FARGO — Andrea Baumgardner has been cooking professionally since the 1990s and been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Award twice.

She’s also been a voracious reader all of her life.

So when her sisters suggested she write a cookbook, she figured it was something she could do on the side in a short period of time.

That was five years ago.

Now, after years of tweaking recipes, testing recipes, writing and more writing, the book, “BernBaum’s: Recipes from Fargo’s Nordic-Jewish Deli,” is out.

“I knew nothing about what it is to write a recipe for real,” Baumgardner said. “I've done little articles here and there, but when it came back from the first copy editor with so many comments, I thought, ‘Oh. This is kind of hard.’”

Baumgardner will sign copies of the book this Saturday a

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