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Lake Isle Press

Lake Isle Press, an independent publishing house that was founded in New York City in 1990, is the founding publisher of Rachael Ray's "30-Minute Meals" franchise. The company later broadened its scope to other culinary themes, including gluten-free cooking and baking, solo cooking, and healthy microwave meals. Eventually, Lake Isle Press came to specialize in cookbooks rooted in ethnic cuisines that were then unfamiliar to most home cooks, including Latin American, African, African-American, Indian, and Middle Eastern. The company takes its name from the W.B. Yeats poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree."

Early history

Lake Isle was founded in 1990. Its first titles were "Contemporary One-Dish Meals" by Mara Reid Rogers and "Low Fat Living for Real People" by Linda Levy and Francine Grabowski; both titles are now out of print.

Among the highlights of Lake Isle Press's first decade was the publication of the paperback edition of James Beard Foundation Award winning cookbook author Jim Fobel's book "Jim Fobel's Old-Fashioned Baking Book."

The Rachael Ray revolution

Toward the end of its first decade, Lake Isle Press Publisher Hiroko Kiiffner received a call from an unknown recipe developer from upstate New York with a request to publish her new cookbook. Though Kiiffner was skeptical, she agreed to a meeting, and was immediately taken with the young author's energy and philosophy of cooking. Lake Isle Press published "Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals" in 1998 and an enduring cooking franchise was born. Lake Isle Press published thirteen books with Rachael Ray, including the popular "Rachael Ray's Classic 30-Minute Meals."

The next stage

As Ray moved onto Food Network fame and signed a deal with Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House, Lake Isle Press retained control of the 30-Minute Meals titles published by Lake Isle Press, and turned its focus to exploring culinary niches, such as salads and gluten-free recipes, and ethnic cuisines with authentic recipes from chefs and culinary authorities including:

  • Pierre Thiam, a Senegalese chef based in America, is a pioneer of African cuisine and founder of Yolélé, the purpose-driven natural food company that is centered on fonio, an ancient African supergrain. Pierre is executive chef and co-founder of Teranga in New York City and also the executive chef of the award-winning restaurant Nok by Alara in Lagos, Nigeria and the Signature Chef of the five-star Pullman Hotel in Dakar, Senegal. His Lake Isle Press titles include "Yolélé: Recipes from the Heart of Senegal"; "Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl," written with Jennifer Sit; and "The Fonio Cookbook: An Ancient Grain Rediscovered." "Yolélé" won the 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Special Jury Award and was a finalist for the 2009 IACP Cookbook Award Julia Child First Book Award "Senegal" was a nominee for a 2016 James Beard Foundation Award. Pierre was inducted into the James Beard Foundation's Cookbook Hall of Fame in June 2024.
  • Vikas Khanna is executive chef of New York City's acclaimed restaurant, Bungalow, and founding chef of the Michelin-starred Junoon. Since 2011, he has a judge on MasterChef India. His two titles with Lake Isle Press are "Flavors First: An Indian Chef's Culinary Journey," winner of a 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award, and Return to the Rivers: Recipes and Memories of the Himalayan Valleys," nominated for a 2014 James Beard Foundation Book Award.
  • Jose Garces is an American chef and restaurant owner who won the second season of The Next Iron Chef. He was named 2009: Best Chef Mid-Atlantic, James Beard Foundation. Jose's titles with Lake Isle Press are "Latin Evolution" and "The Latin Road Home."

Lake Isle Press was acquired by Globe Pequot in January of 2026. “Lake Isle’s acclaimed cookbooks—known for showcasing diverse culinary traditions—are a natural complement to the strong food and cooking list we’ve built at Lyons Press and Globe Pequot,” said Bob Marsh, president of Globe Pequot, in a statement.

Awards

  • 2009 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards Special Jury Award: "Yolélé, Recipes from the Heart of Senegal"
  • 2009 IACP Julia Child First Book Award: "Yolélé, Recipes from the Heart of Senegal"
  • Finalist, 2008 Benjamin Franklin Award: "Raising the Salad Bar"
  • Finalist, 2010 Benjamin Franklin Award: "Easy Gluten-Free Baking"
  • Winner, 2012 Benjamin Franklin Award: Flavors First: An Indian Chef's Culinary Journey"
  • Silver Winner, 2014 Benjamin Franklin Award: Power Hungry: The Ultimate Energy Bar Cookbook"
  • Nominee, 2014 James Beard Foundation Award: "Return to the Rivers: Recipes and Memories of the Himalayan Valleys"
  • Nominee, 2016 James Beard Foundation Award: "Senegal: Modern Senegalese Recipes from the Source to the Bowl"

Lake Isle Press publishing history

References