Amanda & Merrill on The Food52 Cookbook Vol. 2 & A Shopping Treat!

Today I am having a fun chat with my friends Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs from Food52 about the second volume in their award-winning cookbook series. You may remember that last year I was thrilled to feature the first Food52 cookbook on the blog since I had three (!) recipes printed in it! I don’t have any recipes in the second book, The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2: Seasonal Recipes from Our Kitchens to Yours,  but I am still completely enamored of the content. The recipes, organized by season, are all winners of the Food52 weekly contests and are lauded for everything from their complete originality (Savory Salt & Pepper French Toast) to their tasteful simplicity (Clementine Pound Cake).

I was psyched to catch-up with Amanda and Merrill last month to chat about producing this book and what’s next for Food52!
1) The second book follows in the same vein as the first. Was this one easier to produce, or more difficult? It was a little easier, both because it has fewer recipes, and because we’d been through the process once before and learned a few things along the way.

2) Do you think the Food52 books reflect some of the current cooking trends in the country? I always wonder how we will view the recipes in our current favorite publications in 20 years! We often say that these books are great snapshots of what home cooks are making that particular year. The first book had lots of smoked paprika, and pesto makes several cameos in this book.

3) What are both of your personal favorite recipes from this book? This is kind of like having to choose a favorite child — nearly impossible! That said, there are some recipes that we’ve made many times since we first tested them. Amanda makes Burnt Caramel Pudding frequently, and Merrill’s a fan of the Blue Cheese Savouries for cocktail parties.

4) I’ve always wondered: how do you choose the contest theme each week? Are there any themes you regret, or would like to run again? We base the contest themes around what’s in season, and we try to go for variety. Some themes are more straightforward, like Your Best Thanksgiving Turkey, while others are less rigidly defined: Your Best Recipe with Lemon, Thyme and a Grill. We haven’t been disappointed with any of our themes, although some inspire more entries than others, and we have run a few more than once — lucky for us, tomatoes are in season once every year!

5) Your app is a favorite of mine. Would you ever consider adding book content to your app? How do you see it evolving? Thank you! We’ve thought about doing more apps on different topics — like baking, DIY, weeknight cooking.

6) The Food52 community is full of talented people. How do you keep everyone so engaged and what are some of your plans for the future? We keep trying to find new ways for our community to interact with us and with each other — this year, our members starting testing recipes as part of our contest system, for example. We have plans for 2013 involving our Shop, and we’ll definitely be getting the community involved in that — stay tuned!

7) What is the next publishing project for Food52? (I vote for something that incorporates your awesome videos!) Thanks for the compliment on the videos, and we’ll keep you posted!

One of my personal favorite features about the site is the awesome Food52 Shop. Amanda and Merrill personally select their favorite products for the site and arrange exclusive discounts from the purveyor. Luckily, this week Amanda and Merrill are generously providing an exclusive discount to the Food52 Shop for Naptime Chef readers. Enter the code naptime10 for 10% off your order!*

Here are some of my favorite items in the shop right now:

Who wouldn’t love this box of custom chocolates by Valerie Confections for Valentines Day?!

Custom all-natural lip balms from Stewart & Claire in awesome flavors. I want the Dark & Stormy!

I think these DIY hydroponic gardens would be a blast to do with kids!

Mom’s Stuff is the best all-purpose cream for dry hands. Especially appropriate for me since I am constantly washing my hands this winter!