I tend to like hard copies for cook books and recipes - I have iPads, tablets, kindles, laptops - way too much technology. When I cook I tend to go back to fire, coals, paper... just me. I have used Lulu self publishing in the past. One of the best things is it is free to set up your book. Then you can decide the various forms it can be published in - e.g. spiral bound, paperback, hardcover, pdf, etc. You also have control over the "price." So, the book could be "published" at cost and the costs are very reasonable. It is ONLY actually published when ordered.
So, you could create a cook book - and when anyone wants one,they go on-line and order it. Takes a day or two for printing and then shipping cost / time is chosen by the purchaser. No need to publish x number of books. They are only printed on demand - and you could also get a pdf version if you don't want print. T - you could set up an account and sell the book to the general public via Lulu as well. Again, all of this is free to the author. The buyer pays for the book when ordering and the author recieves the profit that he built into the price.
www.lulu.comVery easy to use and creates books that look like they came from the full service publishers.
David