Baking For Business Podcast

#Ep 84: Celebrating A New Book Release With Preppy Kitchen

• Chef Amanda Schonberg • Episode 84

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Preppy Kitchen is back to celebrate his new book, "Preppy Kitchen Super Easy: 100 Simple and Versatile Recipes." In this episode, you'll learn how to navigate a busy lifestyle while still whipping up delicious meals that accommodate your schedule. John’s innovative tips for customizing recipes with different spices, proteins, and cooking methods will empower you to make mealtime efficient and enjoyable. 
Join us on a heartwarming culinary journey as John recounts nostalgic moments of recipe testing with his mother in LA, sharing standout dishes like his favorite birthday cake and more. 

In this episode, we will cover:

  • The efforts that go into writing a book
  • What desserts John enjoys the most
  • The motivation behind his new release and so much more.

To top it off, get the inside scoop on John's upcoming book tour, offering a unique opportunity to meet the man behind the magic. Don’t miss this episode brimming with valuable cooking tips, heartwarming stories, and a chance to connect with Preppy Kitchen himself!

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Speaker 1:

Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with a bottle of DeSerono and one Bundt cake pan. Fast forward to today, from news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more. I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now, as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world in my global membership program six-figure businesses, mainly from home.

Speaker 1:

The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of that, from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all. We would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling. What are you waiting for? Hey, what's going on? You guys? And welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. I'm super excited because today we have a returning guest, which is cool. I'm pretty sure you sold all out of his first book and here today he's going to talk about his second book, mr John, also known as Preppy Kitchen. Welcome to the Baking for Business podcast. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

I'm great. Thanks so much for having me back. It's nice to see you again.

Speaker 1:

It's nice to see you as well, darling, and so Preppy Kitchen super easy. Tell us all about this book. What was the inspiration behind you writing this one?

Speaker 2:

the second one, Well, as you might remember, I have twin boys, lachlan and George, and they're just turned seven. As they get older, life has only gotten busier, y'all. It does get better, but it gets busier too, and I have so little time to put something on the table, and I know this is a struggle that a lot of people have at home too. So I met people on the book tour and they were really requesting for book one, and they were talking about some simple recipes, some easy recipes, and I'm like you know what, I'm totally down with this. This is what I need in my life too.

Speaker 2:

So Preppy Kitchen, super easy, was born. They're just really fast and easy recipes and wherever possible, I let you know how to use the air fryer, how to use a slow cooker, how to use the Instant Pot all the time savers. And I also took a lot of like the favorite recipes from Preppy Kitchen, like the chocolate cake, took a lot of like the favorite recipes from preppy kitchen, like the chocolate cake, the roast chicken cookies, and pared them down. So we're using less ingredients, less trips to the grocery store and simplify the recipes too. So you have those fan favorites, but you're taking less time in the kitchen, so you have more time for those moments that matter.

Speaker 1:

I love that. And you talk about the book Preppy Kitchen Super Easy 100 Simple and Versatile Recipes. So I know you spoke just a little bit on it. But in your opinion, what makes a recipe versatile? Are there any tips or tricks you have there?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, versatile. Are there any tips or tricks you have there? Yeah, so, like you know, I grew up and my mom was one of those ladies that just poof, poof, poof, like throws things into a bowl and it all comes out. She does not measure at all. So whenever I'm trying to get one of her recipes to share, I'm standing behind her and stopping her and measuring out amounts so I can like replicate it, and I think that people should have that freedom in the kitchen.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we follow recipes, but I want people to not feel pigeonholed, like they have to do it exactly this way, because everyone's different. We all like different things. So take my recipe, use it as a baseline and I want to teach you different ways to kind of riff off of it and really make it your own so that you truly love it and your like request it again and again. Almost every recipe has tons of variations. I say different spices you could use, different proteins you could use for dinner, different sauces you could try out.

Speaker 2:

There's a whole chapter in which we talk about sauces and dressings so that you can use those and, you know, dress up different meats, veggies, salads, like, use dips and just make something your own. I'm also gonna give you tons of variations for how you make things. A cake could be a layer cake or a sheet cake, or cupcakes. You can have a quick bread loaf or muffins, and the list goes on. I wanted people to come back to the book again and again, try things out in different ways and find out what their favorite is and what works best for their family.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Come back to it again and again for sure. That definitely gives us the most usage of something. And you included 100 recipes, so how did you go about picking exact 100? Like, how many did you start with?

Speaker 2:

so I have two columns, one. There's like this massive list in my head of recipes that I'm like kind of noodling on and thinking about like a lot of family favorites that we make at home that I grew up with. One example is the. It's like a spicy tomato orzo and it's like for me it's the perfect side dish. It could go well with a salad, you could have it with some lamb or chicken or whatever, and it's going to be delicious.

Speaker 2:

It's one of my like grandparents Sunday dinner staples, but they took it the slow way. Like everything was like so measured and the flavor was amazing. But I don't have the time. So the hack I made for that recipe was to get that spicy tomato base with Bloody Mary mix and you have like all that tomato spicy goodness but you save like half an hour of prep time and instead of cooking it on the stovetop and minding it, you'll get it started there and then pop it into the oven and it just bakes away. So you can do other things and like have that half hour free Time for the moment that matters absolutely, that is a really good hack.

Speaker 1:

I don't think I ever would have thought of that that in the chiapina recipe too.

Speaker 2:

It's like a spicy tomato um seafood stew. And once again I was like, oh my god, I love this recipe, I'd love to share it. But the premise of the book is super easy. So it's like kind of a drawn out afternoon of you know chopping and doing things and I was like, but let's, how can we pare this down? And the secret was to use the Bloody Mary mix as the tomato base and it worked so well. I was really happy with it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you guys so you heard it here first lots of cool secrets, lots of cool hacks. So we definitely see how everything is really becoming versatile. During the whole process of you writing the book, john, what were some of your favorite memories? Did you have any bloopers or any fun memories come up for you?

Speaker 2:

Whenever I'm involved there is a blooper, because I am a walking disaster. You know, if you're looking for that perfect moment in the kitchen, it's not me. I'm here to tell you that, in spite of your mistakes, you can make it delicious. Moment in the kitchen it's not me. I'm here to tell you that, in spite of your mistakes, you can make it delicious. But the favorite moments I had were actually when my mom came to Connecticut to visit us, and whenever she comes to visit she goes and makes a beeline for our kitchen garden with a basket and shears and the boys in hand and they all do a big harvest and then they get together chopping and the kids have their little kid knives and my mom was like I work as well chop all the vegetables up and they make a really simple but delicious vegetable soup and the boys die for it. They love this vegetable soup. They'll have it every single day for a week until it's all gone, and I was able to put nana's vegetable soup in the book. So that was one that was really fun because we all did it together.

Speaker 2:

And then I was on a big trip to LA. I was there for a few weeks and I stayed with my mom and we recipe tested a ton of recipes together and it was just so fun. Some of them were like recipes I grew up with, like took from her and I'm like redoing, and some of them were my recipes. Like there was a. There's a pear fritter in the book and it is astonishingly delicious. It has a light, a beautiful light lemon glaze on it, but the pears with this like soft batter that is fried and golden. It's like just pears held together with a little bit of golden batter and with this this lemon icing it's. I mean, it's dazzlingly delicious and I made that with my mom and she's like oh my gosh, this is so good. So it was like it was a nice moment with my mom. There was a lot of. Those are my favorites from the book.

Speaker 1:

Creating memories with our relatives. Those are always just one of the things that light us up, and I love how you're always going to your garden. I remember the first book you talked about the pansies.

Speaker 2:

Do you still grow pansies in your garden? I love using edible flowers, so you can use so many different kinds, but they really dress up desserts and even salads in a ways and make them so much more special and elevated. But it's super easy.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And speaking of desserts, desserts are definitely a favorite here. So what are some of your favorite desserts from this book?

Speaker 2:

Oh, that is a difficult question. But, like, if you look on the back cover, you have a special cake. In the book there's the perfect birthday cake and that is a beautiful vanilla cake and it has sprinkles. It just looks like a birth cake, fan, birthday cake, fantasy, and it's delicious and easy. But what I make for my birthday is totally different. It's a lemony olive oil cake, if you do.

Speaker 2:

You love olive oil cakes yes because they're so like moist and dense, but melt in your mouth like a souffle. It's like almost impossible. There's like this dissolves on your palate. And then my love language is whipped cream. So I wanted to cover this in a whipped cream, but you know, it's like so delicate and soft that it'll just like I'll squish out and fall apart. So you take that simple whipped cream and you fold in some mascarpone, which you can get at any grocery store now, if you haven't had it. It's like cream cheese, but it tastes like heavy cream, so it's perfect for frosting. So you just fold that into the whipped cream and you toss in all your favorite summer berries. And it is so light, so refreshing, perfectly sweet, and you could eat like a quarter of the cake and feel fine, like hmm, that was so satisfying, I'll have some more. Not feel like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. It's so rich, it's perfect.

Speaker 1:

It sounds decadent. We're definitely going to have to give it a try. What savory recipes would you recommend? If you had to recommend someone try one thing first, what would it be?

Speaker 2:

Oh dear, Is it really just one?

Speaker 1:

Okay, three.

Speaker 2:

Oh man. So the sweet and spicy corn pudding Uh, I love a cornbread pudding. Cornbread's not my favorite. Like it's fine, it has this place. I like it as a side, but I could eat a corn pudding like all day and night. And this, this has candied jalapenos in it which just bring that little bit of like sweet and spiciness to it. So it's really versatile. And then, um, a favorite recipe of mine that I took some flavors like I remixed some flavors from my childhood was, uh, salmon steaks that are filled with a cream cheese caraway filling and so easy to make, really fast you can meal prep it like the day ahead and just have them ready to bake off. It was so good. I ate the entire four servings, so I was just powered through it and I love the flavor that the caraway seeds give with the cream cheese and it's like a little bit of spiciness from the onions and it's it's like almost, it's like devastatingly easy to make, but it's so good.

Speaker 1:

That combination sounds really. It definitely sounds really unique, so I'm going to have to get it a try, cause I'm a huge salmon lover too.

Speaker 2:

I love it too, and you get kind of bored with your favorites Like you have like your favorite preparation and you'll have that all day and all night until you're sick of it and you can't have it anymore. So this is like a new way of trying and this folding something different in. There's a really easy summer gazpacho that I love because you know, when it's like boiling and hot, you have that feeling where you're hungry but you can't eat because it's too hot. That's where the gazpacho comes in and it's like cool and refreshing and you're going to add some beautiful croutons on top to get like that crunchiness. But it, uh, it's something that's like a perfect, like really hot day dish, which is. It's something that's like a perfect, like really hot day dish, which is. It's in Connecticut. It's boiling in pure humidity today. Don't know how it is for you, but that's this thing I'd be craving right now.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, the same. I'm in Louisiana and it's it's definitely been hot every single day, so that definitely sounds very cool and refreshing. What was the writing process like for this? Like, how long did it take you to put this together?

Speaker 2:

It takes. It takes about two years. I was working on this when the first book was almost out. That's when I started. So one of the things that I really take my time with is the recipe development, but then the recipe testing too. It's so important to send that recipe out to other people and have them test it, especially in different parts of the country, because you find out just random things you'd have never suspected. Like in the North versus the South versus the West Coast, we have different brands of flour that we use. So if you have a recipe with self-rising flour, the amount of baking soda in each version is different. So like it'll come out for everybody in the South just fine, but in the North your cake is collapsed. You're like I followed the recipe perfectly, so you have to like have people test things out when they have different ingredients at hand. That takes a while.

Speaker 1:

Okay, definitely sounds like a book for us to check out, because it sounds like a lot went into it, so I'm sure we will enjoy it. Do you have any plans for this book? Do you have a book tour? Are you doing anything with this one too? We?

Speaker 2:

have a book tour starting August 20th and if you go onto the website there's a list of venues. You can grab tickets or reserve your space. I'm so excited to meet people. That's one of my favorite experiences from the first book coming out was just meeting people in person and hearing all the lovely stories about food and family and the cookbook in general. I didn't. I get to interact with a lot of people online, but it's totally different from meeting someone in person and just getting to know them for a few minutes. I really valued that time and it was very special to me.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And you guys, we will have the link in the show notes to John's website where you can get all the information about that book tour, as well as where you can get his new book, from which I'm sure you guys are going to love. And, john, before I let you go, thank you so much for sharing about the book and everything with me. Today I am going to play a game of lightning round, but this game of lightning round is different because you are actually I realized that after almost 100 episodes and we're blessed to be one of the top rated podcasts you're actually my first returning visitor.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I had to think about it. I was like, wait, he did all the lightning round questions on the first one, so we kind of remixed your lightning round, so you ready.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm ready All right, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

So what is, or who is, a current baker crush that you have?

Speaker 2:

My answer will never change. It'll always be Ina. I don't know. No one knew the only person I'd be like. Oh my gosh, that's Ina.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we'll stick with Ina. We'll stick with Ina. What is so far between both two books? What is your?

Speaker 2:

favorite dessert out of both? Oh, my gosh, only because it's top of mind, I think, that birthday cake that I mentioned.

Speaker 1:

That's like it is what I make for my birthday. It's my special treats to myself. Sounds delicious.

Speaker 2:

What is one song you cannot get out of your head right now? Oh my gosh, it's Kesha's new song. I don't even know the name of it, but it has like this. It's so weird. It's like it's like Kesha's new song of the summer and there's like a car honking in the background. It's bizarre, but it's like total brainworm.

Speaker 1:

Okay, If or when you step out of the kitchen, what does a perfect day look like?

Speaker 2:

that does not involve baking or cooking oh, it would be spending some time with my kids. I would get to have a little me time. Maybe do some exercising, maybe go for a walk and have some really delicious food that someone else has made for me.

Speaker 1:

I know that's right Absolutely From the bottom of my heart. John, thank you so much for playing your remixed lightning round with us and thank you so much for sharing all about the book Preppy Kitchen super easy. We really appreciate you stopping by and cannot wait for all of our listeners to check it out.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me over again. I feel blessed and I hope to see you again soon.

Speaker 1:

All right, you guys. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode and special thanks to our guest, John of Preppy Kitchen. His new book, preppy Kitchen Super Easy, is out, so be sure you go check it out. I have a link to it in the show notes as well, and also on his website you can find a full list of his book tour. Be sure to tell him that you heard him on baking for business If you want to give him a shout out and meet him IRL, in real life. Thanks so much, you guys, for tuning into this week's episode. I cannot wait to spend some more time with you again in the future and, as always, I appreciate you so much for listening. Let me know what you thought. If you have any thoughts, you can always tag me at bakingforbusinesscom. Until then, take care and bye for now, thank you, thank you.