Design Hunt.
I’ve been working on Table of Gods since 2019. Together with my family, scholars, photographers, food stylists, editors, hundreds of recipe testers, and hundreds of (soon to be) beta readers, the project has reached its final phase. The phase I’m most scared of. The design phase.
I value good design and believe that the wrong one can ruin a brand, book, or product. Table of Gods is not an ordinary cookbook. It can’t just take the form of a standard hardcover. That wouldn’t do justice to the book, the history, and the work behind it.
Table of Gods is a time machine transporting people to the cradle of civilization. The physical appearance and feel of the book are as important as the content. I want Table of Gods to be a piece of art. A book that people can be proud to own a hundred years from now.
I’ve already booked meetings with iconic designers who’ve worked on the most well-known brands in the world. By the next progress update (September 30th), I hope to tell you whom I’ve partnered with
Coming Soon on YouTube
After focusing entirely on completing the book’s manuscript (which I did last month), I’ve returned to YouTube and social media. I’ve posted one short video daily since mid-August and recorded a long episode with one of the largest ancient history channels on YouTube—History with Cy, which has 240,000 subscribers. The episode comes out later this fall.
I’ve also recorded an episode coming out on my own channel—The Assyrian Ziggurat Cake. In this episode, I’ll walk you through the history of cakes and how I, with the help of scholars, a baker, and a food scientist, recreated history’s first depicted cake from the second millennium BC. Make sure to subscribe to the channel or follow me elsewhere on social media to get notified when it’s out.
Cy and I, trying eleven dishes (one per city/chapter) from Table of Gods.
Going Forward
Apart from finding the right design partner in September, I will also receive the book manuscript back from my story editor. I expect lots of notes and two more months of polishing before it goes out to the beta readers.
If you’d like to join the group of 170 beta readers, let me know at arim@tableofgods.com (if you’ve already written to me about it, I’ll contact you by late November).
Me. Happy.
PS: Don't pick things now; they will bear fruit later.
— Sumerian proverb