I've been keeping a project quite quiet for a few months and last Friday, I got the green light to shout it from the rooftops, hence me sharing it here now. The lovely Kristin Jensen, the editor behind many of Ireland's cookbooks, and the woman behind new publishing house, Nine Bean Rows Books, have launched a super cool project called Blasta Books. They are a series of small books, hard cover, fully illustrated by Dublin artist Nicky Hooper and designed by Jane Matthews. They are aimed at people who enjoy the quirky side of food. They are what street food is to restaurant: fun and accesible, plus they are beautifully edited and curated by Kristin. The Blasta Books are small books with big voices and I am honoured to be the first book in this cool series!!!
When Kristin first reached out in January, I couldn't believe my luck! I had always wanted to work with her and through one thing or another over the years we had never had the chance. I jumped to the idea and signed the deal almost immediately. My book TACOS will bring family style, totally achievable recipes from my Mexican kitchen to yours; showcasing some of my favourite recipes and introducing a few new ones. I am beyond excited about this and deep in recipe testing and finishing the manuscript at the moment, so apart from the few weeks before and after my dad's passing, where I couldn't get myself to cook at all, the process has been incredibly enjoyable and it has given me something to get out of bed for. My only regret is that my lovely Dad, always so quick to be super proud of my achievements, didn't get to see the beautiful cover.
The entire project is being crowdfunded and after only 3 days it is 94% funded! We just need a tiny push to get it over the line! The first two books, TACOS by me and HOT FAT by Russel Alford and Patrick Hanlon, the duo behind the popular social media account GastroGays, are ready for pre-order on the kickstarter page; while the next two books, one by Jess Murphy and Eion Cluskey and one by Kwanghi Chan are on the pipeline too and will benefit from any oversubscriptions we have on the project. I cannot wait to share this beautiful book with you all. The entire series will be super exciting and very collectable; the project will bring much needed diversity of voices to mainstream food publishing in Ireland and it can only make our bookselves better.
The books ship everywhere in the world at super reasonable prices and if you pre-order them through the kickstarter page, you'll get a copy signed before it hits the bookstores and at a special price! What's not to like?!! To support the project, go to the kickstarter page:
Pre-Order the book and this Project here!
Help us bring it over the line! - Stay safe!
Lily
