Doorman: Who rang that bell?

Dorothy and friends: (Together) We did!

Doorman: Can't you read?

Scarecrow: Read what?

Doorman: The notice!

Dorothy Gale and Scarecrow: (Together) What notice?

Doorman: It's on the door! As plain on the nose on my face! (Groaning in frustration and does a tsk expression, he puts the notice on the door and goes back inside)

Dorothy and friends: (Reading the notice together) "Bell out of order. Please knock." (Dorothy knocks the door)

Doorman: Well! That's more like it! Now, state your business.

Dorothy and her friends: (Together) We wanna see the Wizard.

Doorman: (Gasps) The Wizard? But nobody can see the great Oz. Nobody's ever seen the great Oz! Even I've never seen him!

Dorothy Gale: Well, then how do you know there is one?

Doorman: Because he... (Frustrated) Oh! You're wasting my time!

Dorothy Gale: Oh, please. Please, sir. I've got to see the Wizard. The Good Witch of the North sent me.

Doorman: Prove it!

Scarecrow: She's wearing the ruby slippers that she gave her. (Dorothy shows the doorman the ruby slippers)

Doorman: (Understands) Oh! So she is! Well, bust my buttons! Why didn't you say that in the first place? (Dorothy and her friends smiled) That's a horse of a different color! Come on in! (Laughing joyfully)

THE JOURNEY

The creation of What’s Cooking Good Looking came from three basic sentiments: the heartache of losing my grandmother, the drive to collect her recipes before yet another holiday season passed, and lastly, the inspiration to create the cookbook I felt was missing from bookstore shelves. While vintage Americana, food nostalgia, and retro cookbooks may be the obvious inspirations, many of the practical choices were guided by small-press sensibilities, fundamental to the overall message I intended to convey in WCGL.

When looking to add to my own cookbook collection, I started making notes of the reasons I paused before taking a book to the checkout counter. For example, I would put a book back if its low recipe count made me question what I was paying for. I second-guessed a purchase if I felt the design, intros, and headnotes were taking away from (instead of adding to) what I wanted to do with the book: create with it. 

These observations were a springboard for some of the first decisions in making this particular edition of the cookbook. Additionally, the release of this book follows decades of navigating novella-long online recipe intros overly peppered with video advertisements, making it almost impossible to successfully (and peacefully) read a recipe online. What you’ll find in WCGL is a chex mix of traditional and non-traditional, but intentional, design and layout choices. The photos are meant to be both inspirational and attainable. Headnotes are blended into chapter intros. A recipe’s ingredients and method can be viewed on the same page (always!), with blank space on each (non-glossy) page for your own note-taking. If the life and love of Wanda the Wild inspires you, AND let’s say you feel like making a loaf of Banana Bread, or you want to make a Seven-layer Salad for a potluck, or enjoy a pitcher of Sweet Tea on a hot day, you have this book as your go-to guide in the kitchen.

How many times have you heard someone say that they hate breaking the spine of their cookbook, but it is necessary to use it in the kitchen? WCGL’s spiral-binding makes it practical in the kitchen AND makes it stand out on the shelves. It doesn’t look like any other cookbook, new or old; it is the only cookbook with a 1.5-inch bright red spiral binding, allowing it to shine, whether front- or spine-facing. While thin spiral-bound books may be lost or damaged, the heftiness of this spiral ensures it will always be found and kept in one piece. It stacks beautifully with other cookbooks. Customers flock to the red spiral binding (I’ve experienced this firsthand), immediately in love with its design and practicality. I have been told it is unlike any book most shops have carried before.

Across the board, cookbooks and their value are underpriced. Generally speaking, cookbooks are the same price they were in the 1990s. As a reference point, $5 in 1990 is worth approximately $12.40 today, due to an average inflation rate of about 2.55% annually over the past 36 years - prices are roughly 2.48 times higher now than they were in the 90s. Given these facts, a cookbook that was $25 over 30 years ago should be $62 today, a hard number to swallow, but one we should take down with a spoonful of sugar, if necessary.

As American consumers, we are conditioned to unbelievably low prices and free overnight shipping - a cultural shift is necessary to pay creators and artists what they are worth. I do not believe in producing fast-fashion cookbooks. I believe in hiring local artists and craftsmen and paying what it’s worth to make a book equitably, increasing the book's overall value. I believe a cookbook is worth the price of a workweek of lattes, and my readership does, too.

Additionally, many (…like, all) full-color, high-quality, hardcover-bound and glossy cookbooks are produced overseas, particularly in Asia or Eastern Europe. There are limited, if any, printing plants in the United States that can produce large runs of high-quality, color-heavy cookbooks. Larger, more complex projects often demand overseas printing for lower per-unit costs, especially for print runs of 1,000 or more, allowing books to be underpriced and undervalued.

I am doing my small part to help shift this norm.

WCGL is a full 4-color book printed in small batches on 80# cover paper with color food photos, family photos, memorabilia, and illustrations - none that have seen the likes of any cookbook before. The high-quality paperback and cardstock pages of the book are both a salute to vintage cookbooks and to allow the reader, the kitchen connoisseur, to use the book just like my Nana's recipe cards were used - loved, written in, and stained with vanilla extract and spilled baking cocoa.

The cookbook is manufactured in a family-owned print shop in Portland, Oregon, that pays above the minimum wage to its employees. This domestic printing choice, paired with the risograph cover design, small press packaging, and heftiness of the book (she thicc), makes WCGL well worth the MSRP listed and a strong competitor to hardcover-bound, photographed cookbooks from nationally recognized authors.

This edible memoir is a tribute to vintage cookbooks. It presents baking and cooking in a new way - a revival of the old way with a twist of lemon, if you will. It appeals to both lovers of current cookbooks and appeals to a whole new cookbook collector - one that is possibly new to cooking, inspired by nostalgia, and a lover of handmade, zine-quality, whimsical design, that is the bright star in this ever-gloomy age of AI. It appeals to lovers of vintage, small-batch printing, and limited editions. It may just inspire the decade-long cookbook collector to see recipes presented in a way that is different than the way the 5 major publishing houses present recipes.

“We can do it”. - a revered representation of female empowerment. 

My background is in filmmaking. In costume design, apparel design, and vintage fashion. I took all of the experiences and knowledge I have gained from making magic happen with far less than ideal circumstances on a movie set, a photo shoot, in a tv show trailer, and well, put it into this book. My best writing, my most ME voice, has always been when I’m writing letters to, texting, or passing notes with friends. I wrote this cookbook with the same tone I use when making jokes to figuring out the meaning of life with my bff. I feel that is when I communicate the best. I want that clarity and friendship to be with you in the kitchen.

There is a movement in self-published books outside of print-on-demand services for authors and creators who want to produce the books that they feel are missing from the world. Cookbook lovers can’t wait to support professionally created (edited, recipe-tested, competitively designed) self-published works that break down the walls of traditional publishing. I receive nothing but praise from my 1:1 customer base and store owners who carry WCGL. I love continuing this symbiotic relationship nationwide. 

One of the (many) magical aspects of WCGL is that it features recipes from all over the United States. Bob and Wanda lived in and raised their family in Texas, Southern California, Washington, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Nebraska, and Hawaii (to name a few). The recipes in this book are a celebration of all of the places the Sell family has lived since the 1930s, and it shows! Its ever-popular nostalgia speaks to persons and families, from all parts of the nation and beyond. 

...C’mon, let’s share a bite!