The KKF Cookbook Thread

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Alright, guys and gals--

It looks like we have enough interest to make this work. I've taken a look at Blurb as a way to produce this, and I think we can make it work. Here's a rough outline of what I envision happening.

1) We will make a book as a forum. This will not be my project; I'll just assemble it with as little editorial control as possible to make it work (e.g. if I have to cut text to make it fit on the page, I will, but I won't be deciding based on whether I like how you write). Your recipe is your own.

2) We can publish it through Blurb and put it up for sale there. This has lots of benefits. First, no one has to front the $2000 it would cost to publish an initial run of 50 and then take on the headache of distributing them. Depending on what direction we take this (see my suggestions below), the book will likely cost between $40 and $50 per copy. We might be able to get it done for slightly less. We would price these at cost with no markup.

After the initial run of 50, the book would become available to the public and late-coming forum members at a slight markup. The proceeds from that markup would be donated back to KKF, since it's the entity that brought us all together.

3) I envision this book as 50 recipes written by 50 different authors. Each author gets 2 pages: one for the recipe with photos of the dish, one for knife pics and a blurb on why/how you used the knife you did. This means that we have to work with some limitations. We can't use 6 page recipes no matter how great the dish is, and each recipe has to feature one knife. You can use as many knives as you like, but you can only write about one of them. We'll then leave 10 to 15 pages for "extras": introduction text, perhaps a feature or two by either one of the vendors or one of the pro cooks, etc. That's a total of 115-120 pages of printed text and photos.

4) I think most of us would like to see a decent distribution of both knives and types of courses in this project. 50 recipes for coq au vin featuring 50 different gyutos probably doesn't make a lot of sense. With that in mind, I would suggest that as far as possible we try to include different recipes and different knives, and I am willing to serve as a kind of clearing house for this. That means that if you want to submit a steak au poivre with a Hiromoto gyuto and someone else has already claimed both the dish and the knife, I'll suggest that you pick a different submission featuring a different blade.

On knives, my initial allocation suggestion would be as follows: 15 featuring a gyuto, 14 featuring a slicer or petty, 14 featuring a single bevel of some sort, and 7 featuring cleavers. This is absolutely negotiable.

5) In terms of who gets in, I honestly don't know how I want to do this yet. I'd like to give priority to people who have been around for awhile and made good contributions, rather than to the "best" recipes. Unless we're absolutely overwhelmed with submissions, though, I don't want to impose a post count. I'll set up a gmail account (probably [email protected] or something like that) for submissions. Once I know what we've got, I'll let those who submit recipes know the specs for both their text and their photos. If you commit to doing one of these, please make sure you are set up to carry it out. Cell phone pics won't cut it!


Okay, that's my initial suggestion. I highly encourage feedback, so anyone who wants to change anything should pipe up in the next week or so.
 
i would love to post my boeuf bourguignon recipe, which is all gyuto, and my ceviche recipe, which i use a yanagi and gyuto or all suji for.
 
I'd like to get in on this as well. How and when do we want to start filtering in all the recipes and knives?
 
Once we've got consensus on the formatting aspects, I think we just take suggestions. I'd like to make it first-come first served, but everyone should have a backup recipe/knife or two in case someone submits something very similar ahead of them.
 
Wouldn't it make sense to make more than 50 initially (or do a preorder?)? I imagin all contributes would want a copy and then some random members (like me...) want one as well.

Thanks
 
Wouldn't it make sense to make more than 50 initially (or do a preorder?)? I imagin all contributes would want a copy and then some random members (like me...) want one as well.

Thanks

That is true. If we have 50 contributors, and we are all willing to buy one at $50, that's $2500 right there.
 
Maybe someone with Lightroom or Photoshop skills can volunteer to tweak the photos so they all look the best that they can? That would be a big benefit, as people dropping $50 on a cookbook are going to hope it is close to coffeetable quality.

This is a cool project!
 
The great thing about Blurb is that once we make it and put it up for sale, we can make as many as we want. I'd be happy to price as many as we want at cost, but once we sell a certain number to contributors/forum members I'd like to mark it up a little bit and donate the proceeds back to KKF. 50 was an arbitrary number.
 
This is an awesome idea!
Do you have an idea for a page and font size? Restrictions or guidelines for layout and number of images? It would be helpful to create template or couple sample pages just to give people an idea of what theyre working with. How does the layout for the book work? Is it a certain file type or does it all just go through an online tool?

