Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1940611385 ISBN 13: 9781940611389

Verlag: Spring House Press, 2016

What happens when you appeal to Kickstarter to fund your first attempt at making a bowl of potato salad? Well, if you’re Zack Brown, you end up raising $55,492, a story that goes viral, a charity-minded “PotatoStock” Festival, and, eventually, a potato salad cookbook for the masses. The Peace, Love & Potato Salad Cookbook is the result of one man’s attempt at making potato with the help of the world. Featuring 24 delicious and wide-ranging potato salad recipes, this fun and engaging cookbook is the result of the generous support of the backers who elevated Zack Brown’s crowdfunding appeal from a simple, good-humored joke to philanthropic levels covered by Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, and the Huffington Post. In an effort to do “the most good that he can,” with the Kickstarter funds and his new found fame, Zack’s new cookbook will continue to spread the word about “peace, love, & potato salad.” Best of all, this tasty collection of potato salad recipes represents the positive change we can accomplish – even from the smallest ideas -- when we all work together.

About the Author:

Prior to becoming Ohio’s King of Potato Salad, Zack Brown helped co-found Base Two Interactive, a creative digital agency based in Columbus, OH specializing in developing interactive experiences. Previously, he was part of the digital ad agency, Clutch. Zack’s Kickstarter Campaign now ranks fourth all-time in views, higher than Levar Burton’s Reading Rainbow and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, with over 4 million. After donating $18,000 to Food Bank charities in Columbus from PotatoStock, Zack wants to continue doing the most he can with his Potato Salad project.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Potato Salad never used to be a thing. I mean, it’s always been a thing, but until some guy raised $55,492 for a bowl of potato salad on Kickstarter, it was never a thing. It’s always just been potato salad. A compound common noun. And then, for a second, it was Potato Salad. When you would write or say “Potato Salad,” you’d have to capitalize it. Like people’s names and places and God.
I’m not saying Potato Salad was God. But something about potato salad’s ascension to Potato Salad―from unremarkable to remarkable―strikes me as noteworthy. I think it’s how all of us, whether we were backers or co-conspirators, or culture reporters working on deadline, or Internet trolls, imbued a common thing with greater meaning. Anybody who contributed money, or yelled “Hey, Potato Salad Guy!” at Zack, or asked “What’s this Potato Salad thing that Facebook won’t shut up about?”―it felt like we were all in on the joke together. It was really nice being in on the joke together. And together, we turned lowly potato salad into something more.
We like to capitalize the things we revere. It’s like that tree in the woods where you’d meet all your friends to do kid stuff. It was the Tree. All summer long, the Tree was the gathering point. It’s where we all went to connect with one another. And then at the end of the summer, it went back to being a tree.
Potato Salad was the Tree for my friends and me during the summer of 2014. That’s where we met you. Potato Salad was how we all connected that summer, how we’re connecting now as you read this. And though it’s no longer a thing, it still connects us. We can all look back and fondly remember that time when we were all laughing together. It may not be a thing, but it’s still special.
Thank you for laughing with us. Thank you for making Potato Salad special.