With the lifting of the iPhone SDK non-disclosure agreement, there was much rejoicing among developers who were not allowed to talk about the SDK publicly without fear of reprisal from Apple. Established developers, of course, weren't the only ones eagerly looking forward for the NDA to be lifted. Writers and book publishers were also waiting, many with finished products, to educate the world on how to get started developing for the iPhone.

Among those book publishers was Addison Wesley, who has been waiting for months to publish The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK. While there are many iPhone development books hitting the retail shelves, we are particularly proud of this one as it is by our very own Erica Sadun. the book, which Erica had finished all the way back in July, will be available in hard copy at various retailers on Wednesday, October 15. as of right now, the book is available via O'Reilly's Sarari Books Online.

If you are looking for an iPhone programming reference, you might as well go and read about what it has to offer and the testimonials from individuals such as Daniel Pasco of Black Pixel Luminance, and our very own Associate Editor Jacqui Cheng (given long before Erica came on board, it turns out). [Editor's (Jacqui's) note: I actually read this entire book, too, and can vouch for its in-depth-ness.]

We are always proud when a member of our team is published. this isn't Erica's first book, of course, and we're sure it won't be the her last, but we would like to congratulate her nonetheless.

iPhone Developer's Cookbook now available online

My mom is looking for an old Betty Crocker cookbook published between 1950 and 1970ish. It is spiral bound and has a predominantly blue cover with a photo of food on it. some of its features are a chapter called "When Company Comes," and a chart on how to roast a chicken. It's approximately the size of a normal piece of printer paper (could be a few inches more or less). PLEASE NOTE - The book we are looking for is not called "Dinner for Two," though the book we are searching for has a similar cover. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What is the name of this old Betty Crocker cookbook?

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Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover how to Cook Simple, delicious, Affordable Meals (Hyperion, $35)

If you've been following British chef Jamie Oliver's quest to improve the food quality of Huntington, W.Va., in the ABC reality series Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, you'll want to try out some of his recipes in the cookbook, Jamie's Food Revolution.

Originally released in great Britain as Jamie's Ministry of Food, this book, his ninth, is focused on easy-to-prepare, somewhat thrifty recipes that will ignite a love of cooking and eating real food.

But make no mistake -- this is not a "diet cookbook." Calorie counters may be dismayed to find that there is no nutritional information with the recipes. but that's really not the point of this book and Oliver's mission. The point is that when people purchase, prepare and eat real food, they'll be happy, satisfied and less inclined to eat garbage and fast food.

You also won't find fat-free or sugar-free items listed in the recipes -- there's butter, there's bacon, there's beef. but there are also loads of vegetables, lots of seafood and some healthier tweaks to heretofore nightmare dishes like the British "fry-up" or full British breakfast. Normally an orgy of breakfast meats, eggs, beans and buttery toast, this version subs out Canadian bacon and lots of grilled vegetables.

There's a version of last week's stir-fry featured on his show, as well as an easy chicken chow mein, a shrimp stir-fry, a sweet and sour pork stir-fry and one made with salmon.

So, no, you won't lose 10 pounds a week cooking with this book. but you will find a diverse and delicious collection of sweet and savory easy-to-prepare dishes that may spark a love of cooking real food to steer you away from the drive-through.

If you've never seen the ABC show, here's a clip about it:

Review: Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook

One of the most important rules of easier dessert-making is to have the right baking equipment. a cookbook holder is one of those little tools that helps you get the job done much more easily while keeping your nice new dessert cookbook clean. However, finding a good cookbook holder is really not that easy. it isn’t uncommon to hear about people buying a cookbook holder that they throw away a few minutes after taking it out of the box (Really!).

Some of the most freqeuently encountered problems with cookbook holders today includes not being able to flip the front panel up or down, too shallow to hold a book, difficulty in getting the book in or out, not being suitable for binders, flimsy, doesn’t hold the book at the right angle, etc. if you’ve bought a bad cookbook holder before, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The best cookbook holder right now (as rated by Cooks Illustrated) is the Clear Solutions Jumbo Cookbook Holder (picture shown above). some of the reasons why this cookbook holder has been hailed as being the best, and also some reasons why you may want to get one are shown below:

• Holds everything, from a piece of paper to the thickest cookbook, without falling over.
• Hinged front acrylic panel folds up and down easily to let you turn the pages.
• Folds flat and very easy to put away and store.
• Holds all types of cookbooks, from spiral to binder.
• Easy to clean.
• Little rubber feet beneath it so the wood doesn’t sit in any water on the counter.
• Conveniently displays your cookbooks while protecting it from kitchen splashes.
• Gives you back that much needed space if you are working in small cooking environments.
• Strong, durable, and of high quality.
• Great looking, beautiful wood with a wonderful luster.
• Not just for cookbooks. use it for holding any type of book when your hands are full.
• Easy to carry it around.
• Well worth the money you spend on it, unlike other cookbook holders.
• Very versatile
• Makes a great gift.

