A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine, and Thou(Sands of Books)

LOGOS 12(4) crc 1/11/06 9:54 am Page 210

LOGOS A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou(sands of books)

Edouard Cointreau Nothing has changed fundamentally since Omar Khayyam pictured his definition of paradise. The partnership of food, wine and books is still a magi- cal accompaniment to love. But the Persian poet could not have imagined that, 1,000 years after he wrote his Rubaiyat, there would be 20,000 new food and wine titles published every year worldwide. The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, which I Born fifty-four years ago in the organize, have received this year over 3,000 nomi- family of Cointreau Liqueur and nations of books in thirty-one languages from over Remy Martin and Frapin fifty countries. In the United States alone during the Cognacs, Edouard Cointreau year 2000, nearly 530 million cookbooks and wine studied at the Ecole Supérieure books were sold – a 9% annual growth rate since de Commerce de Paris and the 1996. Worldwide over three million cookbooks are Sloan School of the sold every day. Cookbooks and wine books are one of the Massachusetts Institute of most international sectors of book publishing. Technology. Trade publishing Their basic language surmounts cultural boundaries. became his main business activity Propped on tables in millions of kitchens, they in 1990, when he started the exemplify both unity and diversity. Périgueux (France) World Cookbook Fair and Awards. In * * * * * 1995, he launched ICR – The The Markets International Cookbook Revue. The US is by far the leading market for cookbooks, His Gourmand World Cookbook many of which are published outside of the orga- nized trade markets. In addition to self-publishing, Awards will be featured in a cookbooks are published for fund-raising by local thirteen-episode television organizations such as junior baseball leagues. Over programme produced by West175 6,000 new cookbooks are published every year in Media Group, the producers of the US. Sold mainly through book clubs, by direct mail or in larger retail stores, many titles sell over Masterchef USA, and will be 100,000 copies, a few over a million. While there is broadcast in the fall of 2002 in a growing market for wine books in the US, it is not the US, the UK and twelve other yet significant compared with cookbooks. countries. Cointreau is a resident The UK, on the other hand, is the world of Madrid, Spain, “the happy leader in wine books, dating back to those by André Simon, a French wine trader resident in the land of sun and of Rioja wines”. UK, who started to write in the 1930s. There were Email: [email protected] over 1,200 cookbooks published in the year 2000 in

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou(sands of books)

the UK, second in Europe to Germany with 1,500, regional governments. A book in Catalan on cook- but ahead of France with 600 or Spain with 450. ing snails sold over 10,000 last year. The main The BBC has opened the international Spanish (Castilian) market is similar in size and market to food stars from the UK and their cook- quality to the French, which means that the Span- books. Most cookbooks can be sold without transla- ish buy more per capita. About 400 cookbooks and tion. Major French publishers such as Le Cordon wine books are published annually in Latin Amer- Bleu, Hachette or Larousse now publish cookbooks ica, Argentina, with eighty titles, being the leader, first in English. followed by Mexico and Peru. Australia, New Zealand, Canada and While Italian food is appreciated world- South Africa are all excellent markets for cookbooks wide, Italian cookbooks are for Italian readers and and wine books. The books published in these coun- are not up to international standards. The best tries are often of a higher quality than those from books on Italian food are written by foreigners and the US or the UK. Cookbook bestsellers in New read by foreigners, nearly all in English. Zealand sell as many copies as their counterparts in Asia is today the fastest growing continent France. The design of Australian cookbooks is rec- both for production and consumption. Japan pub- ognized worldwide. South African cookbook publishes cookbooks of high quality and is challenging lishers are a thriving community. Canadian Germany for second place behind the US. Quality is cookbooks have many readers in the US. Many high. Wine books are also taking off in Japan. cookbooks published in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, While the Chinese have a very strong Thailand and India are in English. Both by number interest in food, their cookbooks are not yet at lev- of titles and volume of sales, cookbooks and wine els of quality and quantity to command interna- books in English represent over 50% of the world tional interest. There are no food television shows market. The Gourmand Awards received cookbooks in China, unlike South East Asia. Malaysia’s top in English from fifteen countries this year. television star, Chef Wan, earns more royalties from There is some translation into European the nineteen countries where his books are sold languages but Germany, for example, publishes than any other cookbook author. 1,500 original titles with sales of over $160m per India’s production of cookbooks is rapidly year. Sweden is even more impressive, since its 320 rising in response to the worldwide growth of titles represent twice Germany’s and four times Indian restaurants, also aided by vegetarian trends. France’s per capita production. Translations from Asia as a whole should equal the US in French are seldom seen, and there are almost none ten years. Its books lend themselves to translation, from Spanish. In Europe, it seems that the further while foreign cookbooks and wine books have to be north one goes, the better cookbooks and wine adapted, rather than translated, for the Asian mar- books sell. In the Netherlands, however, cookbook kets. publishers face competition from magazines and free recipes. * * * * * Newsstand magazines have also experienced a boom in France, peaking at fifty titles in The authors 1999. The French book production of 600 titles is Almost everyone believes that they are qualified to modest in relation to the size of the country. A write cookbooks. It is a democratic, universal and French cookbook bestseller nowadays achieves sales peaceful activity. Authors include film stars, house- of around 35,000, about half of what it was ten wives, chefs, taxi drivers, little league baseball play- years ago. The French have not yet experienced the ers and the Central Intelligence Agency. In 2001, impact of food television programmes. new cookbook authors included tenor Jose Carreras, In Spain, there are approximately 450 sprinter Carl Lewis and Formula One driver food and wine titles published annually. This Michael Schumacher. Chef Alain Ducasse released includes books in Castilian, Catalan, Euskera his 1,054-page masterpiece at a price of $175 and (Basque), Gallego and Valenciano. Books in lan- sold over 9,000 in the first month. guages other than Castilian are usually financed by Until the middle of the 20th century, only