The winter cover of Edible Hudson Valley with one of my photos from a visit to Damon Baehrel’s restaurant and gardens.
Posts Tagged: cook book photographer
13
Mar 13
Glenmere Mansion Photo Shoot
This week I found myself at the Glenmere Mansion, in Chester, NY. I had met co-owner Alan Stenberg several years ago when a magazine sent me to them. This time around, it was Alan calling. The mansion has a fabulous upcoming opportunity, and they needed photos asap. Here is a sample of what we photographed: appetizers, entrees, and desserts; the busy Supper Room; and cocktails in the Frogs End bar. It’s amazing what you can get done in a day with the right team.
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Mar 13
Guy Gourmet Cookbook
Here is a sneak peek of a cookbook I shot for Rodale in the fall. Quite a shoot: we photographed these recipes in Manhattan days after Hurricane Sandy. The city was still recovering… but the shoot went on. Look for the book in May.
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Jan 13
First We Feast – Slideshow
I was asked to share 10 of my favorite food images that I have shot for First We Feast. They did an interview with me, and made a slideshow on their website. Unsurprisingly, when asked for my favorite food images, I chose mostly story-driven pictures: ice fishing; running around eastern Canada with the Joe Beef chefs; a foie gras factory, and more. Link to story here.
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Nov 12
Men’s Health, CIA & Sandy
It’s been a busy few weeks! Hurricane Sandy, a Nor’Easter, a cookbook for Men’s Health, and currently working on a project for the Culinary Institute of America. All the while running all around NYC and the Hudson Valley with Babes. Here is a document of events, in images:
In Williamsburg with Babes, after racing the nor'easter so we could shoot a cookbook for Men's Health.
Working with food stylist Paul Grimes
Summer in the studio
The first signs of sun - seen from the studio windows - after a week of storms including the brutal Hurricane Sandy
Back in the Hudson Valley. Working on a new project for the Culinary Institute of America.
Wringing out an herb infusion, CIA style.
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Oct 12
Michael Symon’s Carnivore Cookbook
Michael Symon’s latest book, Carnivore, hits the shelves on October 16th. I’m excited about this book. We shot it last fall, when I was 6 months pregnant, including a trip to Michael’s home in Cleveland, OH. Here are a few shots from the book, and I have already cooked two recipes from my advance copy, and everything is as tasty now as I remember it being on set.
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Oct 12
Susan Feniger’s Street Cookbook
Susan Feniger’s Street food cookbook was recently published (by Clarkson Potter), and here are a few shots from the book. I was three weeks pregnant when I shot this book in Los Angeles and had to tell the team what was up, because they kept making the most delicious and extravagant cocktails every night after shooting. Their puzzled faces when I said no on the first couple of nights were priceless.
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Sep 12
Pacific Northwest
Spending time in the Pacific Northwest in a deluxe house on a remote island location.
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Aug 12
Chelsea Market
Spent this week working on a cookbook for the Chelsea Market. What a whirlwind photographing all the shops over several days. Here I am with Sarabeth in her bakery.
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Jul 12
Rahm Fama Cookbook Shoot
On set in Woodstock, NY this week, shooting Chef Rahm Fama’s upcoming cookbook for Clarkson Potter. Let me just say, we are cooking and shooting and eating a lot of meat and vegetable sides, and it is tasty. Rahm is the best. I’m so lucky to get to work with high energy, excited, positive folks.
Rahm Fama and the cutest little stuffed quail.
Handsome man, handsome steak
Rahm, my man, and in his arms the reason my blog is out of date. Clearly, she likes a steak as much as her mama.
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Jun 12
People’s Pops Cookbook
Introducing a popsicle cookbook I photographed for the Brooklyn-based company People’s Pops. The book is published by Ten Speed Press, and is out this June. We ran around Brooklyn and NYC doing the shots for this book…we photographed people eating the popular popicles at their shop in the Chelsea Market, and from their stand on the High Line. I still dream of the plum popsicle and I will be making up a batch soon.
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May 12
Iron Chef Michael Symon’s Cookbook
A sneak peek at the cover of Iron Chef Michael Symon’s upcoming cookbook, Carnivore (Clarkson Potter, October 2012). I shot this with Michael in NYC and in his hometown, Cleveland, over the fall. So many delicious meat and vegetable side recipes, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
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Mar 12
James Beard Award Nomination!
This little book that could just keeps rising. We now have a James Beard Award Nomination for The Art of Living According to Joe Beef.
The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts. Written by Frederic Morin, David McMillan & Meredith Erickson. Foreword by David Chang. Photographs by Jennifer May.
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Feb 12
Susan Feniger’s Street Food Cookbook
The cookbook I photographed for Chef Susan Feniger is available for pre-order from bookstores (its official publication date is August, 2012, from Clarkson Potter). Susan is one of the most joyful and generous people I have ever met, and thinking back on the week I spent with her and the team, at her home in Los Angeles, makes me smile.
Here is a sneak peek at the cover, and note the book’s subtitle: Irresistibly Crispy, Creamy, Crunchy, Spicy, Sticky, Sweet Recipes. So true!
