By https://www.facebook.com/SBSFood
Publication Date: 2026-04-01 00:00:00
As a renowned journalist, food writer and author of seven cookbooksEmiko Davies has more than a little experience with food and creating recipes. But beyond these achievements, she is equally passionate about something less tangible: preserving the written word and championing the value of human thought and experience in an increasingly technological world.
Why we need cookbooks more than ever is a piece Emiko published on her Substack. Notes from Emiko’s KitchenEarly 2026, in which she examines the decline in our reading habits while the steady rise in free recipes, e-books and cooking videos.
What frightens Emiko is the increasing move away from owning tangible things and thus the loss of the experiences behind them. So much of modern life takes place in the cloud: streaming services, e-books, digital photos, with AI quietly facilitating it all, leaving little to capture or truly engage with.
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