always rubbed the wrong way by the word “bakes.” Agate Midway, pub date TBA.

• TWO BOOK DEAL! TWO BOOK DEAL! Hawaii-based spearfisher and chef Kimi Werner (316k followers on Instagram) to write Kimi’s Kitchen, “a cookbook that shows readers how to turn sustainably-sourced food into appetizing dishes while exploring the wonder of our oceans and the heart of Hawaii.” The second book will be a picture book, both for Ten Speed. Pub date TBA.

• Ashley Craft, who is best know for her blog Ashley Crafted and for writing cookbooks pegged to Disneyland and Universal Studios theme parks, to write The Family Supper Club, “a cookbook containing 52 weeks of themed recipes the whole family can make together, as well as tools and tactics to get even the youngest family members in the cooking process.” Rock Point, summer 2025.

• Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat's, authors of 2013’s Japanese Soul Cooking (a book I should cook out of more often!), to write Japanese Comfort Cooking, “featuring 80 recipes of traditional washoku classics and modern cooking, from miso, somen noodles, cured fish, sandos, salads, and fluffy matcha pancakes.” Ten Speed.

• Upstate homies, this one’s for you: Mona Talbott, owner of “provisions” shop Talbott & Arding in Hudson, NY, to write The Talbott & Arding Cookbook, “a new look at traditional cooking…pitched as The Silver Palate Cookbook for the farm-to-table generation.” Workman, fall 2026.

• Paula Haney, owner of Chicago’s Hoosier Mama Pie Company, will write a book about everything she bakes that’s not pie called The Hoosier Mama Book of Biscuits, Scones, Muffins, and More. Agate, fall 2025.

• Rosie Grant, who runs a TikTok (196k followers) where she tries recipes sourced from gravestones, to write To Die For, where she tries recipes sourced from gravestones. Harvest, pub date TBA.

• Sarah Kieffer, who you may know from her 100 series of baking books, to write Gluten-Free Baking, which I assume will be just what it sounds like (in a good way). Chronicle, pub date TBA.

• Julia Boucachard, chef of Paris restaurant Mori Cafe, to write Vegan Japan, which will also be just what it sounds like (in a good way). The Experiment, fall 2024.

• And last but not least, Sapna Punjabi to write Dal Chawal, a book of 100 vegetarian recipes focusing on these staples of Indian cooking. Hardie Grant NA, spring 2025.

• “The problem with recipes is that there are way too many of them and there will never be enough.” Kate Ray on the creator-first recipe economy and developing recipes for the internet. [Soft Leaves via Alicia Kennedy]

• Speaking of recipe development, apparently everyone in the UK is just knocking each other off? Am I misreading this? I mean recipe plagiarism happens here too of course, but I don’t think quite like this…? [FT, possible paywall but it let me read it once.]

• Lunches with Judith Jones, queen of cookbooks. [TASTE]

• Ever wonder why book releases come in seasons? It has to do with literal shipping. [The Idea Logical Company]

• Revisiting Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor’s Vibration Cooking. [Eater]

• When The Joy of Cooking slayed dragons. [Print Mag]

• Using a cookbook to get through a divorce. [NYT]

• The best cookbooks for chefs of 2024 (so far). [The Caterer]

That’s all for today! I have quite a bit of travel coming up, but I’ll try to squeeze in a newsletter or two. Talk soon!