Tiffany Harelik was born in Austin and grew up in Buffalo Gap, Texas. Before she began a career in publishing, she earned a master’s degree in health psychology. She spent more than sixteen years in event production for corporate clients such as Google, ACL Music Fest, Lollapalooza, Torchy’s, Viva Big Bend, Green Fern Events, Trailer Food Tuesdays, and more. After writing a dozen books, Harelik launched Spellbound Books in 2016, along with a variety of publishing professionals she had worked with along the way.

11.27.2016  Texas culinary-travel writer Tiffany Harelik on food trucks, holiday meals, and a recipe from her newest book

In a week when many spent hours procuring and preparing dishes to honor a holiday and heritage, it seemed only appropriate to feature a Texas author known for stories, books, and recipes that commemorate our culinary culture. Tiffany Harelik has captured Texas readers’ hearts with her books that take you from the food trailers of the metros to the chili cook-offs in the Big Bend to church casseroles in Abilene. She took time with us on the day after Thanksgiving to talk with us via email about how it all came together and where she goes from here.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: As I sit here on Thanksgiving eve, typing out these interview questions, I wonder what your Thanksgiving dinner will be like? What will be served, and how will it come together? Do you have some family favorites or new inventions you’ve picked up along the way?

TIFFANY HARELIK: You know, every year is different. Some years I eagerly scroll through all my favorite cooking feeds to see what twist I can make on a Southern classic, other years I crave the Thanksgiving menus from my youth. This year I was very grateful to spend Thanksgiving morning preparing food with my parents and daughter. My uncle drove over to join us for a late lunch and some football.

We started prep by making cornbread for the dressing. We use a traditional dressing (not stuffing) recipe that contains celery, onions, sage, eggs, and chicken broth. Next up was the fresh cranberry sauce, which was the only point of contention on the menu. I wanted to make a cold sauce with cranberries, oranges, ginger, and sugar. Dad wanted to use the recipe on the label, so we did, and it was excellent. We decided we could use my “weird” recipe over Christmas. Then the sweet potatoes went in to boil so we could mash them and top them with marshmallows. My daughter, not being a yam fan, requested some mashed (white) potatoes so we made a small portion of those too. Green bean casserole, of course, with cream of mushroom and topped with fried onions. The crowning jewel of the table was the smoked turkey we bought from my lifelong friends Stacie and Byron Stephenson from The Shed Catering. Pies this year were chocolate and buttermilk.

You grew up in Buffalo Gap, a little town outside of Abilene. What was that like?

I love Buffalo Gap. I loved going to the state park to hike and swim and then Perini’s for dinner. I loved the burgers they used to make at the gas station back when there was a live buffalo on the corner. We had horses at New Colony Farm and would occasionally trail ride from Iberis Cemetery Road down to Deutchlander’s to have fried catfish with Ray and LaGina. My barn family was very important to me and I spent nearly every day there riding in the sport of three-day eventing. On weekends we would haul the horses to various shows throughout Texas. In school at Wylie, I was on the meats judging team and played in the band. I pursued art as my talent when competing in the Rattlesnake Roundup Snakecharmer pageant in Sweetwater one year. I always looked forward to going to the West Texas Fair and Rodeo and the Western Heritage Classic, where I came back later in life to work as the livestock secretary and exhibits manager.

I’ve read that your adventure in books began in 2007 as a way of preserving some family heirloom recipes. Would you describe for our readers how your publishing career began?

My first foray into writing was to capture some of our family-favorite recipes and the stories behind them to be able to pass down to the next generation. I interviewed cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and everyone in between on both sides. The project really mushroomed into a huge document that I still have on my laptop. It’s the bible of all cookbooks, where I know all my favorite recipes are located and can easily find one to send to family members as needed. I’m now carrying the torch for my grandmother’s chocolate cake and make it for all of our birthdays, as well as my aunt’s hot mustard, my mom’s sweet fire pickles and my sweet tea fried chicken. This collection was essentially the first cookbook I wrote.

You live in Austin, a location that has been central to your publishing life. You began by chronicling the food truck cuisine and culture with the Trailer Food Diaries series of cookbooks. How did that come about and how would you describe these books for our readers?

