Contained in the Epic Cookbook Assortment and Culinary Legacy of Lisa Ekus

Cookbooks maintain a particular place for Lisa Ekus. Within the age of viral social media moments and prompt foodies, Ekus describes herself as ‘feet-in-the-ground-firm’ about her love for them. Because the seasoned cookbook literary agent and founding father of The Ekus Group, the primary media relations company to deal with culinary literature, she deeply appreciates the tangible expertise of holding a bodily e-book.

With an astonishing 4,239 titles on her cabinets, Ekus was just lately named the file holder within the Guinness Book of World Records for the most important cookbook assortment.

Whereas she by no means got down to construct a cookbook library or be a world file holder this designation represents a numerical achievement and displays her lifelong reference to cookbooks.” Because it advanced, we realized how deep my assortment is and the reference worth and analysis alternatives. It is an eclectic and actually, actually private library.”

Nevertheless, her cookbook journey and love of meals started lengthy earlier than the inception of The Ekus Group. She grew up cooking and entertaining, and after school, throughout her tenure at esteemed publishing homes comparable to Random Home and Crown Publishing, Ekus discovered to like sharing tales on the planet of meals and the position that cookbooks play in them.

Certainly one of her mentors, Nach Waxman, the esteemed former e-book editor and proprietor of the famend Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York Metropolis, performed a pivotal position in Ekus’ profession trajectory when their paths intertwined at Crown Publishing.

Ultimately, Ekus moved to western Massachusetts, and began The Ekus Group and Waxman left to finally open one of many nation’s few bookstores solely devoted to culinary literature; he requested Ekus to orchestrate the opening publicity. “Effectively, now I had meals, I had a bookstore,” says Ekus. “I had this man who had actually helped my profession and helped me perceive the significance of cookbooks and meals in what it is prefer to work in publishing. That was an actual seminal expertise for me.”

Embracing The Intimacy of Cookbooks

Right now, Ekus’ assortment boasts over 7,000 titles, protecting a variety of subjects within the foods and drinks area, with many wrapped in protecting archival holders, however they’re nonetheless used. “I do not overhandle them, however I haven’t got something like actually uncommon or actually costly; that is not what I do.”

Ekus fondly recollects her early thrifting and antiquing days, stumbling upon cookbooks that captivated her. She says, ‘I’d discover these cookbooks, and I’d get immersed in them, and it is like, ‘I gotta take that house!” This ardour has grown through the years, and now her intensive assortment is a testomony to her dedication to the culinary world.

“I would like actual paper, and I wish to see individuals’s penciled notes, how good it was, or add half a cup of soy sauce or no matter it’s,” remarks Ekus. Writing in cookbooks will not be solely acceptable however important for her, as she believes cooking is an expertise and a proactive course of. By way of her assortment, Ekus has nurtured private connections with cookbooks, recognizing their significance past simply recipes. She believes cookbooks are ‘tales’ and ‘individuals’s experiences.’

“I might speak to you about virtually each e-book on the shelf and why it lives there.” Every e-book holds a bit of historical past and private anecdotes, like little treasures ready to be found. Ekus remarks, ‘One of many issues I do within the assortment is I’ve plenty of little items of a press launch, or it is inscribed to me, or there are notes of one thing fascinating inside most of the books. It is like a little bit love thriller once you go in and say, ‘Oh, do you know that is in right here?”

The Street to a Document-Breaking Cookbook Assortment

Submitting to the Guinness World Information began in 2019 and took a number of years because of COVID-19-related delays. Throughout that point, Ekus estimates she added 1,500 extra books to her assortment.

Nevertheless, in keeping with the file hold group’s definition, not all books qualify as cookbooks. So books with out an ISBN had been instantly disqualified. The Worldwide Customary Guide Quantity is the distinctive barcode identifier permitting publishers to promote in bookstores or in libraries.

As well as, books that weren’t solely recipes or a mixture of narratives and wanted a big variety of recipes weren’t included within the tally. This caveat meant no meals writing.

“So no MFK Fisher, Roy Andrea de Groot, or Johnny Apple.” In keeping with the data offered by Guinness, books primarily contained recipes. “A few of these had no recipes, and a few have a handful, some have greater than a handful,” exclaimed Ekus. “That was an atrocity!”

Along with self-published titles, meals historical past, and narrative, group cookbooks needed to be stricken from the rely. This meant about 400 titles from spiral-bound church and synagogue books and fundraiser recipe books had been additionally pulled. “These [books] are cataloging and chronicling the best way individuals had been cooking. So that they’re virtually extra related in so some ways of the place, it is protecting, the time and the individuals.”

