Episode 1: Welcome to the Hardcover Cook Podcast

Embark on a culinary expedition with Monique Llamas, founder of the Hardcover Cook subscription box. The podcast is a journey through taste and inspiration with cookbook reviews, author interviews, and dispatches from the makers of fine artisanal products that deserve a place in your kitchen. Discover a world of flavor and get inspiration to cook your way through your growing cookbook collection. Each episode is a perfect pairing of cookbooks with specialty ingredients that can elevate your home cooking to new heights. Let's explore together!

Transcript

Monique Llamas: 0:06

Hello and welcome to the Cookbook Pantry, the Hardc over Cook guide to a well-stocked kitchen with me, Monique Llamas, founder of the Hardc over Cook subscription box. I'm thrilled to have you all here. This June, Hardcover Cover Cook is celebrating the one-year anniversary since launching our subscription box and we're celebrating with this all-new pop-up podcast to give you a more in-depth look at how we create our boxes and what you'll find inside. Over the next few episodes, we're going to talk about the four Hardc over Cover Cook subscription box options and what subscribers will be receiving in their boxes this summer. Before we start, let's connect on social media. You can find us on Instagram at Hardc over Cover Cook, and on Facebook at Hardc over Cover Cook as well. Also, here's something special just for podcast listeners Use promo code POD10 at checkout for 10% off an order on Hardcovercook. com HardCoverCookcom. You can sign up for our subscription box, buy yourself the hottest new cookbook title or finally treat yourself to that bottle of olive oil you've been eyeing for a while. Now. Let's get started For our first episode. I thought we'd start at the very beginning.

Monique Llamas: 1:13

I love all things food and cooking, but most of all, I love cookbooks. I started Hardc over Cook in 2017 as a personal project to document the explorations of my ever-growing cookbook collection. Along the way, I discovered an online community of passionate home cooks and cookbook collectors hungry to explore the world of food just like me. I've combined my obsession with cookbooks and my professional expertise of buying, selling and promoting products in the natural and specialty food industries to develop the Hardc over Cook subscription box. It's a box intended for passionate home cooks, enthusiastic cookbook collectors and anyone seeking to add new flavors to their pantry. My goal with the box is to help people expand their pantries and help them cook through their ever-growing collection. Subscribers receive one cookbook along with five to six full-size specialty ingredients once per quarter and can swap between boxes at any time.

Monique Llamas: 2:02

We offer four different subscription options. There's the omnivore box that features books with an international focus and for people with wide-ranging appetites. There's the essentials box, featuring books intended for beginner cooks or those seeking easy, everyday weeknight recipes. There's the vegetarian box, featuring books with a plant-based focus, paired with ingredients that are strictly vegan. And finally, the baking box, which features books covering a wide range of categories and styles.

Monique Llamas: 2:31

The true magic of these boxes is in the cookbook and ingredient pairings. First, I start by seeking exciting newly released cookbooks, with the occasional classic thrown in. Then I dive into that book, reviewing it page by page, looking at every single recipe to determine ingredient themes to help select the products for the box. I start with a list of about 15 to 20 potential pantry pairings and then I reach out to food producers who I've met through past jobs, been introduced to in industry events or that I've seen or gotten up and coming. As I start to taste those ingredients and try the samples, I narrow it down, considering taste, quality, price, size, availability and ultimately narrow it down to about six products. Every ingredient selected is one that will be used frequently throughout the cookbook and will make sure that you get lots of variety for your pantry.

Monique Llamas: 3:21

You'll never receive something you've gotten in the previous box. My promise to you is that every box will be thoughtfully assembled. My aim is to enhance your experience with the cookbook, helping you make the leap from the page into your own kitchen and to get started cooking from the very moment you receive your box. I'm hoping subscribers will feel a renewed sense of curiosity and excitement about trying new food in their own kitchens, the same way I do. Truly, I built this box that I wanted to buy for myself and so far customers seem to think that I built it just for them, so I'm pretty sure that means I'm doing my job all right. What really lights me up is when customers share their creations. I know I'm doing my job when I see people cooking from their new books and sharing on social media. It tells me that my box is delivering in the way I intended that they're actually cooking from their cookbooks in their own kitchens.

Monique Llamas: 4:06

Well, that's Hardcover Cook in a nutshell. If you haven't already, let's connect. Make sure to stop by hardcovercookcom to sign up for our email newsletter. We'll send you updates on new boxes and cookbooks, profiles of our authors and introductions to the producers behind our amazing collection of specialty ingredients. We'd also love to get to know you on Instagram and welcome you into our community of obsessed cookbook collectors and enthusiastic home cooks. Well, we'll see you over on episode two, which is all about our summer omnivore box, where we'll talk about the featured book Ripe Figs by Yasmin Khan and the eight very special ingredients that have been selected to accompany the book. Until then, read it, cook it, eat it, enjoy it. We'll see you next time.