This Cookbook Is Bananas, and I Love It
“Why am I like this?” writes Ella Quittner on the cover of her own cookbook. She is delightfully obsessive — always striving to figure out the fluffiest pancakes, the crispiest potatoes, the juiciest chicken. Her new cookbook, Obsessed With the Best, is packed with recipes, but also such fun photos and voicey essays that it doubles as a coffee-table book. Here’s a funny Q&A with Ella…
What surprised you about writing a cookbook?
It completely takes a village. If I had done this by myself, it would have been a black-and-white printout with my serial killer handwriting.
And here you brought in brilliant photographers and stylists and designers.
Usually I write alone, but this project felt like putting on a circus or a debutante ball.
How long did the whole thing take?
Three years. It’s such a dense book. I spent a year and a half traveling everywhere from an Iowa bacon fest to Rome to rural Japan. Between those trips, I was doing the head-to-head testing at home.
The process sounds like so much fun.
I realized on set that everything that looks beautiful and easy is actually hard to make. That’s true of weddings and babies and family photos – and a cookbook. Just off frame is chaos, distress, emotion, tension, and three fried eggs that didn’t look right.
What made the shoots so intense?
We had to get head-to-head shots of, say, 20 to 30 scrambled eggs or pancakes that had to look ready at the same time — so the food stylists’ assistants were totally grinding, cooking six things at once with arms you didn’t know they had — and we did this all in my apartment’s 85-square-foot kitchen.
I’m curious, what were you like as a kid?
Very obsessive. I would go through phases where I’d learn everything about a certain subject matter in a way that was prohibitive to having a normal social life. Like, I memorized the 100 most dangerous sharks. My older sister got me into mummies and King Tut. I had a Lisa Frank phase; I put her stickers all over my closet and felt it was a deeply magical zone.
Do you have favorite recipes from the book?
Please edit this to sound less megalomaniacal, but I only really cook from my own book. I mean, obviously I love my friends’ books and read recipes, but every time I want to make something, I know the version I tweaked exactly to my flavor and texture profile: braised tomato-butter cabbage, comté caramelized shallot eggs, my overachiever chocolate chunk cookies, and the vodka sauce I make at least every two weeks.
The book’s typography is also gorgeous.
We worked with Renata De Oliveira at HarperCollins and Chris Cristiano, an amazing creative director. I wrote an essay for each chapter, so we were like, how would The New Yorker format these giant walls of text so you’ll know it will be entertaining and not feel like homework and put you to sleep? We hired Olivia de Recat, who illustrates ‘Shouts and Murmurs,’ and her illustrations kept me from taking myself too seriously.
Tell us about the giant bow ties!
There are two fun shots of pasta: one is a weird pasta tower with a meatball on top and one is these bowties. We had so much fun on set because we thought we were channeling high fashion. It could be a Celine ad! Not that it really could, but we felt like that!
The whipped cream photo was also a showstopper.
One day, our set designer Kalen Kaminski, who’s such a breath of fresh air, was like, ‘Would it be crazy if I rented a bust from a bust warehouse in New Jersey?’ And we were like, DO IT. We named the bust Deb and gave her the personality of a sort of prim disapproving Victorian lady that was mad that we were doing silly stuff with her.
That’s hilarious.
After we covered her in whipped cream and took a photo, you then see her on one of the nightstands angrily turned away from me. We were really sad when Deb had to go home.
Now that your cookbook’s finished, do you have the book blues?
I was just talking about this last night with another cookbook writer! I heard it can happen after book tour. But as a massive introvert, sometimes I’m relieved for the big stuff to be over, so I can put my sweatpants back on and watch Grey’s Anatomy.
Thank you so much, Ella! Congrats on your incredible book.
P.S. Nine cookbooks that earn their keep, and behind-the-scenes of magazine covers.
Comments
54 commentsI worked on two cookbooks very early in my career and wooof, it’s SUCH a circus in the best way. This was long enough ago that there weren’t great font libraries for 3/4 and things like that for early epub and our art director and I, the copyeditor-research grunt, went down crazy rabbit holes researching fonts that would work for the cookbook across formats. And the food during/after the shoots was always so fun. As the starving new grad the team let me take most of it home to my roommates and we ate so well for weeks!! Great memories. Kudos to the beautiful typography and art direction here! Immediately picking up copies at my local store for my husband and obsessive cook dad.
