A dispatch from the cookbook writing trenches

Made in Taiwan was nominated for an IACP award!

I’m in the thick of writing my second cookbook, and I’m in my favorite part of the entire process….which also happens to be the most painful part. I’m digesting pages of academic journals and research documents and remaking the simplest of recipes multiple times for tiny reasons like, I just wasn’t happy with how that vinegar landed in the aftertaste.

The joy of a book deal is that it gives me something to do for an entire year. To create structure, I assign myself strict deadlines for recipes and essays. But unlike with a one-off article, I become obsessive. As my collaborators and family will attest, I begin to dream in teaspoons and tablespoons and might wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, realizing that I forgot an ingredient or measured it wrong. Late last night, I bought an obscure book published by an academic press about childbirth in imperial China and went down a rabbit hole about how confinement was initially a patriarchal construct.

Writers often talk about getting into a flow. I get into that flow the moment I learn I’ve gotten a book deal, except that flow consumes my every waking moment. When I have a moment to spare — usually during my son’s short one-hour nap windows— I have Scrivner open, and I’m tinkering with the recipes or the headnotes, or I’m messaging my sweet research assistant about a sudden thought on ginseng that I had 20 minutes ago.

Which is to say, despite the financial instability of this career, that I’ve found what I love to do. I’m only one and a half books in, but writing books fulfills that itch I had when I decided 15 years ago that I was going to be a journalism major. It’s a long and slow process where I can test recipes multiple times, interview as many people as I want, and spend time digesting theories and ideas—instead of cramming everything into a buzzy post for a quick endorphin hit.

As tedious as this phase is, I’m reminding myself to savor it. The writing process is the only time in these next two years where I can marinate slowly and quietly in my thoughts before feedback from the outside world comes rushing in.

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News: Made in Taiwan was nominated for an IACP Julia Child First Book Award, which actually *gasp* comes with a cash prize. Winners will be announced in late September. I won’t be flying across the world to NYC for the festivities, but I will be tuning in remotely with all my fingers and toes crossed. Wish me luck.

Signed copies of my James Beard-nominated cookbook Made in Taiwan can be purchased at Omnivore Books, Book Larder, or Kitchen Arts and Letters. Amazon is also currently having a 45% off sale.