This TikTok Cookbook Is the #1 Book in the US

Howdy cookbook fans!

And welcome to a very special issues of Stained Page News! I am thrilled to announce book designer Frances Baca has officially joined the newsletter as the SPN Design Editor! This means Frances will regularly contribute design pieces, including in these news digest issues. You’ll find her first entry, on Andrea Gentl’s Cooking With Mushrooms, below, but you also may remember her from previous SPN entries such as:

• A Cookbook Where Color Is the Main Ingredient

• 8 Cookbook Covers That Break the Mold

• Inside a Legendary Designer’s Recipe Sketchbook

• 10 Type- and Illustration-Forward Covers and Why They Work

• Peek Inside a Restaurant Cookbook Like No Other

And here’s her bio:

Frances Abrantes Baca is a book designer, creative director, and publishing consultant working in Berkeley, California. She has designed and art directed countless cookbooks, and was the founding design director of the much-loved food and culture journal Gastronomica. Her work has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, the Society of Publication Designers, the Association of American University Presses, Graphic Design USA, the New England Book Show, and Bookbuilders West. You can hear more about her thoughts on cookbook design in the Salt + Spine podcast, and follow her work on Instagram.

Please welcome Frances to the best lil corner of the cookbook internet in the comments! And now, cookbook news.

I had to learn what was going on in my industry, in my craft, in my art, in my field. And so reading is absolutely one of the best pieces of advice I can give anybody. Read. I spent all my free pennies and free minutes as a young cook buying cookbooks. I now have a cookbook collection of over 2,500 books. I love to read them and reread them. It’s a wonderful thing.

—Chef Wylie Dufresne on the value on cookbooks for chefs. [Lit Hub]

TikTok Title Baking Yesteryear Officially A #1 Bestseller

I’ve talked a lot about TikTok food folks getting book deals in this space, and how many followers nets you a deal. What we haven’t covered a ton is sales: a lot of these books make the nonfiction charts, but a lot of them are also just doing well within their own niches. Which is fine, niches are sort of TikTok’s whole deal.

WELL. No more: Baking Yesteryear by B. Dylan Hollis is officially the bestselling