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Feb 12
Pheasant Hunting
This morning, on assignment in Pine Plains, NY, I found myself in the midst of a pheasant hunt. Got to love a French chef on a hunt: Mid-morning snack included slabs of home-made duck paté and cured ham on chunks of baguette, white and red wine in glassware, and steaming hot bullion…. with table, tablecloth, and napkins, of course.
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Feb 12
A Trophy for the Joe Beef cookbook!
And the Joe Beef Cookbook is the winner of the 2012 Food52 Tournament of Cookbooks. In the final round, it won against Momofuku’s Milk book, as judged by Alice Waters.
In the second round, some lovely words by the judges on the photos: “The photographs of the restaurant, its garden, and its cast of characters are lovely and real, and as we read the book, we spent lots of time looking at them and seeing how quietly they tell the outrageous story. Photographer Jennifer May captures it all. She understands the sensuality and beauty of food and never flinches as she shoots some pretty over-the-top dishes just as they come to her.” – Christopher Hirsheimer & Melissa Hamilton
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Jan 12
Shooting a Midwestern Cookbook, Part 3
I love location-based photo shoots, and location-based cookbooks are the best. Not only do we shoot a whole lot of delicious food, but we travel around to meet local people, see local sites, tell picture stories, and capture the essence of a place. I spent this past week with Amy Thielen in Minnesota, on the third and final shoot for her upcoming cookbook (Clarkson Potter). This trip was all about winter.
We went ice fishing on a frozen lake with a local guy, visited a survivalist-style bunker stocked with hundreds of jars of home-preserved foodstuffs, hosted a garage party with a bonfire in the snow, and joined the crew of a local logging mill for their monthly soup day.
Here I am riding on the back of a quad on a frozen lake in Minnesota, returning from ice fishing
Guest quarters feature a heated & lit out house. A fun adventure at midnight in winter.
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Jan 12
Bon Appetit New Year’s Day Brunch
A shoot I did for Bon Appetit magazine: New Year’s Day New Orlean’s-inspired holiday brunch ideas, for the January 2012 issue.
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Dec 11
HuffPo’s Best 11 Cookbooks of 2011
The Huffington Post has named the Joe Beef cookbook as one of the Best 11 Cookbooks of 2011, and my cheeks are burning hot – hours after hearing the news. First Publisher’s Weekly, then Details, then USA Today, then Time Out New York… [Update: Bon Appetit magazine rates the book as one of the 8 Stellar Cookbooks of 2011; it is also a Chicago Tribune favorite; it is an editor's pick for a Best Cookbook gift idea at Martha Stewart magazine - along with the Fleisher's book I photographed] It’s amazing to watch the accolades build up for the book we made for that tiny restaurant in Montreal. I drove north over the span of a year, to chase chefs Fred & Dave around their restaurant, on fishing boats off the coast of Prince Edward Island, and around the outlying areas of Montreal. We didn’t even have a food or prop stylist, but we had Fred & Dave’s aesthetic genius. It was just the kind of location-based, food-based, character-driven project I love to work on. I’m just so thrilled I can’t contain myself. Here are a few of my favorite shots, and there are hundreds more in the book:
Images & outtakes from The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A cookbook of sorts. Photography by Jennifer May
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Nov 11
Post-Thanksgiving
We did a very simple Thanksgiving: A beautiful heritage turkey from Fleisher’s Grass-Fed & Organic Meats, wrapped in a butter-and-stock-drenched cheesecloth, from a recipe by Michael Symon, served to guests who traveled from afar. We rented a table to fit everyone and to cover that table I bought a 10′ length of burlap. Today I will reuse that burlap in the garden to wrap a honeysuckle bush a buck has been using as a scratching post for his antlers.
Burlap covered dining table - thematic, pretty, inexpensive, and will be re-purposed in the winter garden.
As for the turkey – I can’t imagine ever going back to basting or brining. Chef Symon’s recipe made for the most luscious flesh & crispy skinned bird we have ever cooked. For my own reference next year, his recipe is below.
Our heritage bird was 16 pounds, and we cooked it at 350 for almost 3 hours, which brought the internal temp to 190, which should have been a disaster. But, it was perfect.
Chef Michael Symon’s Roast Turkey
- 1-12# fresh organic turkey
- 1 bunch thyme
- 1 halved lemon
- 1 halved red onion
- 4 cloves peeled garlic
- 1 bulb quartered fennel
- 1 large piece of cheesecloth
- 1 # butter
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 2 tbl salt
Remove innards from turkey and rinse inside and out. Place all veg, herbs, stock and butter in large pot and bring to simmer. Place cheesecloth in pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain liquid and reserve vegetables and herbs and let them cool. Stuff cooled vegetable mix in cavity of bird and place on roasting rack in pan breast side up. Cover bird with soaked cheesecloth and place liquid in bottom of pan and place in 350 degree oven for 2 hours. Open oven and remove cheesecloth and baste with liquid. Raise temperature to 400 and continue to cook for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove turkey from oven and make sure leg and thigh are at 160 internal temperature. Let rest for 30 minutes and serve.
More Thanksgiving recipes from Chef Symon here.