These are exciting times, my foodie friends. In just a few days, my new cookbook, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN: Cooking with Nature’s Most Amazing Foods, will be released! A full-color, hardcover book with over 100 recipes and extensive information on both why and how to use superfoods, this beauty is now available for preorder online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon for up to 40% off list price.
To clear up any potential confusion, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN is in fact a re-published, re-vamped version of my book SUPERFOOD CUISINE (which was released last year and is no longer in print). Comparing the two, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN features 3 additional recipes, a few copy edits, and minor formatting changes. Here’s the reason for the change:
In reality, this project began many, many years ago when I made some killer raw macaroons, sans recipe. I just put ingredients together in a food processor and played with it until it worked (and oh, it worked!). Though not really a revolutionary moment in the scope of reality, I found the process absolutely exhilarating. “I think I’m going down the wrong path in life,” I told myself. “I want to be a chef. I want to write a cookbook.” While I did make a transfer over to the world of natural food not too long after that, it took me no less than eight years to actually put together my first book. I wanted it to be nothing short of amazing – the kind of cookbook I would buy myself – and sometimes, these things just can’t be rushed.
But there was another factor that delayed the production… finding people who believed in my work, and who believed in me. Anyone who’s ever been involved in a start-up anything… from launching a business venture to getting a first acting role … knows that it’s getting that first investor, that first job, that is the hardest. For me it was getting a publisher. Having worked intimately in the natural food industry, I could confirm first hand the surging level of interest in natural foods, superfoods, and plant-based foods for health and energy. But convincing the publishing world was a different story. I shopped my book idea around endlessly from publisher to publisher, pitched my idea of “superfood cuisine” to more people than I care to admit, and yet continued to get only polite rejections (or more often, no response at all). It was disheartening, but I truly believed that there had to be a way to get my book out.
There was. Navitas Naturals, the superfood company for whom I continue to work with as a chef, agreed to help me self-publish a first run. Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart, I soon learned! Because I was running on a shoestring budget, I did as much as I possibly could myself. Aside from writing the recipes and the text, I also became my own food photographer, and, after studying-up on the in’s and out’s of computer design programs, I designed the book from head to toe as well. I can’t even begin to explain what a mammoth and often overwhelming process it was, being pulled in so many different directions creatively-speaking. The day that I got my first shipment of printed books in the mail I was genuinely shaking as I opened the box. And though I was excited, my primary thought was a last-minute desperate prayer that I’d find no catastrophic mistakes. (Amazingly, there weren’t.) SUPERFOOD CUISINE: Cooking with Nature’s Most Amazing Foods was born.
Thanks to an overwhelmingly positive response to SUPERFOOD CUISINE, within a very short time, I began working with a brilliant book agent, who found me a publisher who wasn’t just interested in taking me on, but was a match made in heaven: Sterling Publishing. Sterling was eager to climb on board with SUPERFOOD CUISINE, and before long, a contract was in place to republish the next run… and dig in on some new projects as well. Working with Sterling not only allows me to put out a better product, but get wider distribution and offer the book at a lower price point – a win for for everyone!
So here we are, a year later. SUPERFOOD KITCHEN is the new, primped-up version of my self-published first book. I received an advance copy in the mail a couple weeks ago. But this time, opening the package, I wasn’t shaking: I was filled with pride.
To every person that purchased a copy of SUPERFOOD CUISINE, I’d like to extend a most heartfelt thank you. With just 3000 copies printed on that first run, you supported and own a piece of an immensely personal, special, and very much hand-made project of mine. I am truly grateful for your support, and hope that the book continues to bring you joy, health, and deliciousness.
I hope that this new version, SUPERFOOD KITCHEN, is not just something you buy, but something that you adore to use again and again… something that you can display with pride because it supports your path of a healthy lifestyle (… and that alone is something to be proud of). I hope you gift copies to friends and loved ones, as, besides being a beautiful present, it gives those you care about the opportunity to enhance their own lives through nature’s best (and most delicious) nutritious foods. I hope that we can get the word out that living well is a beautiful, easy, and fun adventure. From my Superfood Kitchen to yours, with all my heart, I hope you love it.
