Kristin Jensen of Blasta Books: ‘I always said that if I ever won the Lotto, I’d start my own publishing house’

Tell us about Nine Bean Rows and your Blasta Books series. What was the inspiration and how did the idea evolve?

I always said that if I ever won the Lotto, I’d start my own publishing house. I didn’t win the Lotto but I did run a successful Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign to launch Blasta Books in 2021. This provided the seed funding for the Blasta Books series and in turn the Nine Bean Rows imprint for full-size books. The publishing house has now grown to include the Scoop biannual food magazine as well.

After being a freelance editor for 20 years I’d developed a niche as a cookbook and recipe editor and a food writer. I knew that cookbooks are incredibly expensive to produce, which makes it almost impossible to get a book deal. And yet I was convinced that there had to be another way. That’s how I hit on the idea of a quarterly series of small, illustrated cookbooks to give more people a chance to get published and to provide a more inclusive snapshot of Ireland’s modern, diverse food culture.

I then created the Nine Bean Rows imprint as a pathway for the first-time Blasta authors to go on to write the bigger, more traditional type of cookbook. We will also be publishing other food-related books over the coming year or two, not just cookbooks.

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What is the best writing advice you have heard? Or, what advice would you give to your younger writing self?

In his book, On Writing, Stephen King shares the advice that was given to him by the newspaper editor at his first job: “Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. Your stuff starts out being just for you, in other words, but then it goes out.”

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Which of the books you have written or published are you proudest of and why?

This is like choosing a favourite child! But I will say that Blasta Books #1: Tacos by Lily Ramirez-Foran holds a special place in my heart. When Lily shopped around her book proposal a few years ago and couldn’t get it published, I remember saying to her that if I ever started my own publishing house someday hers would be the first book that I would publish. And that’s exactly what happened.

Who in the food world do you admire the most?

Julia Child published Mastering the Art of French Cooking when she was 49 years old. Don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s too late or you’re too old to pursue your dreams.

Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

Five years ago I went to New York City for the first time. I met up with two old friends and told them that I could take or leave all the top tourist attractions, there was only one place I absolutely had to go to: the Kitchen Arts & Letters cookbook shop.

You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?

Make a cooking class compulsory in second-level schools. No one should be sent out into the world without knowing how to cook at least half a dozen different dishes for themselves.

What current book, film, TV show and podcast would you recommend?

Book: Notes from a Small Kitchen Island by Debora Robertson.

Film: Cha Cha Real Smooth.

TV show: From Scratch.

Podcast: The Last Archive by Jill Lepore..

What is your most memorable food experience event that affected you most?

Years ago I made home-made eggnog for Christmas. My father-in-law took one sip and immediately teared up, saying it reminded him of the eggnog his mother used to make when he was growing up in Kansas. To this day, it’s the only time I’ve seen him cry.

The most remarkable place you have visited?

My husband is an architect and dragged me along to Le Corbusier’s Convent de la Tourette in France on our first holiday together. When you close the heavy door to the chapel, it echoes so strongly in all that exposed concrete that you can feel it reverberating in your body. I’ve never forgotten it.

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Your most treasured possession?

My copy of the updated and revised edition of The Ballymaloe Cookbook, signed for me by Myrtle Allen. It was an honour and a privilege to edit the 50th anniversary edition when it was published in 2014. The whole time I was working on the edit I couldn’t get over the twists and turns in life that led to me – a girl from a small town in Illinois – getting to work with the most respected and revered woman in Irish food.

What is the most beautiful or most useful book that you own?

The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors is my most well-worn reference book, I’ve had it throughout my entire career.

Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party and what would you cook for them?

I’m hosting a Thanksgiving potluck at the end of November for all my Blasta Books and Nine Bean Rows authors and freelancers. To have all my authors and team together to celebrate the books we’ve made is a dinner party dream come true.

A book to make me laugh?

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I commuted to a job in Dublin at the time I read the book and remember being grateful that I wasn’t on the train the night I read the title essay – I was laughing so hard, I was crying.

A book that might move me to tears?

Still Life by Sarah Winman.

blastabooks.com; ninebeanrowsbooks.com; scoopfoodmag.com