Nagi Maehashi - RecipeTin Eats Dinner: 150 Recipes for Fast, Everyday Meals

Dedicated to ever yon e who has ever made, read, watched or ea ten a RecipeTin Eats recipe. You are the reaso n I love what I do. + recipes from Aust ralias favourite cook

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INTRODUCTION On the day I launched my recipe website, I had just tw o visitors my mum and my self. Last year , my website was viewed over 335 million times. Heres my story .. . Eight years ag o, I was a nance girl, tott ering around the city in suits and stilett os, working long hours and cl imbing the corporate ladder . Tod ay, I am the voice, cook, photographer and videographer of RecipeTin Eats , a website where I share r ecipes accompanied by photos and video tut orials. I also run a philanthropic division called RecipeTin Meals , where I have a team making meals for the vu lnerable in our community . And this book you are holdin g right now this is my rst ev er cookbook. That yo u are reading a cookbook I wr ote feels surreal! Its incredibly emotional. Im so proud . And so happy! How did a corporate lass end up in this posit ion? Heres my story .. .

PAGE INTRODUCTION Leaving corporate to star t a food blog? Every one thought I was craz y when I ditched t he security of an oce job to start a food blog. And I oft en make pla yful jokes about it bein g a mid-life crisis. But heres the truth. It had alway s been my dream to build something of my own. And choosing to start a recipe website as my new ventur e was a considered, well th ought out decision. I did my researc h. I had a business plan. I tested t he waters. I came up wit h ways to d ierentiate my self. I identied my strength s and weaknesses. I even prepared nancial projections! That might all sound ver y o cial and like I had a t eam of consultants to rely on, but nothing could be fur ther f rom the truth. It wa s me, Doze r and a second-hand $250 camera. And I worked har d, harder than I ever ha ve in my life, t eaching myself food photogr aphy, learning how to build a website, how to navigate social media, how to monetise my website . And of course, cooking. Cooki ng, cooking, cooking , to come up with recipes to share on m y website! A really boring story of growt h On the day I launched my website in May 2014, I had tw o visitors. One was me. Th e other was my mum! Howe ver, in the last 12 months, there have been ov er 335 million views of my website and I hav e over 4.6 million fo llowers on Instagram and Fa cebook. I wish I had an amazing stor y to accompany what I reali se is prett y bi g and rapid growt h. But I dont . It s boring! I simply focused on creatin g great recipes, writte n well, which work as promised, accompanied by good photos and, these days, a tutorial video. I did this quietly and consistently for years, steering clear of click b ait and not worr ying about going viral like many other bloggers did. As I built up my stable of recipes, I slowly gained the tr ust of readers, who then bec ame regulars. And from th ere it was like a snowball eect. Wor d began to spread about RecipeTin Eats and that cute dog of hers , bo th through word of mout h and through social media, and my website trac gr ew. And that, my friends, is the t horoughly unex citing wa y that I grew my reade rship simply through publishing recipes that work. I told you it was a borin g story !!! However, it does bring me to something import ant that you should know about me ... ... I am irra tionally obsessi ve about ensuring my recipes work! Recipes that dont work are a pet peev e of mine. I hate wasting time, I hate wast ing money and I hate w asting food. And the thought of you wast ing your money because my recipes dont work? T hat feeds my fear . If you are wondering if this obsession stems from a poor upbringing, you would be righ t. But what you probably ha vent guessed is that its also fuel led by messages I r eceive from re aders. Like the reader in Ghana who told me meat was a once- a-mont h luxury and how much it meant knowing they could rely on my re cipes. And the reader who aske d me to help choose a recipe for what ended up being the last meal for her terminally ill husband. Yup . Brings me to tears. So yes, I am pro bably a litt le too obsessive about testi ng my recipes but I hope I nev er change. The record is 89 times, for My Perf ect Va nilla Cake (pa ge ) , the most iconic recipe in this book , was tested more than 35 times! This is what drives me Having covere d the serious side of what I do, fundamentall y the thing that drives me and what I love the most about wha t I do, is creating and sharin g recipes that taste so gr eat it makes you do a happy dance. It makes me smile when I see fe edback from a reader , pumped because they nailed a cak e that the y thought was be yond them. I feel honoured when people choose to mak e my tu rkey for their Christmas centr epiece. I love hearing how people put t ogether full-blown menus from my recipes for sp ecial occasions start ers, mains, s ides and dessert ! Or how they won t he local chilli contest, or how their brownies were the rst to go at the school bake sale. Ive truly put my heart and soul into this cookbook. Literally, my blood, sweat and tears. I hope you enjoy it and cook a lot of the recipes!! Nagi xx

Meet Doze r, my 10-y ear-old, abnormally large golden retrieve r. I do the cooking. Doz er does the taste test ing. The problem is, he t hinks ever ythin g tastes amazing ! He falls asleep in front of the ov en when Im slow- cooking roasts. He hoovers up scraps bett er than any vac uum cleaner . And he makes fo r the best hugs. Eve r. I love this damn dog so damn much. PAGE DOZER