What the Half Baked Harvest Controversy Means for Cookbook Publishing: A Case Study
Photo by Elevae Visuals
More times than not when I tell a random person I’m a cookbook coach, they’ll immediately say: Oh, I/ my girlfriend/ wife/ sister/ best friend love(s) Half Baked Harvest and own all of her cookbooks. And on a certain level, it’s not hard to see why.
Tieghan Gerhard is the face behind Half Baked Harvest, a blog which turned into an entire brand with multiple cookbooks and an Instagram following that most food creators dream about.
In public, food media folks will praise her work, but behind closed doors there’s often the conversation of her controversies (alleged or not)—cultural appropriation, recipe theft, and her open disinterest in learning more about food, frequently citing that she owns no cookbooks and follows zero food creators.
But she has millions of followers and is a New York Times bestselling author. Her restaurant and meal-delivery collaborations expanded her reach beyond the home cook. There are thousands of reviews of folks who swear by her recipes, even when they don’t turn out well. Like her or not, she’s inspired people to get in the kitchen and start cooking.
The question that remains for folks inside the food world and even those on the outside looking in, is: Does she deserve to be here in the first place and what does this mean for cookbook publishing?
It’s actually a question that comes up for a lot of influencers. And while Half Baked Harvest seems to have a bright interrogation light on her now, it’s worth using her work as a case study for influencer cookbooks in general. You could take one or two Half Baked Harvest controversies and apply them to a bunch of influencers.
Let’s talk about it.
The myth “only experts allowed”
For an industry that’s made non-cooks like Madhur Jaffrey, Ina Garten, and Marcella Hazan legends, it’s also an industry that loves to remind home cooks: Some of you aren’t like us.
I’ll never forget seeing Rachel Ray at a sold-out conference for women in food and drink. The former Food Network host was an absolute riot onstage, showing very tender sides of herself too. But the one thing she repeated over and over was: I’m a cook, not a chef.
This was around the time she brought up Anthony Bourdain, and his open distaste for her work. Even though they found common ground before he died, you could feel the pain and admiration in her voice when she spoke about him. Because regardless, if you’re just starting or have been doing this for decades, you want to be seen and accepted by your peers.
Half-Baked Harvest was created for 17-year-old Gerhard to photograph and document the meals she made for her family. The blog exploded into book and brand deals along with some television features. Her social media wasn’t far behind as it grew to millions upon millions.
Even though podcasts and morning shows love a self-taught success story, behind the scenes, people want to know someone has the credentials to show up. There’s also a lot of industry folks speaking out of both sides of their mouths. You’ll hear people questioning someone’s culinary and fine dining training, while also talking about making food media more inclusive.
So, which is it? Are you open to new people with varied backgrounds, or are you interested in some people with backgrounds that fit your mold?
Now, I think one piece of the Half Baked Harvest controversy is that Gerhard doesn’t do herself any favors by continuing to lean into being an amateur. When you’ve written multiple cookbooks, have grown an audience in the multi-millions, and built a massive studio kitchen complete with prop storage, you’re expected to show up like you know some things. In the words of an old improv teacher of mine: It’s okay not to know something once, but it’s not okay to not know it twice.
She proclaims she’s “not Google” when readers complain about their bakes being off because of her high altitude and zero tweaks for those at lower elevations. Hiring a recipe tester at sea level could fix this, and she could include the adjustments for her readers. That would be a prime example of meeting your audience where they are. It’s also a pretty common practice in food writing and publishing.
It seems to be an attitude, whether real or portrayed, that Gerhard holds which makes you wonder why she’s continuing on a path where questions will undoubtedly come up. One of the things you have to do as a food creator, recipe developer, writer and cookbook author is anticipate reader needs. It’s the same thing for food magazines. Because if you’re not doing it for the reader experience, what are you doing it for in the first place?
Some people may say you can’t please everyone, and that the internet is full of haters. But if you’re showing up as a professional to do a job, part of that job is listening to feedback and making improvements. People have forgotten what constructive criticism is and assume someone pointing out some things they’ve observed is an internet troll who loves clickbait. It’s not unreasonable to expect that readers would expect you to already have the answers to the questions they have when you’ve been in business for over a decade.
