What is a Cookbook Anyway?

Kevin West, author of The Cook’s Garden: A Guide to Selecting, Growing, and Savoring the Tastiest Vegetables of Each Season, and Sara B. Franklin, author of The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America, talk about our relationship with food and the masters who put it on our tables.

From the time of Judith Jones’s first success with Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the very idea of a cookbook has evolved remarkably, and cookbooks remain a cornerstone of the home. Franklin and West will roam through the history of cookbooks to ask: why do we love them so? What does a cookbook provide other than recipes? What is their role in the world of infinite online recipes? Why, for all their enduring popularity, are cookbooks considered less prestigious than “real writing”?

The intersection of memoir and cookbook represents a rich narrative form that blends story telling with culinary instruction, creating a unique space for authors to share their experiences alongside cherished recipes. Traditionally focused on merely providing instructions, cookbooks have evolved to incorporate anecdotes, cultural reflections, and explorations of family history, enriching the reader’s connection to food. In the digital age, while the internet offers vast resources and instant access to countless recipes, the role of the cookbook has shifted towards fostering community and preserving individual narratives. Home cooks now seek not only how-to guides, but stories that resonate with their own experiences, making the memoir-cookbook hybrid a compelling avenue for sharing culinary heritage and fostering connections in a fast-paced world.

Kevin West comes from country people with generations of commitment to growing delicious food. He is the author of Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving and also coauthored The Grand Central Market Cookbook and contributed to Edna Lewis: At the Table with an American Original.

Sara B. Franklin is a writer, teacher, and oral historian. She received a 2020–2021 National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars grant for her research on Judith Jones, and teaches courses on food, writing, embodied culture, and oral history at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Aside from The Editor, she is the editor of Edna Lewis and coauthor of The Phoenicia Diner Cookbook. She holds a PhD in food studies from NYU and studied documentary storytelling at both the Duke Center for Documentary Studies and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

“The Cook’s Garden is an inspirational self portrait of a passionate cook and his garden plot. In a voice that is at once wise and personal, Kevin West shares his considerable gardening and cooking experience and the symbiotic seasonal joys to be had in both. Packed with welcome and useful information, simultaneously scholarly and down home, this book is an indispensable guide for gardeners and cooks alike.”

—David Tanis, author of David Tanis Market Cooking

“Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century—including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath—finally gets her due in this surprising, granular, luminous, and path-breaking biography.”

—Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem