I’ve noticed some peculiar questions during several of my media interviews and I hope to clear some things up with this post.
1. The recipes in the book are not mine. They belong to Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant and Bakery. That’s why the book’s name is MRS. ROWE’S LITTLE BOOK OF SOUTHERN PIES.
2. The book is not meant to be a huge "tome" on pie. It’s a sweet, little, fun book that gives recipes of a restaurant that’s 67 years old. That’s right 67.
3. I am not the pie queen—Mrs. Rowe was. I am a writer who has learned a lot about making pie by writing and researching for this book. This is important: I have no culinary training. Anybody can bake a pie. Even me. Even you. It’s not brain surgery.
4. It’s not odd for a writer to write a cookbook full of recipes that are not her own. Usually, these types of books are ghostwritten. The writer writes the book, hands it in, then goes away. Sometimes the only public recognition they get is an acknowledgment in the book—sometimes not. What is unusual is that you see my name on the cover.
5. I am not affiliated with the restaurant or the family. I know them professionally—I was inspired by the life story of Mrs. Rowe, leading me to my first cookbook MRS. ROWE’S RESTAURANT COOKBOOK: A LIFETIME OF RECIPES FROM THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. I approached the first book as a journalist. I don’t hang out with the family, nor am I paid by them. I am paid by the publisher.
