The Cookbook that Never Got Made
by Anne Wingate
(USA)
The owner of an Afghan restaurant hired me to work with him on creating an Afghan-American cookbook. This was in July of 2001. He had two ideas: (1) People often asked him for recipes for his Afghan cooking; and (2) His Muslim religion requires the giving of alms in any way that will benefit the poor.
I began by writing to several fund-raiser cookbook makers to check prices and features, while he began putting together recipes in home-size rather than restaurant-size quantities.
The samples and prices began arriving in early August, and by late August they were all in and I had picked out the sample that seemed to best meet his needs.
Well . . . you know the rest. September 11 arrived. All of a sudden the United States was at war with Afghanistan. And all of a sudden there was no market at all for an Afghan-American cookbook.
I felt rather bad about it; he certainly wasn't to blame for the horrendous attack, and his goals were worthy. But I couldn't afford to work without pay, not could the cookbook publishers; and he couldn't pay, especially because the restaurant suddenly became very unpopular.
Maybe someday soon we'll be able to try again.