Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes
Breaking Down the Chapters
A course by Sumayya Usmani , Creative Writer and Food Educator
About the video: Breaking Down the Chapters
Overview
“In this lesson, I will teach you how to create a theme for your book. This will help to keep it cohesive and create a structure for your chapter breakdown.”
In this video lesson Sumayya Usmani addresses the topic: Breaking Down the Chapters, which is part of the Domestika online course: Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes. Take readers on a journey of culture and flavor by creating a cookbook that combines recipes with storytelling.
Partial transcription of the video
“Breaking Down the Chapters In this lesson, I'll show you how to break down the chapters. Start by picking a theme for your book. Do this by considering whether it's a book about desserts or main courses, a collection of family recipes. You need to consider that before you begin. In this part, I'll teach you how to do that. To pick a theme, consider the recipes that will be in that. Do they fall within that theme? Then you need to stick to that theme. If it's about desserts, you need to pick the recipes that lie in that category. The theme's vital because, without that, you can't consider wh...”
This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.
Course summary for: Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes
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Category
Culinary, Writing -
Areas
Creative Writing, Non-Fiction Writing, Storytelling
Sumayya Usmani
A course by Sumayya Usmani
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, award-winning creative writer and food educator, Sumayya Usmani, spent her early childhood travelling the world with her parents. She explored various cultures, countries, ingredients, and cuisines and watched in wonder as her mother lovingly prepared meals. Later, when the family settled back in Karachi, Sumayya observed grandmothers and aunts cooking with ‘andaza’ - an Urdu word for using instinct and estimation. These experiences created Sumayya’s strong foundations and connections to cooking and in her adulthood she found she could cook by simply following her own intuition and senses.
Sumayya went on to practice law for 12 years in London and Pakistan. However, in 2012 she quit law in pursuit of her passion; food writing and teaching. Now based in Glasgow, her life-long love for writing, along with her natural flair, has led her to publish award-winning cookbooks. Her latest book is a food memoir, and ventures further into creative writing, which has won the Scottish Book Trust’s Next Chapter Award in 2021. Sumayya regularly appears at multiple book festivals such as the Edinburgh Book Festival, she has written for and appeared in numerous publications including in The New York Times, The Guardian, and on BBC Food, amongst others. She’s a guest speaker on many podcasts and a regular on BBC Radio. Sumayya also hosts cooking classes, and is a committee member of the Guild of Food Writers.
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