The Forest City Cookbook Puzzle
Back on May 23, 2017, we launched a passion project called Forest City Cookbook. Its purpose was to celebrate our culinary community and bring people together around the table. Our original plan was to feature 30 chefs and 20 local producers, but our numbers doubled along the way, gathering a whooping team of 60 cooks and 41 producers.
We decided that our project would be entirely crowdfunded, and a minimum goal of 1000 copies was set. We achieved and surpassed our copies goal back in October 2017. And today, we sit at 1470 copies pre-ordered, and we've established a NEW goal of 2000 copies by the end of February.
Our hope is that the Forest City Cookbook will be treasured as:
A beautifully crafted coffee table book!
An inspirational tool for home cooks to learn from the best chefs in London, Ontario.
A challenge to other culinary professionals in the industry to broaden their skills.
A tour guide for visitors to be able to find our iconic local restaurants.
A guide for people to learn about ingredients, farmers and the many advantages of buying your food locally.
A reason to be proud of London, Ontario.
Maybe the most important, a catalyst for creating meaningful memories with family and friends around the dining table!
Recipes
The Forest City Cookbook will be a 300-page...wait, 430-page hardcover book featuring more than 135 original recipes developed by local talent, using local ingredients. The recipes will be indexed into three categories; traditional, vegetarian and vegan. And will include small plates, mains, desserts, and drinks. Each recipe will showcase different culinary techniques, from simple to complex, and traditional or modern cooking influences representing the diverse culinary backgrounds that make The Forest City so unique.
Photoshoots
From May to August, we went prop-hunting at various antique shops, thrift stores, artisan studios and garage sales. We contacted local potters, woodworkers and crafty friends until we finally gathered a total of 920 props and surfaces. These props were selected to help create a scene around each recipe to better tell their stories. We spent countless days organizing until we were finally ready to invite all the chefs to our temporary studio space at the McKaskell Haindl showroom.
During September, October and November, each chef visited the studio to prepare their recipes and have them staged and photographed. We tried our best to document this whole process to give our partners an idea of what they were investing in. If you missed any of the action, check the behind the scenes photos and videos for each of the 27 days of shooting.
The final puzzle
This is where we're at right now. Editing photos, designing the layout, standardizing the recipes, proofreading, gathering the farmers' stories and doing our very best to put it all together. The current stage is by far the most demanding and creatively challenging, so our production team is working tirelessly to keep everything on track. The constant support and positive feedback have been priceless, and it's what's keeping us motivated to make sure we stay true to our vision!
There are still a few more months of waiting, but we assure you that we are doing our best to craft the best book you've ever seen around here. However, there might be a slight delay on the delivery date since we decided to feature more talented artists at the last minute and included 130 more pages to enjoy. It will be a bigger and better book, so it will be worth the wait! We hope to have our book ready to rock 'n roll once the flowers start to bloom and the veggies start to grow!
Thank you so much for your incredible love and support! Remember, the Forest City Cookbook will be a one-time exclusive edition. We will only print the number of copies pre-ordered and no extras, so tell your friends they still have time to order. We want to give extra thanks to all our partners for helping us achieve our sales goals!
We want you to use this book, get it dirty on the kitchen counter, pour over the stories in bed, use it to share delicious meals with friends - or gift it to someone special. But most of all, use it to discover or rediscover this place we call home - The Forest City!