Crowdsourced cookbook will reflect the city’s diversity
Community cookbooks have seen rise in interest during the pandemic
In less than a day the Depanneur, a restaurant pop-up space in the College and Dufferin Streets area, met its initial $20,000 fundraising goal to help fund a cookbook that will feature 100 recipes from 100 cooks who have used the space over the past 10 years.
The purpose of the Depanneur is to provide a place for cooks to host dinners and food entrepreneurs to prepare their food for sale in a commercially licensed kitchen, whether they’re professionals or someone hoping to get a toehold in the industry.
The book will highlight the diversity of cooks who have come through the kitchen over the years, says Depanneur owner Len Senater.
“(Meeting the goal) means the project is real and we now have a book to write. It means I can pay the contributors, which is crucial, and do justice to this project,” Senater said. “This book comes from 10 years of people being fed by friends and family in this setting, people getting married here and the community that has been built here.”
Community cookbooks have seen a rise in interest over the past several months, as home cooks want simple recipes made by their peers rather than a professional chef whose recipes might not always translate to a home kitchen.
As food writer Priya Krishna wrote in the New York Times back in April, it’s a way for communities to connect at a time when people need human connection the most.
A common thread in community cookbooks is that the recipes are usually highly personal to the author, given that it’s a dish meant to serve their family and community, rather than a packed restaurant.
“It’s always more than just the food. In these recipes are layers of history, family and migration cooked in there. That’s what’s always fascinating about food,” Senater said.
Recipes in a community cookbook can be cobbled together by coworkers, members of a place of worship, friends, or complete strangers with a common interest.
It doesn’t always result in a physical book. It can be in the form of a newsletter, Google Doc or Facebook group.
Some are also used as a way to raise money for charities or community organizations.
In April, a free online cookbook called “Open Source Recipes to be Used in Quarantine During a Global Pandemic” was published, with recipes submitted by professional chefs and home cooks, mostly from the GTA.
The Depanneur kitchen is currently being rented out on a rotating basis by Spice Girl Eats serving Indian takeout, Bawang serving Filipino food, Art Pasta and Boom Pickles. Fattoush, a Halal Levantine weekend brunch pop-up, is also using the space.
Previously, the Depanneur launched Newcomer Kitchen, which provided refugees from Syria a way to earn an income by selling meals to the public.
The purpose of the Depanneur’s cookbook fundraiser is to show publishers there is a demand for the book, as well as raise money to help pay the recipe contributors and photographer, as Senater says the typical book advance from a publisher wouldn’t likely be able to cover these costs.
The book has not secured a publisher yet, but Senater says he is confident it will be picked up, and he has set a goal for it to be published in fall 2021. Worst case scenario, he says, the book will be self published.