off the top shelf

Why Community Cookbooks Matter

Community:  A group of people having common interest; a group of people living in the same locality.

Cookbook: A book of recipes and cooking directions.

For the past four decades Favorite Recipes Press has developed, produced, and marketed self-published cookbooks throughout the United States. You may have heard them referred to as fund-raising cookbooks or regional cookbooks; we prefer to call them community cookbooks—much for the reason shown in the definitions of “community” and “cookbook.”  We have worked with publishers such as The Home Economic Teachers, Junior Leagues and other women’s clubs and organizations, schools, fire departments, neighborhood associations, committees formed to oversee the celebration of a certain city anniversary, professional sports teams, and the list goes on and on. 

The earliest community cookbooks were published during the Civil War and as you would imagine, they were small, very simple, and often lacked organized chapters, a table of contents, or an index.  As women realized they could make a difference in their community by raising money with a cookbook, the cookbooks became more elaborate with illustrations, household hints, and helpful charts. You would most likely find table prayers or Bible verses in a cookbook published by a women’s group at a church or some light and fun-to-read quotes about hillbillies from a group in the Ozark Mountains.  You would find all the regional recipes indigenous to the area and family favorites tested in the home kitchen and tasted by the entire family—only the best recipes made it into the cookbook. 

As the community cookbook evolved, the presentation became more elaborate with photographs of the community, including historical homes, tourist sites, doors, and bridges.  Over the span of more than a hundred years, many things have remained the same: the cookbooks are almost always created by women, the project is done as a fund-raiser for a specific cause, and it features something about the “community,” whether it is the organization, the history of a city, state, or region, the promotion of a church, school, hospital, or museum. 

In addition to being reliable and interesting to read, community cookbooks provide us with important documentation of the culinary history of the different regions of our country.  They preserve our traditions. These cookbooks truly give the reader a glance into the lives of these women—the opportunity to learn more about the communities, their traditions, their culture, and their foods.

Within the last seven to ten years we have seen yet more changes in the community cookbook form.  We now see more food photography—high-end, full-color books that are not regional in nature. For the most part, they could come from any group, author, city, or state.  They are beautiful.  But what will these books tell our children and grandchildren about our traditions, communities, and foods? 

Those of us lucky enough to be in Nashville for Cookbook University in April were served up a treat as John T. Edge talked about a favorite subject of us all—community cookbooks.  He drove home the importance they play in paying tribute to people and place, as well as documenting and preserving the history of a culture.  Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, award-winning food writer, cookbook author, and judge for the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards, knows community cookbooks.  He has studied thousands of cookbooks and is the author of A Gracious Plenty—Recipes and Recollections form the American South in which most of the recipes are from community cookbooks.  One of my favorite comments in the cookbook is “The best cookbooks are storybooks, their purpose is as much to document the communal draw of the meal table as to show the curious cook how to bake a gravity-defying biscuit or stir up a tasty kettle of Brunswick stew.  When all the dishes have been cleared from the table, these recipes remain a tangible link to a time, a place and a people.”

what's happening at FRP

Attention Florida Publishers - Direct Sales Opportunity:
Miami Book Fair International is a program of the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College.  Now in its twenty-second year the street fair offers more than three hundred authors, more than two hundred exhibitors, and thousands of book lovers.  The event will be held November 17-19, 2006.  Contact Giselle Hernandez at 305-237-3315 or ghernan3@mdc.edu for information on exhibiting.  If you don't feel you can manage a booth on your own, consider sharing a booth for the weekend with some fellow Florida self-publishers.  Half booths are also available.  Visit Miami Book Fair International on-line at www.miamibookfair.com.

Awards Information:

As the nation’s leading cookbook publishing company, FRP partners with its self-publishers on award submissions each year. This year, many of the contest coordinators have moved to electronic entry forms or PDFs that can be downloaded from their Web site.  On June 29th, the Awards Packet was sent via e-mail to all of the eligible FRP publishers.

This year, there are eleven national awards presented for eligible clients based on the copyright year, book content, subject matter, and other specific criteria.

(One award that was not included in the mailing was the Gourmand World Cookbook Fair Awards, as information was just received by our office. All food and wine books published between November 15, 2005 and November 15, 2006 qualify. There are no entry fees; however three copies of each book have to be sent to an overseas address. Deadline is November 15, 2006. If you are interested in more information on this award you can download the entry form on MyFRP or you may contact Marketing Department at marketing@frpbooks.com.)

The FRP staff encourages clients to enter the national contests and to budget for awards each year as part of their overall plan.  The window of opportunity and eligibility is very narrow and in some cases is a one-time shot.  FRP proudly touts its award-winning list of clients as our publishers have won numerous awards over the years.

If you did not receive an e-mail containing the 2006 Awards Packet, contact FRP’s Marketing Consultant, Julee Hicks, at 1-800-358-0560 or via e-mail at jhicks@frpbooks.com.  This information can also be found under Marketing Assistance on MyFRP within the FRP Web site www.frpbooks.com.