I went on a food trailer “crawl” with some girlfriends in 2008–09 when the food truck scene was really starting to blossom in Austin. I had just quit my job and was fascinated with the food truck entrepreneurs who, like me, had a hard time working in the corporate field. As we went from truck to truck trying the different foods, I struck up conversations with the owners and got their back stories. I started the Trailer Food Diaries as a food blog to document the food truck culture we had going on in Austin at that time. The chefs were generous with their time and most shared recipes.

Eventually we had so many trucks doing really incredible food that I pitched the idea to C3 to have a food truck festival. For two years we held the Gypsy Picnic food truck festival at Auditorium Shores, with each year hosting thirty trucks and live music, and drawing nearly thirty thousand in attendance. At that point I knew I had an audience that were as fascinated with the food truckers as I was. I pitched my blog as a book concept to multiple publishers with no luck. Ultimately I worked with a local author services company and raised funds through kickstarter to publish  my very first (official) book: The Trailer Food Diaries: Austin volume 1.

In Austin, I interviewed the darlings of the food trucks: Bryce Gilmore of Odd Duck, Aaron Franklin of Franklin’s BBQ, Mike Rypka of Torchy’s, Jeff Blank of Mighty Cone, Jae Kim of Chi’Lantro, Eric Silverstein of The Peached Tortilla, and Paul Qi / Moto of East Side King’s. And I can tell you firsthand they make some of the most amazing food you’ll eat in Austin. But I’ve also interviewed those off the radar of big media, and their stories and recipes are incredibly inspiring. How does a Moroccan immigrant arrive with ninety dollars in his pocket and decide to open a food trailer with the most amazing food in all of South Austin (The Flying Carpet), for example? How does a frozen banana stand afford the college-aged owners their livelihood? When a middle-aged man gets laid off and can’t find work, how does he use a food truck and his family recipes to make a living? Those are the types of stories you will find within the cookbooks.

Beyond that, I wrote in two more volumes in Austin, two volumes in Portland, one in Dallas, and one in Houston for a total of seven in the series that were published through American Palate (a division of food history books that the History Press launched with my series). Around that time I received a cold call from Renee Casteel Cook, who asked if she could co-write a Columbus (Ohio) version with me. Our vision was to continue to expand the series, but the publisher had just merged with Arcadia and their team had a different idea for the title. So after two years of writing The Columbus Food Truck Cookbook, we finally met in person this last May to launch the book. It was quite the adventure and we really enjoy writing together.

The tagline of the food truck books is “Serving up the American Dream One Plate at a Time.” The Trailer Food Diaries series and The Columbus Food Truck Cookbook are for home cooks, people who never cook, and food industry professionals. They contain relatable stories from every walk of life and every culture matched with unique and entertaining recipes. In addition to the stories and recipes there are pictures, advice for how to (and how not to) start a food truck, and travel tips for enjoying the city given by local trendsetters. My intention was to keep this series in the culinary-travel genre and let each book act as a guide to some of the city’s most interesting people, meals, and underground hot spots. Reading them is like taking a road trip with me to whichever town we are interviewing and getting to know the pulse behind the food truck scene.

As an aside I still co-host a food truck event in Austin called Trailer Food Tuesdays that attracts over a dozen food trucks and around 5,000 folks for dinner (www.trailerfoodtuesdays.com).

The Big Bend area plays a recurring role in your creative and culinary pursuits. Your books do a magnificent job of capturing what an eclectic mix of quaint and interesting towns can be found across the region. What’s your experience with the Big Bend area and what keeps pulling you back there? You’ve now done two different Big Bend books. Would you describe them?

Big Bend has a special place in my heart because I helped launch a music festival out there five years ago. From my travels there I began to make friends and each stay became a little longer and harder to leave than the last. At one point I realized the Big Bend as a community didn’t have a modern cookbook that was reflective of their heritage. Using the Trailer Food Diaries model, I conducted interviews with ranchers, restaurant owners, and families who had lived in the area for multiple generations. Each shared their story and recipes, and we put together another cookbook that had history and a road trip feel to it.

Because I felt South County (Terlingua) was underrepresented in The Big Bend Cookbook I wanted to do something special in that area too. Since the Terlingua Chili Cook-off was celebrating its 50th annual event, I decided to cover the story and get recipes from the participants as well as folks in the area and those who represent the chili culture on the chili trail.

