Book

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Are you into shiny pages, hard covers and lay-flat binding? Did you ever wish you could read a zillion (ahem, 85 to 100) new smittenkitchen.com recipes in one sitting without waiting for your modem’s hamster to load the page already? Can you hold out until this fall? Because THE SMITTEN KITCHEN COOKBOOK, to be published by Knopf, is just about finished and I couldn’t be more excited (and nervous) to share it with all of you.

Wait, what? You can’t hold out until October? Well, it just so happens that the book is now available for preorder (meaning, you can lock in a low price and it will ship the second it is released) from just about every online seller:

Tell me more!

Who wrote it? Yours truly.
Who took the photos? Ditto.
Who is the U.S. publisher? Knopf.
When will the book be released? October 30, 2012.
What can you tell us about it? 105-plus recipes, a story about each recipe, 300 photos and all the cooking tips your heart desires. The book will be 85 to 90 percent new material — my ideas, my recipes — and 10 to 15 percent favorites from the site that will be retested, reworked and streamlined for modern times. The recipes will have measurement in cups and spoons, and also weights. Hooray!
Where will it be available? Will I be able to buy it in [insert your country name here]? The U.S. edition will be published by Knopf in October 2012. There will be a separate Canadian edition available, published by Appetite, Random House Canada’s new food imprint, at the same time. The UK and Australian edition will be published by Square Peg, an imprint of Random House UK, on [now updated with precise date, yay] February 7, 2013 and we will add preordering information as soon as it is available. Additionally, anyone, anywhere will be able to buy the book from online booksellers.
Will there be a book tour? Yes, but we haven’t worked out the details yet. I promise, when we do, you’ll be the second to know.
Will there be photos of Jacob in the book? Oh yes. It will be a surprise, or, you know, as suspenseful as playing hide-and-seek with a 2-year old can be.
How many recipes are vegetarian? 85 of the 105-plus recipes are vegetarian (given, some of these are cocktails which feels like kind of a cop-out in the meatless department, but I wanted to give an official count). The “plus” refers to the fact that many of the main dishes with meat are paired with a side dish (bean salad, root vegetable puree, etc.), all of which happen to be vegetarian (i.e. there are 6 additional mini-recipes without meat). Among the 20 recipes that do contain meat, 2 are fish (one fish, one seafood) and 6 use something like crisped pancetta or crumbled bacon as one ingredient among many, more of an accent — i.e. in those 6 recipes, I’ve often made them without this crispy/salty accent and they remain balanced, excellent, and slightly less indulgent dishes. I hope that helps.
I want a preview! As you wish! Recently, I shared the recipe for Cinnamon Toast French Toast, from the sweet side of the breakfast section. Buttery, caramelized cinnamon toast (lots of it) meet French toast in a casserole format that’s perfect for lazy weekend mornings and brunches because you can assemble the whole thing the night before.
I pre-ordered the cookbook for a friend/family member… Stop right there! First, thank you. Second, we’ve created two downloadable (PDFs) gift IOUs for the cookbook that you can print, trim, and insert into an envelope to let your friends and family know that you are, indeed, the best gift-giver there could be. Here’s the savory one (this is a variation on the cover image) and here is the sweet one (a variation on the back cover image).

Have any further questions? Shoot me an email at thesmitten at gmail.com and I’ll do my best to answer it. If you have a question about the book’s publicity, Sara Eagle (seagle@randomhouse.com) knows all.

Early Kind Words, Press, and Other Tasteless Braggery

“Two years ago I started reading (and devouring) the Smitten Kitchen blog. I have since made more than thirty of her recipes and have been waiting for her forthcoming first cookbook.” — “What We’re Loving,” The Paris Review, 5/4/12
“If you’re a follower of her hilarious, recipe-driven blog, (and if you’re not, you should be), you’ll soon be able to keep her recipe collection constantly open for easy reference and inspiration on your counter.” — “For Your Library: The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook,” Food52, 5/4/12
“Perelman’s supremely helpful, visually stunning, wittily worded food blog really did deserve to be named one of 2011’s best blogs… Perelman’s recipes are accessible but not Betty Crocker plain; this is fun, energized eating. Get it!” — Library Journal Reviews, 5/2/12
“My other personal most anticipated fall cookbook is by a newcomer on the cookbook scene, although if you follow food blogs you almost certainly know her recipes. Yep, I’m talking about Deb Perelman of The Smitten Kitchen… Perelman’s recipes are also oh-so-tasty, and her food photography is gorgeous.” — “Two Fall Cookbooks Worth Waiting For,” The Book Page, 4/26/12
“In the world of blog-to-book deals, often the source material seems a stretch to bring to the printed page; not so with The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, based on Deb Perelman’s blog of the same name. Featuring ‘recipes for elegant and approachable homemade food,’ the book, which was picked up by Knopf, is sure to be as delightfully simple, elegant and full of gorgeous photography as her website. Publishers, we implore you: there are not many websites out there like Perelman’s, but we’d much rather see them in print than gimmicks or blogs that are basically serialized book proposals. As for Perelman, we say: about time.” — Eat Me Daily, 5/3/10