A race weekend cookbook and Formula 1 archive

Every Grand Prix has a flavor.

Travel the Formula 1 calendar from your own kitchen. Search any driver, circuit, country or race since 1950, then bring that place to your table. No passport required, though an apron helps.

Preorder the cookbook Coming soon Join The Podium Table Support our journey

Start anywhere

Start with a name, a place or a year.

Every driver leads to a country, every country to a circuit, and every circuit, eventually, to dinner.

Where it began

My mom and I.

Every race, a seat at our table.

For almost a decade, my mom and I have kept one tradition. Wherever Formula 1 races that weekend, that is where dinner comes from. Melbourne sends us to the Australian coast. Suzuka brings Japan into our kitchen. Monza means Italy, and a very long lunch.

What began as a way to watch together became the best part of our week. A country we have never visited. An ingredient we have never bought. An hour side by side at the stove before the lights go out. Somewhere between the first course and the checkered flag, it stopped being dinner and became ours.

For years we joked that it should be a cookbook. Now we are writing it, together, one race at a time.

Podium Plates is more than a book to us. It is a reason to keep building something side by side, to keep learning the places we have only seen on a screen, and to follow this sport a little closer with every season. Support it, and you are not only backing a cookbook. You are pulling up a chair at our table, and coming along for whatever comes next.

Support our journey Follow along

Every contribution goes toward researching, writing and printing the first edition.

An illustration of our race weekend table. Photos from our own kitchen are on the way.

Our tradition

Wherever the race goes, dinner goes too.

MELBOURNE Barramundi with lemon myrtle butter SHANGHAI Red braised short ribs SUZUKA Teriyaki salmon MONACO Barbajuan MONZA Risotto alla milanese MEXICO CITY Tacos al pastor

A World, A Menu, A Race Weekend.

Every round opens a new country to taste. In our house, the formation lap doubles as the dinner bell.

The race weekend ritual

Five things, every round.

Discover the destination

Find out where the race is, what surrounds the circuit, and what the locals eat when nobody is filming.

Choose one dish

Pick something that belongs to that place. If you cannot pronounce it yet, even better.

Share the table

Sit down together. The meal is the reason, the company is the reward, and the leftovers are the bonus.

Watch the race

Lights out, plate in hand. Years later, one bite will bring the whole race back, including the parts you would rather forget.

Repeat next round

Next round, a new country. By the finale you have eaten your way around the world without queuing at a single airport.

Discover the destination

Choose one dish

Share the table

Watch the race

Repeat next round

The first cookbook

The Founders Edition

One chapter for every round of the season. Each one carries you to the host city and home again, with dishes made for an ordinary kitchen and stories worth telling over them.

One thousand copies, numbered and signed by hand. Five hundred hardback, five hundred paperback, and a digital edition for everyone else.

Hardback$79.991 of 500Coming soon Paperback$49.991 of 500Coming soon Digital$19.99UnlimitedComing soon

Coming soon

Plus shipping and handling. Printed copies come to us first to be numbered and signed, then travel on to you.

Signature recipe: The dish that tells you exactly where you are, even with your eyes closed.
Trackside classics: The street food the grandstands queue for, without the queue.
A taste of the country: Local ingredients, regional cooking, and a drink to pour while the stewards deliberate.
Sweet finish: Something sweet to close the meal, ideally before the podium champagne.
The circuit and its story: Where the track is, how it came to be, and why every corner seems to have a name.

Coming soon

Placeholder artwork. The final cover is still being designed.

A taste of the book

Round one, Melbourne.

Australia · Signature recipe

Pan seared barramundi

Crisp skin, lemon myrtle butter, charred greens and roasted lemon. Ready before the formation lap, with time left to find the remote.

Pit stop time35 min

DifficultyMedium

Serves2

Read the recipe

How we make it

Explore it with us.

Researched where it comes from

Every dish belongs to the place the race visits, and we research it in the culture it comes from. When a recipe is our own take, we say so, rather than inventing a grandmother we never had.

Written for any kitchen

Every recipe is written so a first time cook can follow it from the chopping board to the plate, with swaps for hard to find ingredients and versions for every kind of diet.

Every fact traced to a source

Dates, results and history are checked against more than one source before they reach a page. The stewards would approve.