If you want to find out more details about this cookbook holder, click the link below:

Clear Solutions Jumbo Cookbook Holder

Technorati Tags: baking equipment, cookbook holder

Cookbook Holder

I've written a couple posts about becoming a cookbook publisher in the past year, despite the fact I think of scrambling eggs at Haute Cuisine. the first post dealt primarily with the advantages of writing a cookbook online, and the second was focused more on making sure there's an audience for your cookbook before you publish it. after writing a five point checklist about becoming a publisher yesterday, I decided to revisit the topic of start-up decisions that will set the course of your self publishing company for some time to come. the example of a cookbook publisher is ideal for this purpose because of the huge variations in start-up costs depending on the path you take.

Few cookbook publishers aspire to seeing their glossy color books on the remainder table at a traveling discount book show, but that's where the big offset productions often wind up. Self publishers take it for granted that color printing is expensive, which it is, but the cost difference between color and B&W hardcovers in large quantities (tens of thousands or more copies) isn't the main cost of producing those books. It's the production, especially the expense for photography and the interior design, both justified printing cost, which drives the production budget. in other words, if you're dealing with black and white offset in small quantities or POD, you aren't going to try to use a lot of photographs that aren't going to look good in any case, which saves the expense of taking them and moves the cookbook from the visual art category to the how-to category. If your ambition is to publish the eye-candy style of cookbook, you'll either need to have professional grade photography and book design skills or you'll have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get your first book out.

Spending next to nothing on a text-only POD cookbook or spending tens of thousands on a work of art aren't the only options available. there are at least three intermediate options which I'll call, the folksy cookbook, the color POD cookbook and the short-run offset cookbook. the trade-off in all three cases is that you have to do more production work (beyond writing the cookbook) without the dream of a large and speedy profit that may come with the large art cookbook. You risk less for a smaller potential gain, but you live to publish another version another day.

The folksy cookbook is my personal favorite, I've see many of these in kitchens over the years. these are often perfect bound, large format books with color covers and black and white interiors that can easily be produced with standard print-on-demand because the artwork is limited to line drawings. As long as you don't go overboard and use several drawings per page or pay too much for them, you can publish a handsome cookbook with either print-on-demand or offset short-run (perhaps with a comb binding for lay-flat in the kitchen) and not have to spend more than a couple thousand on production.

I'm waiting to hear back from Lightning Source about the cost structure for their color POD service, last rumor I picked up was ten cents a page, which would make the cover pricing noncompetitive unless that can charge separately for pages with color and pages without. Even if you held your cookbook down to around 150 pages and stuck with a 25% short discount, you'd need a cover price of about $22.00 just to break even on distribution sales, which is no reason to go into the publishing business. on the other hand, if the pricing allowed for 50 color pages and 100 B&W pages, a $15 cover price and a 25% short discount would leave the cookbook publisher with a little more than $4.00 in profit. As soon as I get that information, I'll post a cost breakdown.

Another option is a short run on offset or even on a HP Indigo press, which does perfect color reproduction on short runs. While not cheap, as long as you plan the cookbook around short runs (ie, no professional color photography on every page), you might keep the initial run well under ten thousand dollars. Unfortunately, sitting on a small inventory of books may limit your distribution options to only selling direct or through Amazon advantage. on the other hand, the Lightning Source print on demand approach gets you access to distribution, though deciding on a discount may cause you to pull your own hair out.

Just remember that getting a cookbook printed and available in distribution isn't even half the battle. Marketing is everything in the publishing business, especially if you aren't getting shelf placement in the chains. I do know at least one publisher who succeeded in selling more than 60,000 hardcover copies of a beautiful book (printed offshore) through primarily direct channels, but he was a tireless speaker and promoter, and the book won serious market share in an important and recurring segment.

Self Publishing: Becoming a Cookbook Publisher

This post is dedicated to my friend, Daniela. my thoughts are with you, and I hope everything turns out as your heart desires. Auguri!

I was at the supermarket the other day and chanced upon some cookbooks on display. I grabbed one on rice dishes, and found a recipe which caught my eye. it was called Festive Rice, and I managed to peruse the ingredients list very briefly before my sons took off to play catch-me-if-you-can.

I abandoned the book to give chase and thereafter got distracted. when I returned a few days later, the cookbooks were no longer there. All I remembered from that book was that the rice was mixed with softened onions and grated turmeric, and then cooked in coconut milk. To serve, top it with omelette shreds and wedges of zucchini and tomatoes.

Why it's called Festive Rice, I have no idea. I didn't even get a chance to note the title and author of the book. Gah, thanks a lot, boys! but I am guessing it's the colour that makes it look festive. You think?

Anyway, here's what I did. I fried some white onion slices till they were soft but not browned, then set them aside. in my rice cooker, I added my washed rice grains, poured in a packet of coconut cream (topped with some water) and a pinch of turmeric powder. I also added a pinch of salt. As the rice was cooking, I made an omelette and cut it into thick strips. the tomato and zucchini were cut into small cubes, and thrown on the side when the rice was ready to be served.

Easy, huh? And does it not look so cheery and summery?

The Little Teochew: Festive Rice