I am in Paris and yesterday I visited Paris Cookbook Fair which is the prestigious annual international cookbook and wine book trade meeting, to which
I was invited. This year, it took place in the heart of Paris, right under the
Pyramid of the Louvre Museum, in the spacious Carrousel du Louvre, famous for the Paris fashion shows. The
weather was not appealing - a mixture of snow, rain and wind.
This is an event for professionals,
editors, publishing companies rather than for amateurs. Of course everybody may enter if they pay. The tickets, in my opinion, were far too expensive for the general
public – 35 Euros for one day or 65
Euros for 3 days. Additionally, the event is not aimed at selling cookbooks or to
promote them to the public. That explains why the event was not very crowded.
The official website presents the event as follows: “the event focuses on the sales of
translations and foreign rights, with Asia the leading buyer today, and Europe
the major seller”. I am not surprised at all. Asians indeed buy everything,
including vineyards in France, chateaux in the Bordeaux region and whole
inventories of the best French wines. Did you know that cookbooks and wine
books are probably the healthiest segment of publishing today, with a two digit
growth in Asia and Latin America? “Dozens of countries are now buying, and make significant contributions to the profitsof the sector”. Non European accents were strong in the crowd (35% guests to the event come
from outside Europe).
The Paris Cookbook Fair lasted for 3 days (this year between
22-24 February). The supporting events included panel discussions,
presentations, interviews with publishers and national TV stars (cooks, food
stylists, writers and food photographers), live cooking shows with professionals
and cooks from Le Cordon Bleu.
On Saturday, the Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards (which took place yesterday in the 1,400 seats
theater of the Carrousel du Louvre) for the best cook books, wine books and
publishers have been awarded in quite a lot of categories. This year 171 countries were participating (after
162 in 2011). The full list of the finalists and winners is published in a
large booklet which is available on line here, at the official website of the
Paris Cookbook Fair.
At the Paris Cookbook Fair, hundreds (if not thousands) of cookbooks
from all over the World in every possible language, edited by both renowned
publishers but also by small ones, are presented but you can also meet the authors
and publishers and you can have a chat with them. In general, they were very
helpful, open and talkative. However it was very difficult to buy any books
there. On most of the stands, in particular those with books from abroad, it
was impossible to buy anything (either because they did not have card
terminals, or they did not have enough copies for sale). But that was not the
goal of the event.
So, despite I did not buy any book, I was happy because I
could have some chats with interesting and open people, like for example the co-authors
of the Swedish culinary anti-cancer cookbook, which sells in Sweden like hot
cakes. The book includes gourmet anti-cancer recipes (written in co-operation
with doctors). Swedish were well organized
- not only they were open to questions, but also they offered a wide range of Swedish
specialties and beverages (including specific, bitter – sour lingonberry
drink).
My eyes were also caught by a beautifully edited cookbooks
about….Greenland cuisine. The luxurious and elegant stand of the Modernist
Cuisine was impressive (like the brochure that they edited for the Paris
Cookbook Fair), but I was more impressed to have a chat with guys who support
(namely, by publishing cook books about Cambodian cuisine), and raise money to
help homeless kids on the streets of Phnom Penh or with two guys from
Argentina, wine importers, who came not only to promote their wines, about also
to promote the cookbook about….Patagonian cuisine. Azerbaijanis not only proposed
their cookbooks, but also prepared a food show and savory and sweet snacks.
Polish accents were visible, but not as strong as they should be. There was a stand of
the Palace Wilanow Museum,
presenting a series of cookbooks about Old Polish cuisine – Monumenta PoloniaeCulinaria. I
met professor Jarosław Dumanowski and Elżbieta Grygiel from the Wilanów Palace
Museum. We had a long chat about the
Old Polish Cuisine and its possible promotion abroad. I’ve got a few heavy
gifts (they were cookbooks, as you can guess). I met Grzegorz Trubilowicz from
Cooklet - who is the
co-founder of Cooklet - Inspiring Culinary Organizer. One should watch Cooklet
– they already attacked the U.S. market and are finalists of some important
competitions in media applications.
I was searching for the cookbook recently published by BOSZ, “The Fine
Polish Cuisine”, the book about Polish cuisine published under the patronage of
the wife of the President of Poland (the book was also the finalist of the
Gourmet Awards). To no avail. I did not find the book, and I did not check it
out, despite my thorough attempts. No other Polish culinary accents were
present there, which is a big pity.
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