Readers want to champion the self-made cookbook author. It reminds them they could also step into something outside their current box. But you have to be willing to meet their new and evolving expectations of you.
Cookbooks are a business
Behind closed doors, there are conversations in the industry about who does and doesn’t deserve to have a cookbook deal. Who deserves what is a slippery slope. Because plenty of people have gotten opportunities they “didn’t deserve”, whether it’s a chance to sit in on a high-level meeting as an intern or landing a dream job when you don’t have as much experience as the other candidates. It’s cool when we’re the ones given a chance to step outside of the box we’re currently in, but if other people do it (and do it successfully), that’s another story.
So, when folks, like Teighan Gerhard, create a phenomenon, the conversation about whether she’s deserving of the fame always comes up. Her blog may not speak to you, and the recipes may not be what you’re looking for, but one thing is clear, she’s put in a lot of work to keep her blog running and publishing new content every day.
On one hand, you want the unheard voices to find their microphone, but you also need extra cash to take a chance on fresh talent. And that’s why publishers keep books they know will sell in the rotation. It’s the same reason streaming and movie studios do remakes and reboots; there’s a built-in audience who will absolutely spend money to watch them.
And this brings me to a truth so many writers hate: If you want to be successful, you need to embrace creativity as a business.
Yes, you can create whatever you want in the dungeon of your choosing with no one watching or dictating what you can and cannot do. But if you want your work to be distributed to the masses, you have to know the hustle. And this is where a lot of writers (and creatives in general) go wrong. They obsess over how cool their work is and how it’s not like anything anyone else is doing, but they don’t put in the time to understand how the machine works.
Joining Publisher’s Marketplace (or even getting a one day pass to explore book deals etc) and reading Jane Friedman’s The Business of Being a Writer are good places to start. Also, get curious. The internet is bubbling with resources from podcasts like Everything Cookbooks to Diane Jacob’s blog (and book) Will Write for Food.
So, instead of complaining about an influencer having cookbooks on bookstore shelves (who is not your competition anyway, unless you also have millions and millions of followers), choose to learn something from them. Are they promoting their work really well and incorporating ways for followers to engage with them? Do they have surprises built into their content that make it more fun to follow along? Are they consistent in a way you wish you could be?
And on the flip side, are they doing something that’s cool, but you see places where it could be improved? For example, if they have created the ultimate holiday party guide for their readers, but you feel like it’s a bit underwhelming with very general tips, what would you change? Does it spark an idea for you about something you could create for your audience?
There’s always something to learn, especially from people who are successful, even if they’re not doing the work you want to do.
The Big Half Baked Harvest Controversy
Undoubtedly, the Half Baked Harvest controversy that seems to both people the most is her alleged recipe theft with a side of cultural appropriation. Recipes are tricky because there’s few protections for creators. You can’t copyright ingredients, but how you write and describe the recipe is something you can protect. Now, whether or not you’ll win any litigation against people who steal your recipes is another thing.
On one hand, it’s understandable that you may not know you’ve taken inspiration from someone’s creation. We’re inundated with information and content, so it’s entirely possible we could accidentally not credit a source. Or it’s also possible for people to have the same idea with no intentional stealing of the other’s idea.
Recipes in American cooking have been borrowed and repurposed constantly, since the first cookbooks. This was largely because as a country there was no distinct cuisine, so we largely borrowed from our British counterparts. It’s also hard to know where the line is for ourselves as we’ve likely taken a little bit from different cultures without even realizing it; especially, if we’re raised in multi-cultural environments. She’s also not the only well-known cookbook author to be accused of cultural appropriation. So, while the aim should always be to do better, there is no one consensus on who owns a recipe.
In terms of recipe development, it’s recommended to change 3-6 things for a recipe to become your own. And the internet is watching. Folks on the sub Reddit “Foodie Snark” may be a bit ravenous with any Half Baked Harvest controversy, but they also find plenty of examples of recipe borrowing without attribution. It’s beguiling to have someone say they don’t read other people’s food content, but yet, their work looks strikingly similar to someone else’s, even down to baking times and measurements. No one said you couldn’t be inspired, but you should include where it came from, if in fact, it did come from someone else.
