Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Anyone hear of it? Have it? Like it?

Hopefully the book design is better than the website design which gave me flashbacks to the websites of the mid 90s :)

Amazon has the search inside feature but none of the recipes are shown. I'd be very wary of buying the cookbook without seeing a few recipes.

No. the book design is just as amateur as the website. I'm a cook, not a book designer or website designer. I taught myself how to format the book on Microsoft Word and the website on Microsoft Expression. I'm self-published. But my recipes speak for themselves, and my reviews have been very positive. As a relatively new vegan (2 yrs), this book is a chronicle of my cooking experience. If you're looking for something flashy and designed professionally, my book most likely will not thrill you. Peace, The Author.

Hi Skye, Welcome to ThePPK! I hadn't heard of your blog or book until this post, so maybe direct us to some of your recipes online or something. That original post didn't even have a link or anything. I know most people would be wary of buying a cookbook without having tried any of the author's recipes before. What are some of your favorite recipes that are available on your blog/site? I don't think linanil was trying to be mean or anything. We eat with our eyes first, so catchy websites do tend to draw people in. Anyway, stick around and get to know us. We're pretty cool.

I'm rather new on the vegan cooking scene. I'm not a pro and could never compete with some of the great chefs out there. I just want to turn people on to compassionate cooking. My recipes are really more for newbies to veganism, to try and convince them that vegan food can be just as awesome as omni food. I have a holiday recipe page up right now for the public. Thanks for the kind words and welcome. Skye http://thegentlechef.com/holidayrecipes.php

And here's a link to the image gallery for my cookbook. I couldn't afford to publish full color print with photographs, so the cookbook is text, with the images on the website. My specialty seitan. :) http://thegentlechef.com/imagegallery.php

wow, your seitan looks great!

I think I'll try one of your lunchmeat recipes, I was just thinking the other day I wanted to try out a recipe for turkey slices.

Oh and I wasn't trying to be mean, I was mostly joking about the website although I'd recommend getting rid of the 'snow' :) And I didn't realize I wasn't logged into Amazon earlier, apparently they won't sneak peak recipes but now that I'm logged in, I can see some of the recipes in the cookbook which definitely helps get an idea of your style.

I'll try one of your seitan recipes as I'm always looking for good seitan.

Everything looks so yummy! The bacun looks especially exciting. And the corned beef.

Yeah, corned beef was one of my most favorite things. There was a different recipe I discovered a few years ago that I never got around to trying but its ingredients also left me skeptical.

The "snow" is just for the holidays. I know it's corny and the site is amateur but it's the best I can do since I only know html and not javascript. I hope you like the seitan recipes.

In my experience you have to take the bad feedback with the good! I don't really think people are being "mean" to you, my advice it just chill and appreciate that people seem enthusiastic about the recipes. If they don't like the snow, and you like it, who cares? If you think they may have a valid point, just laugh and deal with it. Just my two cents after reading that you were upset on FB. I didn't really care that people were saying some not so nice stuff about me on there :) That's life, you can't please everyone.

I haven't heard of this book before but I must say the rack of ribs and the chik'n satay look amazing!

Isa is wise. More than half of my posts on this site are in jest (or something) and if the OP had been the gentle chef here, I would've probably still mentioned the website because websites can make or break businesses and you don't need to know javascript to have a great website but I would've probably been less jokey about it.

And putting yourself out there will open yourself to criticism good and bad. That is life. Every year I hear from my manager the good things and the things I can improve on. Usually I know the things I can improve on. It sounds like you have an established fan base and you may be happy with that but in the big, wilder world out there, and there are a lot of vegan cookbooks and cookbook authors out there. I have an embarrassingly number of vegan cookbooks, some I love and some that are my 'to be donated' list. I'm always open to looking into others though.

Anyway, my intent was not to hurt anyone's feelings with a half assed joke but sometimes you just need to roll with things and look at criticism, good and bad as a point of reference. Like Isa said, if you love your website then do your thing.

The recipes and photos look really appetising. I'll try some of them.

You can use a free CMS to build your website. You can try them here first and decide which one to use (WordPress, Drupal and Joomla are among the most popular):
http://www.opensourcecms.com/

Great advice Isa, thank you. I'm still rather new to being in the public eye, so I just need to thicken my skin a little. I groan whenever someone criticizes other chefs on my group page. We all have different styles. BTW, I'm a great admirer of your work; Veganomicon is my fave. I hope to aspire to that level of professionalism someday. Thanks for being an inspiration. Peace, Skye