Dolly's Cookbook Title; Joanna Gaines & Molly Baz Cover Reveals

Plus book deals for King Arthur, another TikTok person, and more!

Mar 07, 2023

Howdy cookbook fans!

And welcome to your Tuesday news digest! Lots to get to today, including MORE DETAILS ON DOLLY’S BOOK, a couple cover reveals, and more! And I have 7,000 emails glaring at me from my inbox so I am just going to get into it. Heeeeeere we go!

DONATIONS Sandra Rosalie McWorter Marsh, who is 82, has donated 1,700 cookbooks to the Washburne Culinary and Hospitality Institute in Chicago. The collection dates back to the 1930s and is largely authored by Black writers. McWorter Marsh’s brother Abdul McWorter Alkalimat issued a statement saying the books were donated to the school, where the student population is 70% Black, because “it is where they will be put to good use and the recipes kept alive by the next generations.” [WBEZ, Chicago Crusader]

Dolly Parton Cookbook to Be Called ‘Good Lookin’ Cookin’’

Ms. Dolly Parton continues to leave little morsels of detail about her upcoming cookbook for me to find all over the internet: today, YahooLife! pulls through with more details, including the title. The book will be called Good Lookin’ Cookin’ and will be written with Parton’s sister, Rachel Parton George, who Dolly says “does most of the serious cooking” in the family. The book will contain “recipes from the past and things I've gathered traveling all around the world,” in addition to “a lot” of the recipes from Parton’s first cookbook, the cult-favorite/nearly impossible to find Dollywood Presents Tennessee Mountain Home Cooking (1989).

The title Good Lookin’ Cookin’ didn’t really get me any additional info: Parton has trademarked the phrase, but nothing comes up in Edelweiss just yet so I think we’re still a ways out. Stay vigilant, cookbook nerds, and keep me posted.

Cover Reveals for Joanna Gaines and Molly Baz

Couple early updates on what will probably be two of the bestselling cookbooks of 2023? These books seem to be going for…different audiences, lol. (But honestly probably have more overlap than you’d think?)(Is this a Venn diagram where Alison Roman is in the middle?)

Okay first up my queen of shiplap Joanna Gaines has returned to just absolutely destroy every one else’s sales numbers this year with Magnolia Table Volume 3: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering. Marketing copy calls it a collection of “timeless and nostalgic recipes—now reimagined—for today’s home cook,” which includes recipes like Honey Butter Layered Biscuit Bites, Bananas Foster Pancakes, Brussels Sprout Gruyére Gratin, White Chicken Alfredo Lasagna, Garlic Shrimp over Parmesan Risotto, Peanut Butter Pie, and Brownie Cookies. Those all sound like Pinterest recipes to me (no shade), and thus very on brand for Jo. (I found this via People but I think it first appeared on the Magnolia website.) May 2.

Next! Ex-Bon Appetitster Molly Baz posted a cover reveal on her Instagram for her upcoming book More Is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen, which she describes in the caption as a book to help you “loosen up in the kitchen, give less fucks, cook with intuition, make mistakes, crank up the heat, season the heck out of your food, make the most of your fridge and pantry and, as always, have a REAL FUN TIME while doing it.” Recipes include Crispy Rice Egg-in-a-Hole, Chicken Salad with Coconut Crunch, Drunken Cacio e Pepe, Ooey Gooey Carrot Cake, the “Only Meatloaf that Matters” and Miso-Braised Chicken and Leeks. Also they’re doing the QR-codes-that-lead-to-videos thing they did in her first book, Cook this Book, again. October 10.

Coming Attractions: King Arthur, Salt Hank, Rabbit Hill, Cocktails, Husbands That Cook, More!

Three book deal! Three book deal! All from King Arthur Baking and led by (my former Epi colleague!) David Tamarkin. Book one: foundations of bread baking with 250 (!) recipes from around the world. Book two: modern general baking, both sweet and savory, 125 recipes. Book three: Baking for kids aged 8-12. Simon Element/Simon & Schuster Children’s, fall 2024.
TikTocker Salt Hank aka Henry Laporte (2.3 million followers) to write Salt Hank’s Happy Food, “a cookbook focused on the pure enjoyment of eating decadent meals, providing mains like short rib ravioli and salmon wellington and appetizers such as cajun shrimp and truffle parmesan fries.” Fall 2024, Simon Element.
Cat Bude, owner of Rabbit Hill Foodie Markets & Cooking Workshops in Normandy, France and founder of the Rabbit Hill French Lifestyle brand, to write Rabbit Hill Kitchen: Four Seasons of Cooking from the Market and Potager. 80 French recipes. Hardie Grant NA, pub date TBA.
Chris Vola of New York bar LB will write The Cocktail Atlas: A Spirited Drinking Companion, looking at drinking traditions around the world. Union Square & Co, pub date TBA.
Married couple Ryan Alvarez and Adam Merrin, founders of the blog Husbands That Cook, will write an as-yet untitled cooking book with 75 recipes. They will shoot their own photography. Simon Element, pub date TBA.

RIP South African cookbook author and host of Great South African Bake Off Lentswe Bhengu-Mafoko died suddenly last week after a brief illness, according to a statement his family posted to his Instagram. His last cookbook, Africa on a Plate, is set to come out April 2024. He was 37.

Above: Ina Garten remodeled her kitchen, which Google Alerts let me know about because apparently people were zooming in on her cookbooks. “Cool,” I thought, “I can do a story in the newsletter about the books la Contessa keeps in her kitchen!” Then I zoomed in. [Instagram]
A moving story about cookbook author Raghavan Iyer (660 Curries, 2008), his life with longterm partner Terry Erickson, and his most recent (and last, thanks to cancer) cookbook On the Curry Trail. [NYT]
A profile of cookbook photographer Eric Wolfinger. [La Jolla Light]
Tracing Minnesota’s love of hot dish through vintage cookbooks. [CBS]
A brief bio of Crescent Dragonwagon on the publication of the 30th anniversary edition of Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook. [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
Jesuit priest Walter J. Smith has released a book about the intersection of his religious life and cooking, called Faith, Food and Friendship. [Boston College]
Cookbook review: My Vermont Table by Gesine Bullock-Prado. [AJC]
Cookbook review: Bao by Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Shung, and Wai Ting Chung. [BigHospitality]
Cookbook review: Dark Honey and Rye Cake by Regula Ysewijn. [The Caterer]
The 20th century American cookbooks now considered ‘kitchen bibles.’ [Daily Meal]
And how kitchen bibles change (and don’t change) to stay relevant. [WaPo]
Why is the internet obsessed with recipes from weird vintage cookbooks? [Epi]

Okay that’s all for today! I’ll see paid subscribers on Friday, and the rest of you next week! Have a great week.