Maybe google documents would be a better alternative to email? That way everyone could see and share before the final draft.

Oh yeah, Also: I have adobe LR and would be willing to help out with some of the photo editing and photography.
 
Heldon -

You asked if I would contribute after one of my sashimi posts in 'what's cooking', so with your blessing I'd like to do a fish/sashimi dish for the book. Also, as I'm sure there will be a lot of requests to depict Gyutos, I'm happy to portray either a yanagiba or suji.
 
I'd like to do something with my CCK1103 cleaver, wish I had a custom but thats not in my cards yet :p
 
Okay guys,

I made a gmail account for recipe requests and final materials to go to. It's [email protected]. Since we seem largely agreed on format, I'd say we're ready to start divvying up the content. I'll post a list in the morning of who has already indicated interest in a knife and recipe, but as of now people can start lodging requests. Once again, we're going to try to do this as first come/first served as possible.

Looking forward to this!
 
Here's what I've got as of this afternoon. Let me know if you volunteered and I missed you!

Committed to a knife and a recipe:

1) heldentenor--deconstructed Nicoise salad--Tsourkan 225 suji
2) Eamon Burke--ultimate hamburger--Shigefusa gyuto
3) EdipisReks--boeuf bourguignon--gyuto (which one?)

Committed to a knife and possibly to a recipe:
3) DwarvenChef--don't know yet--CCK 1103 cleaver
4) Nick--seabass or scallop--vintage Sabatier
5) Namaxy--don't know yet--yanagiba

People who volunteered but haven't chosen a knife or recipe yet:
6) Chinacats
7) Sw2geeks
8) Candlejack
9) Amon-Rukh
10) Jm2hill
11) TheEdge
12) VoodooMajik
13) Keith Neal
14) Burl Source
15) Turbochef422

Keep the submissions coming!
 
+1 ditto.

I'll also volunteer to help out with photo editing or photography if the
re's someone with a great recipe, but poor photo skills.
 
Okay everybody, I think I've responded to everyone who sent an email to the kkfcookbook address by now. So far we've got a really good start (I'll post a breakdown in just a little bit), but we still could use more contributors, ESPECIALLY among single beveled knife users. Keep the ideas coming!
 
I have been very busy as of late so I haven't had much time to post but I would like to sign up. I will be using a Yoshikane Gyuto with a custom marko Handle to make pork tacos.
 
I'm a little late to the party, but is it still possible to get in?
 
Helden, i posted a few suggestions but it sounds like you already have chosen the list. let me know if you are looking for more content, curious how many here have a vacuum tumbler or know how to use it.
 
I could showcase a Nakiri its an AS Moritaka, works fine, better ground than my others. I could do a Ballentine chicken. Only I stuff mine with chourico portuguese paprika smoked spicy sausage, various hard shredded cheese gruyere, and such, with just enough old bread cubes to absorb the juices while cooking. It gets tied, bagged and placed in a circulating water bath at 143 degrees for 12hrs. Cooled, unpackaged and dry roasted for about 30 minutes in my convection oven. This one was the classic style spinach and gruyere

IMG_2180.jpg


chicken.jpg


IMG_2184.jpg


IMG_2185.jpg
 
Hey folks,

Sorry I've been away from this project for about a month. Moving halfway across the country and beginning a new job have consumed more of my time and energy than I thought, and I didn't get home internet until today (currently writing this from work!).

Here's where we stand on the cookbook:

Have recipes and pics from:
Mucho Bocho
Keith Neal
heldentenor

Have firm recipes from:
Amon-Rukh
David DeG (forget what your KKF name is)
Seth0726
BurkeCutlery
Namaxy

Have tentative/possible recipes from:
AGP
Wildboar
Turbochef422
DwarvenChef
EdipisReks

Have heard ideas from but no firm commitment:
Chinacats
Sw2geeks
Candlejack
Jm2hill
TheEdge
VoodooMajik
Burl Source

Since real names and KKF names don't always match up, let me know if I've heard from you but you don't see your name on the list.

We still need several more submissions to make this project work, and particularly welcome anyone who wants to do a recipes that features single-beveled knives. I'd also like to see all of the registered makers covered if possible; so far I know I have an HHH, a Tsourkan, and a Devin Thomas.

Please submit ideas, recipes, and pictures to [email protected].

Thanks! I look forward to getting back to work on this.
 
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