Meet the woman who is embracing diversity in cookbooks

YOU may not be familiar with Kristin Jensen by name, but you’ll know her work more than you realise.

Scan your cookbooks by Irish authors and, as sure as eggs are eggs, she will be there; the cookbook editor who shapes culinary works into much loved recipe books.

A freelance editor with 20 years’ experience under her belt, Kristin has carved a career working with the best and biggest names in Irish food writing: Darina Allen, Neven Maguire, Rory O’Connell and Rachel Allen, to name but a few.

She also co-authored three books, including with Cork-based food writer, Caroline Hennessy, Sláinte: The Complete Guide to Irish Craft Beer and Cider, and is currently working on a new book, due to be published in October, 2023, with a favourite Cork author.

Kristin’s successful career earned the moniker ‘Ireland’s best cookbook editor’, yet she was increasingly frustrated at the lack of diversity in an industry she loves, prompting her to use her platform to disrupt and shift the direction of cookery publishing in Ireland with the launch of her new boutique publishing house, Nine Bean Rows Books.

Originally from the U.S, Kristin came to Ireland in 1999 for what she thought would be a one-year “little European adventure” with her then Donegal-born boyfriend, Matt, she met at college in the U.S.

“Here I still am!”, she quips, 23 years on, living in County Louth, married with two children, Maebh, 17, and Connor, 14, and two dogs.

“I’ve loved books my whole life, I knew I wanted to study English ever since I started thinking about college so that surprised no-one. 

"I moved over to Ireland after college for one year, my plan was to go back and get an MFA in Creative Writing.

“But the more time went on, the more roots we put down, and our family and friends had scattered across the country, so it was like there was no home to go back to. We very much made Ireland our home; I came for love, and then fell in love with Ireland.”

Both Kristin and Matt have built successful careers. The children are growing up and as Kristin charts her way through her forties, she is moving into the next chapter of her professional life.

“I love being in my forties, I feel like all that striving and work is paying off, that I’m hitting my stride. I’m getting the benefit of those decades of experience now – it stands to me, I know my stuff, I know what I’m doing. It’s a satisfying place to be, a really rewarding stage of life.”

Satisfying it may be, but Kristin is not sitting back, instead pushing boundaries in publishing. In 2020, Kirstin launched a new publishing house, Nine Bean Rows Books, leading with Blasta Books.

“In the past seven years, as an avid cookbook reader and buyer – not just an editor – I saw a narrowing of the market in Ireland. And I get it, I know all too well cookbooks are expensive to produce, you need to be certain that investment and risk is going to pay off.

“Even so, I saw this narrowing of how many people and who was getting published at the same time wider culture was pushing to open up. They were completely at odds with each other.

“I had the idea for Blasta Books in 2020. In the U.S, the murder of George Floyd sparked off lots of ripple effects, one of which was an amplification of these conversations happening in the U.S and UK about representation: who is being seen; who is being heard? That trickled down into food media and became conversations such as: if a magazine has a column on weekend project cooking, why entertain the idea of a homemade lasagne taking 12 hours, but not an Asian dish requiring similar time and attention?

“Whose stories are being told? Whose food are we seeing; whose food are we not seeing? I was thinking this was problematic, and in 2020 that it’s not OK.”

It’s not just cities and towns where Irish society and communities are becoming ever more diverse.

“Walk the streets of any city or mid-sized town in Ireland and there are exciting and diverse things happening in food, but we’re not seeing that represented in mainstream media.

“I’m based in Ardee, a tiny little town near Drogheda, yet when I look at my daughter’s secondary school, it’s fair to say half her class are like her – first generation of immigrant parents. Who would think in this little provincial, middle-of-nowhere place in Co Louth, there’s all this diversity? We’d never know it from what’s on our TV screens and bookshelves.”

Blasta Books is Kristin’s response to representing what Irish food is today, describing them as little books with big voices.

“We could be doing better, showing off more of what we have to shout about and celebrate,” Kristin says; and if Blasta Books is about celebrating difference, so must the format be bold, turning what we think a cookbook should be on its head.

