E Is Foredible

The Age

Thursday May 12, 2005

ADAM TURNER

First-time electronic cookbook publisher Nita Tiffaha Jawary developed a taste for high-tech.

Why did you decide to write a book?

I wanted to write about my family and food is an essential part of that. I dedicated the book to my mother and my aunt. It is full of my family history - I call this Judeo-Babylonian culture because I'm Jewish and the family comes from the region of Babylonia now known as Iraq. My mother left Baghdad in 1949 to come to Australia for an arranged marriage. The title, The Perpetual Table, refers to an Arabic expression, said after every meal, "Sifra Daima", or "May your table replenish forever".

Why an e-book?

I started by trying publishers and they said

they loved it, but it wasn't for them. Then I thought, 'To hell with them, I'll self-publish'. After I found out what it would cost to self-publish I decided to do an e-book as an Acrobat document.

How does it work?

It's a hybrid between a traditional book, an audio CD and a DVD. It's an Adobe Acrobat file that comes on a CD-ROM and can be read on any computer. I originally designed it like a book in case a publisher showed interest but then I made the table of contents interactive, which jumps you straight to the page you're interested in. You can also easily search for things. I then decided to include audio and video and the book contains 65 recipes,

20 video clips and a plethora of stories, poems and songs, along with more than 300 works of art and original photographs from old Baghdad. It also has the music of BBC award-winning Middle Eastern musician Yair Dalal.

What technology did you use?

The whole thing was done using Pinnacle Studio 7 software for video and put together with Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive and Acrobat Professional. I like the fact all the Adobe applications are integrated, so it's easy to put together a big project like this. I bought myself a Canon digital still camera and a JVC digital video camera especially for this project. I love the video camera and, having done this, I've fallen in love with filmmaking.

What was your experience with new technologies before you made this book?

I'm not a technological person at all. I started off as an English teacher. I like writing and I did a little bit of freelance writing. I first learned how to use a computer several years ago but I'd never used a digital camera or a video camera before this. Some of my girlfriends helped with the video but when they weren't available I just turned the camera and the lights on myself.

How did you make your e-book interesting?

I started looking at e-books and they were so deadly dull, they were simply print books transferred to a screen. I worked at making something people can really enjoy, that's really luscious - every page has some sort of visual on it, it's not just text. I didn't feel confident at photography at first, so I thought I'd try painting as a way of illustrating the book. Later I added my own photos, video and photo montages - keeping it short and snappy with music in the background so as to keep the reader's attention.

What advice do you have for people afraid to dabble in new technologies?

Don't be afraid to try things, that's a really big step. When I first started using computers I was scared to touch a button. I thought I was going to do something really terrible. It's just a tool and once you lose your fear of it and stop thinking you're always at fault, you're halfway there.

MY FAVOURITE THINGS

1. Adobe Creative Suite 2. Optus cable broadband 3. JVC MiniDV camcorder 4. Canon PowerShot digital camera 5. Desktop PC

© 2005 The Age

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