SHEER JOY: 72 hours of a book release!

Coming to you live from the midst of the craziness that is a book release week! Just one word that captures the essence of this week: JOY. ❤️ (Also – busy 😅)

Wow, what a week!! We are 3 days into the release of my new cookbook Tonight and it’s been a whirlwind. As someone who is not a writer by background, it’s hard for me to describe the experience well in written form.

So let me try it my way. Take a peek into the last 72 hours of my life via my camera roll!

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Release day FOMO – show me your book!

Release day for Tonight here in Australia was Tuesday 15th October and I was in a shoot studio all day, when all I wanted to do was dash out to a bookshop. So I put out a call on the RecipeTin Appreciation Group on Facebook – show me your book!

Here’s a peek at what came through in this short home video I put together – people receiving pre ordered books in the mail, going to book shops, sales reps unpacking boxes, shop assistants jumping with excitement, tears of joy (mine!).

And here are some little snippets of posts I’ve seen on social media! Most of these are from the RecipeTin Appreciation Facebook Group (no, I did not start it, but I am in the group!):

And a few fun photos people have shared on social media:

And if that’s not enough for you, join the RecipeTin Appreciation Facebook Group and have a browse through the photos and messages from members on the release day Show Me Your Book! Facebook post I did. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face!!!

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Meanwhile, in a photography studio….

As I mentioned earlier, all this was happening while I was in a photography studio doing big photos for the upcoming holiday season. Stupidly, I arranged these shoots on release day thinking meh, what will there be for me to do?? I have to get on with my work!

Doh. 😄 Lesson learned for next time!

But actually, I had such a terrific day because I was working with a team that I get along with so well. Great group to be with on an exciting day!!

There was also some dog that was hovering around all day hoping a ham leg would fall on the floor….

It was a big couple of days but I was so happy with what we captured. Wait until you see the photos!! They are for the holiday season this year, so I’ll start sharing them soon. Here’s a preview of one.

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Dymocks store launch day celebration

I deliberately stayed away from book stores on Tuesday, the actual release day, because I had organised a gathering on Wednesday. That first day you see your own book in a shop is pretty special. To be honest, the release day for my first book Dinner was a bit of a fizzle because I was just by myself. Yeah, pretty sad and lonely hey!😂

This time was a little different. Well, firstly, I was surprised with a gigantic, completely obnoxious window display at the Dymocks Sydney City store. Balloons! Giant TV scrolling through recipes! DOZER!

And I also invited some of the key people involved who helped make the book happen. There are many, many people involved in the making of a cookbook, but these are some of the people on my side of the fence who made a big contribution to the book:

Let me introduce you to them. Left to right:

• Hunter – The 12 year old daughter of one of my dearest childhood friends! She was one of the recipe testers for my Sweets chapter.

• Me!

• Rob Palmer – Who I introduce to everyone as “Australia’s best food photographer!” and also “he won the national portrait of the year in 2020!!” (see here, sadly not me nor Dozer, but an actual real chef 🙂 )

• Mama RecipeTin – and employee of the month 2 months in a row, taking on more responsibilities to help me out while we have some staff gaps in the team.

• Tom Sarkis from Carved Catering – My lead recipe tester!

• Herron Oh – My video editor.

• Missing – Theressa Klein (photo chef everybody adores), Emma Knowles (magic food whisper aka Food Stylist)

Meet them all properly on page 344 of Tonight. 🙂

Oh, and look! Here’s the whole window display. See? I told you. OBNOXIOUS!!! (Secretly, I’m going back again to look at it again with just Dozer before they take it down 😈)

And a little home video! Dozer waddling through the book store is just everything. 🥰

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Celebration dinner at Azuma

After seeing the book at Dymocks, we headed out for a celebration dinner at Azuma. This is a restaurant that is very special to the RecipeTin family because it is the only fine dining traditional Japanese restaurant in Sydney (that we know of).

Sydney is blessed with many wonderful home-style traditional Japanese restaurants and an increasing number of modern Japanese restaurants. But there’s nothing like Azuma that serves traditional Japanese food of a very high standard. Cookbook launch celebration worthy!

As much as I would have loved to toast with a few glasses of champagne, I had to keep it a low-key early night because Thursday was a BIG day, starting with a guest appearance on The Today Show….

