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.
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.
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
Not only was The Art of Living According to Joe Beef: A Cookbook of Sorts selected as a Top 10 Pick for Fall by Publisher’s Weekly, the book has also been rated one of the Top 10 Cookbooks of the Year by Details magazine. Incredible to be reading all this advance buzz… it makes remembering the year I spent traveling & doing the photographs (noted here and here) all the sweeter.
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.
For the 2011 Butcher Blackout, Josh Applestone and the Fleisher’s crew traveled to the Joe Beef restaurant in Montreal, and they asked me to go along with them. Before the 12-course meal Fred Morin prepared, we had a six-hour picnic in sub-zero weather. Snacks included champagne and oysters on the half shell served from a snow bank and foie gras lobster poutine. Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods showed up with his film crew, so look for that on the upcoming Montreal special. Here are a few photos, and for more, visit this slide-show.
A rotisserie grill & spit as only the mind of Fred Morin could conceive
Butchers & bone-in rib eye steaks: Joshua Applestone (left) & Tom Mylan (right)
A little grinding, a little welding, Fred Morin modifies the grill
Fred Morin, Bryan Mayer & Josh Applestone
Bizarre Foods & crew
Andrew Zimmern, the host of Bizarre Foods, extols on the foie gras double down he just sampled
Back from another three-day shoot for Joe Beef restaurant in Montreal. We shot dishes in the restaurant, made excursions to the outskirts of Montreal for poutine and hamburgers, and then there was Chinatown to eat jellyfish (and other things “not for Canadians”) with the Joe Beef chef, sous-chefs, and bartender at 3 a.m.
A classic Montreal poutine with fries, gravy and cheese curds
A perfect bite