How’d they do that?
As you leaf through the pages and recipes of your favorite cookbooks, have you ever wondered about the process behind it getting published (besides the actual writing of it)? There are a number of elements and stages an author (especially a first-time one like me) goes through to get a cookbook into your hands. And not just any cookbook but a family one rich in a culture that I never deeply cherished or understood…until I began working on this project. I was thinking about my journey over the past five years and had a series of “Aha!” moments, revelations about where that process has ultimately taken me. The road hasn’t always been straight…in fact, I think crooked and uphill seems more like it…but it did lead me back to a familiar place that has been waiting patiently for me to return and embrace it.
This week we celebrate our website’s 5-Year Anniversary by reflecting on the road that led us to the launch of Kukla’s Kouzina—beginning with inspiration from the woman at the heart of it all (Kukla herself, our mom), followed by the involved process of writing her legacy, and a vision of the magic that awaits us on the road ahead.
As our first cookbook nears publication, we dedicate this week’s blog to all of you, our family and the remarkable friends we’ve made along the way, who supported us and became an important part of our journey!
As our first cookbook nears publication, we dedicate this week’s blog to all of you, our family and the remarkable friends we’ve made along the way, who supported us and became an important part of our journey!
Flashback
You’re seven years old, sitting at the dinner table in your Greek-American home, thinking there's way more food on your plate than you can eat, and your mom starts telling you (for the 487th time) that you should appreciate where you came from, followed by a smooth segue into a tale about your heritage (not just Greek but specifically Karpathian) and how it was in the Old Country—the antiquated customs, how her mom used to scrub clothes on a washboard, how the women and little girls dressed with the beaded mantili (μαντήλι, pronounced mahn-TEE-lee) on their heads, how they baked bread in the communal ovens—you roll your eyes thinking Here we go again, wondering if you’ll have to listen to these stories over and over for the rest of your life. You were fine speaking your ancestral language until you were about five, but then you learned how to speak English, and Greek just wasn’t cool anymore. Of course that doesn’t stop your family from speaking it…to you…in front of your friends. It’s official, you’re now the dorkiest kid on the block and will be scarred for life. Climbing under the covers and staying there until you’re 30 doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
The things we appreciate as adults are not always what matter to us as children, and sometimes they even mortified us. It’s probably the result of having things seemingly shoved down your throat so often as a child (when you could only cringe), that later resulted in your teen-self rebelling so you could march to the beat of your own drum. As a young adult you were relieved it was out of your system for good…or so you wanted to believe!
The things we appreciate as adults are not always what matter to us as children, and sometimes they even mortified us. It’s probably the result of having things seemingly shoved down your throat so often as a child (when you could only cringe), that later resulted in your teen-self rebelling so you could march to the beat of your own drum. As a young adult you were relieved it was out of your system for good…or so you wanted to believe!
Kukla’s take
 dancing the sousta
Our mom, Kukla, did all this (and more) to give us a foundation and to make sure we knew about our roots. So it’s safe to say we had our share of “embarrassment” (or at least that’s how we felt as kids). Mom made us go to Greek school and speak Greek, wear Karpathian costumes, and took us along to huge Karpathian horosperides (χοροσπερíδες, dances) so we could dance the sousta (σούστα), kalamatiano (καλαματιανός), and hasapiko (χασάπικο). And lets not forget that part of our Greek education, a huge part, was cooking and baking, which coincidentally occurred when we wanted to go out and play with our friends.
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that's me all Karpathianed up
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We somehow made it to adulthood and became busy with our lives, pursuits, and ambitions, putting aside (and sometimes forgetting) all the Greek “stuff.” Our mom spoke to us in Greek and we answered in English. We chose a California vacation over a Greek one. We even dated guys who weren’t Greek. Remember that scene in my Big Fat Greek Wedding when Toula’s father, Gus, lost it after he found out about her American boyfriend and called him a xeno (ξένος, stranger)? That was our mom…freaking out while reupholstering our couch. I blurted it out one night, then quickly took cover on the other side of the room. You don’t mess with a Greek woman with a staple gun in her hand. The scene is burned into my memory! I tried to snap her out of it by telling her that if she wanted us to marry Greeks she should have stayed in Greece. My sister Joanne (and partner in [cookbook] crime) looked at me like, Really?! Talk about adding fuel to the fire!
Though she eventually came around, to her it must have seemed like we were washing our hands of all things Greek and Karpathian. Much to our mom’s credit, her disappointment with our turning away from our heritage never stopped her from trying. She thought (or knew) that one day we would appreciate where we came from (a.k.a. it would come back and bite us in the butt).
Though she eventually came around, to her it must have seemed like we were washing our hands of all things Greek and Karpathian. Much to our mom’s credit, her disappointment with our turning away from our heritage never stopped her from trying. She thought (or knew) that one day we would appreciate where we came from (a.k.a. it would come back and bite us in the butt).
