Buz Teacher and Janet Bukovinsky Teacher have founded Burgess Lea Press, a publisher that focuses on cookbooks and food-related books and donates all of its after-tax publishing profits to "hunger relief, farmland preservation, culinary education and other food-related issues." Authors have the choice to donate, too, or retain their profits.
Named after an 18th-century Quaker farm in Bucks County, Pa., Burgess Lea has a joint venture relationship with Running Press, the imprint of the Perseus Books Group co-founded by Buz Teacher in 1972. As a Running Press affiliate, Burgess Lea titles will appear in the Running Press catalogue and website, and Burgess Lea Press will be represented by the Perseus sales organization.
Titles for spring 2015 are Agricola Cookbook by Josh Thomsen with Kate Winslow and Steven Tomlinson, photographs by Guy Ambrosino; Mi Comida Latina, written, hand-lettered and illustrated by Marcella Kriebel; and Front of the House: Restaurant Manners, Misbehaviors & Secrets by Jeff Benjamin with Greg Jones, illustrated by Robert Neubecker.
Spring 2016 titles are Field & Feast: Sublime Food from a Brave New Farm by Dean Carlson with Ian Knauer and Andrew Wood and Heartland: Farm-Forward Food from the Great Midwest by Lenny Russo, photographs by Tom Thulen, fine art by George Morrison.
President Buz Teacher said, "We have a blended objective: to publish fine books while contributing to good works." Publisher Janet Bukovinsky Teacher added, "We offer our authors a socially responsible way to share in the creation of a fine cookbook while donating to beneficiaries that we all find meaningful."
Burgess Lea Press has begun its philanthropic work with a $10,000 contribution to Edible Schoolyard Project. Other beneficiaries will include Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, the Vetri Foundation for Children, Drexel University Culinary Arts and Food Science, Urban Roots in St. Paul, Minn., and Adelante Mujeres in Oregon. The press is also a member of Newman's Own philanthropic enterprise program.
