Six days and 70 recipes later, I’m on the other side of the bulk of the work involved in creating a cookbook. Of course there’s still the design, marketing, and promotion to dive into, but compared to the weight of developing 110 recipes in 11 months, it feels like a breeze. Unsurprisingly, the prospect of cooking, let alone writing a recipe, has felt nearly impossible post-shoot, so this week I thought I’d share a bit about what goes into making these photos come to life.
*Most* cookbook shoots take place in a studio which is set up with equipment to handle churning out dozens of recipes in a day. Because I live in the country, the cost of going to New York City to rent out such space is completely prohibitive. That, and I think there’s something really special about shooting at home. We were able to incorporate some of the items I owned like napkins my mom painted, candlestick holders that have been in our family for generations, corners of our dining table and chairs, along with having friends show up in a few photos.
There’s a few things that needed to happen to set up for the shoot. The first was clearing out the space —moving furniture, setting up tables for props, cleaning out the fridge and pantry, and setting up the guest room. I printed out all 70 recipes and divided them into their shoot day. Then I made a grocery list divided by produce, meat, dairy etc. along with the quantity for each (example: 6 bunches of parsley, one 2-pound center-cut salmon filet, all the Kerry Gold you can find, 6 jugs of olive oil). Because we don’t have a great grocery store like Whole Foods (or Wegman’s or Adam’s) nearby, I had to plan days around availability. All mushroom recipes had to be photographed after Wednesday when Ryan could go to the market while we were shooting to pick up a few pounds. Fish needed to be shot Thursday or Friday after my mom could drive to the nearest fish market. It’s like managing one really big jigsaw puzzle.
The crew involved in a cookbook shoot can vary depending on budget and scope, but most sets involve a photographer, food stylist, prop stylist, and an assistant of some kind. Usually the food stylist is cooking all the food in addition to styling, but because I wanted us to be working at a quick clip I took on all the cooking duties along with my friend Maggie. Because I’m type-A and have anxiety, I was in the kitchen every day at 6 am in order to have a few dishes ready to shoot as soon as the crew arrived. While this kept things moving, it also meant I felt very, very, very tired.
Fatigue aside, there’s so many other feelings that flooded in during the shoot. I felt so proud of the team and how it felt like we’d all been working together for years. Getting to make all the recipes in one go I kept thinking, “these are really good!” (she’s humble!). The book is over a year out from being published but I can already picture so many of these recipes becoming part of your weekly dinner rotation. But mainly I feel so lucky that I get to do this for my job. Creating the photos for Nights & Weekends has been the most gratifying creative project I’ve gotten to work on in my career thus far.
We printed out the photos as we shot to keep track of what each chapter looked like, if we needed to add in 3/4 shots, as a reminder to not reuse backgrounds or linens too many times, and of course, to get really excited about our work
The joy of a small crew is that it’s *literally* all hands on deck
Still obsessing over this magical oyster mushroom Ryan got at the farmers market which made more than one appearance
This was the last shot on day 3 — it was 75, sunny, and I couldn’t imagine being anywhere better
A close up of some very exciting buns rising
Maggie holding court with the dogs who were desperate to get a nibble of ribeye
Day 4 post-shoot martinis leftover from a shot (that we obviously drank)
The result of this set up is one of my favorite shots in the book
I cleared out our local Price Chopper of Kerry Gold in preparation for the shoot
And of course, Ruby inserting herself at every moment
i loved this! i love learning about behind the scenes things and I would definitely read more.