This is a live conversation recorded in April 2026 during the first Cookbook Week in San Francisco, a week long city wide event co-founded by Brian Hogan Stewart of the Salt + Spine podcast. Here Leslie Jonath leads the conversation with Jenny Wapner, a publisher, and Kate Leahy, an author, to discuss all things cookbooks.

The whole team, Kate, Kristin, Molly and Andrea, recap a few of their favorite episodes from this past season and answer listener questions.

Molly and Kate speak with Sarah Becan about her illustrator origin story.

Molly and Kate go behind the scenes of a partnership publishing house as they speak about the Cookbook Collective with its founder, Angela Engel, and its editorial director, Amy Treadwell.

Kate and Molly speak with author Alana Kysar and her editor Kelly Snowden about their professional relationship after working on two cookbooks together.

Kristin and Molly speak with writer Ella Quittner about her new book, Obsessed with the Best, and the work and intent behind it.

Molly and Kristin invite our very first copy editor to the show, Melissa Haskin.

Molly and Kate speak with Tanya Bush, the author of Will This Make You Happy, about her cookbook/memoir mashup and how the pandemic contributed to her decision to marry a personal story and a technical text.

Kristin speaks with hosts Molly, Andrea and Kate about blurbs; the good, the bad and the questionable.

Kate and Kristin speak all about crowdfunding with Nandita Godbole, who has fully funded seven books (and counting) through Kickstarter.

Molly and Kristin speak with Saeng Douangdara, a personal chef and academic counselor turned online content creator and now, cookbook author and food photographer.

Kristin and Molly speak with Kathy Gunst, a prolific cookbook author, teacher and now leader of food writing retreats, about her varied career and new project.

Kate and Molly speak with Domenica Marchetti about her newest book and finding a niche in the crowded Italian cookbook category.

Kate and Kristin speak with Ifrah F. Ahmed about how the culmination of her expertise in a culture and a cuisine led to her debut cookbook, Soomaaliya.

Kate and Andrea speak with cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz about her second book, how it differed from her first and what she learned during the process.

Andrea and Molly speak with Alison Roman and Britt Cobb, the designer of her new book, Something from Nothing about their collaboration.

Molly and Kate speak with Rachel Brown, acquisitions editor with Appetite, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, about her career journey and some insights of the Canadian cookbook landscape

To kick off Season 9 Molly, Andrea, Kate and Kristin discuss e-cookbooks vs physical editions before diving into front matter; all of the sections of a cookbook that come before the recipes.

Kate, Molly, Andrea and Kristin begin the episode with an apology about a technical snafu that plagued our website's Contact page and some corrections.

Kristin and Molly speak with journalist and cookbook co-author Korsha Wilson about her experiences in the world of food media