A recipe for giving

With more than 520 copies sold and €5200 raised for Cliona’s Foundation in Limerick, this simple red book, titled the COOK^® book, created by the Endoscopy division at Cook Ireland, is more than just a pun. It’s our way of giving back to the community.

Because we make products for the purpose of improving a patient’s quality of life, supporting Cliona’s Foundation — a charity that works to relieve the financial pressure on families with seriously ill children — was an easy and natural choice.

The book contains 47 recipes, enough to serve up a wide variety of your own three-course meals right in your home. With dishes ranging from Sweet Potato Coconut Curry to Kaiserschmarr’n, the cookbook has a distinct global vibe, making it an apt reflection of the workforce diversity here at Cook Ireland.

The cookbook was a true team effort. Kick-started by Endoscopy division Product Manager Keith Fitzpatrick, the idea was widely embraced by all his division colleagues in Ireland and other Cook Medical employees here, many contributing their own recipes or the recipes of friends. Others dontated their editorial and design expertise. We couldn’t be more pleased with result!

We spoke to Keith recently to find out a bit more about this book.

What was the inspiration behind the COOK^® book?

For the last few years, the Endoscopy division has had many initiatives to raise money for charities. We have had oesophageal, colonic, and pancreatic cancer awareness days within the Cook Ireland facility that increase awareness and raise money for local and national cancer charities. We also organized a special promotion in which a portion of the cost for every Evolution® stent sold in Europe was put aside for a chosen charity in the region where we had the greatest growth in sales. So, I suppose this opened my mind to a charity initiative. Then one evening, my wife arrived home with a charity cookbook from work and, as they say, it took off from there.

Is there a particular reason why Cliona’s Foundation was chosen?

I had heard on the radio about a charity that did not focus on supporting cancer research but instead focused on supporting families with children who have life-limiting diseases, families who were trying to do all they can do to make ends meet. The idea stuck in my head. Then, in a brief conversation I had with my boss, Meurisse Leahy, on the way to a meeting, I bounced the idea of this charity off her. She said that what I described sounded like Cliona’s Foundation and that Alice O’Dwyer, our VP of Human Rescources for Cook Group Europe, also had some insight to the charity. So, the next stop was Alice’s office, where I found out more about the charity. The decision was easy.

What were the challenges in putting together this book? How long did it all take?

I am not sure if there were challenges, exactly, or that I was naive about what lay ahead. I think we have all been guilty at times of oversimplifying jobs, as well as maybe exaggerating our own efforts. I was very lucky in that my naivety was countered by the professionals that I am surrounded by. Laura Gordon always saw the bigger picture of the project, and I was never left to go solo. Additionally, our interns at the time, Laura Coen and Gar Murphy, helped with much of the heavy lifting by encouraging the submission of the recipes from the varied and multicultural workforce of Cook Ireland. With the gracious support of Noirin Dillon-McCarthy, Linda Tobin, Ruth Kennedy, Fiona Sheehy, and Meurisse Leahy, challenges were brushed aside. What started out as a mere thought was quickly becoming a reality. As the book began to be drafted and the graphic designers began to weave their magic, Tara Kelly and Aideen Guerin gave the cookbook the kind of comprehensive editorial overview that a Pulitzer Prize-winning book might get! Then the printing company showed great patience in helping us through the design and print process. So, to finally answer your question, there were no major challenges!

Tell us about the recipe you contributed! Have you tried any other recipes yourself?

This is where the paradox is exposed. I am not a great cook! And, as the recipes began to pile in, I knew I had created a monster that I could no longer control. So, I turned to what is surely the world’s most famous chef … Google! I was up front in the book when I said, “Never cooked them, never tasted them, they look simple and heard they are a real hit.” And, I’m sorry to say, since the book has been printed, my cooking skills have not greatly improved, and I have yet to try making Chorizo Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers! As for the other recipes, unfortunately none of them started with “go to the freezer section in your local grocery store” and finished with “place in the microwave for 5 minutes”! Having said that, many of the recipes are not a great leap from a Stone Age chef like me to a Michelin Star Chef, so I must try some soon.

Do you think there could be a second edition of the cookbook?

Absolutely! But I might take a back seat on the next one and let one of our many culinary geniuses lead the way.

I would like to add that this book would never have happened without those people who read the emails requesting recipe submissions and thought, “I must do that and actually act on it.” We can’t say “thank you” enough to those many people who took the five minutes to reply with a recipe. They made this idea a reality. Without them, this book would have been nothing but a foreword, one recipe that I Googled, and an index. My sincerest thanks to all the contributors!

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What’s your favorite recipe? Share the recipe name below and interested co-workers can contact you for the full recipe.