BuchGourmet (1987-2013) was an independent bookstore in Cologne, Germany, and during this time the oldest and biggest bookstore in Germany that focused solely on culinary media.
The owner, Dieter Eckel, opened a 45 square meter store in 1987 after being inspired by a "tiny" cookbook store in Amsterdam.[1][2] After a one-third expansion in 2009,[3] the business occupied 120 square meters on Hohenzollernring with five employees. It was Germany's oldest and largest purely cooking book retailer.[1]
BuchGourmet carried approximately 10,000 titles; Eckel orders between 500 and 1,000 new items a year, primarily from small and specialist presses, but at least one fifth of the stock consisted of used and antiquarian books. At least two fifths were in languages other than German.[1] Eckel also maintained a search list of some 450 items. Almost three quarters of the store's sales were made online, approximately 60 percent to culinary professionals, including chefs, pastrycooks, and bartenders.[1][3][4] It was called "a mecca for cooking fans, gourmets, foodies, cooking stars and cooking hobbyists".[5]
Eckel was one of the founders of the International Association of Cookbook Stores.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Christian Sywottek, "Kannibalen und andere Feinschmecker," Effilee, Der Spiegel, May 30, 2011 (in German)
- ^ According to Katrin Diener, "Inspiration auch für Sterneköche," Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, April 23, 2011, retrieved December 3, 2011 (in German), in Paris.
- ^ a b Buch Gourmet: Hier kaufen Sterneköche ihre Kochbücher, Einzigartig Einkaufen, Köln.de, November 25, 2010, retrieved December 3, 2011 (in German)
- ^ According to G. Kirschenbaum, "Reading Food: Those Foreign Books," Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1990, Eckel "is the person many European chefs turn to when they need a hard-to-find book".
- ^ Ralph W. Scheuss, Der Sprung des Drachen: Strategien gegen Produktkopierer, Qualitätsanbieter und andere Hyper-Wettbewerber aus China, Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38454-2, p. 140 (in German)
- ^ Nancy Freeman, Cookbook Stores, Sally Bernstein.com.
External links
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