Global appetite for small city quarantine cookbook

What started as a way for Martensville’s Dawna Doell to keep her kids active while schools are closed and teach them some valuable cooking skills, quickly turned into something much bigger than she could have ever imagined.

Doell and her kids started a Facebook page called The Official Quarantine Cookbook to share the recipes they have been working on with close friends and family. Little did they know that just over a month later that page would have over 16,000 followers from all over the world.

“Oh my goodness, we have a massive following in Australia, New Zealand, all over the United States. We have people in the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, every province in Canada, you name it, they’re out there. We have quite a few people all over Europe, too,” she said.

“All that happened was friends are on it, then they invited their friends, their friends invited their friends and family and next thing you know my next-door neighbour got a phone call from her friend in Australia and said hey you should check out this cookbook and my neighbour just started giggling and said that’s my next-door neighbour.”

Initially, it was only ever going to be a Facebook page. But because of its massive success, Doell, with the help of a team of six volunteers, decided to compile the recipes into an actual cookbook with all of the proceeds being split between two charities, the Saskatchewan chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association and Wounded Warriors, which deals with post-traumatic stress injuries.

The page is open for anyone to join and post their own recipes and the recipes that are most popular among the group members will be used in the cookbook. Members will have until the middle of May to post recipes they want to be considered for the book.

“The beauty of our page is the majority of our recipes are base ingredients. They are basic things that you don’t have to go out and do a special grocery shop for. They are very down-home cooking and they are things that are lots of fun,” said Doell.

“I think a good portion of the reason the page is so popular is it’s a human page. It’s not Instagram, it’s not Pinterest we’re not putting out our picture-perfect stuff. It’s all of those things that really show people. None of us are professionals, all of us start somewhere and sometimes you set Thanksgiving dinner on fire and that’s okay.”

Despite all the success and popularity the page has gained, Doell’s favourite part of the whole thing is just the positivity of being shared and the ability to do this with her kids.

“My kids are excited! They are very proud to be a part of it all and it makes it easier to get them in the kitchen knowing they are being a part of a bigger thing. Kids are such social creatures, and this helps them think outside the X-box,” she said.

“But my favourite part of the whole process is just watching the positivity and the interaction. I’m getting messages from people saying ‘hey, I am stuck in quarantine and your page is the best part of my day.’ I love seeing things like that. It wasn’t my intention to create this page or a cookbook and to see the positive impact that something so simple can make it just blows my mind, it’s amazing.”