Are there any recipes that didn’t make the final cut?
Di Petta: Over 100. The recipe development process sounds ridiculous because it’s a snack book, but it took over a year. We worked with Jenn Garbee. She’s a writer for the LA Times. She’s on the cover, and she helped us develop all these, because these had all been snacks or yacks originally that we tried. She worked with us. [She asked], “What are your favorites? Let’s see how we can develop these into unique recipes.” From there, we would say yes or no. She’s awesome. She just co-wrote the book for “Somebody Feed Phil,” who’s the guy who made “Everyone Loves Raymond,” and he has that show on Netflix.
That went number one in the cookbook section. We’re lucky to be working with her. She and her son tried all these recipes together as we were developing them. There’s some funny ones in there, like the white pizza, which is just melted cheese with a couple of jalapeños. There’s some really interesting ones that sound ridiculous, but make for great snacks.
This is the world’s first true snack book. Anyone can make a cookbook. If you’re going to copy a recipe these days, you’re going to go watch a TikTok. How do I make Gigi Hadid’s pasta? I’m going to watch a TikTok. I don’t want to be reading about this. What this really combines — it gets the recipes that you’ve probably seen on TikTok and turns them into actual snacks that if you brought to a potluck or Super Bowl party, people would be freaking out.
You have a good amount of butter recipes that are really creative, like an Oreo butter, which I thought was interesting. How do you see people using this cookbook in their everyday life, or is this meant for special occasions?
Di Petta: It’s meant for the everyman, the everywoman, and the every person chef. These are things that you can throw in an air fryer. You can put a few things together. These things are meant to be [used when] it’s 4:00 PM and you have that craving and it’s that weird time between lunch and dinner and you don’t know what to do. Bang. You open one of these. Pick a few. Everything really uses only a few ingredients.
Iavarone: You can pretty much find everything already in what typical people have.
Di Petta: The average American pantry.
Iavarone: There’s so many other things, too. You could pick one out and then it could be a fun game night where it’s like, “Let’s try this one tonight.”
Di Petta: Exactly — a great date night, a great friend coming together on a Friendsgiving, and that’s what we’re always trying to do. You get into these routines of life and we’re finding little ways to break them up. You make one of these, or there’s so many different things. Stoners would love it. Kids would love it. It’s for all ages. Parents love to make it for themselves, not even their kids. These are classic snacks they grew up with. “This is how I know Hot Cheetos.” Bam. Now it comes in a waffle with cheese, and jalapeños give you a totally new outlook on a classic snack.