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TV!

So here we are, on Thursday morning. Early call up of 7 am at a TV studio for a guest appearance on the Channel 9 Today Show.

Despite getting to bed as early as I could, I still found myself struggling in the morning. Which meant a quick hair and make up scramble in the public toilets before going on set to fill the bench with food before the cameras rolled out!

In case you’re wondering what I showed – it was the Vietnamese Coconut Lemongrass Pulled Pork which is intended to be served DIY style whichever way you want: noodle bowls, rice bowls, rice paper rolls or Banh Mi. It’s on page 283 of Tonight!

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Highlights and book plates

From the TV studio to the hair salon for an overdue appointment before the book tour officially kicks off! No time to waste though, sitting in a chair chatting away to my hairdresser. Nope. 300 book plates to sign before the first book signing even tonight. (PS Book plates = fancy word for stickers that people can stick inside their book).

I can’t believe I shared that photo of me with a hair full of goop. Who am I! 😂

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First book signing – Parramatta Westfield

And from the hair salon to Parramatta Westfield for the first book signing.

Wow, it was such a professionally organised event by the Westfield events team. It ran so smoothly so I was able to just concentrate on my favourite part of the book tour – meeting people!

Thank you everyone, for the warm welcome and making me feel at ease. I am always very nervous walking into these events, clutching onto Dozer as my security blanket. But the moment I meet the first person, it just feels like I’m chatting to a friend and the nervousness just instantly disappears.

I did regret wearing heels though. That was a LONG time to be standing in heels for someone who’s usually schlepping around the kitchen in barefoot or ugg boots!

See the Events page for my book tour dates. I will keep this updated as new signings are added!

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UK release

And it just so happened that when I was leaving Parramatta Westfield, those of you on the other side of the pond in the UK were waking up to Tonight release day in the UK!! 🎉 I arrived home to a lovely bunch of celebratory flowers from my UK publisher, Bluebird, and photo from the team.

It means so much to me that the UK edition of the book came out so close to the Australian release date. For my first book, the UK and North American editions came out months later. It just wasn’t the same!

But this time, they are all coming out within weeks of each other. Australia and the UK are out. The North America release day is 29th October. So soon – yay!!

UK readers: You can find a copy of Tonight at Waterstones, WH Smith, Bookshop.org (indies website), Eason and Book Station (Ireland), as well as online at Amazon.

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Meanwhile at RTM….

And in amongst all of that, we had a milestone day at my food bank, RTM, with the installation of sparkling new cooking equipment!

It has been months and months since we ordered the new oven and brat pan, many phone calls and tradie visits to install new gas pipes and power, so much effort to get the kitchen ready for them.

And finally, JB calls to tell me the installation date is confirmed – and of COURSE it is on the book release day. I was gutted! I wanted to be there to see it be installed. And in fact, this week has been so busy I haven’t even been to RTM to see it. 😭 But I made JB FaceTime me during the installation and there have been many videos and photos shared!

The RTM chefs tell me this new equipment is a game changer. We can cook more, faster, better, because they are larger and more powerful.

Most exciting is that it means we can make more meals even without increasing our staff numbers. I can’t wait!! More on this soon. This is a huge, huge milestone for us.

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Three days in!

And that’s a wrap on the first three days of book launch. Phew! It’s been busy, but filled with joy. The excitement from all the readers who have received and started cooking from Tonight is infectious! Please keep sharing your stories and thoughts on recipes, tell me your favourites, the tweaks you do to make it your own. Tag me on Instagram @recipe_tin and Facebook @recipetineats, and hashtag #recipetintonight !

And remember, the more tags you have, the scruffier the book gets, the more oil stains and sauce splatters there are, the more I love it!! Creating a cookbook that is truly useful and one you can genuinely reach for on days when you’re short on time or your cupboard is bare, that’s cost effective and family friendly – this was my goal.

I’d love to know if you think I achieved it! – Nagi x

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Life of Dozer

Dozer would like everybody to know that the largest photo in the Dymocks window display is of him, not me. ❤️

He would also like to know which Dozer cut out you think is cuter. Left – new one. Right – old one.

It’s double trouble!