A cookbook has to hold one look from the first page to the last and come back from the printer the way it looked on screen. I photograph and produce cookbooks for chefs, restaurants and food brands, and I have photographed and published six cookbooks of my own.
Who reads the book, how many recipes it carries and how the chapters break, decided before anything is cooked.
Dishes, process, ingredients, hands and portraits of the chef, shot in blocks with one lighting standard from the first day to the last.
Photographs placed into a designed book with recipe pages a reader can cook from.
Color prepared for the press and paper, correct bleed and a proof checked before the run.
Work to a publisher's specification, or self-publishing in print and on Amazon, the route my own books took.
A menu photograph is judged on its own, beside a price. A book photograph is judged against every photograph around it, often shot weeks apart, and the light, the props and the color have to match from chapter one to chapter nine.
Rhythm matters as much as any single frame. Page after page of tight plates tires a reader, so the plan includes wide shots, process shots and ingredients that let the eye rest.
Many restaurant books are self-published and sold in the dining room, which keeps the margin with you and the print run matched to real demand. If you want a publisher, the book is prepared to their specification from the start.
Color that looks right on a monitor can come back from the press muddy and flat. The only protection is preparing every file for your specific press and paper and checking a proof before the run, which is why print preparation is part of the project from the first day.
Your chef writes them, and I am responsible for the visual side and the production. Editing the recipes for a home kitchen is a separate task, and we can plan it into the project.
Send the idea, roughly how many recipes and when you want it in print. Even an early idea is a good moment to talk, because the photo plan and the recipe list work best when they are decided together.