Other People's Bookshelves. Q&A with Sally Ekus.

This week I ask Sally Ekus of Not So Secret Agent about her cookbook collection and her career in publishing.

Sally as a young child, training for her career in publishing.

Q - Please tell us about your cookbook collection, what does it consist of and how many do you have?

Sally’s bookshelves, in her office.

A - My cookbook collection is a combination of my authors’ cookbooks and the books that I pick up from other authors I love and want to support. Right now, my collection is somewhat trimmed down because I am still in the process of downsizing from our previous agency site to my home office. I probably only have a few hundred at home at the moment.

Q - Which cookbooks do you love and use the most and why?

A - I love cookbooks that tell a story and suck me right in. I also love a cookbook that makes me salivate no matter the time of day I am reading it. Oh, and I love when a cookbook teaches me something new. This could be a technique, like how I learned about mushroom pressing in The Wicked Healthy Cookbook by Chad and Derek Sarno, written with Dave Joachim. Or how Sandra Gutierrez teaches me about Latin American home cooking in Latinísimo. I also tuned in to a Cherry Bombe member event and watched Jessie Sheehan demo a recipe from her latest book, Snackable Bakes, which had me totally swept up in her warm and welcoming tone about savory baking (my preferred baking!). That cookbook is currently high on my wish list.

Q - Can you remember your first cookbook? What was it and do you still have it with you?

A - Oh yes! Mine was Pretend Soup, circa 1994, by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson. It is for kids and full of charming and informative illustrations by Mollie. I distinctly remember the feelings of accomplishment I got when making recipes from this book all on my own.

Q - What system do you use to organise or file your books?

A - I have my non-agented books (meaning the books I own that are not written by my authors) organized by color. This might infuriate some people, but I labor over the design of cookbooks – their spine, cover concept, and the many other bells and whistles of their format. Thus, the easiest way for me to find a book I am looking for is to recall a design element. Color is often a striking part of that recollection.

For books that I represent, I have them displayed on the back wall of my home office so I can rotate new releases into the frame of all my zoom calls. 😊

Q - What is your oldest Cookbook and when was it published?

A - I am actually not sure! I don’t have too many cookbooks that are super old. It might be The Blueberry Hill Cookbook by Elise Masterton, circa 1959. While it is not very old, I cherish this book. Elise’s daughter, Laurey Masterton, was one of the most incredible humans and had a profound impact on my life. When she was in town visiting and talking through her proposal for the yet to be published, Fresh Honey Cookbook, she told me about her cancer journey and mission-driven work to raise awareness and money for various non-profits. It is what motivated me to even begin to imagine I could run a marathon and do something similar. Sadly, Laurey died years later. But her legacy lives on. You can read more about her in Citizen times, and I encourage everyone to do so.

Q - Which cookbooks would you recommend and why?

A - Oh my, this is SO hard to answer because it depends. What you are looking for? A great collection of well-tested, timeless, and tasty recipes? Any Michael McLaughlin book! Want to bake? Hello Dorie or Rose (both of whom have known me since I was a little girl!). Or maybe you want an agency best-seller that busts countless myths and will keep you at the top of your outdoor cooking game. Easy: Meathead, and stay tuned for the follow up this May! Tried and true vegan recipes? Any Nava Atlas book! Then there’s Toni Tipton Martin’s Jubilee and, and, and…

Q - Which cookbook authors have you met or would you like to meet? Tell us about them.

Sally with Grace Young. Sally with José Andrés

A - Okay well this is unfair because I have been sooooo lucky and fortunate to have met so many incredible authors. I will forgo listing clients we represent, which readers can see in my list of clinets. In no particular order, and certainly not an exhaustive list:

• Julia Child (she ate dinner at my house when I was a kid!)
• Emeril Lagasse (my parents media trained him)
• Mollie Katzen (parents did PR for some of her earlier books)
• Rose Levy Beranbaum (parents launched the original Cake Bible book)
• Andrea Nguyen (met at an IACP conference)
• Eric Ripert
• Hetty Lui McKinnon
• Kat Kinsman
• Anthony Bourdain (met at the security check in at a publishing office)
• Padma Lakshmi (ate together at the Beard house along with Tom Colicchio)
• Madhur Jaffrey (just met this past spring at the Cherry Bombe Jubilee event)
• Grace Young (reconnected just this past year)
• Mark Bittman
• David Lebovitz (rode an elevator together at an IACP conference)
• David Leite
• José Andrés (ran into him while I was dining at Jaleo in D.C.)
• Carla Hall
• Martin Yan

Q - As a CookBook agent, can you please give a few tips or advice to anyway wanting to get their cookbook published?

A - For aspiring cookbook authors, my best advice is to do your research and take your time putting together the strongest proposal you can. You can find extremely comprehensive proposal guidelines here. And subscribe to my newsletter, Not So Secret Agent, which demystifies the world of cookbook publishing. My Where to Begin post is also worth checking out! By subscribing to my newsletter here, you will see the previous information I have shared and also gain access to the industry networking opportunities I facilitate.

Optional Question - Is there anything else you would like to add about your bookshelves and book collection that I haven’t asked?

( I understand your mother Lisa, holds the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest number of cookbooks in her collection. It would be lovely if you could tell us about this.)

A - It is true! Lisa Ekus, my mom and the founder of our agency, holds the Guinness Book of World Record for the Largest Personal Collection of Cookbooks. While the official number is 4,239, Guinness does not count community cookbooks, collections, or culinary ephemera, all of which bring Lisa’s total upwards of over 7,000 cookbooks.

Lisa Ekus Guinness World Record collection of Cookbooks. Image credit Eric Gove Photography

I would be remiss not to share a few pictures of the incredible cherry library she built to house these books. To say that I grew up in a family of cooks and book lovers would be an understatement. What I very proudly carry forward in my work as a literary agent is advocacy for authors and support for our industry. I am so lucky!

Thank you!

~Sally~

Thank you so much Sally Ekus for telling us about your bookshelves and cookbook collection. Visit and subscribe to Sally's publication 'The Ekus Group - Not So Secret Agent'