Richard and Katie Chudy spend a lot of time together in the kitchen. The husband-wife team run The Skinny Beet, a Boston-based personal chef business, and host The Skinny Beet Dinner Party, a food-centric podcast. Last year, when Richard scored a deal to write a burger cookbook coauthored with Samuel Monsour (formerly of JM Curley), Katie was cheering him on. But several weeks after “American Burger Revival” got the go-ahead from Wellesley-based publisher Union Park Press, Katie got a book deal of her own from Fair Winds Press, “Superfood Sandwiches.” Katie explains, “He got his offer, and it was like two months later, ‘I’m going to write one too!’ and everyone said, “Wait a minute . . . for real?’ ”
“It just happened,” says Richard, “Suddenly we were both going to write cookbooks.”
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Though they were working on separate projects, the couple still found ways to work together. Katie, who also does food photography, shot her own dishes and some of Richard’s, and all of the recipe testing was done in their Belmont home kitchen.
Katie explains the process this way: “There are some days that I remember, I would just be in the kitchen all day, and there were 12 different sandwiches, because we each tried each other’s stuff. There would be a dozen sandwiches and we’d be like, OK, let’s have lunch, it’s time.”
Though they enjoyed writing, the couple plans to continue their personal chef business. “Our clients were and always are the priority and then with the books, we just worked with their schedules, and got it done,” says Richard. The books were “part of our culinary bucket list.”
They say their next project may be writing a cookbook together. Katie says, “I noticed half way through we kept saying ‘so for the next book. . .’ ”
Richard adds, “During the process, it’s like I can’t believe we are doing this, this is insane! I mean it’s a lot of fun, but it’s challenging. It’s stressful, but I think it reached a point toward the end, or just after, where we both had the same thought: Let’s do it again!”
‘There are some days . . . I would just be in the kitchen all day, and there were 12 different sandwiches, because we each tried each other’s stuff.’
CATHERINE SMART
