A few months ago I self-published a cookbook titled Little Black Book of Pies. I am someone who is passionate about food and people learning to cook good food. I am a dying breed, a good old fashioned cook who wants folks to know that anyone can be a good cook and baker.
Years ago, when I was a child I took piano lessons from a woman who I later learned was not a great piano teacher, but a good piano teacher. There are folks who are great at what they do and folks who are good at what they do. What really sets them apart is their passion for what they do. My piano teacher was not about fluff, pomp or pageantry; she was about teaching, she was a piano teacher. She wanted me to learn and learn well and greatness would come. I suppose a bit of that rubbed off on me. I am not about being a Paula Deen, or Rachael Ray. I want the students in my cooking class to walk away with the meat and potatoes and not just the marshmallow fluff.
I had a woman edit my book and the most she could come up with is the fact I put old fashion instead of old fashioned and that the book could stand to have color photographs and an index; besides that she thought is was pretty good and would sell well to anyone who enjoyed baking pies. I have really tough skin and to a certain degree I agreed with her. The book did need an index and it would have been great to have color photographs of the pies. Unfortunately that was not in my budget and if that will prevent the book from selling, well all my work was done in vain.
It is my desire to write a number of other books for novice and not so novice cooks and bakers before I leave this earth and some may have photographs and some will not. I am of the school of thought that when a book does not have fancy photos it leaves more to the imagination of the cook. You can decide how you want the dish to look, and you can learn to trust your own ability and creativity. This is something we just don’t allow folks to do anymore. People are eager to say, show me this, or show me that, as opposed to try it and let’s see what you come up with. Trust and believe you will know it when it is right and if you cook and bake long enough you will know how to enhance your masterpiece.
There are not a lot of pie cookbooks out there today and mine is not for the gourmet baker. The Little Black Book of Pies is for the simple cook, the novice who just wants to have a few deliciously divine pie recipes under his or her belt to woo friends and family. My little book is the kind you will pull out to impress and tuck away for your grand daughter. No, people don’t write these kinds of books anymore, it’s just a little black book of pies, filled with deliciously simple recipes for the pie lover in your life.
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