Celebration & Community Event in honor of Debbie Berne • Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide

Debbie Berne was a Bay Area-based fixture in cookbook publishing. She designed dozens of cookbooks including The Downton Abbey Cookbook, Somebody Feed Phil, Budmo, (Serious) New Cook, Chîmi Nu'am, The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook, and Flavors from the Farm. Debbie was also the author of The Design of Books: An Explainer for Authors, Editors, Agents, and Other Curious Readers.  

To celebrate the launch of Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide, we invite you to bring your favorite cookbook to share and discuss with fellow cookbook lovers and obsessives. Bring your most used, cooking stained stalwart, your arcane or bizarre find, or a cherished heirloom. Whatever you choose to bring, let's celebrate what we love most about cookbooks.

Cookbooking: A Fan's Guide- Subjects include: a visual history of cookbook design; what’s the matter with front matter?; the diet cookbooks we’ve starved for; the proliferation of French cookbooks, hippie cookbooks, TV-show cookbooks. And so, so, so, so, so much more. In short, Cookbooking is a celebration of the genre and an exploration of what makes books filled with recipes so engaging, collectable, and such excellent companions in bed. 

This is a book for cookbook collectors and casual fans alike. Whether you're looking for cool cookbooks to add to your shelf or searching for a unique gift to give the foodie in your life, Cookbooking is sure to surprise and delight.