After posting culinary ideas or perhaps a tweet about what I might be dehydrating on a particular day, I get requests that are usually the pretty boiler plate “You should do a cookbook on how to do X Y Z!”
It’s a great idea, it really is….but no one reads anymore. If your food related tome isn’t cutting edge gastronomy or cutting edge simplification and sustainability (see: foraging and @hankshaw ) NO ONE IS BUYING OR READING THAT BOOK!!!! (or at least not enough to make it worth your while) and you can’t do a book for your local/message board/blog family and assume that you won’t eat your hat on the investment.
So the question becomes “How do we want to receive that information? How do we want to be taught from other experiences? How do we want to learn? Do we want it in video format? Do we want it in 140 character quips that link us to a longer editorial? Do we want to flip pages with step-by-step pictures?
…and then….how does the rest of the US/World/any large entity want to learn? Do they mimic the reader(s) of this rant? Are they becoming standardized in one format or another?
Making a solo (cheap) How-To video is hard and time intensive…….Let me clarify: Making a GOOD How-To video on your own is difficult. Many takes, many angles, many mistakes….but is that what we want? Is a book any better? Are live demonstrations enthralling enough to have a take-home component?
Are we really wanting to learn? Or do we want the quickest medium that can give us just enough information to carry it forward conversationally while we have no intention of applying any of it?…………
The Internet makes it seem like no one is reading any more, but I’m not sure that’s the case. Anyways, I believe real value in the world is in the “small” niche’s made up of, well, everyone, just not everyone at the same time and place. For evidence of the continued existence of people that do read, check out http://longform.org/, or look at the number of books being sold off Amazon.com. Admittedly the books are being sold more and more as e-books (a different topic in itself), but they are still being read.
I personally don’t like video for truly learning things. I lot of people do though. (Same regarding learning in a traditional classroom setting I guess.) I think video gets people’s attention faster, but that’s about it’s only benefit, except in specific cases where spatial visualization is important. (An example would be learning how a differential gear works.) There is some scientific evidence backing me up on this.
In addition to difficulties you mentioned with video, it’s also really hard to get video or photographs of food to look appealing. It almost has to be inedible in order to look “right” using food coloring, wax, etc. You probably know more about this than I do. I just know photographs of food that haven’t been professionally setup never look good.
Regarding cookbooks though, they are not exactly front-to-back reading material, right? I think people usually buy them for reference, or even decoration. I know the person that cooks in our house is constantly referring to her cooking-light recipe books. She has the complete yearly collection up until a few years ago. And, some of our favorite desserts were passed down from family (often not of the cooking light type).
I would, however, venture that the only cooking books you would be interested in reading deal with “cutting edge gastronomy” or “cutting edge simplification” or “cutting edge sautéing with nuclear reactors for fun and profit”.
Regarding writing your own book for a smaller crowd, you could self-publish for very low cost. There are number of options. My favorite is lulu.com. There are many other similar options. You have to admit, it would make a cool and unique Christmas gift. (hint hint)
I think your last paragraph in this post is great and very insightful.
It also explains why I know that three strikes means the hitter is out, but I couldn’t tell you the difference between a DH and pinch-hitter. (…until just now… after looking on Wikipedia.)
One last thought. We just bought Julie Fairchild’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” a few weeks ago. I think we bought it for decoration, but as a cooking neophyte, I’ve found it one of the more useful reads I’ve had in long time. Just wait. In no time I’ll be up at your level, mixing maillard rx with chocolate and who knows what else! Right? You still there???
Lots to dig into here…where to start?
1. I agree on the ‘niche’ concept and that there are markets out there. IMO, the challenge is capitalizing on ALL of the mediums available to find those that fit your niche which is demanding its own algorithm these days and is something that the small entity struggles with.
2. I think video works to communicate technique and action. Culinarily (and in the example you cited) this is a bigger learning step.
3. This diverts from the premise of the broad question of learning style and more to the specific of the food application but I really dislike recipes as a teaching tool. Before I go further, I will fully admit that this viewpoint is myopic and I may be overestimating peoples ability to combine ingredients in a sensible fashion to create edible goodness. That said, I would far prefer to never write an ingredient and instead demonstrate technique and discuss flavor profiles of the components that we use on a daily basis. IMO, these are the foundational tools that allow one to cook/create as opposed to monotonously following directions. (please keep in mind my earlier disclosure) It really is the “give a man a fish/teach a man TO fish” premise but brought up to speed. Yes, Utopian, I know…..
4. I’m going to more into those links you put up for publishing. Without a clear vision though…..
5. The last paragraph is kind of the crux of all of it and I need to find a better way to lead with that instead of trying to make it some trendy cliffhanger afterthought…bad form on my part. I don’t know that in general, we want to learn and we want to advance. Status quoism takes over for most at some point…..in some ways, I think my life would be simpler if I could accept that…but I can’t.
It’s interesting that you mention Julia Child. While L was napping today, The Cooking Channel had a digitized re-run of one of her shows and I think there is a reason she is still relevant. She is the root of observational and user based cooking demonstration. She is the reason all of these other shameless hacks (yes YOU, Queen McButterfat) have a canvas to spread their really crappy food propaganda on. She was rough in the kitchen but very authentic and genuine even in her failures.
Great points. Again.
You are right about video also being useful for showing and teaching technique. I always forget how much technique is a part of cooking …obviously I don’t cook much. I was happy to master
thea technique for flipping an omelette without making a huge mess. I didn’t get it on the first try. A video probably would’ve helped. (…after writing that just now, I spent the next 15 minutes on YouTube. Wow. I’ve been doing it wrong.)On recipes vs. foundation tools, I understand what your are getting at. As you hinted at yourself though, I wonder if you are underestimating your own knowledge and skills in this regard (and by extension, over-estimating most other peoples.) I once tried mixing flavor profiles. My thinking was that I like nutmeg. More must be better, right? It wasn’t. Probably obvious to you. Wasn’t to me. Perhaps your new book will help me out. Where can I preorder?
Fwiw, I like the trendy cliffhanger afterthoughts sometimes. Everything leading up to it provides context, make the final thought more poignant.
short answer due to time constraint: Nutmeg has psychoactive properties when used in excess….tread lightly
And on every cooking show I have ever watched that uses nutmeg, I think their legal council makes them say the phrase ” A little goes a long way” because they never miss that phrase on an aired version…..