What a fun post! I am not much of a cook but I would buy this book for the pictures! (Okay, and maybe also for my husband who loves to cook and would undoubtedly love the creative whimsey of it!). Thank you for sharing. :D
Ella, I’m a longtime CoJ reader and your childhood friend on Long Island. Hii! Total worlds colliding moment! Your book looks amazing, mazel tov x100. Can’t wait to read and cook it.
Are they selling prints from this book? I’d love to hang some of these around my house!
Ooooo yes!
Cosigned! Would love this
Years ago I heard about a family whose mother suddenly was admitted to hospital. The caretaker just cooked all the dirtiest pages in her cookbooks, kids were content. PS team acrylic cookbook holder here, just cleaned it last week and yuck, so full of smears and fingerprints
mg sobbbbbbb
Thank you for being obsessed with doing things so well that you make our lives easier (and better). I can’t wait to buy this cookbook! I would not have heard of this chef or this book (and all that went into making it) without Cup of Jo. Yay.
Ella are you an enneagram 5???
Had exactly the same thought!
Can we do an enneagram post!? it’s life-changing info!
Ha, I love that you took a graf to celebrate the typography! An unsung hero. And TBH, it’s the typography that’ll get me reading this book. Congrats on publication!
I, too, believe that whipped cream should be the whole dessert. It’s the only way I like to eat it! (I will refuse whipped cream on my pie, for example). Finally someone hads put into words how I have always felt!
I’m with you on this one! 🙌
very into this idea for a cookbook. And, oof…not even one recipe included in the article?!
Hi Jeanne! We actually featured one last week. It’s the Soft Scramble with Shallots & Comté.
THERE’S A BUST WAREHOUSE???
My thoughts exactly.
Lololol!!!!!
We need to know more!!
I have this book and am working my way through it night by night and it’s so fun and delightful- best cookbook I’ve read in ages! Highly recommend!
Scored a copy at my local library just now! Thanks for this glimmer, team. I cannot wait to have Ella’s book in my hands and kitchen.
Also just placed a hold at my library! So excited to cook from it
Did anyone else catch her interview with Chris Kimble on Milk Street? He was so obnoxious – a total horse patootie. I was cheering Ella on with her answers – way to stand up for your work!
He can be so prickly and a know it all. The other cooks on the show are great, but I’ve even seen them taken aback in interactions with him.
Just seeing his name, I groaned outloud. What is wrong with him and how does someone so obnoxious have such a platform? (Ugh, I know i know….)
What a great interview and insight into a cookbook making process. Bookmarking this as gifts for the cooks in my life!
Congratulations, Ella! Your book looks magical and zany and methodical in the best possible way! Can you share if the book offers ideas for vegetarian/ vegan substitutes or how much of the book is vegetarian/ vegan-friendly? This cookbook looks right up my street but not sure how useful it’d be for me to buy if I can’t cook out of it :(
Do you ever use the website Eat Your Books? As a vegetarian I often read the recipe list for cookbooks to get a sense of if they’ll be worth checking out! I looked for this one and it seems like enough to still pique my interest, but your mileage may vary.
Hiiii! This is Ella. Lots of fun vegetarian stuff, my favorite cabbage recipe (tomato butter braised), broccoli soup, smashed roasted carrots with a labne dip, tomato sauces, vodka sauce, all the sweets (!!!), latkes, carrot feta salad, and so on…
I had to reply to say that you sound absolutely delightful, Ella! I can’t wait to check out your book!
I’m going to buy this book just because Ella sounds hilarious and refreshing, and because these are things I often wonder and worry about when I read 25 different recipes for the same thing and can’t decide which I should try. Also love the whipped cream-coiffed Deb.
What a fun read! I’ve been eagerly awaiting this book, and it was so fun to learn more about behind-the-scenes life. PS: Ella, when I finally get to purchase the book, I’ll sure to say hi to Deb (“We named the bust Deb and gave her the personality of a sort of prim disapproving Victorian lady that was mad that we were doing silly stuff with her.”)
I’ve been looking forward to this fun tome for awhile. Very excited to read it. Love the heavy lifting that went into every recipe. Admiration.
