Betsy Andrews on Following Her Heart
How a road trip turned into a cookbook deal
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This week’s episode starts a little differently than most when our guest, Betsy Andrews, admits that she never wanted to write a cookbook, and yet, she’s done just that - and done it beautifully - and now she’s embarking on several future cookbook projects.
Betsy’s byline will be familiar to anyone paying attention in the food/drink/travel space over the past few decades. She’s written for most major publications (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Saveur, Food & Wine, Esquire, Eating Well, Eater, etc.), and her name has appeared on the masthead as an editor at several print and online magazines. Oh, and did I mention, she’s also a prize-winning poet.
In other words, Betsy has accomplished A LOT in her career, and I’ve long admired her mastery as a journalist and editor, her productivity, and her powerful poetry. If I’m being honest, I’m in awe of all she’s accomplished at such a high level. So last year, when we heard that Betsy was adding cookbook co-author to her long list of accomplishments, we were eager to find out what inspired this leap from journalism to cookbooks.
“I followed my heart, and it took me to a really good place.”
You’ll want to listen to our conversation for the full story (and check out the cookbook), but it all started with a magazine article about a road trip down California’s Central Coast with Chef Scott Clark and photographer Cheyenne Ellis. The trio had such a good time traveling, eating, developing recipes, and documenting the experience that they wanted to continue the collaboration. Why not expand the road trip into a full-length cookbook?
From a cookbook creator’s standpoint, however, we all know that it’s not enough to decide to channel a passion into a book project; it’s how you go about it. As Betsy explains, neither she nor her collaborators had a huge platform that might attract publishers, but what they did have, she tells us, “was [their] excellence.” They spent a full year crafting the proposal, describing the concept as a “love letter to the Central Coast,” and in the end, the book went to a bidding war.
There’s a lot packed into our conversation. We talk about the hustle required to be a freelance journalist (juggling 10 to 12 deadlines at once) and how writers’ residencies and retreats are the only time she has to work on her poetry. We also sidebar about how writing poetry and recipe headnotes are not all that dissimilar (“You think about every single word and every piece of punctuation,” she explains). We also talk about how Betsy brought her years of accumulated expertise as an editor and journalist to this project, and how her work on Coastal is now leading to more collaborative book deals. There are lots of gems scattered throughout the episode, perhaps the best saved for last, when, in talking about how to be a good collaborator, she explains, “It takes a lot of people to get a book done, and everybody’s contribution is important.” She continues, “You have to be loving and a real partner.”
We couldn’t agree more. And after speaking with Betsy, we’re not surprised to hear that she’s already been approached for other collaborations, and we fully expect to see her byline on more cookbook jackets in the future.
Links from today’s chat:
Betsy Andrews Instagram
Cheyenne Ellis photography
Scott Clark Instagram
Dad's Luncheonette, Scott Clark’s roadside luncheonette in Half Moon Bay, CA
Coastal: 130 Recipes from a California Road Trip, by Scott Clark & Betsy Andrews
Two of Betsy’s poetry volumes:
New Jersey, by Betsy Andrews
Crowded, by Betsy Andrews
Check out the Everything Cookbooks Bookshop to browse all books mentioned in the show (purchasing books this way supports the show, independent bookstores, and authors. A win-win-win! 🏆)
Next week on EVCB:
Sutanya Dacres joins us to talk about her debut memoir, Dinner for One, which was inspired by her podcast of the same name. We hear about how Sutanya’s 'anti-fairytale' experience is unique to the 'American in Paris' mythology and how she landed her memoir book deal. Kate and I talk to Sutanya about what it takes to write a compelling memoir - and why she included recipes in hers. Towards the end, Sutanya offers advice for aspiring memoirists and discusses her supper club, restaurant pop-ups and tells us what she has planned for in the future.
Bye for now. I’ll be back here next week and hope to see you. In the meantime, keep on writing, reading, and cooking.
Molly and the EVCB gang
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Thanks for the continued excellent content
It was a great listen and I ordered immediately! One more reason to plan that trip up the coast...