With so much content being pumped out on the Half Baked Harvest blog, it’s unsurprising that this could happen. In some ways, you become the first tribute of your own success. Recipe development takes time, and it’s a question many people have: Does Gerhard actually develop (and taste) her own recipes?
In an interview with Martha Stewart, Gerhard mentioned that she was cooking her Thanksgiving turkey in butter-soaked cheesecloth, a method she credited to herself. In true Martha fashion, she chuckled and gently reminded Gerhard that it was something she created. Gerhard seemed a bit thrown off but rolled with it. To say you invented something (especially in the presence of an icon) is a bold move.
This is where people may lose their patience with her. You don’t see her tasting or enjoying her food, and even the descriptions of what she’s cooking can sound like someone else’s words. Plus, there seems to be such a defiance in even admiring what other food creators are doing that it makes you wonder why she’s doing this in the first place. Some sub Redditors believe her mom actually develops or finds a lot of the recipes, which isn’t uncommon to have a team at this level. But it’s just another nail in the creative coffin for some people.
Gerhard constantly quotes that she thinks of food backwards, from the photo to the creation of the recipe. Which isn’t a crime, but is something to consider when readers say that the dishes are often too creamy, cheesy, or overrun with unnecessary oils. There are also readers who say that they love everything she makes, and they don’t have a problem with any of the recipes.
As someone who would read and respond to reader emails at Cooking Light, I know that sometimes people say they followed the recipe exactly and then it failed. Digging a little deeper, I’d discover that they changed the temperature or ingredient ratios. We had an entire test kitchen dedicated to developing those recipes, and I know the level that went into it. On our end, it would be very hard for a recipe to just fail over and over. But it could happen.
The main thing is people want to believe that the person creating the recipes is involved every step of the way. It builds a lasting connection with an audience because they can trust that what you say is real. You’ve been in the trenches, and now exactly why a recipe worked or not. They want to know the fails and adjustments you had to make. If you get something wrong, take the feedback and use it for your future work.
Even if it seems like people on the internet just want to tear people down, there are so many people who want influencers and the ones coming behind them to do well. They want someone to cheer for. But they also crave authenticity, and if the only thing you’re interested in is the hero image, they can feel it.
What the Half Baked Harvest Controversy Means Moving Forward
If there’s one takeaway from this case study, it would be that none of this (for the most part) is personal. Gerhard getting cookbook deals doesn’t actually remove an opportunity from someone else. Readers and onlookers pointing out places for improvement doesn’t automatically make them haters who are dying for clickbait.
Should you choose to buy everything that Gerhard sells, cool. If it’s getting you in the kitchen, enjoying your life more, who’s to say that that’s not right? And on the flipside, if you don’t want to ever buy anything from her, keep it moving. You can have a healthy debate of ideas when you’re looking at recipe creation from a critical perspective, but no one should be up in the middle of the night angry about some recipe on the Half Baked Harvest website (unless it’s yours, then that’s a different story).
We can hold people in places of influences accountable while also making space to understand why certain things have happened. Because one day, it could be you who makes a misstep and has a controversy that fills the threads of Reddit. As much as we’d like to think it could never happen to us, you also don’t know what conversation, interview or collaboration could have followers outraged. In food publishing, I think controversies like this will make some publishers rethink hiring some authors, and they may be more vigilant about recipe development and writing. But also, publishing houses are spread thin, so I don’t think this will be the last time we have a discussion around creation and theft (or borrowing).
So, what can you learn from the Half Baked Harvest controversey? You can use this as fuel for your own work. Choose the guidelines you’re going to go by. Fight for your work. Decide to take feedback and adapt your systems, processes, and even how you think about your work. Listen to your audience (sometimes with a grain of salt) and keep an ear out for trust voices in the industry. You need empathetic voices who also aren’t just “yes” people. Take this path, and you’ll not only have an easier time in cookbook publishing, but you’ll build a community that’ll carry you beyond what’s happening in bookstores. And that’s where the real sparkly stuff happens.
