THE test of a pudding lies in its taste.

So the owners of 25 Degree Celsius, a cookbook speciality store that opened last month in Keong Saik Road, are taking that adage to heart.

The outlet's 28-seat cafe features a new dish from a cookbook sold at the store every two weeks, to prove sceptics wrong about alluring food pictures and recipes in cookbooks being little more than just eye candy.
Ms Andrea Chen, 38, one of the owners, adds: "We hope that by proving cookbook recipes work, customers will be encouraged to buy the books."

The store, which occupies the ground floor of a refurbished shophouse and cost some $500,000 to set up, is started by three friends - Ms Chen, Ms Sally Tsai, 39, and Ms Karin Chan, 40. Together, they run a seven-year-old event management company on the second floor of the building.

The shop, which gets its name from the oft-used term "room temperature", or 25 deg C in cookbooks, stocks some 4,000 books and close to 2,000 titles. Seventy per cent of them are cookbooks and the rest, food-related publications including essays and autobiographies of chefs.

The first dish featured is the pecan-crusted catfish with carrot slaw, yoghurt dressing and potato wedges from Everyday Food by lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

Chef Danny Yap, 35, a former IT systems analyst and self-trained cook who helms the cafe?s kitchen, follows the recipe from start to finish without modifying a pinch of salt or a dash of pepper.

The only tweak he admits to is swopping the catfish for Dory fish, which is more commonly available here.
Since being launched on Dec 10, there have been an average of four orders for the dish daily.

On why the Martha Stewart cookbook was chosen, Ms Chen says: "We picked this cookbook for its easy-to-cook meals and simple instructions."

A recipe from renowned Indian cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey's repertoire is next on the menu.

Judging from book sales at the shop however, the owners need not fret about proving the usefulness of cookbooks to their customers, whom Ms Chan admits comprises "a good number of foodies, avid cooks and chefs".

It sold some 750 books last month and managed to break even in just its first month.

Bestsellers include The Complete Thomas Keller (Artisan, $175), a set of two cookbooks featuring recipes by seven-Michelin-star American chef Thomas Keller. Fifteen sets have been sold.

Another hot potato is Larousse Gastronomique (Hamlyn, $118.15). Ten copies of the culinary encyclopaedia, translated from French, which expounds in great detail on dishes, ingredients and cooking techniques have been snapped up.

Tongue-in-cheek reads such as How To Cure A Hangover by Andrew Irving (Little Books Ltd, $30) and The Cookie Sutra by Edward Jaye (Workman Publishing, $18) are also shifting fast.

Mr John See, 35, executive chef at the Screening Room in Ann Siang Road, who has a personal collection of 1,000 cookbooks, is a regular customer and buys at least five books from the shop weekly.

On the appeal of the store, he says: "The shop carries unique titles that cannot be found in major bookstores and the books are priced lower as well."

Ms Chan, the store's merchandiser, however, says she does not go out of her way to stock the store with only niche books to differentiate its offerings from the cookbook section in major bookshops.

The owner of some 200 cookbooks, she professes: "We carry books that we believe are interesting and will appeal to readers. What we do consciously try to do, though, is sell most of our books at a cheaper price, which may range anywhere from five to 50 per cent less than other retail prices.

"We want our customers to be able to spend money on a good culinary book without having to think twice because of the price tag."

25 Degrees Celsius
25 Kong Saik Road
Tel: 6225-5986

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