Cooking with an Accent

This little gem of a job came to me through my immigration lawyer, Mira Mdivani. I am her client, she is my client, and through it all, we have amazingly become friends. Mira wanted to publish a cookbook to educate people about immigration in a non-threatening way. She asked me what I thought, and of course I said it was a fantastic idea! I didn't know what I was getting myself into at that point, but two years later through many hours of planning, writing, arguing and eating, we have a cookbook.

This has been an all-encompassing project and I was completely immersed in it from the very beginning. Mira rallied a fairly large group of participants to come to her house and cook. The first week was very, very tough. We were trying to figure out what the hell we were doing while walking a fine line between artistic integrity and presenting an accurate representation of a wide spectrum of ethnic dishes and cultures, most that the photographer, Elizabeth Cook (bethcook591@yahoo.com), and I were not familiar with.

I would say the hardest part of the project was organizing the information, editing the stories, gathering photos, coordinating, and making sure the recipes were accurate. There were a lot of recipes that said "to taste." A big thank you to Maria Iliakova for driving this part of the process because Mira and I were so busy with other projects that the cookbook often got side-lined.

The design changed from month to month, but when we finally arrived at that step, it was easy. Ha! We went from four-color to two-color, hard cover to soft cover, little book to big book and on and on like that. And I had two weeks to put it together...no problem whatsoever.

Now, we have to sell 2,000 cookbooks because the net proceeds will be donated to Hope House and El Centro, Inc., two organizations who are dedicated to ending the cycle of domestic violence in Kansas City.

We would love for you to purchase a copy. Cooking with an Accent: An Immigration Lawyer's Cookbook can be purchased directly at www.uslegalimmigration.com.