The burning question that I am asked these days is, "How did you do it? How did you get to the point where an agency like Endeavor would call you?"
People tell success stories selectively, but even more importantly people listen to them even more selectively.
I can tell a short version or a long version, either way what filters through usually is, "I started a food blog, Charles Perry wrote an article about me that made the cover of the Los Angeles Times Food Section, ten days later I got a call from Endeavor. Two months later I whipped a book out of thin air, Oprah discovered me and I made millions."
So, what did the agents at Endeavor see in the article about me?
Platform, platform, platform.
They saw the platform that I had built for myself. They saw who I am in relation to the topics I want to write about: Algerian, French, Mediterranean and general cooking.
I'll focus on the Algerian angle for now since since that will be my first cookbook. If I can build a platform so can you. Every writer has his own path. I am simply sharing mine with you, but it is not the only path. Many people have said to me, "it was easy for you because you're a fancy French chef and work at a fancy culinary school." The truth of the matter is that I was born into a big, working class immigrant family. My parents were illiterate and my dad died in a motorcycle crash when I was 7 years old. A few years later my brother Karim, who was 14 years older than me and became the man of the family, died of heart problems. My mother raised 6 children on her own. I am a middle child, so maybe that's why I like attention. This isn't a sob story, all this is to say that I am not a candy assed college boy with rich parents who hired a PR firm for me right out of culinary school. If I can do it, you can to.
So what exactly is a platform?
You can do a search online to read many articles on the subject. Renee of Literary Architects sums it up nicely.
"What is your platform? Your platform is who you are in relation to your topic. How much of an expert are you? If you're offering your readers a solution to a problem (or giving them a treatise on your topic of choice), your platform is what makes you a reliable source. Do you have training in the field or industry? Are you an "expert"? Do you have experience other than just "I did it and want to help others do it, too"? Do you have a following? Do you speak? Do you blog? Do you have a website? Do you have readers for a newsletter, or hits on a web site, or great quotes from names who say "this person is terrific! Read what they have to say!" Your platform is your base of credentials. It's your credibility on a topic. It's your position in the industry, your company, your topic. It's any related certifications, degrees, speaking experience, work, or involvement. What difference does it make to the success of your book? All in the world."
I did all that and it took a long time. Each element of a platform is like a spoke on a wheel and you obviously need more than one spoke to make a wheel. The more spokes------> stronger the wheel. However there are other components that go into the making of a strong, durable wheel (or platform). The type of materials used, design, construction and so on- all these contributed to convincing Endeavor or a major publisher that I am THE ONE. Not one of several good choices, that I am the best possible choice.
Platform- Build It and They Will Come (but you have to tell them about it)
My platform is my reward for dedicating myself to my craft since I was 14 years old. I absolutely believe that practice makes perfect. I do not confuse platform with a flimsy gimmick to be a one book or one restaurant concept "here today, gone tomorrow" food personality/celebrity chef wonder.
I built my platform by waking up just a little bit earlier, showing up to work everyday, working a little harder, staying a little later to craft each spoke of my wheel. It is everything I bring to the table for a book, cooking classes, a speaking engagement, endorsement, etc... It is who I am, not only professionally but personally.
Nuts and Bolts Credentials
-I wasn't born a chef, long before I even attend culinary school I was in my maman's kitchen in France and my aunt Farida's kitchen on our family farm in Algeria. My first love is real home cooking. I worked the land, took the sheep up to mountains to graze, picked olives from our trees and took them to the ancient mill for pressing into oil, I put up preserves, dried hand rolled couscous, cooked bread in tabounas (Algerian tandoors), and dug bbq pits and stoked fires for huge outdoor feasts of whole lamb with all the fixings.
-I earned my culinary degrees in France because I believed it would give me greater job security wherever I wanted to work.
-I worked up the kitchen line step by step, beginning as a dishwasher, sweeping floors and peeling more bags of potatoes than I care to remember. I worked every station until I became chef de cuisine and executive chef. I also have international work experience translating dishes with locally available ingredients.
-I have taught thousands of classes to professional students and home cooks of all levels, ages and diverse cultural backgrounds. Part of promoting and marketing a cookbook is teaching cooking classes and doing cooking demonstrations. Not all chefs are good teachers and not all cooking instructors are capable of doing a clean, watchable, informative and engaging cooking demo. These are things that can be practiced and worked on. I also did in store and farmer's market cooking demos, this is more about personality and charisma- how big of a crowd you draw on the spot.
-I have taught all professional level courses from the basics in Intro I and II, garde manger, baking, international, special skills to food safety classes. I developed my own class ideas for Algerian and North African cooking classes and submitted them to recreational school directors. I wrote all the recipes for the classes. I also taught basic technique and international classes to home cooks. A sense of community, shared social activity or corporate team building are also integral aspects of these classes. Cooking can bring people together in a very special way.
-If you write a book you will have to talk about it. The more practice you have with this before your book comes out, the stronger your platform. Imagine your first public speaking appearance is on Good Morning America. It doesn't happen that way, well it can happen that way. But do you want to fizzle or sizzle (ouch, bad pun). Again, every spoke on a wheel has to be carefully crafted. One of my more impressive speaking engagements was at the UCLA Fowler Museum. I gave a lecture, a power point presentation and a cooking demo on Northwest African food ways and couscous. A few years before that my first speaking engagement was at the Redondo Beach Yacht Club organized through Whole Foods Market. I did it for free just to gain the experience. It was a very positive experience for me and I gained the confidence to try larger venues so by the time UCLA asked me to do the lecture I already had lots of experience talking about food in front of different audiences. Speaking engagements, lectures, and cooking demonstrations also help an author practice engaging a real live audience, not an imagined one. They also help an author anticipate questions.
