Services
Co-Edition Typesetting /
Cover Layout
Project
Korean Temple Cooking (Hardie Grant North America)
Category
Cookbook
Year
2025
Korean Temple Cooking
Lessons on Life and Buddhism,
with Recipes
About the Client
Hardie Grant North America
Hardie Grant North America (HGNA) is an imprint of Hardie Grant dedicated to bringing bold ideas to life through beautifully designed books. They publish cookbooks, award-winning fiction, children’s books, and illustrated and narrative nonfiction for a global audience.
About the Book
Korean Temple Cooking
Korean Temple Cooking explores simple and deeply nourishing food rooted in Buddhist tradition. The book brings readers into the rhythms of temple life through conversations with Jeongkwan Snim—known as the “Philosopher Chef”—and a collection of her seasonal recipes.
Jeongkwan Snim appears in the opening episode of Chef’s Table Season 3, where her approach to food reflects a profound connection to nature and mindfulness. This book follows her practice across the seasons in a Korean Buddhist temple, highlighting methods of preservation and preparation of ingredients.
The Process
Co-Edition Typesetting
For this project, I inherited master InDesign files of the original edition, which was published in German. Typesetting a translation is challenging because the translated text has to fit exactly where the original text did. This results in an easier and more cost-efficient printing process.
When typesetting, my focus is on readability and accessibility.
In a cookbook, this means ensuring numbers stay with their partner (a fraction with its respective measurement, for example), as well as avoiding word and letter stacks.
Every typesetting choice is fine-tuned to make recipes as easy to read as possible.
When you’re making a recipe, it can be hectic (you’re glancing at the cookbook, your glasses are steamed up, and you’re trying to find where you were)—you don’t want to accidentally do the same step twice because a word stack confused you!
In addition to recipes, there are also many narrative passages in this cookbook.
I ensured readable line spacing, avoided stacks, and avoided hyphenation of proper nouns as well as Korean words.
If I had to hyphenate a Korean word, I made sure they were introduced previously, so the word was already familiar to the reader.
The Process
Cover Layout
Working from the native InDesign file, I retained the original design and swapped out the German text for the English text. I also ensured appropriate application of the foil treatment on the type.
Credits
Photographs Véronique Hoegger
Design Müller+Hess+Walter+Wyss, Basel
Translation Kelly Burt-Candelaria
Typesetting Hadley Hendrix
Hadley is stellar with her communication and organization.
I found her notes at each stage to be super helpful, whether they were about her design choices, things she was flagging for us to keep an eye on, questions, or general notes about where the project started, its current stage, and next steps.
Hadley’s clear communication helps close any gaps that can happen when working remotely and makes it easier for me to manage the project.
She is very thoughtful with her work and brings great technical knowledge to the table. It is a pleasure to work with her!
Natalie Lundgren
Editorial Assistant at Hardie Grant North America