White Pages & Glossy Photos: A Rubric for Titling Cookbooks
February 24, 2015 by Susie“Well, this is lovely,” I thought as the new cookbook slid out of its padded envelope. “Rose Water and Orange Blossoms,” it read, in a curling thick cursive. I scanned downward to see what kind of Middle Eastern food we were talking about – Lebanese, it turned out.
Inside, the format didn’t seduce me as readily – double-columned, unnumbered steps, wide leading but tight kerning. But each time I closed the book, that title just pulled me right back in again. “Now that’s some powerful marketing,” I thought.
There is something just instantly evocative, for me, in titles that use the formula XY & X’Y’, where X is an adjective and Y is a concrete noun. You instantly start visualizing, and once you’ve done that your senses are trapped. Brown Eggs and Jam Jars – another juicy-looking book from this season using the same ploy.
In fact, when I think about it, there have been many cookbooks that have trapped my senses and caught my attention – Sweet Cream & Sugar Cones, the terrific ice cream book from Bi-Rite Creamery. Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume, Silvena Rowe’s well-received title from a couple years before that (by “Purple Citrus” she just means “sumac,” but doesn’t “Purple Citrus” sound better?)
The farthest-back one I can recall off the top of my head is Blue Eggs & Yellow Tomatoes, from 2008 (though I’m sure there are earlier instances). It’s a gorgeous book, and it was popular too, yet I can’t recall a single recipe from it that’s gone into regular rotation for me. Do I really only love it for its title?
Have you, too, ever been a sucker for this kind of title? And how did it work out, in the long run?
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