Crowdsourcing a cookbook: Food52 on the way from Harper Studio
By Paul Biba
Two food writers are launching a site called Food52, according to TechCrunch. The site is not open to the public yet, but here’s a bit of the background. It shows that we can’t even define the word "publishing" any more—too many alternatives exist.
The Food52 project will result in its own cookbook to be published by the Harper Studio (which is also publishing the Gary Vaynerchuk ten-book library). Each recipe in the book will come from the Food52 community. “We want it to be a cooking site where the users feel that they have a voice,” Hesser tells me in her first interview about the project.
The site and the book will appeal to anyone who ever wanted to write their own cookbook but never had the time. But it won’t be a free-for-all. Hesser and Stubbs will make editorial decisions with give-and-take from the site’s members. To guide the community, every week two themes will be presented which will act as a call for recipes. This week’s themes (they are really assignments) are “Your Best Grilled Pork Recipe” and “Your Best Watermelon Recipe.” Anyone can submit their favorite recipes, along with photos or videos. Then Hesser and Stubbs select the most promising ones, test them, and choose the best two for each theme. They present these back to the Food52 members, who get to vote which one will make it into the cookbook.
Thanks to Eoin Purcell for the link.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Sounds like a great idea. Apart from fantasy writing, food and cooking is my second great interest. In fact, I have a plan for the website for my recently published book, Randolph’s Challenge Book One - The Pendulum Swings, to have a section covering the recipes for some of the meals that Randolph, the hero, encounters on his journey.
I look forward to Food52 going ‘live’.
Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph’s Challenge Book One - The Pendulum Swings