Penguin punished for pasta disaster

Book publisher, Penguin Group Australia, pays the price for sinful typo in its latest Pasta Bible.

7000 copies of the book were recently pulped and reprinted, costing the company  a reported $20,000, after it was discovered that a recipe contained the instructions ''salt and freshly ground black people'', instead of “black pepper.”

Penguin’s head of publishing, Bob Sessions, told  The Age that that furore was a storm in a teacup, citing spell check as responsible for the slip. ''We're mortified that this has become an issue of any kind and why anyone would be offended, we don't know,'' he said. “ … proofreading a cookbook is an extremely difficult task. I find that quite forgivable.”

The original version of the book had already made its way to some stores before the mistake was picked up on. Sessions added that upset customers who already bought a copy of the offending version are able to obtain a new copy.

The incident highlights, among other things, the power of the printed word.