the cookbook experience

I can't pinpoint when marketers and customer service gurus started talking up the client's experience as the latest buzzword to focus efforts on. Maybe it has to do with the emphasis on Millennials who seem to drive corporate efforts. Or it could be the Gen Xers who like nesting and nostalgia. Nevertheless, we talk about how the client experiences the brand or experience design. And if the client's experience doesn't disappoint her, then she'll be back. She'll tell her friends, etc. 

What about the cookbook experience? Do publishers concern themselves about the reader's experience? The cook's experience? Decisions like which font to use, the recipe's positioning/layout on the page, the type of paper chosen for the book, and the photography--including the food styling, culminate in an experience for the reader/cook.

Some books are merely pretty with their layout and font. Some are functional with their Times New Roman and spiral bound spine. And many don't feature photos. The ones that do...well, they vary, right? 

In the end, it's not so much the list of ingredients that motivates me to try a recipe. It's the photo. Food styling and photography are the most important elements of designing a cookbook experience for me.

Is it for you? Or do you want a surface that's easy to make notes on as you tweak the recipe to suit you? Or for the book to lie flat while you're measuring ingredients? It's a shame to stain and warp glossy cookbook pages when they're heavily used. Forget the cookbook holder; those rarely work for me.

Perhaps you noticed that in the last few posts I've mentioned the photographer. Anymore, that's what I'm attuned to. Sure, there are average food photographers. Some publishers may not believe food photography is an important aspect of the book and they aren't mindful about the photographer they hire for the job.

But publishers attuned to aesthetics, perhaps the ones with spot on art directors, consistently produce eye-candy cookbooks with lust-worthy food photography. Of late, I've noticed the work of Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn and Ben Fink, two photographers whose expertise shooting southern food jumps off the cookbook's page.