Independent and unofficial

We are fans of food and racing. Podium Plates is not connected to Formula 1, the FIA or any team, though we would happily feed all three.

Where the book is todayFirst three chapters drafted

Australia, China and Japan are written. The rest of the season is being researched now.

Be part of it

Pull up a chair with us.

Founders Edition

Buy the cookbook

One thousand numbered and signed copies, from $49.99, and a digital edition at $19.99. Leave your email and you will hear the moment orders open, well before the lights go out.

See the editions

Join The Podium Table

Pull up a chair with our community of cooks and race fans, and unlock the whole archive back to 1950, for $3 a month.

Every season since 1950, with its story and full results
Every recipe, with its full method, swaps and dietary versions
A race weekend menu with one combined shopping list
Printable recipes and every result for every search
New member features as we add them

Join at $3 and keep that price for as long as you keep your seat. Cancel anytime.

A yearly seat, $99 a year. Everything above, plus each new Podium Plates cookbook sent to you every year, with early access before anyone else. Coming soon

Support our journey

Help a mother and son turn a family tradition into a book worth keeping. Every contribution goes toward researching each chapter and printing the first edition.

One time, from $1
PayPal, Venmo or card

Support is not a preorder or a donation, and is not tax deductible.

Questions

Before you pull up a chair.

What is the Founders Edition?

Our first cookbook, limited to one thousand printed copies: five hundred hardback at $79.99 and five hundred paperback at $49.99, plus shipping. Every printed copy is numbered and signed by both of us, so it comes to us first and then travels on to you, which takes a little longer than an ordinary parcel. The digital edition, at $19.99, is unlimited.

When can I buy the cookbook?

We are writing it now, one chapter per race weekend, which is roughly the pace of the sport itself. Join the list above and you will hear first when orders open.

What is The Podium Table?

The Podium Table is our community of cooks and race fans, and a seat is $3 a month. It opens every season back to 1950, with its story and full results, every recipe with its swaps, dietary versions and shopping list, and every result for every search. Join at $3 and you keep that price for as long as you stay. A yearly seat, coming soon at $99, adds each new cookbook sent to you every year, with early access.

What can I see for free?

Something from everything. Every season has its calendar, its winners and the opening of its story; every race has its top five; every driver, circuit, country and team has its profile; and every country has a signature recipe. The last five seasons and five landmark years are free in full. A seat at The Podium Table adds the rest.

Do I need to follow Formula 1 to use it?

Not at all. The calendar is simply our excuse to travel by plate. Every recipe works perfectly well on a Tuesday, no safety car required.

Where does the race history come from?

The archive is built from Wikidata, a free public database, and checked against the season and race results published on Wikipedia. Every page shows what it was checked against.

Is this an official Formula 1 product?

No. Podium Plates is an independent, unofficial cookbook made by a mother and son. It is not associated with Formula 1, the FIA or any team. We simply cook, very enthusiastically, in their direction.

Your next race weekend starts at the table.

Start with this weekend's Grand Prix, or wander any season since 1950. Bring an appetite; we will bring the history.

Search the archive Support our journey

Otmar Szafnauer

Romanian American engineer who helped lift Force India to fourth place, stayed through its Racing Point and Aston Martin years, and led Alpine in 2022 and 2023

Otmar Szafnauer

Romanian American engineer who helped lift Force India to fourth place, stayed through its Racing Point and Aston Martin years, and led Alpine in 2022 and 2023

Otmar Szafnauer comes from Semlac, a village in the west of Romania, and moved to Detroit at seven. An electrical engineer from Wayne State, he joined Ford in 1986, learned to race at the Jim Russell school and competed in Formula Ford in 1991. Formula One followed with British American Racing in 1998 and then Honda, where he became a vice president of its racing development company.

Force India hired him in October 2009, and the team climbed steadily to fourth in the constructors' championship in 2016 and 2017. He stayed as the team became Racing Point and then Aston Martin, leaving in January 2022 to become team principal of Alpine, where he remained until the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix. From Semlac to the paddock is a long way, but he traveled it in good order.

Teams led

Force India, 2009 to 2018
Racing Point F1 Team, 2019 to 2020
Aston Martin F1 Team, 2021 to 2021
Alpine F1 Team, 2022 to 2023