The journey home
When the journey to write this cookbook began, I had no idea what a tremendous undertaking it would be. It started with us wanting to honor and share our mom’s legacy of incredible food and the amazing example she set for us. This led me to translating over 150 recipes into English that were in our mom’s Greek script and our grandmother’s run-on words—talk about a crash course in Reintroduction to Greek Language 101. Once I rewrote and edited the recipes, it was time for us to get into the kitchen and start testing them. Some of these recipes we only heard about and had no experience making them—welcome to Family Cooking 101, with a handful of this and a little plastic cup of that! I researched Karpathos and it’s foods to get a better understanding of what we basically fell into, as well as tapped cousins on the island for some guidance. A sense of déjà vu set in as I realized I was being drawn into the world our mom told us about as children, but this time, through what felt like the eyes of a child, I viewed it with wonder and delight. I was coming home and knew this was a home worth sharing.
The basic elements
Kukla with Oscar de la Renta
I eventually discovered that there was more to sharing that home than I bargained for. Some things were a no-brainer, and others fell into the learn-as-you-go category. Here are just a few of the self-publishing elements we needed to turn a cookbook dream into a page-turning reality.
★The seed was planted with our passion for the subject (Kukla’s cooking)—you need passion to spark ideas and keep you going when the road goes sideways or all uphill.
★Knowledge about what you’re writing about is really important and we had first-hand food knowledge by cooking with our mom, plus we had all of her recipes. Knowledge about Karpathos has been an illuminating work in progress.
★Then you have to ask yourself, is it a subject that will appeal to others? Since everyone always raved about Kukla’s cooking and baking, including celebrities and the New York City Seventh-Avenue designers she worked with, we knew this was a shoe-in.
★The seed was planted with our passion for the subject (Kukla’s cooking)—you need passion to spark ideas and keep you going when the road goes sideways or all uphill.
★Knowledge about what you’re writing about is really important and we had first-hand food knowledge by cooking with our mom, plus we had all of her recipes. Knowledge about Karpathos has been an illuminating work in progress.
★Then you have to ask yourself, is it a subject that will appeal to others? Since everyone always raved about Kukla’s cooking and baking, including celebrities and the New York City Seventh-Avenue designers she worked with, we knew this was a shoe-in.
Joanne & Jackie prepping a shot
★Drive and determination are key to making it happen. I’ve been at this for over 10 years, so I think I’ve got that one covered!
★A photo shoot (or two…or ten) for the covers of the cookbooks. First, we must choose a few of the foods from our cookbooks that would make each cover say, “You have to buy me!” Then we need to shop for props (table linens, silverware, dishes, glassware, etc.) and food, make the foods (sometimes more than once), style them, and set up the props for the shoot. Then we need to shoot foods for the inside pages of the books. It’s our good fortune that we have a couple of seriously talented friends, an art director (Nancy Karamarkos) and food photographer (Anastassios Mentis), who graciously offered their time and expertise.
★Editing – Proofing – Editing – more Proofing leads to a seemingly endless loop of making sure our content is correct and consistent. This is the grueling time-consuming stage where attention must be given to each and every detail while fitting it all into the design layout. We are ever conscious that the finished product must be perfect for our readers.
★Promotion is a necessary evil to let people know about the cookbook, otherwise your book will sit on a shelf, or an eBook cloud, overshadowed by books that were promoted. About five years ago I approached a couple of agents about getting our book published and one told me that I should start a blog and develop a huge following first. So I started a blog…and built an entire website around it…and anticipated tens of thousands of followers…which may not happen until the book is released (a Catch-22). To get the word out I had to climb onto all of the social media platforms (yes, it was a climb!)…enter Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube (some of this was nothing short of frustrating with HTMLs and widgets I had to figure out…I was a babe in the woods!).
Once the book is out we’ll need to get a publicist to arrange spots on shows like Today and Food Network. Plus Greek celeb endorsements wouldn’t be a bad idea either. In fact they would be a really good idea! Picture having Rita Wilson, Nia Vardalos, and John Stamos tweeting about your book…SWEET!
★Then there’s marketing and advertising to get it sold to those people you just promoted it to. This includes a book tour, cooking workshops, a culinary-group trip to Karpathos, maybe a sweepstakes.
That’s a lot to wrap your spatula around!
★A photo shoot (or two…or ten) for the covers of the cookbooks. First, we must choose a few of the foods from our cookbooks that would make each cover say, “You have to buy me!” Then we need to shop for props (table linens, silverware, dishes, glassware, etc.) and food, make the foods (sometimes more than once), style them, and set up the props for the shoot. Then we need to shoot foods for the inside pages of the books. It’s our good fortune that we have a couple of seriously talented friends, an art director (Nancy Karamarkos) and food photographer (Anastassios Mentis), who graciously offered their time and expertise.