Blasta Books is small size with illustrations, not photographs, helping to keep the price low to produce them and for people to buy them. At €15 per book and 60 pages long, they’re literally a taste of Ireland’s different cuisines and voices.

The first four Blasta Books are Tacos by Lily Ramirez-Foran, Hot Fat by Russell Alford and Patrick Hanlon, United Nation of Cookies by Jess Murphy and Eoin Cluskey, and Wok by Kwanghi Chan.

“I was very much led by the author not the topic, and I always said that, if I ever had my own publishing company, the first person I would publish is Lily, and that’s what I did!

“I love everything Patrick and Russell were putting up on their socials. Every recipe would be so outrageously delicious-looking! Their food is fun, delicious and flavour-forward.”

United Nations of Cookies is by Jess Murphy, the co-owner of Kai restaurant in Galway, originally from New Zealand and an official High-Profile Supporter of the UNHCR refugee agency, together with Eoin Cluskey, who founded the community-focused, award-winning Dublin bakery, Bread 41.

“I called Jess with the idea of doing something with her. She told me her and Eoin had this cookies project in the works before Covid shut everything down, a kind of milk and cookies travelling show, and I knew that was the book! Same with Kwanghi Chan. I love everything he does; I contacted him out of the blue with no idea for a book, and he came up with the concept and title.

“It was only when I had all four in front of me the thought occurred these are literally the voices and faces of modern Ireland: Lily is Mexican-Irish, Russell and Patrick are a gay couple; Jess from New Zealand; Eoin a born and bred Dubliner, and Kwanghi is Irish-Chinese – then there’s me, the Yank!

“But we are all Irish: we all look different; our accents are all different; yet Ireland is our home and I think that’s really powerful.”

Nine Bean Rows Books is the publishing house and where Kristin will publish traditional format books by exciting voices in Irish food. Blasta Books is an imprint, published as a quarterly series celebrating the diversity of people and cuisine in modern-day Ireland.

They say good things come in threes, so Kristin, along with Dee Laffan, editor-in-chief, and Áine Duffy, creative director, recently launched Irish food journal, Scoop.

“Nine Bean Rows, Blasta Books and Scoop are all about story; the three pillars of what I call the Well-Read, Well-Fed family,” says Kristin.

“Scoop was a realisation that what I wanted to see and read didn’t exist in Ireland. I was reading Cherry Bombe (US) and Noble Rot (UK), indie magazines that aren’t recipe driven but more in-depth food writing across a variety of topics.

“Scoop will be published twice a year, and each issue has a theme tying the features together. Our first issue theme is ‘What is Irish Food?’

“Scoop supports long form food writing where writers can get stuck into a topic, explore nuances and deeper issues rather than just scratching the surface.

“That’s the impetus of Scoop – bold stories, maybe something controversial, definitely thought-provoking; to come at things from an unexpected angle, edgy, giving writers more room to play.”

We are being invited to ditch dizzying reels and linger longer, to gift ourselves time to read and think.

“I’m all about holding a book in my hands. We’re calling Scoop a magazine but, really, it’s a 112-page journal to be dipped into, savoured, and something to keep over the years.”

Kristin’s career has spanned two decades, observing changing cookbook trends over the years. She has gone from a “red pen for hire” taking on any work that came her way, to the most respected cookbook editor in Ireland, and now boss of her very own publishing house.

After all that she has seen, what does the future of publishing look like?

“For me, the future of publishing is niche: deep, not wide; and a real opportunity for new and existing publishing houses to set up new imprints that go deeper.

“Writers must have a voice, a personality, a story. People ask why you would buy a cookbook when there are recipes for anything online. To that I say, yes, but it’s not been tested or curated, and it’s stripped of all heart and soul.

“We are all hungry, especially post-pandemic, for connection and when you’ve got someone who is passionate about their area of expertise, that comes through. Try not to be for everybody - just hone right in and be for your people; find your tribe.”

www.ninebeanrowsbooks.com