How to Write an Enticing Cookery Book

How to write an enticing cookery book

If you love to cook then the likelihood is you’ll love to create new recipes, add funky little twists to original recipes or collect together an assortment of your old favourites. Whilst you may do this for your own personal pleasure, your friends and / or your family, you may not have considered pulling together your ideas and treasured recipes to create your very own recipe collection or cookbook of your own. And why not?! With the combination of visuals, enticing language and the pleasure you get from passing on something you treasure to others, writing a cookbook is a wonderful achievement.

So how do you pull together an enticing cookery book? Let’s break the process down into manageable chunks:

-Firstly you need to decide on a theme. Cook books can for example include a range of recipes that span starters, main courses, deserts, cocktails and even a light section on baking. These books do however still need to be focused on a theme. Does the book contain recipes that are all from a specific era, a particular country, or that have a key theme in common; i.e. they can all be prepared in less than 1 hour or they are all suitable for vegans? Find the common theme, and then ensure that every recipe contained within your book lives up to this theme.

-Once you have the theme for your book, you need to ensure that the reader is aware of it! Yes, you can give them a theme indication from the book title, but you’ll also need an introduction which explains a little bit about how these recipes are all tied together, and your reasons for choosing such a theme. This introduction is also a great way to build up a relationship with the readers; something that is often very difficult to do in a cookery book.

-Think about visuals. Cookery books are renowned nowadays for their colourful imagery – it is part of the pull towards the book itself and towards the creation of the recipe contained within the book. Visuals and photography are crucial to the success of any cook book. How are you going to ensure that these are provided for your book?

-Next you need to ensure that you have absolutely all the information required to write fully about each recipe. Are you sure of the ingredients, the quantities, the methodology, the fact that the outcome will be ‘as desired’?

-If the answer to the above point is yes then great; it’s time to start writing out each of the recipes for inclusion in the book. Language is important here…you don’t have many words but you can add adjectives in to make the recipe sound more appetising and to make the process of cooking sound as enjoyable as possible.

-Finally, decide on an order that makes sense with the general theme of the book and that flows well. Ideally you’ll be splitting out your recipes into book sections, so ensure that they are grouped accordingly.