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Cookbooks: Past, Present, and Future

Three women—Kate Leahy, Jenny Wapner, and Leslie Jonath—are shown in individual portrait photos, with their names labeled below each image.
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April 25, 2026 11:00 am

The Civic Kitchen

$50

Ever wondered what it really takes to make a cookbook? Join publisher Jenny Wapner (Hardie Grant), producer Leslie Jonath, and author/collaborator/podcast host Kate Leahy for an inside look at how cookbooks come to life and how they’ve evolved over time.

From the earliest pitch to the finished book on your shelf, we’ll pull back the curtain on the entire process: crafting proposals that sell, building narratives that resonate, creating visual stories through photography and design, and marketing books in a world where everyone scrolls for recipes on their phones.

Whether you collect cookbooks, cook from them religiously, or just love a beautiful book, this is your chance to understand the craft, passion, and strategy behind the ones that make it into your kitchen. Come connect with the people who make the books you love.

Lunch Provided:

A woman with long brown hair in a black top, wearing layered gold jewelry, stands with arms crossed and smiles in front of a wooden door.Chef Cara Mangini will prepare a beautiful vegetable-forward lunch. As an award-winning author, chef, restaurateur, product developer, teacher, and speaker, Cara Mangini shares her passion for produce by welcoming everyone to the table around flavor-first, vegetable-forward food. She is the author of The Vegetable Butcher and The Vegetable Eater and is the founder of The Vegetable School.

featuring

Kate Leahy
Kate Lahey had written or collaborated on more than a dozen books on food and wine, including My Egypt, Italian Wine, Wine Style, and Lavash. Her first book, A16 Food + Wine, won the IACP best book of the year and the Julia Child first book award. She lives in San Francisco and co-hosts the podcast Everything Cookbooks. You can find her at kateleahy.com
Jenny Wapner

Jenny Wapner is the Publisher of Hardie Grant North America, an imprint she started in 2021.  She publishes a range of illustrated non-fiction, including cookbooks, design, craft, gardening, and natural history.

She has over 20 years of publishing experience. She was executive editor at Ten Speed Press for 9 years, where she was responsible for growing and shaping an internationally renowned and award-winning cookbook program and building an art and design imprint. She acquired and/or edited 15 James Beard and IACP cookbook award winners. Before that she was the natural history and environmental science editor at the University of California Press.

Jenny is the co-author of Simplicity at Home (Chronicle, 2021) with Yumiko Sekine. She lives in Oakland with her husband, Sylvan Brackett, the chef and owner of Izakaya Rintaro, and their two kids Louis and Vera. You can find her @jwapner

Leslie Jonath
Leslie is an editorial director, curator, producer and literary agent. She collaborates with creatives, cooks, chefs, floral designers, artists, and makers to craft projects that bring people together. She is the co-founder of Cookbook Fest and is the agent/producer of over 100 cookbooks including Italy by Ingredient by Viola Buitoni, Budmo by Anna Voloshyna and The Curated Board by Bebe Carmito. Her own book, Feed Your People: Big-Batch Big-Hearted Recipes to Gather Around is a book that featuring recipes from 65 cookbook authors and chefs for cooking for a crowd. Started as a Kickstarter, Feed Your People became a series of fundraising dinners and panel discussions. She has also curated food events for 18 Reasons, Airbnb, The San Francisco Parks Alliance, The Archery, and The Library Foundation of Los Angeles. You can find her at @connecteddotsmedia