With a PhD in electrical engineering under her belt, and an itch to abandon a job in high technology, Deana Gunn set her sights on creating a recipe book of dishes using ingredients exclusively from a store she loves—Trader Joe’s. Before long, Cooking with All Things Trader Joe’s gained the attention of the Wall Street Journal and sold more than a quarter-million copies.
Gunn co-authored the book with her friend, Wona Miniati, who was also gainfully employed at a tech company.
“One day I called her up and asked if she would leave her very lucrative job in San Francisco to collaborate on a cookbook. I wanted to do it as a new career. She kind of said okay at first, and then decided yes,” said Gunn, who lives in Encinitas, CA.
That was in January of 2007.
“By late spring we had written the cookbook, and by November we were holding it in our hands,” Gunn added, noting they initially self-published 10,000 copies.
Nine other cookbooks followed.
The hardcover books all adhere to the Trader Joe’s credo in what has become a highly successful series of titles beginning with Cooking with Trader Joe’s. Each book features 130 recipes, and the books are individually tailored to specific categories of cooking, ranging from five-ingredient recipes and vegetarian dishes to dinner ideas and gluten-free meals. Glossy photos accompany every dish.
Lacking the support of a publishing house, the women formed their own company, Brown Bag Publishers. Gunn says they initially sold the books out of her garage. As word-of-mouth picked up, so did media coverage, which resulted in the need to start using wholesale distributors.
Trader Joe’s, however, was never interested in selling the books from its stores, despite the fact every recipe within the series relies 100 percent on the store’s products.
“We showed them the first book right before publishing it, and asked if they’d carry it. But it’s Trader Joe’s policy to not stock books (or CDs). After that we never heard from them again. They’re a very private company,” Gunn noted without resentment.
Married with four children, Gunn says the recipes she created fall generally into the domain of “smart cooking.” They’re geared for busy parents as well as those who like to entertain without spending all day in the kitchen.
Among the most popular dishes, found in the first cookbook, is “Peanuty Sesame Noodles.” It’s an easy combination of Trader Joe’s soyaki sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil, spaghetti noodles, and pre-shredded carrots. Best of all, it takes only 10 minutes to bang out.
With autumn upon us, her shortcut to black bean soup involves a can of the beans mingled with chicken stock, cumin, chunky salsa, lime and sauteed onions. In 15 minutes it’s done—and pairs ideally to corn bread made from Trader Joe’s boxed mix.
On the sweeter side of things, a recipe for chocolate-coffee fudge (from the portable “Companion” book in the series) earned co-author Miniati top honors in a chocoholic recipe contest at her husband’s office party. When guests requested the recipe afterwards, Miniati was embarrassed to admit it uses only three ingredients—semi-sweet chocolate chips, instant coffee and sweetened condensed milk—all from Trader Joe’s, of course.
The authors say their humble fudge is a hit everywhere.
For consumers like Gunn who know Trader Joe’s inventory inside and out—and considering Gunn wasn’t even interested in cooking until being exposed to multi-ethnic cuisines during her college days in Boston and Chicago—the premise for these cookbooks is a no-brainer. And it’s a slam-dunk for the authors since most of the books sell prolifically.
“I’ll see customers at the stores with our books opened up in their carts, using them as shopping lists,” said Gunn with the pride any author would express when observing readers enjoying their works. Admittedly bashful, she rarely introduces herself in such situations.
The books retail for $19.95 each, with the exception of the Companion edition, which sells for $13.95. They’re available at major bookstores and through Amazon.
(All photos courtesy of the authors)