CREATING A CULINARY BIOGRAPHY

Food and cooking are common themes in personal and family histories. These themes can be the foundation of an heirloom quality book for you to share with friends, family and future generations.

Our minds have the power to recall flavors that connect us to tangible moments in time. Memories of meals consumed long ago can conjure worlds of experience. Imagine a favorite dish prepared by someone in your family. Imagine the smell and taste of that reminiscent dish, evoking memories of yourself in another place with people who are no longer here, or who live too far away to spontaneously share in recreating this delightful repast.

Memories of encounters with food can tell a personal history, a family history, a cultural history. Creating a book filled with stories and recipes is a meaningful way for you to preserve an important part of your heritage.

At Storyzon, we call this kind of book a culinary biography: a volume of essays highlighting your memories and insights on food, cooking and culinary traditions interlaced with recipes from your personal or family collection.

This is how the inside of your culinary biography could look!

You may plan a culinary biography as a single author or in collaboration with family members. We can also help you create a culinary biography that honors a special person in your family – a fitting tribute to someone who has brought nourishment to your life.

Storyzon will interview you and/or members of your family and craft your memories into personalized essays that might tell stories about:

• what certain recipes mean to you and your family
• how you learned to cook
• the tools in your kitchen
• how food connects you to your family and culture
• special holiday meals and traditions
• how your family blended cultural influences in the kitchen

Our team of professional writers, editors and graphic designers will use these essays along with your recipes and photographs to build a personalized history of food and cooking in your family.


PRESERVING TRADITIONS

While memory of tastes is carried with little effort, culinary skills and the ability to mix ingredients to recreate familiar flavors must be explicitly conveyed. It is easy for a family to take this knowledge for granted, to assume that it will remain part of the collective memory. In fact, it takes effort.

Don’t let your culinary heritage fade away. Preserve your family memories of preparing food so that they may be shared with future generations.


For additional information on culinary biographies, please contact Lila LaHood.