In France, the traditional literary school year begins to fill the rays of bookstores: 484 novels are announced and competition will be tough. And if the publishing sector is no exception to the crisis, some are doing well like cooking books. World cuisine, French gastronomy or grandmother’s recipes, there is something for everyone. In the digital age and free accessible content, how are they still so popular? Report of Lola Marteau.
They were the big winners of the Covid-19 pandemic. Confined, the French had returned to the stove, plebiscating cooking books. Seven million copies were sold in 2021. Today, sales stabilized, but culinary works have never been so numerous and diverse. But what are buyers looking for?
The abundance of titles leads to strong competition. You have to stand out at all costs. French pastry chef Christophe Felder, author of around fifty books, bet on simple recipes: ” We have two pastries in Alsace, we make Mille-Feuilles, Paris-Brest, every day. And all the recipes that we like, or liked the customers who buy them, we tell ourselves that we are going to put them in the next books. From my first book, I wanted people to be able to redo the recipes without too much difficulty to be able to do something fast, but homemade. »
Son best-seller, Pastry shop, Posted in Éditions de la Martinière, has sold more than a million copies in ten years. This dense book, fuchsia in color, attracts the most curious eye. “” When I had made Masterchef (a culinary television program, editor’s note), the producer of the show told me : “You know Christophe, I did not know you, but my husband had offered me this book because he found the blanket great”. There are people who love design, people who are neither cooks nor pastry chefs, but who want to touch that a little. So graphics will help sell, to the success of a book also “Says Christophe Felder.
Marion, director of a Parisian bookstore, saw a real change taking place on its shelves: ” So, the new trend in the kitchen book is that these are books that actually make more decoration, gift. Around 300, 400 pages. Before, we had only the recipe rather. Today, we offer a travel idea, which often accompanies recipes. »
Cooking books are often beautiful books today. Among the most popular, we notice the variations of the Anglo-Israeli chief Yotam Ottolenghi. Successes that offer great opportunities to publishing houses: ” For the publisher, this allows you to sell more expensive books, which are still between 30, 50, 60 euros. It combines the travel book as well as the recipe book. Graphically, there are identities. World cuisine is very colorful. »
With its gastronomic heritage, France perpetuates and reinvents tradition and attachment for these books which, like cooking, follow trends and eras to satisfy new taste buds.
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