You’ve done twelve books with five different publishers. What are some key lessons that you’ve learned as an author and a businessperson?

Customer service is incredibly important to me. When you have a publisher they have the main contact with the stores for introducing your book and placing/refilling orders so it’s easy to get out of the loop. Personally, I like to maintain relationships with the stores. I like to know the folks selling my book and I want them to know I support sales in their stores by coming to do signings, making sure they have stock, etc. So being somewhat hands-off with the sales aspect while still maintaining store relationships was a balance I had to learn early on. Some publishers were great team mates where we could tag team, others were not. If you don’t have an agent and are working directly with a publisher, I think it’s incredibly important to make sure your managing editor and sales manager is as passionate about your title as you are. Realize also that your publishing staff and the book stores are likely going to have staff turnover throughout the years. Just keep going to support the stores you love and they will support you too.

No matter how you publish, as an author you are always in the business of promoting your titles. Quality and interesting promotion without being inflammatory is essential to book sales. I’m fortunate that food and culinary travel is an easy topic that brings people together. I like to do things like host tastings alongside my signings to promote the chefs I feature, teach a cooking class with someone I have featured, or make a writing workshop a destination excursion.

You’re now a publisher yourself. What can you tell us about Spellbound Publishing, which launched in 2016?

There are so many options in today’s publishing landscape. You can self-publish, which requires an up-front investment on your part for editing, layout/design, purchasing your ISBN, buying copies, and of course marketing. You can submit your manuscript to a traditional publisher (with or without an agent) who can pay you an advance and royalties and relieve you of the cost of printing. Somewhere in between are multiple models of independent publishing.

Spellbound is an independent publishing company I founded in Austin alongside creative director Tom Kirsch, designer Letitia Smith, and editor Marcy Stellfox. Our model offers author’s complete author services to get their idea from manuscript to printed book (and ebook) for a fraction of the price. Once the book is complete, bookstores can purchase the books through Ingram, the world’s largest book distributor, at no additional cost to the author. The author never pays for printing. Authors can purchase their own books to resell at a discounted rate as well. We pay royalties twice a year. Our goal is to publish books you can’t put down. We launched with The Terlingua Chili Cookbook this fall and have accepted our first author (Deborah Carter Mastelotto) with a metaphysical title that will come out in 2017.

What is your creative process like? How long does it take to produce a Tiffany Harelik book, and what’s the process like?

Ha! You know what? I write books like I clean the house. I usually have two, three, or four going at one time. You know how it is, you start by putting the laundry in the wash, then do half the bathroom, load the dishwasher, go back to the bathroom, sweep the porch, water the basil, move the clothes to the dryer, etc. There are a lot of moving parts to cleaning the house, and it’s the same as when I’m writing. I’ll have several documents open at once. I’m sure it would be a maddening experience to read over my shoulder. But that’s just how I think, and that is what works for me. I write my best in the morning when my brain is activated by some bulletproof coffee and after I’ve had a good workout. I rarely write past 2 pm.

You have a new book coming out in 2017, The Big Country Cookbook, from Abilene Christian University Press. (The Big Country is one of the nicknames for the Abilene area). What are some tidbits we might not know about the food culture from that part of the state?

The food culture in the Big Country revolves around community. I have included interviews from the football coaches, restaurant owners, and historic families and ranchers who have lived there for eons. There are practical recipes for young moms, some history and heirloom recipes from the older generation, and I’ve got to say the biggest dessert section I’ve ever done by far. Of all my travels in Texas, the people of the Big Country have the biggest hearts and their love shows up in the food they cook. It’s more than just a cookbook; I go through each county providing history and culture interviews as well for that road trip feel.

Wow, this has been an amazing culinary journey. So, Last question. If you were stranded on a desert island and could have only one Texas meal airlifted to you, what would it be and who would cook it?

ONE? I think I’d have to go with the Mexican special at Maudie’s in Austin: two cheese enchiladas (fresh onions on top, please), a crispy beef taco, and guacamole salad. Let’s add the cinnamon ice cream and a Mexican Coke. Viva Tex-Mex!

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