BOOK DETAILS
Interactive Design
The best cookbooks incite action in readers; Readers who keep their most beloved cookbooks at an arm’s length, dog-ear their favorite pages, and accidentally splatter them with over-excited sauces. Our greatest aim is that the cooks who interact with Bento Picnic feel well-resourced to expand their repertoire with the tried-and-tested endeavors that this book inspires.
Bento Picnic will be an interactive body of work that invites contemporary readers to bring Japanese traditions into their day-to-day with easy-to-follow recipes, alluring infographics, and QR codes for accessing companion materials digitally.
EASY-TO-FOLLOW RECIPES & LAY-FLAT BINDING
We envision that the recipes in this book will be grouped with multiple recipes per page, and that the photography will span the centerfold — not only to make the most of every square inch for economical reasons, but moreso to spare the reader from having to toggle back and forth between different pages for recipes that are adjoined or nested. For this reason, we have determined that lay-flat binding (inspired by recent works such as Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear) will provide the ideal user experience of Bento Picnic.
ALLURING INFOGRAPHICS & A DOUBLE-JOINTED COVER
We are also keen on catching the readers’ attention from the moment they pick up the book by having a double-jointed cover unfold to reveal an infographic detailing the 5 colors, 5 tastes and 5 elements of Washoku. The ability to refer back to this infographic easily without having to thumb through the introduction will help to set this book apart from others in its lineage.
DIGITAL COMPANION MATERIAL
Additionally, QR codes will be strategically provided for bonus content, as well as easy access for purchasing sake pairings and speciality bento supplies via affiliate sites (such as drinkpourtal.com).
Content
To orient the reader and whet their appetites, the book will contain a foreword by a prominent chef/author, an introduction by Bento Picnic’s chef owner Leanne Valenti, as well as an overview about what makes sake such a versatile food-pairing beverage from Sake Samurai, Monica Samuels.
The Bento Picnic cookbook will contain approximately 80 recipes forming a total of 16 bento menus with 16 sake pairings.
Each menu will include an overview that whets the reader’s appetite as well as headnotes for each recipes in the set. Bento Picnic will be upfront about the effort required for each menu and empower readers to manage their time in such a way that they are able to execute on each set of recipes with a sense of grace and ease.
To drive home the concept of Washoku, each menu will also include a concise infographic highlighting how its collection of recipes includes all the colors, tastes and elements.
Sake Pairings
Each expertly-selected sake will include a 50-100 word profile with customized tasting notes tailored to explain why it’s an ideal pairing for the corresponding menu.
If all parties are agreeable, we could also include a QR code that directs readers to the Bento Picnic website where they can learn more even more details about the sake, ie. producer and region, and the option to purchase it by following a link to Kome Collective’s online shop.
By housing the webpage for all any QR code(s) on the Bento Picnic site, we would commit to ensuring that the connection stays cohesive and the material stays evergreen. For example, if at some point in the future the recommended sake pairing goes out of production, we update the content on the linked page to recommend a replacement pairing.
To build out the corresponding webpage for each sake, we could utilize content (ie. tech sheets and photo archives) from Kome Collective’s archives, while keeping in line with the style guide Bento Picnic’s brand and cookbook.