★Editing – Proofing – Editing – more Proofing leads to a seemingly endless loop of making sure our content is correct and consistent. This is the grueling time-consuming stage where attention must be given to each and every detail while fitting it all into the design layout. We are ever conscious that the finished product must be perfect for our readers.
★Promotion is a necessary evil to let people know about the cookbook, otherwise your book will sit on a shelf, or an eBook cloud, overshadowed by books that were promoted. About five years ago I approached a couple of agents about getting our book published and one told me that I should start a blog and develop a huge following first. So I started a blog…and built an entire website around it…and anticipated tens of thousands of followers…which may not happen until the book is released (a Catch-22). To get the word out I had to climb onto all of the social media platforms (yes, it was a climb!)…enter Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube (some of this was nothing short of frustrating with HTMLs and widgets I had to figure out…I was a babe in the woods!).
Once the book is out we’ll need to get a publicist to arrange spots on shows like Today and Food Network. Plus Greek celeb endorsements wouldn’t be a bad idea either. In fact they would be a really good idea! Picture having Rita Wilson, Nia Vardalos, and John Stamos tweeting about your book…SWEET!
★Then there’s marketing and advertising to get it sold to those people you just promoted it to. This includes a book tour, cooking workshops, a culinary-group trip to Karpathos, maybe a sweepstakes.
That’s a lot to wrap your spatula around!
Now think about starting with the passion and finding out waaay down the road about all of the other things you have to do in order to make your cookbook a reality. As a novice author, this is how I started. I think that if I had an inkling as to what I was in for, I would have stopped at the first recipe I had to translate. So it’s a good thing I didn’t have a clue or else we wouldn’t be here right now, I wouldn’t be writing this blog, and we wouldn’t be commemorating five years of blogs this week (did I mention it's our anniversary?!). God works in mysterious ways!
Kukla
As luck (or Mom) would have it, today I’m writing a Greek cookbook about my family’s recipes, while blogging about my ancestral Karpathian culture and customs, and writing in Greek. I’m discovering fascinating things about my heritage in the process that has expanded my horizons…horizons our mom was already well versed in. My sister’s daughter, Jackie, cooks with us, voluntarily goes to Greek dance classes and performs with her church group, and tells us that she’ll marry a Greek one day so she can preserve her family traditions. Our Kukla is perched on a cloud high above us thinking Finally! All my hard work is paying off!!!
It’s paying off and then some. This journey brought me full circle to my mom’s and grandparents’ roots. The things I ran away from as a child have now fallen into my lap in a stunning and awe-inspiring way. If anyone would have told me when I was in high school that I’d be doing this today I would have said they had one too many shots of ouzo. I learned that no matter how much you try to run away from something, if you’re meant to do it, it will find you. My discoveries are something I value greatly, for myself and for what they contribute to our cookbook. Today I continue to blog while finalizing our first cookbook (coming soon!), working on the next cookbook, and preparing for more upcoming photo shoots. My plate is full…and often overflowing!
I hope you enjoyed Kukla’s Kouzina: Coming Full Circle. Our circle has been full with all of you in it! I’ll be sharing more of our cookbook’s behind-the-scenes with you in upcoming blogs so check back to see what’s cooking at Kukla’s. For photos of our foods, Kukla, us, and our next generation, visit our Gallery page.
Sign up for our e-newsletter (if you haven’t already) and stay connected on social media for cooking tips and recipes, as well as for all Kukla's Kouzina updates and news.
Thanks for following us and we’ll see you next Monday!
Until then~
Kali orexi! Good appetite!
Kelly
It’s paying off and then some. This journey brought me full circle to my mom’s and grandparents’ roots. The things I ran away from as a child have now fallen into my lap in a stunning and awe-inspiring way. If anyone would have told me when I was in high school that I’d be doing this today I would have said they had one too many shots of ouzo. I learned that no matter how much you try to run away from something, if you’re meant to do it, it will find you. My discoveries are something I value greatly, for myself and for what they contribute to our cookbook. Today I continue to blog while finalizing our first cookbook (coming soon!), working on the next cookbook, and preparing for more upcoming photo shoots. My plate is full…and often overflowing!
I hope you enjoyed Kukla’s Kouzina: Coming Full Circle. Our circle has been full with all of you in it! I’ll be sharing more of our cookbook’s behind-the-scenes with you in upcoming blogs so check back to see what’s cooking at Kukla’s. For photos of our foods, Kukla, us, and our next generation, visit our Gallery page.
Sign up for our e-newsletter (if you haven’t already) and stay connected on social media for cooking tips and recipes, as well as for all Kukla's Kouzina updates and news.
Thanks for following us and we’ll see you next Monday!
Until then~
Kali orexi! Good appetite!
Kelly
Copyright © 2018 Kukla's Kouzina: A Gourmet Journey~Greek Island Style / The Naked Truth About...Greek Cooking!
Web design by Kelly Salonica Staikopoulos
Web design by Kelly Salonica Staikopoulos
