How to Cook a Book

Nik Sharma on just how hard it is to write a cookbook

Nik Sharma, the molecular biologist turned food photographer and multi-award winning food writer is writing his fourth book. And it’s hard.

His blog, A Brown Table, and his cookbooks, Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Food, The Flavor Equation, and (the brilliantly titled) Veg-Table have all been on Cooking the Books. But here he tells us nothing about the content - it’s not due out for another year, and he’s sworn to secrecy - and everything about writing.

As he looks through the galleys, he reflects on this stage of the creative process, the partnership with designers and how to write the story about the story without telling the story to keep the followers following.

It's such a challenge, because you got to address the same topics, but then you don't want to be so obvious about it, because then when the book comes, you still have to share content from the book as well and make sure that it feels very different to what you’ve been showing people.