Behind The Scenes at My Cookbook Shoot

It's happening! 90 recipes in 8 days!

Greetings eaters and readers! As mentioned, I’ve spent the last week cooking and shooting my next book, which means that more than once I’ve caught myself saying things like “Is that snow pea looking a little too perpendicular to the cabbage shred?” and “How are we feeling about that dollop?” and “Can I see the champagne vinaigrette pool on the yogurt a teeny tiny bit mor—STOP” and various other phrases that my 21-year-old self would not have believed could be uttered aloud as part of an actual job. The idea behind the next book is SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE, but, as with many things — parallel parking, holding a plank, scoring a clinical header off a corner kick — it takes a lot of hard work to make something look simple. One of the bigger challenges, of course, was reigning in the dogs — we frequently caught Iris licking the talent! Bean usually just likes to observe, plopping right down in the middle of everything, in the most inconvenient spot as always. Here are some more candids from the week.