The Love Collection

When a flood wiped out Debbie Vanni’s treasured collection of more than 4,000 cookbooks, a community of home cooks took the time-honored tradition of recipe sharing to heart.

DEBBIE’S HUSBAND GENTLY WOKE HER, URGING HER TO GO TO THE BASEMENT, where she found water lapping at the top step. Hundreds of cookbooks and an antique card catalog filled with recipes floated below her. A passionate cook and avid recipe collector, Debbie had spent 50 years amassing her collection, all lovingly stored in her basement, dubbed The Culinary Cellar. On a stormy Chicago night, when the retention pond near Debbie’s suburban home overflowed, it was destroyed.

“I couldn’t speak, move or even cry at first,” Debbie says. Upon hearing the news, her daughter Kristina flew in from New York. “She arrived with a broken heart and wearing her rubber boots,” Debbie says. “She worked herself to the bone on the massive cleanup.

“Kristina saved all that she could, and we spread everything out across the driveway to dry,” Debbie says. “In the end we filled a whole dumpster with 10 tons, including my grandmother’s Fannie Farmer cookbook from 1914 and many antiques. It was devastating.”

After neighbors and friends heard the news, cookbooks began arriving on Debbie’s doorstep. Inspired, Kristina posted photos of the flood and her mom’s story on Facebook, explaining that the cookbooks and recipes weren’t “just things,” but physical representations of her mom’s soul. “They were gems that she loved sharing with anyone who needed just the right recipe,” she wrote.

And when Kristina asked for help, it poured in.

“Boxes of cookbooks landed on my porch daily from people across the country and even overseas,” Debbie says, “including many from Taste of Home

Field Editors. I could feel the love in those boxes. The incredible kindness and generosity of friends, family and strangers got me through the heartbreak and inspired me to rebuild my collection and continue my blog.”

More than a year later, Debbie and her husband are still rebuilding and in awe of everyone’s generosity. “When your passion is sharing recipes with others, it finds a way to come full circle,” Kristina says. “So many people know my mom as an award-winning cook who gladly offers recipes along with a smile. Now all those smiles and recipes are coming back to her.”

“Seven feet of water almost up to the basement ceiling—inches from getting into the house— was before us.”