How cookbooks rate in the States

April 12, 2014·Darcie

Great American Eats

Amazon.com has just released an interactive infographic called "Great American Eats" that shows which cookbooks originating in each region of the U.S. are most popular. The map is curated by Mari Malcolm, Amazon Books' food editor. She explains her inspiration to the LA Times: "I've long been intrigued by the regional trends in cookbooks, so I decided it would be fun for foodies and our cookbook customers if I actually mapped them."

Living in the Midwest, I was naturally curious about this region, which includes some very rural areas along with the metropolis of Chicago. The comfort food-heavy The New Midwestern Table nabbing a spot in the top five cookbooks hailing from this region, but the sophisticated Alinea holds its own at number eleven.

So far only the U.S. has been mapped, and there is no indication it will spread to other countries. The maps shows cookbooks by originating region, and lists them in order of "new and popular."

7 comments

DebkelliememberApril 12, 2014

On a slightly related note, and by chance, I looked at Australian foodie magazine readership stats from one of the "respected" pollsters. There are around a dozen or so Australian foodie mags and amongst those included in the poll it seems interest is waning..as in readership stats are falling. All except "Feast" and "Delicious" sustained a significant readership drop in the year ended December 2013, even old faithful 'Women's weekly" took a hit (list beow = readership, % increase/decrease in year's sales):
Australian Gourmet Traveller 264,000 -10.5%
Delicious 449,000 7.7%
Donna Hay 342,000 -7.1%
Feast - 182,000 +12.3%
Healthy Food Guide 163,000 -16.0%
Recipes+ 483,000 -7.5%
Super Food Ideas 643,000 -22.5%
Weight Watchers Magazine 129,000 -14.0%
Women's Weekly 1,967,000 -4.6%
Full stats at: http://www.roymorgan.com.au/industries/media/readership/magazine-readership

darcie_bApril 12, 2014

Interesting stats on the readership. Wonder if it's just a blip or a longer trend. BTW - the article has been updated to show that the map indicates where the cookbooks originate and ranks them by their current sales popularity.

rivergaitApril 12, 2014

Where is this map? Searching Amazon did not bring it up.

darcie_bApril 14, 2014

The Amazon editors do pick which items to include in the list, but items are ranked by "new and popular." Of course, Amazon isn't telling us what algorithm they are using for "new and popular" - it's likely some combination of sales, positive reviews, etc. Modernist Cuisine at Home is a very popular book with a sales ranking of #3980, which is below Pok Pok (#2713), but above Whole Grain Mornings (#9658).

emiliangApril 13, 2014

I'm confused. The #1 book for the Pacific Northwest costs $100. The #4 book costs $400. There's no way those books are the most popular originating from that region. I think these are simply "editors' picks" -- the lists have nothing to do with popularity.

JaneApril 12, 2014

I've added a link in the text at the top. Actually this map doesn't show how popular cookbooks are by region but where they originate.

bbmacApril 12, 2014

http://www.amazon.com/b?node=7331307011