Williston Cookbook Author Molly Stevens Collaborates on New Podcast 

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Award-winning cooking instructor and cookbook author Molly Stevens of Williston has partnered with three longtime friends and colleagues to produce a podcast called "Everything Cookbooks."

The first episode drops on Wednesday, March 16, on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. The inaugural season will offer a step-by-step insiders' guide to developing and publishing a successful cookbook, from deciding whether you should write one to getting an agent to managing a photography shoot.

Beyond aspiring authors, Stevens said, the podcast "is for people who love cookbooks and are curious [about] how they are made." The cohosts will share their own experiences: "the happy stories and the horror stories," she said.

The project grew out of a support group Stevens formed with fellow cookbook authors Kristin Donnelly, Kate Leahy and Andrea Nguyen. Together, the quartet has more than 75 years of experience and an impressive number of accolades.

Stevens' award-winning books include All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice (2019) and All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking (2004). Nguyen, who is based in Santa Cruz, Calif., is a leading U.S. expert on Vietnamese food. Leahy, a former restaurant chef, lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Donnelly was a food editor at Food & Wine magazine and works in New Hope, Pa.

The quartet aims to demystify and democratize the world of cookbooks. "Publishing can be very opaque and mysterious," Stevens said. "The whole mentoring piece was very important to me when I was getting started."