The very last weeks before the cookbook finally hits the shelves are my favorite. The work is done, no more pondering over whether you should change this or that, no emergency calls from your editor. Combined with the thrill of anticipation, it’s a wonderful, though slightly nervous feeling, that you can not really put your finger on.

REISEHUNGER (translates “hunger for travel”) is  the most comprehensive  cookbook project I have done so far. That is why the summer of 2014 left very few and blurry memories, the work part was so intense and all-embracing. For numerous months my life consisted of recipes and recipes only — writing, testing, shooting. I’m not exaggerating, when I tell you, that I oftentimes went to sleep while mentally finishing texts and stories. Or that I dreamt about the dishes I had just shot. That’s what working on a cookbook does to me. (If you’re curious about a more detailed description of how Reisehunger came to life, please let me know, I could try to squeeze in a comprehensive write-up.)

The underlying book idea, which I had back in 2012, while working on Sweets, was to combine my travels with the recipes or recipe inspiration that I brought back home into my own kitchen. My publishing house instantly liked the idea and it took the following two years to bring REISEHUNGER to life. We settled on 240 pages for eight countries with  about  90 recipes, an absolutely gorgeous colorful layout with more than 200 recipe and travel photos and I even got that fantastic thick uncoated paper I had wished for so dearly! More details on the book and its recipes once its out (February 2nd, 2015), meanwhile I leave you with some impressions around the book making process from the past months…

The very important last step for every cookbook author: imprimatur. After numerous turns of proof-reading done by me, my editor and two further readers, I get a revised print of the complete book to read and check it one last time before it goes into print.

My publishing house had asked me to present my book at their semi-annual congress at Kloster Seeon, where they unveil  the new book program to a selected group of agents (book trade). Of course I was super curious to attend! When my editor Verena introduced me to some of them during lunch, they began to tell me about their favorite recipes from my earlier books – I couldn’t believe my ears! While I had expected some rather stiff sales forces, quite the opposite was true. They gave me another fascinating insight into the world of cookbooks from a book trade point of view, which is quite different from a cookbook buyer’s or author’s point of view. (Naturally I was a bit nervous, what comments REISEHUNGER would  receive… but all is good. Let’s just say I grinned from one ear to the other after their reviews.)

Last week we had a brainstorming session over hot chocolate and cinnamon buns, where we thought about possible new cookbook concepts. Two of them have a high chance of being turned into real books, I’ll keep you posted… Best moment: Verena surprised me with the very first unbound copy of REISEHUNGER. It turned out so incredibly pretty and exceeded my expectations by far! I spent the rest of the day skimming through the pages (always in fear of discovering the inevitably overseen typo – the first is always the worst) and feeling the paper…

Now I can only hope you will love REISEHUNGER as much!!! Available from February 2nd, 2015, in German language.

(Pre-) Order at Gräfe und Unzer  (24,99 €)

(Pre-) Order at Amazon.de  (24,99 €)

(of course I will keep you updated when further languages become available)