FOOD MEDIA EATS HUMBLE PIE

Best-selling cookbook of 2018 ignored by writers, but not by ‘Magnolia Table’ fans

MAGNOLIA Table: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering by Joanna Gaines, published in April by William Morrow sold more than 1.3 million copies by November, and more than 2 million copies are now in print.

According to NPD Bookscan,

Magnolia Table was the No. 2 bestseller across the entire book industry last year, behind Michelle Obama’s autobiography. That’s a lot of Jojo’s Biscuits.

Those buttery biscuits and convenience-product casseroles and green beans amandine, the meatloaf and apple pie are what Magnolia Table is made of, but hardly the draw.

Joanna and her husband, Chip, are beloved lifestyle royalty who are by all accounts genuinely nice folks. Their hit

Fixer Upper series ran on HGTV for five seasons, until the couple, citing a need for more family time, ended it. Their Magnolia Foundation is involved in community restoration. Their Magnolia Market retail complex has made Waco, Texas, a destination for ardent fans, whose hunger is partly responsible for this cookbook. Above all else, the book demonstrates how well the Gaineses know their audience.

Looking at more recent culinary juggernauts, there are 12 million of Ina Garten’s 11 cookbooks in print to date (since 1999). Samin Nosrat’s 2017 Salt Fat Acid Heat (Simon and Schuster), thanks in part to its acclaimed Netflix companion series, clocks in at 330 000 copies. Cookbook authors and their publishers these days might expect to hit a threshold of no more than 15 000 sold – or even 7 000 to 10 000, despite substantial food media coverage.

Magnolia Table did huge numbers online, with signed editions specifically created for Target and Walmart, but not so much among the top independent cookbook retailers, whose bestseller lists it did not crack, according to EatYourBooks.com.

It wasn’t on The Washington

Post’s list, either.

“The food media was not paying attention,” says Raquel Pelzel, editorial director of cookbooks at Clarkson Potter, who co-wrote cookbooks with designer Zac Posen and former Chew co-star Daphne Oz. Gaines “has an enormous, devoted fan base, and people are enamoured of the brand and what she represents. Her food is approachable and relatable – that’s what resonates with them”.

Adeena Sussman, who lived for weeks at a time with Chrissy Teigen when she co-wrote the celebrity’s

two hit cookbooks, said she was “not surprised in the least” at the success of Magnolia Table.

“When Chrissy’s book first came out, I’m sure people bought it to see her lifestyle. The book had legs because the recipes were incredible.”

Joanna Gaines’s recipe partner was Marah Stets, known for her work on the 1997 edition Joy of Cooking,

Guy Fieri Family Food and the Forks Over Knives cookbooks. I don’t know how much quality time Stets got to spend on site, but photographer Amy Neunsinger, whose name is on the

Magnolia Table cover (unlike Stets’) provided insight.

“The recipes had been tested, so by the time we got them they were ready to go,” she says. “A lot are her friends’ and family’s recipes.” A food stylist made the dishes for the shoot, and they were chosen by Joanna’s team, in part based on the ingredients being readily available in Waco. They wanted a look of simplicity.”

Gaines wrote this on her blog in 2018: “In the spring we opened our restaurant, Magnolia Table, and I released my first cookbook of the same name. Seeing those projects come to life was a dream realised for our family. For us, it’s not just about recipes or eating out at a restaurant, but time spent around the table sharing a meal together. Being intentional about these everyday moments was the heart behind both of these projects.”

It’s not often that a restaurant cookbook is under way before the restaurant has even opened. I did not know that was the case when

Magnolia Table crossed my desk, but it doesn’t matter.

It does make me think that the book was part of a marketing strategy. Not nefarious, but rather very forward-thinking and assured. A small number of the recipes are identified as being served at the restaurant.

Why I did not rank it among the best cookbooks of 2018?

Magnolia Table recipes did not seem particularly fresh in their takes on the classics, however nicely they were presented.

“I think the Gaineses might be the Nickelback of the cookbook world,” one chef tells me.

“Diehard fans clamour for anything they touch, but critics/ media discount them. My hunch is that this book is easy to overlook because it doesn’t have a tight theme and isn’t too exotic.”

That’s the future of megahit cookbooks. First, get a lifestyle.

JOANNA Gaines and her husband Chip from Fixer Upper.