Do you dream about publishing your recipes? You need this book!
- Barbara J. Mayfield, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Do you write recipes? Do you dream of publishing them to share with the world?
If so, you need this book. It is a treasure trove of everything you need to develop, write, test, analyze, and publish recipes. It is most certainly The Complete Recipe Writing Guide.
Similar to my desire to write Communicating Nutrition to leave a legacy about nutrition communication, author Raeanne Sarazen has written this book as her legacy about recipe writing. Thank you, Raeanne, for producing this excellent and much-needed resource.
What I love about The Complete Recipe Writing Guide:
There is so much to love about this book. Allow me to highlight my favorite features.
The author’s backstory resonates with anyone who loves recipe-writing.
I love learning someone’s origin story. It tells a lot about who they are and why they do what they do.
It is why, on the first day of each semester’s nutrition communication class, I asked students to share why they had decided to major in nutrition. Their stories were a clue to what they would communicate about in class and a foretaste of where their careers would take them.
Raeanne’s backstory is shared in the introduction and expanded throughout the book. It is unique and yet resonates with anyone who loves food and cooking. It begins with a fascination with her grandmother’s cooking and anything related to the science of food. This early curiosity remains throughout her career as a culinary RDN and culminates in the writing of this book.
Want to read other origin stories? Visit my community page to read stories that describe how other food and nutrition professionals embarked on their journey and where it took them. Reflect on your story. Consider sharing it and inspiring others.
The book clearly describes the ultimate goal of the written recipe.
This goal is introduced in the opening pages as follows:
A written recipe must be accurate, readable, and reproducible—a set of instructions that translates the act of cooking into words.
In the chapters that follow, this goal is fully fleshed out, beginning with 6 chapters on recipe development, a chapter on recipe writing, one on recipe testing, another on nutrition analysis of recipes, and finally a chapter on food styling, photography, and videos.
Following her guidance, any aspiring recipe writer will avoid mistakes and achieve success. I certainly needed this book when I was a culinary journalist back in the 70s for the Purdue Exponent, a daily newspaper written by and for students.
The content is useful for both experienced and novice cooks.
Writing for a target audience with varying knowledge and skill is a challenge, yet Raeanne expertly weaves basic and advanced food and nutrition science throughout the book. The content included is indispensable to anyone involved in food preparation, recipe modification, nutritional analysis, and so many other tasks food and nutrition professionals perform daily.
Reading through the chapters, I was struck by all the ways I could have used this text when I was teaching future food and nutrition professionals at Purdue. This book would have been a comprehensive and practical resource for several courses. I hope it is adopted for use in food and nutrition departments across the country.
The book is beautiful and easy to read.
Raeanne was privileged to work with the same graphic designers at the Academy who were responsible for Communicating Nutrition. The layout, fonts, colors, photos, and overall design are visually pleasing, user-friendly, and complement the text perfectly.
The book shares expertise from multiple experts in the field.
Interspersed throughout every chapter are quick tips, recipe examples, and additional resources from other recipe authors, culinary experts, and nutrition professionals. Collective wisdom strengthens the book immensely. It is for this same reason that I invited so many other food and nutrition professionals to help write Communicating Nutrition. Together, we tell a stronger, more complete story.
A bonus is that the book is chock-full of original recipes. Ones that you can trust to be accurate, readable, and reproducible. Learn more here: https://raeannesarazen.com/book/
“This book is an absolute treasure! It’s packed with everything you need to know about nutrition-focused recipe creation, while being easy-to-read, with loads of practical examples and smart insider tips. I only wish it had been available when I was starting out in this field.” ~ Ellie Krieger, MS, RDN, Food Network and PBS show host and James Beard Foundation award-winning cookbook author
If you liked this content, please share it.
Thank you, Barb. The book was a labor of love. I enjoy hearing from universities, culinary schools, new cookbook authors, and even influencers who are using it!