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The Recipe Writer's Handbook, Revised and Updated
Praise for The Recipe Writer's Handbook
Revised and Expanded
"Barbara Ostmann and Jane Baker are experienced food editors who know their stuff. To achieve success, a recipe must be written with impeccable accuracy and unambiguous clarity. The Recipe Writer's Handbook achieves both objectives in full measure."-Irena Chalmers, author and professional food writing lecturer at The Culinary Institute of America
"The First Edition of The Recipe Writer's Handbook was a terrific resource, and this revised edition is downright indispensable. It is full of answers to questions about recipe style and substance. Ostmann and Baker have cooked up a delicious addition to any serious food writer's desk."-Mitchell Davis, Director of Publications, The James Beard Foundation
"Writing recipes is a tricky business, and anyone who wants to do so successfully should have this book. The tables, glossaries, and charts alone are worth the price, not to
mention the authors' generous helpings of good, sound advice."-John Willoughby, coauthor, Thrill of the Grill and How to Cook Meat
"The Recipe Writer's Handbook is indispensable in the range and depth of information it offers both the novice and seasoned culinary writer. It contains everything you need to know-all beautifully organized and presented in a handy, easy-to-use format. Ostmann and Baker are masters of their trade!"-Paula Lambert, President of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, founder of the Mozzarella Company, and author of The Cheese Lover's Cookbook and Guide
First Edition Nominated for Best Food Book, 1999 World Media Food Awards
Revised and Expanded
"Barbara Ostmann and Jane Baker are experienced food editors who know their stuff. To achieve success, a recipe must be written with impeccable accuracy and unambiguous clarity. The Recipe Writer's Handbook achieves both objectives in full measure."-Irena Chalmers, author and professional food writing lecturer at The Culinary Institute of America
"The First Edition of The Recipe Writer's Handbook was a terrific resource, and this revised edition is downright indispensable. It is full of answers to questions about recipe style and substance. Ostmann and Baker have cooked up a delicious addition to any serious food writer's desk."-Mitchell Davis, Director of Publications, The James Beard Foundation
"Writing recipes is a tricky business, and anyone who wants to do so successfully should have this book. The tables, glossaries, and charts alone are worth the price, not to
mention the authors' generous helpings of good, sound advice."-John Willoughby, coauthor, Thrill of the Grill and How to Cook Meat
"The Recipe Writer's Handbook is indispensable in the range and depth of information it offers both the novice and seasoned culinary writer. It contains everything you need to know-all beautifully organized and presented in a handy, easy-to-use format. Ostmann and Baker are masters of their trade!"-Paula Lambert, President of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, founder of the Mozzarella Company, and author of The Cheese Lover's Cookbook and Guide
First Edition Nominated for Best Food Book, 1999 World Media Food Awards
448 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2001
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141 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 4, 2011
A poorly-written recipe is a major annoyance. Many types of errors can mar an otherwise good recipe: ingredients out of order, use of brand names, vague or omitted instructions, procedures out of order, failure to indicate yield. The co-authors of this book are professional recipe writers and editors who know whereof they write. In an exhaustive treatment, they lead the neophyte writer of recipes through the steps necessary to turn out a quality recipe: short yet complete, brief yet interesting, perfectly replicable, assuming neither too much nor too little. While this book will doubtless improve one's ability to write an excellent recipe, it also gives one the tools to identify what is wrong with so many of the recipes which confound one's culinary endeavours.
November 8, 2014
What a delightfully odd book. I am not a recipe writer. I am interested in writing about food. But it makes me very happy that two people - Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker - hold so much experience and expertise in recipe writing that an entire book can be written on the topic.
Recipe writing is discussed as a genre, but with incredibly detailed information about typography, headings, grammar and rules with regards to measurements, weights and utensils used for cooking.
Fascinatingly, there is a recognition that the literacy for cooking - and reading recipes - is declining. The capacity to make assumptions about the cooking expertise of readers has now reduced. With a step-by-step guide such as _The Recipe Writer's Handbook - these assumptions can be avoided.
Recipe writing is discussed as a genre, but with incredibly detailed information about typography, headings, grammar and rules with regards to measurements, weights and utensils used for cooking.
Fascinatingly, there is a recognition that the literacy for cooking - and reading recipes - is declining. The capacity to make assumptions about the cooking expertise of readers has now reduced. With a step-by-step guide such as _The Recipe Writer's Handbook - these assumptions can be avoided.
December 5, 2010
After exchanging so many badly-written recipes with people, I've decided that this book is for everyone. Just the simple techniques presented in one chapter will make your recipes stand out for ease of use and logic of procedure. This was a great addition to my foodie library.
January 10, 2025
After converting some vague family recipes to a digital format, I decided I wanted to make them as detailed and professional as possible. This book is perhaps a bit outdated now, but I still learned some very valuable information that was not exclusive to recipe writing. It was just as applicable to interpreting recipes and cooking them.
January 7, 2019
An amazing resource for those interested in the technical aspects of writing recipes.
October 25, 2020
Great book for anyone who write recipes for the public.
August 24, 2013
If you want to tighten up your recipe writing skills, this book is fine, but it's also not what I expected. The author stresses great things like being consistent and making sure a recipe describes what is going on when you're cooking/baking. But it's definitely a handbook, so there's lots and lots of lists of commonly misspelled food words, metrics & conversions. Useful for anyone serious about writing a good, standardized recipe, but not the book I was looking for.
October 24, 2013
Very technical, as the title implies, but for readers who use a lot of different resources for their cooking, I think it gives valuable insight into how a recipe is constructed and tested from the other end.
July 10, 2014
The definitive style guide for anyone writing about food. Lots of great information organized into easily accessible chapters. I will definitely be using this as a reference tool as I write recipes. I can only imagine the time involved to compile the authors' vast knowledge into one guide. Thanks!
January 12, 2014
This is a great book for food writers.
May 29, 2012
A little bit too much handbook for me... Useful to flip through, but not to sit down and actually read.
March 16, 2016
One of the best books written on food writing. The style sheets are incredibly helpful and the whole book is well-organised.
May 12, 2016
Good tips for food bloggers as well.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews