The Business of Junior League Cookbooks

Cookbooks produced by junior leagues are not only popular, they’re major fund-raisers for charity. Putting them out has become serious business, involving scrupulous recipe testing, professional photography and food styling, fancy graphics and forewords by celebrities such as Alice Waters.

Marketing and sales may involve commercial distributors and publishers. Two books by the Junior League of Pasadena and two by the San Francisco league were published by Doubleday. Another book, “San Francisco Flavors,” was published by Chronicle Books. Prices are usually slightly lower than for most commercial cookbooks; most junior league books cost less than $25.

Some bookstores make a point of carrying league books. “If one is presented to us and it looks good, we carry it,” says Jodi Kinzler, general book buyer for Vroman’s in Pasadena. “We probably have at any one time eight to 10 titles.” Books by the Junior League of Pasadena are most in demand.

The Richard J. Riordan Central Library in downtown Los Angeles has more than 100 league titles in its collection. “Most of them are older, so a lot of them are reference,” says Helen Haskell, librarian. “They are oftentimes rare.”

The Assn. of Junior Leagues International in New York City has prepared for its Web site (https://www.ajli.org) a list of 215 league cookbooks, but it only goes back to 1950. There have certainly been more, but the list does not include old books that have vanished from circulation. Among these is “The Junior League Recipe Book” privately printed in 1930 by the Los Angeles league, and the 1939 “Santa Barbara Junior League Cook Book.”

Also missing are brand new books such as “California Fresh Harvest: A Seasonal Journey through Northern California” by the Junior League of Oakland-East Bay, which came out in June.

This book has twin forewords by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and winemaker Gina Gallo of E&J; Gallo Winery. Waters has offered to sign cookbooks and to collaborate with the league on a future fund-raising event. Gallo helped underwrite the printing of the book and donated the wine for the book kickoff event in June.

Recipes from 200 leagues are included in the “The Junior League Centennial Cookbook” (Doubleday; 1996), compiled by the international association. “In any given year, the Junior Leagues in aggregate may publish as many as 200 cookbooks that raise several million dollars,” the introduction to that book states.

The first California Junior League was established in 1912 in San Francisco. Today the state has 17 leagues, 12 of which have produced cookbooks. The most prolific is the Junior League of Pasadena, which has compiled six books, starting with the modest spiral-bound “Pasadena Prefers” in 1964. Currently in circulation are “California Sizzles” (1992) and “Dining by Design” (1999), which is designed around room settings created by the Pasadena branch of the Assn. of Interior Designers.

The San Francisco league has produced “San Francisco a la Carte” (1979); “San Francisco Encore” (1986) and “San Francisco Flavors” (1999).

But Elizabeth Wolfe, managing editor of “California Fresh Harvest,” warns that publishing a charity cookbook is not for the faint of heart. “It’s a big endeavor to do one of these projects,” she says. “When the league takes on a new cookbook, we are looking at two to four years of research. The book will be in print and distributed for 10 to 15 years.”

Producing a cookbook is also costly. The league had to raise $107,000 to underwrite just part of the printing. For this reason, there may be more cost-effective ways of earning money.

The Los Angeles League’s “Gourmet L.A.” (1988), which went through two printings, is no longer available. “We have developed other community-based fund-raisers that we felt more than made up for the income from the book,” says Dale Harbour-Day, president. “However, it’s always discussed [whether to put out another]. We will be evaluating future fund-raising activities this year, so we will be looking at it again.”