-Websites or blogs are free or nearly free to maintain. However adding substantive content takes time and shows dedication and commitment. I have three other websites besides this one: an international and multi-author food site, a site about my cooking classes and culinary adventures and a food forum dedicated to cross-cultural discussions about food history. I was contacted by writers from major newspapers and magazines around the world through my websites with questions not just about Algerian cuisine, but French techniques, basic cooking methods, cooking locally and seasonally and "chef's secrets" to name just a few topics.
-I took a very proactive approach. I didn't wait at the food blog party to be discovered. I contacted writers I admired to let them know about my unique perspective on the cuisines of the Mediterranean. I didn't write them to tell them all about ME! I really did admire their work and I wanted to be like them. I admired their dedication and genuine passion. I really believe that's what gives any career longevity. I also asked them questions and in turn they asked me questions. My websites gave them a body of work to refer to. As my websites grew I found that more and more when I contacted an editor or writer I would hear back that they already knew about me. "Clifford Wright already told me about you", "Anissa Helou told me about you", Rachel Laudan told me about you", "Paula Wolfert told me about you" and so on. I heard this from people at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Gastronomica, Wall Street Journal, G.Q., Vanity Fair, etc...
-Networks are important for creating buzz but mentors nurture you. Very early on when I was on the cusp of developing a public platform Paula Wolfert and Clifford Wright offered their support. They both told me that my passion, dedication and knowledge about Algerian and Mediterranean cuisines was more than apparent, but more significantly they saw a spark in me- that elusive star quality. This was very encouraging, especially coming from the two foremost experts on Mediterranean cuisines. The spark they saw in me turned into a fire.
A platform is also an author's network, reputation, exposure, reach, notoriety and influence. Besides the media contacts I made online I also have affiliations through work and food organizations.
-I teach for a Le Cordon Bleu North America school. Together with LCB International there are several dozen campuses throughout the world.
- I am on the board of Slow Food Pan-Arab, a division of Slow Food International that has approximately 80,000 members.
Video Killed the Radio Star, But it Made the Cookbook Star
That is according to an article in Publisher's Weekly.
"Being on the Food Network doesn't necessarily mean that a cookbook becomes a bestseller, but it certainly helps," said Borders and Waldenbooks cookbook buyer Scott Ferguson. The equation is simple:exposure equals sales. "If you look at the top 50 cookbooks in week-to-week BookScan numbers, at least 60% of those titles have a presence on television. Television remains—absent a magazine in your name—the number-one branding tool," said Paul Bogaards, executive director of publicity at Knopf."
So you want to be on TV? Perhaps not the food network. But before you even write your cookbook you imagine the more glamorous aspects of it envisioning yourself on Good Morning America doing a quick demo of one of your recipes. The first thing that my colleagues, students and pretty much everyone else I know asked when they found out that I am with a major Hollywood agency is, "are you going to be on TV?!?!?!?!??!!?" Well, yes. TV seems so glamorous! Go back and read the Publisher's Weekly article carefully. Look at the numbers carefully, being on TV doesn't guarantee cookbook sales and being on TV isn't the only way to sell a cookbook. TV is not an instant ticket to anything.
Lisa Ekus offers media training courses in addition to her many other services.
"For culinary professionals, cooking is easy. Add fielding interview questions and plugging a cookbook into the mix, however, and the task becomes more challenging.
Whether cooking on television, conducting a radio interview, or performing in front of a live audience, media appearances are no piece of cake. They require special skills, detailed planning, and extensive practice. A short list of the culinary professionals who have completed our media training course includes: Pam Anderson, Elizabeth Andoh, Melanie Barnard, Jesse Cool, Marcel Desaulniers, Mary Ann Esposito, Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Kristine Kidd, Michael Kornick, Emeril Lagasse, Sheila Lukins, Nick Malgieri, Mark Miller, Cary Neff, Alfred Portale, Susan Purdy, Stephan Pyles, Steve Raichlen, John Sarich, Chris Schlesinger, Zanne Early Stewart, Michel Stroot, Jerry Traunfeld, Charlie Trotter, Norman Van Aken, Andreas Viestad, and Joanne Weir."
I have never taken a media training course. My experience with public speaking, lectures and cooking demos was a kind of media training. A few of them were taped and I also went on "practice" auditions for the experience of working on a set. I was the guest chef on a pilot show and I learned how to make my entrance, hit my marks, and "improvise" a conversation. The feedback from directors, producers and casting agents was glowing. It was a boost to my confidence and I felt like I had added yet another spoke to my wheel. A touch of glamor never hurt cookbook sales.
Back to the original question:
"How did you do it? How did you get to the point where an agency like Endeavor would call you"
The answer is: my platform. They came to me because they saw what I had built.
My next posts will be about researching a cookbook, learning recipe writing format, the book proposal, taping test shots, etc... And no, I actually did not accomplish this on my own. One person cannot possibly have time to do it all. My wife Ji-Young Park helped tremendously, some say she is the mastermind behind it all and I am the workhorse and the public face. There are other people to thank of course and I'll get to that.
So you want to write a cookbook cookbook writing how to write a cookbook Turbo Tagger
Farid Zadi Chef Zadi Chef Farid Zadi Turbo Tagger www.bookofrai.com Farid Chef Farid Turbo Tagger
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