This looks like a great cookbook, full of whimsy, yummy recipes, and beautiful photos (also, a great font). I really enjoyed the interview and insight into the process.
This question is insane but I can’t be the only one (or can I??): how do people cook with cookbooks without totally destroying them? Mine are covered in sticky bits, schmutz, sauce splatter, suspicious liquid stains, and gooey thumb prints. This one is gorgeous but I know I would absolutely ruin it if it reached my actual kitchen. Do you all use gloves? A book stand? Take a photo and use it on an iPad? Or maybe I just need to accept that I will always be a messy gal.
The schmutz just tells me my favorite recipes :) shout out to the Franny’s artichoke pasta!
I screen shot the recipe pages and use post its for notes. I like a cleanish cook book after losing one to a coffee cup spill.
I love me a messy cookbook. It shows how much it is loved!
I asked my family to give me this cookbookstand for my birthday a few years ago. I keep it out all the time. When I’m cooking from a recipe on my phone, I prop my phone on top of the plastic. https://www.crateandbarrel.com/acacia-wood-cookbook-stand/s234727?storeid=&a=1552&pla_sku=234727&pcat=HSW&ag=adult&targetid=pla-294680686006&campaignid=10461646755&adgroupid=103999389299&adpos=&creative=446211481802&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=10461646755&gbraid=0AAAAAD-RWKgU4Ot__1Q8AvVexpPiVr1mI&gclid=CjwKCAiA2PrMBhA4EiwAwpHyC17d0oL3yXWWoEUbzJBcC45bwFQoCyzXgNXVQFO04d7CrDfFo2Zu6xoC1KsQAvD_BwE#universal_link
I don’t think any people who actually use a cookbook (unless they keep it really, really far away from the food they’re cooking) keep it clean!!
When I got married 27 years ago, my new brother-in-law gifted me a Better Homes red plaid cookbook. It’s the only cookbook I have and I still use it. It’s covered in stains and questionable bits, some pages stuck together and I had to peel them apart, and I had to write in the margins to try and recreate what it used to say under the grime. I love that book because it represents a generation of family meals. My kids are adults now and live far away, but I have tangible evidence of the effort I put into feeding them. So I say, embrace the spills! Life is best lived with memories of our attempts to embrace our loved ones with food.
agree with Emily! The messy pages are what make a cookbook even better!
I just got a cookbook stand from my local hardware store, and it’s wonderful! Here’s a link to it: https://www.mcguckin.com/2920980/product/Lipper-8815?srsltid=AfmBOor85XJ4KeS-Qq0r6VaZYA9VOMG4Exo_efqDnUBh6c-mt8_RrrJ7
I also love a messy cookbook!!! I put the date on each recipe I try from beloved cookbooks and add in notes. They’re like a diary!
Cookbook stand with an acrylic shield, keeps it upright and protected! https://shop.daniellewalker.com/products/deluxe-large-cookbook-holder-acrylic-shield-with-cherry-wood-base-made-in-the-usa?variant=37408165134507&variant=37408165134507&variant=37408165134507&variant=37408165134507
Mine are all messy, and I love that! It’s like a secret little story: “This is one of my favorites!” “I was drinking coffee while baking this!” “The butter got away from me!” It reminds me of notes in the margins of a novel.
For about $15 or $20 you can get a clear acrylic cookbook holder. It’s great! Holds the pages open and shields it from splatters.
Honestly, I’m kind of the opposite – I love some visible signs of use in a cookbook. I take notes all over the margins and like to note who/when I made something (eg: “made these cookies with toddler during a big snowstorm”). It’s a fun journal over the years of my cooking.
My favorites go into paprika recipe manager, I take a photo of the physical book and use photos app to copy the text or export my kindle copy
My aunt (who doesn’t cook and is VERY tidy) was browsing my Snacking Cakes copy by Yossy Arefi (IFKYK) and kept giving me the side eye while she got up to dump crumbs from its pages into the kitchen sink. I think the stains and crumbs in cookbooks are part of the charm!
I use a laptop stand as a book stand!
I know which cookbooks I love best by how spattered they are! And because I always write in them–date, how many stars hubby and I give the recipe, whether it’s company worthy, potential tasty alterations…