In case you were wondering why I have slacked on the salad posts recently, I would like to take a moment to tell you about the most exhausting week of my life.

I spent the last eight days in Red Hook shooting the Salad For President cookbook, to be published by Abrams Books this coming May. While the book will feature ten international artists and their recipes shot in the style of my blog, it will also include 80 of my own recipes for all things salad-y (cocktails by Arley Marks included). I’ve spent the last two years developing these recipes to create a year-round salad menu that will hopefully inspire and challenge those of you who like to eat like me — piles of fresh produce, the more herbs the better, healthy but not too healthy. This part of the process was challenging, but mostly done on my own time, in the comfort of my own home. It was woven into my everyday life, every meal I cooked was annotated, documented, and then executed again with variations.

I decided long ago that I would shoot the book myself and get a little mileage out of that photography degree. The process of shooting a cookbook is opaque, something each author seems to figure out as they go along. It’s as scary as it sounds, with tight deadlines and lots of people looking over your shoulder. But I knew I had to do it myself for the book to really feel like it was mine. This also meant I would be producing the shoot, assembling a team, a location and a whole lot of props (you have to put the salad on something, right?). I decided to make things really  hectic and forego the prop house, commonly the source for all the rented plates, cups and perfectly distressed table tops you see in your favorite cookbooks and magazines. Instead, I commissioned a handful of my favorite contemporary craftspeople to make custom pieces for the shoot.* Stylist and designer Olivia Sammons and I made the rounds to studios and explained the vision for the book. The week before the shoot, boxes full of my most coveted table top pieces began to arrive at my doorstep. It was like Christmas, except everything had to be returned the following week.

With all the props in-hand, we moved in to the ground floor of my friend Tony Shure’s Red Hook home. The props were laid out on a series of long tables, and a make-shift studio was put into place. We taped the Table of Contents to the wall, and Food Stylist Rebecca Jurkevich and her assistant, Lauren Schaefer, made a plan to churn out ten of my recipes a day. Each morning and throughout the day they would run to various markets around town, facing the challenge of how to find kumquats in July, or out of season Castelfranco chicory (we eventually cut that recipe from the book since there was not a head to be found on the Eastern seaboard). While they prepped, I decided how each dish should be presented: What plate would it go on? How many servings? What background color or texture? And what camera angle would we use to find each salad’s beauty angle? These might not seem like earth-shattering decisions, but these are the details that make the food shine, that determine the difference between an average photo of food and one that has you running to the market to grab ingredients.

With the shoot finished we can now return to our regularly scheduled salad content. Thank you for your patience, and stay tuned!

A list of talented contributors:

Anna Karlin
Matt Merkelhess
Calico Wallpaper
Mondays
ANK Ceramics
Felt+Fat
Helen Levi
Sarah Kersten
Object and Totem
Minna
Arc Objects
Nicholas Newcomb
Colectivo 1050°