Bluebird pre-empts Pinch of Nom cookbook

Bluebird has pre-empted world rights to a cookbook from the founders of pinchofnom.com, a leading food and slimming blog with an online community of 1.5 million.

Slated as a lead hardback for Bluebird in March 2019, since its announcement on the Pinch of Nom website the book has already shot to number one bestseller status on Amazon based on pre-orders.

Entitled Pinch of Nom: 100 Slimming, Home-style Recipes, the book will contain 100 recipes to help home-cooks "slim down while enjoying exciting, delicious and satisfying meals". Each recipe in the book will be tried and tested by 20 Pinch of Nom community members and will be accompanied by icons to guide readers to those that best suit their needs (for example, flagging whether a recipe works as a speedy meal for one or will feed a family of four, or can be made using the slow-cooker). Featured recipes, all of which are low cal, include Cumberland Pie, Mediterranean Chicken Orzo, Mexican Chilli Beef and Chicken Balti.

The Pinch of Nom site was created in January 2016 by two chefs from near Liverpool, Kate Allinson and Kay Featherstone, with the original aim of teaching people how to cook. When the pair decided to lose weight, they began sharing healthy, slimming recipes and motivational posts - in the process quickly amassing an engaged online community that has gone on to garner 1.3 million Facebook likes, a closed Facebook group with 675,000 members and 90% engagement rate week-on-week, plus an Instagram following of over 250k.

Carole Tonkinson, publisher of Pan Mac imprint Bluebird, did the deal through Clare Hulton, promising the brand's book Pinch of Nom would be positioned as one of Bluebird's biggest titles of next year.

She commented: "With their delicious, satisfying recipes, Kay and Kate have helped hundreds of thousands of people make healthier choices. Their fakeaways seem indulgent but are actually full of naturally filling and healthy foods. Their community is warm and supportive: members test, comment and share the recipes and support each other in their aims. We’re thrilled to be working with both of them and we are positioning this as one of our biggest books for 2019."