Cookbook photography wasn't in the cards for me until Rebecca Fruchter-Klein and Galia Zagury reached out looking for creative volunteers for the À La Carte cookbook. Their original idea was to have several contributing photographers to split up the work. What started out as a few shoots turned into a commitment to shoot the whole book. It felt like the right approach in order to end up with a consistent look and feel in terms of food photography and lighting style.
Over the course of 4 years (COVID interruptus strikes again!), I photographed over 150 dishes and dozens of fascinating Montrealers. I had a blast collaborating on the food styling with the very talented Hanna Hajilou who recently opened an amazing brick and mortar shop in Montreal called À La Table by Hanna. All the volunteers - from the graphic designer to the writers to the recipe creators and testers - did an amazing job. My wife, Montreal copywriter Carolyn Pinto, wrote some of the stories and recipe titles, and my kids even made a cameo appearance on page 168 (testing out a recipe for yogurt-marinated roast chicken with my good friend, the incredible chef Dan Geltner).
100% of the proceeds go to the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation which is what kept me motivated and focused.
I'm very proud of this project. Below are a few of my favourite images from the book.
Know someone looking for a cookbook photographer? Send them my way.
