A grad paper turned cookbook for healthy and affordable food

In America, the desire to eat well should not be a cost-prohibitive pursuit. That's the credo that food writer Leanne Brown was working with when developing her latest book, a grad-school assignment turned fast-moving phenomenon aimed at democratizing access to healthy and affordable food.

What started as a PDF-only student project offered online for free has evolved into Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day (Workman Publishing), a New York Times best-seller with a straightforward mission: teaching people how to feed themselves, and their families, on very little money.

That $4-a-day figure probably caught your attention, but it's not just some fabricated figure: It's the generally accepted per-head, per-diem price for an American family participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Is executing meals that are both wholesome and easy to prepare on a taut food-stamp budget a real possibility? Brown says yes, and she has the recipes, and results, to back it up.

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Brown was raised in a food-fixated family, but a traditional culinary path toward cooking school or work in restaurants wasn't what she wanted. "For the longest time, I thought the only way to work in food was to be a chef," said Brown, who will be at the Free Library on Tuesday. "I didn't really want to do that, but I loved feeding people."

After graduating with a degree in religious studies from the University of Alberta, Brown got involved in local politics, learning about food policy on the staff of a city councilperson. This led her to enrollment, in 2012, in New York University's Master's Program in Food Studies, among the most prestigious programs of its kind in the States.

For a while, Brown figured she would end up working as a food researcher, influencing political decisions from a lab or think tank. But then a project came along that realigned her passion in a different direction.

As part of their studies, Brown and her NYU classmates were required to design menus executable on an extremely tight cash. Comparing notes, she noticed that her dishes differed greatly from everyone else's. While Brown strove for variety, "their meals were more like a grain, and bean and a green, over and over," she said.

It helped her realize that the average person, even those highly educated in the food sphere, didn't realize that "it's actually possible to eat good, interesting food for very little money."

While she culled recipes for what would eventually become the first edition of Good and Cheap, Brown performed field research with families enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC (similar to SNAP). She learned that "there is no easy answer" in identifying the barriers that low-income families face when it comes to preparing healthy meals. Lack of time, lack of overall cooking knowledge and lack of the proper tools and equipment all played a part. To this end, Brown decided to focus on what she knew best. "I want to empower people to cook again," she said, "because it meant so much to me in my life."

Brown's hunch that people would connect with her point of view was dead on. A PDF of Good and Cheap released for free online went viral via social media, with downloads topping 900,000. In June last year, she launched a Kickstarter with two goals: to get a more official print edition of the book together; and to implement an initiative that would provide free copies to folks who need them - one donated copy for every copy traditionally sold.

Her initial ask was $10,000. By the time the campaign wrapped up, she'd raised nearly $145,000, making Good and Cheap the top cookbook project in Kickstarter history. Other accolades would follow - a "30 Under 30" nod from Forbes, a Judge's Choice distinction in the 2015 International Association of Culinary Professionals awards, the NYT love.

Brown's book has resonated with home cooks on a modest budget for a few reasons. First is her emphasis on money-saving philosophies, like emphasizing real value at the grocery store in lieu of just purchasing the "bottom line cheapest stuff." For example: Instead of individual pre-flavored yogurts, a large tub of the plain stuff can be utilized in a number of different ways - folded with fruit for breakfast, in sauces, in savory applications.

And while "pancake mix will only ever be pancakes," buying flour and baking soda separately allows a cook to turn out muffins, quickbreads and pizza dough, too.

Secondly, Brown really strives for culinary variety where her dishes are concerned. Vegetable-centric but not outright vegetarian, her recipes draw inspiration from Asian, Latin, European, Middle Eastern and classic American flavors, without getting too complex in the step-by-step. (There are even some guest recipes from her Kickstarter supporters.)

Each recipe also features an estimated per-serving price that stays within the $4 neighborhood, general numbers that Brown developed by averaging New York City grocery prices with prices from around the country.

Though keeping costs low is the hook of the book, Brown emphasizes that it's more about "[using] money carefully, without being purely slavish to the bottom line." In other words, instead of simply budget-hawking, she seeks to invigorate the people filling their grocery carts with the confidence to make good decisions, both in the market and in the kitchen.

"Every single person I've ever met wants to eat well," she said, "and everyone deserves to."

Leanne Brown will demonstrate recipes from Good and Cheap at the Culinary Literacy Center at the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia at 6 p.m. Tuesday. $30, includes signed copy of the book. 215-686-5323, freelibrarycook.eventbrite.com.

Drew Lazor has been writing about the local food scene since 2005. His twice-monthly column focuses on unexpected people doing unexpected things in Philadelphia food. If you come across a chef, restaurant, dish or food-related topic that bears investigation, contact him at andrewlazor@gmail.com or on Twitter @drewlazor.