Chatting all Things Cookbooks

Am I ever not talking about cookbooks? - Friday Food Chat with Kath

I don’t know about you, but this week seems to have been filled with cookbook news.

Between hearing more about upcoming releases, the steady stream of new cookbooks hitting the shelves in the last few weeks, and the allegations of a well known cookbook having plagiarised another well known Australian cookbook author (amongst potentially others), it’s certainly a topic of conversation for many of us at the moment.

• I saw Helen Goh post this video on Instagram about her upcoming first solo cookbook, definitely a book going on my wish list!

• I also read a really interesting blog post by Amanda of Lamb Ears and Honey, about why, when there are so many recipes available online, we still love and buy cookbooks. I totally agree with Amanda’s ideas on this, especially the thought that “Sometimes, reading about food is almost as satisfying as eating it…”.

• More cookbook reviews were shared with my paid subscribers last weekend, including reviews of the newly released The Australian Ingredients Kitchen and The Baker’s Book. Both of these reviews sit before the paywall, so please check them out.

• This week I also read this post by

  Julia Matusik
  about the cookbooks which most influenced her. It was a really interesting read, and got me thinking about which books have influenced me the most. I think similar to Julia, some of the 1980s and 1990s Women’s Weekly publications would definitely be on the list.

• I also found this post by

  Olga Koutseridi
  about the struggles of being a recipe developer and food writer with no appetite very interesting. Being a recipe developer myself and having struggled with my senses of taste and smell for about 10 months now, so I definitely related to some of what Olga wrote about.

• This week also brought to light allegations by Nagi of RecipeTin Eats that Brooke Bellamy had allegedly plagiarised a couple of her recipes in her recent bestselling book Brooki Bakes. Brooke has denied the allegations, and subsequent print runs of Brooki Bakes feature an updated version of one of the recipes in question. I have a feeling this situation will get bigger before it is finally resolved, but it raises many questions in the meantime about the ethics of recipes, plagiarism itself, and how likely it is that recipes could be so similar by coincidence.

Check out more recipes over on the paid version of this newsletter featuring, A Ginger Sponge Cake, A Festive Boiled Fruit Cake and A Caramel Ginger Pudding. See the whole archive here and sign up to support my work and get it all straight to your inbox or Substack feed!

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Muesli Breakfast Crumble

Since it’s finally cooling down here, cosy warming breakfasts sounds like a very good idea. You can swap the fruit I’ve used here for something else, frozen berries with the apple would be great.

If you enjoy these newsletters and want more baking, food and cookbook chat, I invite you to join me over on my paid newsletter Extra Food Chat with Kath today.

Paid subscribers get to share in my Heirloom Recipe Series were I am baking my way through my Grandma’s handwritten recipes and are immersed in more cookbook chat so you can more easily decide which cookbooks to add to your collection next.

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