Friday Recipe Thoughts
Quite some number of people have emailed to suggest I gather all these recipes together in a cookbook. OK, great — find me a publisher!
I’ve given this some thought and a little brandy, and here’s my title: “The Bachelor’s Guide to Getting Laid Through Cooking.”
Why not? The entire reason I learned to cook was to impress women. Growing up with divorced parents — both of whom loved to cook — I learned to associate good food with some really interesting dates. And let me tell you, it works. Melissa and I spent our first week dating with me (mostly) in the kitchen, and she was in love with my beef stroganoff about two weeks before she was in love with me.
Is there a market for this evil wisdom? There’s gotta be. So who has publishing contacts?
Jebus! I knew there was an answer to my loneliness.
Yes, a more simple answer my be “cleanliness”, but what the fuck?
Err, that was “might”, for “my”.
You can get the fly honeys with a beef stroganoff?!? Crap, get that book to press, I’m sure as hell buying it.
Back to the kitchen for me, I guess.
I need all the help I can get.
Someone please get the man published.
Excellent title! As a woman, I can vouch that men who can cook are more attractive, and anything you can do to improve the skillset of the available male population is most welcome.
My wife is the best cook I ever met in my life (don’t tell Mom I said that). Our first “date” was me coming to her restaurant to make home made bread because the delivery guy didn’t deliver the frozen dough that she normally used. We were up past midnight after the place closed to make dough for twelve dozen dinner rolls for the next day.
I knew the recipe without consulting a cookbook. She was impressed. Trust me guys, this works.
Why don’t you try whoever published Lileks’ Gallery of Regretable Food? Get Amazon to package them together.
Actually, I’m an acquisitions editor for a publishing company, Brassey’s, in the DC area. We don’t do cookbooks, but our sister company, Capitol Books, does. If you have enough recipes to do a cookbook, I’ll be glad to pass the proposal on to Noemi Taylor, their acquisitions person. She’s just down the hall.
Publising it in paper form will fail though. Guys who don’t cook don’t hang out in the cookbook section of Borders.
What I would do is the same sort of thing that HotWired did for the Cocktail. It got popular enough from the online version (and too many drinks spilled on laptops in the bar) that they finally came up with the book version, which we use weekly.
Haha, I’d buy that book.
The idea is to put it in the cookbook AND the relationships/sex section…
Skip the traditional press, package it as a PDF or something and sell it right off the website at $5 a pop – almost all pure profit.
Looks as though your verse in “Sing Ho!” will need to be updated.
…now, let me think….
election….
Maybe you could put in a good word to the publisher about a blogger who has all these breadmachine recipes…
Cooking for today’s modern women is for a fact a sure way to impress. This is especially true when the grill is used or fresh seafood is involved.
Judicious Asininity
Maybe a judicious choice of really skilled people: either cooks who blog or bloggers who cook; who knows where that could go. A jury of bloggers could agree to test the recipes, first, which really is a requisite to ensure they all work well in new hands. Sprinkling in the personalities would make for a marketing tool.
I married my husband after a judicious display of Chicken Dijonnaise and a black nightgown.
Joking aside, the man who cares to cook is attractive. I cook pretty well myself, and it is delightful to live with another who shares my interest.
Dang. Gonna have to add the fact that I’m an ok cook to my online personals ad. Maybe this way I can get responses from closer than, say Russia…
My husband and I were “just friends” and he wanted to take it to the next level. I was debating, not sure whether to give it a go.
He invited me to be part of a large crowd at his home for a killer brunch, all cooked by him.
He is now my husband. Need I say more?
I too, learned to cook in college in order to get laid.
Reasons:
1) Lowers barrier to “come on over to my place” She’s already in your pad, dude!
2) Cheaper than a “dinner/movie” date. You’re talking a minimum of $50 these days. (and girls, you know that you expect the boy to pay, at least at first) You can make a KILLER dinner at home for half that, easily. And even have a good wine.
3) Chicks dig guys who cook.
I wonder why more guys haven’t caught on and employed this simple, effective strategy to get laid.
Their loss.
My husband is the cook around here. It’s not that I can’t cook, it’s just that he does it so well and enjoys it a lot more than I do. He also serves me dinner, pours me a drink and does the dishes.
I think I’ll keep him.
Publish it…I will be one of the first in line to buy the book.
I work for publisher. It would be pricey due to the printing costs also the production side (artwork, proofing, etc.). The main problem is marketing the thing.
I work for publisher. It would be pricey due to the printing costs also the production side (artwork, proofing, etc.). The main problem is marketing the thing.
Just noticed last night that the Food Network is airing a new show called “Date Plate”. Two bachelors, or bachelorettes, each use a $50 budget to cook a dinner to please a blind date. The best food wins.
But promoting this cookbook will be easy with a title like that. Radio interviews, newspapers columns (natural for the food section), and a handsome guy to front it. Believe me (unpublished author whose done a ton of research), it’s much easier to promote a nonfiction book than a novel.
Check amazon.com; if there isn’t anything with this title out here, go for it. A guy’s cookbook with your ancedotes (don’t forget to troll for some from the posters to this thread; I can add one about how I cooked a simple Chinese dish for my girlfriend, now wife of ten years. We’re still cooking!)
Then you can follow one with a book about mixing drinks.
There is no more effective way to turn a woman on than to cook for her.
This will be a bestseller, based solely on the concept. Except the title needs a little work.
Yep, I definitely fell in love with my husband over his grilled ribeyes and pork loin.
Now I’d be willing to pick up some side action if I could find a man who cleans and does laundry.
How did I miss the beef stroganoff recipe? My wife and I have been searching for a good one for quite a while (found a couple of ghastly ones in the process, though…).
And yes, the cooking impressed her when we were dating, although now that I think about it, it probably made more points for me in her family’s and friends’ minds than in hers (it didn’t surprise her that I could cook). She’s just as good a cook as I am–better at several of the skills involved–so we knew that part of things were a match.
I would think this would be a fairly well-received book for most publishers, seeing as how the word-of-mouth campaign would probably be quite impressive. (Us bloggers like our food and drink, after all). Just get Lileks to give the book a plug, and you’re all set!
Hey Stephen,
I’m a photographer/editor/designer for a company that’s actually relocating to Co. Springs next month. I’d totally be willing to do some food photography. I really like the idea of doing it as a PDF. Sell it right off hte website.
I too landed my fiance throug cooking. My brisket reeled her in. MMMMM. Brisket.
I’m in! I’d pay real money (Mmm.. *real money*…) for the book, on dead trees or in PDF.
The idea to package it with Lilek’s book is inspired – do it sooner, not later.
That reminds me .. guys, there’s nothing like cooking and books *together* to get the attention of a certain type of lady. It’s that sensual / intellectual mix you want, and you know it. Toss in an interest in a sport not requiring too many clothes (e.g. swimming) and enjoy.
Being able to whip up yumminess out of anything is most certainly a winning skill for a guy. I’ve used my evil cooking powers many a time, and whole heartedly agree with the poster above who mentioned the ‘already have them at your pad’ angle.
And homemade bread is dirt cheap to whip out, and impressive as hell to do. I’ve even winged it when no yeast was available and whipped up tasty flatbread.
As they say down on in Louisiana where my grandfather is from, reversing the typical formula, “the way to a womans heart is through her stomach”.
I’ve found it to work well regardless of the class or background of the female in question.
As was pointed out above, the title does need a little work. Perhaps you could substitute “chicks” for “laid?” I don’t even want to envision the carnage if that book is ever found.