My Cookbook - Lemongrass and Ginger: Vibrant Asian Recipes
My tired eyes had caused slight blurry vision. I lifted my head and looked at the bookshelves quite a distant away. My brain was struggling to think for a few seconds. My inner voice kept asking me to finish off what I had on my screen and hit the sack. The next morning, I switched on my computer, making sure the Outbox was empty with no more pending emails. I double checked my bag, the A4 size envelopes formed almost the thickness of 2 rims of A4 papers. I slowly dropped them in batches into the post box. I whispered to myself, ‘Good Luck!’
That was the scene of more than a year ago. Until today, it still seems like a dream.
‘Bing!’ Lazily, I touched the mail icon on my iPhone. It was a reply to an email that I sent. It read something like this “…… I’ve been looking for someone to write an Asian cookbook, would you be interested?” I paused. Trying to think if this could be the beginning of a journey that I had been waiting for?
It was unexpected, it happened. It was just before last year’s Christmas when verbal agreement was made. I was going to author a cookbook! It was a moment that seemed surreal. I couldn’t believe it was going to really happen! It has always been a dream of mine, one day, to author a cookbook. And it happened just at the right time, when I was looking out for opportunities, and landed one! I was really happy to have accepted the opportunity, so much so that I wanted to share my joy with you all. Finally, I can share it today!
I was on top of the world and found it hard to believe! At the same time, I was trying to figure out how I was going to juggle between the tight deadlines and my day job. Luckily enough, I managed to divide my time, working part-time and gave myself full concentration that I needed!
My role for this book deal is purely as an author, no photography assignment involved. Though, I gave my opinions on creative side of things – my views on how the dishes should look, ideas, advices and feedback to the creative team.
All the writing started in the beginning of January 2011 and lasted for about 3 months, to have all the recipes written and tested. It seemed like an impossible task, but with my determination and dedication, I made it! Of course, at one point, I had my family and friends that came to my rescue, helping me to test some of the recipes. Without them, I couldn’t have achieved this!
Throughout that period of time, I have had lots of supports, especially from Arnaud, who had put up with my late nights and being so very patient as I spent most of my time in front of the computer and constantly cooking in the kitchen. I don’t know if you guys remember or even notice that I wasn’t very active in the blogging scene for a little while. I did try my best to write some posts, though not very frequent. I want to apologise for my short disappearance as there were just too many things going on.
I know I have kept this very quiet. The publishing process is pretty long and I was waiting for the right time to mention about it, because I knew if I mentioned something you had to wait for more than a year sounds a bit crazy! So, the right time has come!
My cookbook – Lemongrass and Ginger Cookbook: Vibrant Asian Recipes, as it says on the title, contains a big handful of delicious Asian recipes and it is scheduled to be published in Spring 2012! It contains 224 pages, published by Duncan Baird. There are more than 100 clear, easy-to-follow recipes that are diverse, delicious and imaginative. Packed with inspiring, authentic dishes (many with a modern twist), this is a must-have book for the modern kitchen!
t is available for pre-order on several websites, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Book Depository!
I will provide more details in many posts to come. So, please stay tuned by following me on Twitter and Facebook. You will surely get the latest updates!
I really want to thank you, my dear readers, for your support and readership. Throughout these years, I have known a lot of like-minded people from different parts of the world (even have met some of you!). I dearly and truly appreciate the time we have shared through my blog. The passion I have in food has grown stronger each day and made me a very determined person. None of what I have achieved would have been possible without the support, love and sweet words of encouragement that you have been giving me since the first day I started to sow the seed of My Cooking Hut!
Thank you and God bless.
