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ROI on your intellectual property that doesn’t mean standing over a gas burner.

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Food & beverage books for chefs, restaurants, hotels, and food businesses.

Skillet with eggs cooked in tomato sauce on a table with food and cooking items

THERE ARE MEALS WE REMEMBER years after we have forgotten almost everything else about the day.

The food, the setting, the conversation, the person who cooked it. Some experiences stay with us because there was something distinctive about them.

fern & bracken creates books that give some of that experience a life beyond the table.

We work with chefs, restaurants, hotels and food professionals to produce cookbooks and culinary publications that reflect the people, places and ideas behind the food. That may mean recipes, of course, but it may also include the stories, influences, knowledge and decisions that have shaped the way someone cooks or the way a business has grown.

The finished book should feel as though it belongs to the person or place it came from.

More than the recipes.

RECIPES MATTER, but they are only part of what makes a cookbook worth keeping. What interests me just as much is the person behind them.

How do they work? What do they notice that somebody else might miss? Which ingredients, techniques or ideas keep appearing in their food? What has shaped the way they cook now?

For a restaurant or hotel, the story may be wider than one person. The book might capture a particular period in the property, the character of the kitchen, the producers it works with, the dishes that guests return for or the way the food fits into the wider experience.

There is no need to force every project into the same shape. The book should come from what is already there.

A woman in a red sweater and a man in a dark suit shake hands.

What do you want the book to do?

THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS that I will ask. For some businesses, the book may become something guests can buy and take home. It may sit in the restaurant or hotel, become part of the experience, and create another connection with the guest after they leave.

For a chef, it might be about bringing years of work together properly, strengthening their reputation or creating a record of a particular stage in their career.

For a food business, it may be a way of bringing together recipes, provenance, knowledge, and the story behind the product in one place.

The reason does not have to be complicated, but it does help to know what it is; everything that follows becomes easier when the book has a clear purpose.

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The reason does not have to be complicated, but it does help to know what it is.

EXTENDING THE EXPERIENCE

A cookbook created for a restaurant or hotel has an interesting advantage. The reader may already know the place; they may have eaten the food, sat in the room, and experienced the service before they ever open the book. That means the book does not have to introduce everything from the beginning.

 It can pick up from an experience that has already happened.

When the guest takes the book home, they are taking part of that experience with them, and it becomes something they can return to, cook from, talk about, and keep.

That is very different from producing another piece of branded merchandise simply because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

A woman in a red sweater and a man in a dark suit shake hands.

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A chef with a strong visual identity shouldn’t suddenly find themselves inside somebody else’s idea of what a “luxury cookbook” ought to look like.

The book should look like it belongs to you.

A book for an independent restaurant should not look the same as one created for a five-star hotel. A chef with a strong visual identity shouldn’t suddenly find themselves inside somebody else’s idea of what a “luxury cookbook” ought to look like.

We start with what is already there. The food, the restaurant, the people, the colours, the atmosphere and the way the business already presents itself all matter.

Our job is to make sure the design and production support that rather than overpower it.

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Case Study: Shelley Loving of Shelley Can Help.

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My calendar is below and you are most cordially invited. Pass the crumpets, please.