Of all the cookbook shoot Will and I worked on over the course of five months , the two weeks that we pass in Northern California this preceding springtime were among my favorite … and mostly because it felt like we were vacationing , not working .
I mean , when your office for the week is on top of Mount Tamalpais , there ’s not much to complain about .
We took over his female parent ’s home in Mill Valley , raid her cupboards for beautiful clayware that his uncle made and well - wear dramatis personae iron that dated back to his grandmother ’s era . It was almost like a treasure Leigh Hunt in her home , unearth old bowl and vintage silver medal that unremarkably only made it onto the table for holidays .
After ticking off a dozen recipes in Mill Valley , Will and I made our style an hour north to Point Reyes , where his buddy and sis - in - law had a cabin on the shores of Tomales Bay . We spend every Easter with the family in Point Reyes , make pizza by hand and baking them in the outdoor brick oven . ( Ialmostdeveloped a recipe for the brick oven , just so I could have an alibi to use it ! )
Our late stays in the country were always far too short since we tried to squeeze in visits with our metropolis friends afterward , so the few daytime we had to ourselves at the cabin — albeit “ working ” — was a ambition .
We stock up at the San Rafael Fannie Farmer ’ food market before hunkering down for the workweek with enough market to sustain us through the apocalypse . evaluate by the amount of garlic I brought , you ’d think we were photograph a garlic al-Qur’an .
A lot of citizenry are under the effect that food shoot use bastard food to produce the utter shot . And sometimes they do . internal ad campaigns may have a hairstylist meticulously gluing sesame seeds onto a roll , major magazines may combine a can of frost with a box of powdered sugar to recreate methamphetamine cream that wo n’t run , and many more whoremaster of the trade exist with the aid of blow great mullein , mineral oil , motor oil , haircloth spray , white mucilage , and Scotchgard .
Since solid food incline to bet its best right off the stove , and the final dish antenna might not make it on hardening until it ’s top through the nutrient styler , prop stylist , and photographer ( an hour later ! ) , shortcuts are sometimes necessary to ensure the final product looks good from start to finish .
But lately there ’s been a movement in the food world toward veridical solid food that actually looks real , from slightly peach edges to imperfectly cast out salads — the sort of solid food that search like you could have made it yourself .
All of the intellectual nourishment you see in my book are 100 percent material . We use fresh ingredients , make them in the same mountain and cooking pan and baking sheets you see in the photo , and because it ’s sometimes tough to keep , say , a salad looking perky , I ’ll have several servings on hand to switch out as needed .
Of course , two citizenry could never take down the six meal a day , every day , that I made for our shoot , so we actually had our first ( and only ) assistant / intern / friend on set with us that week . His only job ? To facilitate us eat and reset the kitchen for the next repast !
We traveled with a pared - down prop outfit that included linen and utensil , but trust on the sorcerous array of wood surfaces in the cabin to shoot on , from the prep table in the pizza kitchen to the farm mesa in the dining nook .
At the end of those long day , I ’d park myself in this sizeable little quoin of the house ( a much needed respite from the chaos of the kitchen ) , put up my understructure and balance a heaping dental plate of food in my circle .
When sunset rolled around , we ’d gather in the backyard and crack open beer for this view . ( And to lionize another Clarence Day of recipes done … only a few more to go , including the cover song shoot ! )
Read the full “Making of a Cookbook” series:
