By Ofer Vardi, LIfestyle Editor of Israel Hayom Daily Newspaper and Publisher and Editor in Chief at LunchBox Press. With the help of the ROI Micro Grant, Ofer had the opportunity to represent LunchBox Press at the 2013 Paris Cookbook Fair. 

Although it looks like more and more publishers prefer to create virtual books instead of printed ones, the visions at the Paris Cookbook Fair last month were different.

Outside the US, only 2% of the cookbooks that were published on 2012 were E-books as the fair organizers said. One of the British publishers who had a stand even said that food bloggers ask her all the time to publish more printed cookbooks. “On E-books we could not see the food stains which are our history in the kitchen and in life”.


However, the competition with the internet – why should I pay for recipe and buy a cookbook? - is encouraging the publishers to create more beautiful cookbooks to put on the coffee table like a vase and much more interesting in their content: not only recipes but also stories and tales about people and era, about cultures and history. Something to take to bed before you would take it to the kitchen.

 

This year LunchBox Press had a stand for the first time. Thanks to ROI micro grant we could share our titles with the most important people in the gastronomic world today. People like Claudia Roden, Marlena Spiler and many others were our guests together with publishers from the US, Europe and South America too, took a look at our books, checking opportunities to collaborate. Hopefully, we will find the way to translate our Kosher Israeli cookbooks into English soon.

The Paris cookbook fair opened on Friday the 22nd of February and was closed on Sunday the 24th. Thousands of visitors came to the fair which was located at the carrousel du Louvre in the French capital. For food lovers, especially for cookbooks fans, this fair is like a huge Disneyworld with endless food books allover to taste. This fair was established almost 20 years ago and it became the most important in the gastronomic world. During the fair, the organizers, the Gourmand magazine, grants the Gourmand awards – the Oscar of the cookbooks. 

 Oren with Claudia Rode