On her property in western Massachusetts, Ekus has been renovating her 250-year-old farmhouse utilizing an architect solely to stipulate the structural assist of the library. “It is my favourite room in the home, very intently adopted by the kitchen.”

Over her 40-year profession, Ekus has watched meals and cookbooks change. There have been no meals photographers or stylists which can be an necessary a part of what brings cookbooks to life as we speak. “When there was coloration, there have been blown-in 8 or 16-color insert—that was a very large deal!”

Cookbooks as Gateways to Cultural Understanding

Ekus additionally acknowledges the broader significance of cookbooks in understanding totally different cultures and societal adjustments.

“A part of what I’ve skilled during the last 4 plus a long time is the distinction of what is obtainable in foodstuffs and gear, and in curiosity and in what we are able to, says Ekus. “We are able to discover the elements for an genuine Taiwanese noodle dish, you understand—overlook that occuring means again within the 80s!”

The library of cookbooks is not only a set of books but additionally a illustration of their work and her observations within the business. Ekus recollects taking a look at ephemera from a venture for Normal Mills
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, noting that meals promoting and meals media at a time limit.

“It is modified dramatically—because it ought to,” mentioned Ekus. “Nevertheless, these are moments in time in paper, whether or not it is in a e-book or a pamphlet, that that inform us what was occurring, why was it occurring and the way are individuals responding, after which that is what they had been placing out on their tables, and we had been pushed a lot by promoting income.”

This revelation displays the increasing position of cookbooks as not merely collections of recipes however as storytelling vessels and home windows into various culinary experiences. The cookbook business has grown lately, with cookbook gross sales within the US rising by 8% between 2010 and 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic additional accelerated this progress.

Right now, Ekus’s observations of how cookbooks assist us perceive the world round us, together with in world politics and local weather change. She noticed that as international warfare elevated tremendously, so did readers’ recognition and curiosity in meals within the Center East, notably the meals of Syria, Afghanistan, and Croatia.

“Now, cookbooks are a lot greater than a recipe, says Ekus. “They’re tales, and they’re individuals’s experiences. After which they’ve individuals round a desk and sharing. It could be my mom’s or grandmother’s meals, however that may get them speaking about it.”

Passing the Torch: Sally Ekus Carries Ahead the Culinary Legacy

Recognizing the evolving panorama, Ekus’s daughter, Sally Ekus, has embraced the household legacy and joined the company. Rising up surrounded by books and immersed in meals, Sally developed a deep appreciation for the culinary arts from an early age.

As our dialog continues, Sally turns to her mom, Lisa, fondly recollects one among her earliest reminiscences. “I bear in mind once you had been constructing the cabinets that now spherical out the kitchen, the place we make a copy of all our agented books,” Sally says, smiling. “It is an extension of the library as a bodily room. I’ve a reminiscence of laying that shelf. I will need to have been about 4 or 5.”

The cookbook style is exclusive as a result of it holds and captures what meals does to us emotionally, intellectually, and personally, in e-book type, says Ekus. “The library is only a assortment of that and it is actually particular.” This multi-generational connection to the enterprise brings a novel perspective as she steps into her mom’s footsteps, able to proceed the company’s deal with culinary literature and construct upon the library’s progress.

Sally’s connection to the culinary world was nurtured from a younger age. “I grew up on this, round this desk, within the cabinets, and on the cabinets!” she displays with nostalgia. Household movies seize imaginative cooking reveals staged on the media coaching part, and even her sister turned a participant, the topic of interviews about oatmeal and different culinary adventures.

These experiences have formed her understanding of the significance of meals as a conduit for connection and storytelling—a legacy that she proudly carries ahead into her position at The Ekus Group. “The library really represents what we do as brokers and what the business is as a result of it is all about connection and what speaks to individuals personally.”

Along with her mom’s retirement, Sally on the helm, preserving and increasing upon Ekus’s impactful contributions to the culinary world.

Within the midst of her exceptional journey via the world of cookbooks, Lisa Ekus stays grounded in her love for entertaining and the enjoyment of sharing meals with others. She displays on her lifelong ardour for meals and expresses, “I nonetheless entertain on a regular basis. I’ve tons of family and friends over, and I’ve my mother’s recipes. I’ve my favourite recipes, that I do know which books to go to. So not a lot has modified.” With a semi-professional kitchen, Lisa’s house (additionally the company’s HQ) is at all times buzzing with culinary exercise as a number of arms collaborate to create meals that unite individuals.

For her, the essence of eating extends past the dishes on the desk; it lies within the firm surrounding it. Lisa poignantly says, “It is about who’s at my desk.” This sentiment encapsulates the enduring energy of meals to forge connections and create cherished reminiscences.