Yesterday was a spectacular day! And you cannot imagine how much fun it was; the day just flew by. Although I have to admit the day started out a little stressful. We woke up to a heavy snowstorm, which normally would look beautiful, falling softly on the city, blanketing everything with its quiet and beauty. But yesterday, all I saw was it was clogging roads, closing roads, making travel difficult. I started the morning calling some of the models coming to shoot that day telling them which roads were closed and traffic conditions and when our start times were. Some were off getting their hair done, others had to travel up to an hour so it was a little cause for concern at eight am!
But despite the snow, and a stop on our way to the location to purchase some spring tulips for the cover and to cheer myself up, we arrived at the house. We were using friends’ home, a beautiful, century red brick row house, right downtown. Arriving it too was covered in falling snow, the iron gates blanketed, the park across the street covered and quiet. Entering the house, a fire was in the grate and the house simply said welcome. Lesley arrived as we did, trudging across snow-covered wheel mounds on the street, lugging photography equipment and lighting. I met Nicole, our brilliant make up artist, almost as soon as I entered the house since she took public transit and of course arrived earlier than those of us in cars. Quickly we were setting up lights in the kitchen and honestly there were quite amazing. Big lights on tripods, with huge diffusers put over top, two of them in the room, like giant unblinking Cyclops eyes, blinking in time with the camera flash.
My friend Claudette arrived from the other side of the city and immediately took over getting the models organized, helping them choose which outfit to wear, helping them with the waivers and generally keeping them happy. Honestly she was a great help, I can always depend on her to keep things on track for me. She is really great at organizing and directing and it was a load off my mind to have her out front taking care of everyone who were now shuffling through the front door, damp and snow covered, removing boots and coats and emerging from under the detritus of winter.
And you should have seen these guys, wow! The women were beautiful, seriously beautiful and the men, ok what can I say, like something from the pages of a magazine, from day dreams, from high school crushes. Each and every one of them were beautiful in their own way, but also completely familiar and casual, since I wanted people on the cover who you could meet in your neighbourhood, who you could see yourself cooking and enjoying a meal with around a table with good wine. Claudette helped each of them choose and coordinate their clothing and then they were all sitting in turn chatting with Nicole as she did their make up.
Meanwhile the real activity was occurring in the kitchen. I had prepared a delicious autumn carrot ginger soup, a grilled rosemary chicken breast with Thai rice and green bean and carrot bundles for the food courses and my pineapple, coconut, walnut carrot cake stood regally on its cake platter. But you should see what the food stylists could do with it. Garnished with fruits, or cream and chives or sprigs of rosemary standing proudly, mounds of freshly baked bread piled and secured with discreetly hidden toothpicks for support, vine tomatoes cascading amid pyramids of cheese. I was dumbfounded when they were finished. What an amazing skill. Suddenly my cooking looked like something from a magazine, stunningly beautiful and appetizing. I think my food tastes pretty delicious all the time but when they were finished, it looked ready to be presented at any table in the world’s most exclusive restaurants. Later a cheese board for the table groaned under its own weight but you almost couldn’t resist just reaching out to pluck some of it, it looked so scrumptious. They did things I would never think of doing. I had vases of purple irises and another of yellow tulips in the kitchen shots but when it came time to shoot the dining room shots, they transformed them to platters of flowers lying nestled against each other, blooms facing out, wrapped and tied with tulip leaves. If you ever need a food stylist to make your party or dinner even more amazing, just let me know and I will call Henry to come to the rescue!
We started shooting the pictures and very quickly everyone was having a great time. There was lots of laughter as everyone became more comfortable and the pictures were amazing. The food looked seriously like something from Gourmet magazine and all the models looked gorgeous and relaxed at the same time in the photos. Some of the girls looked like Nigella Lawson, only prettier and the men were great, laughing and looking relaxed. Even my brother, the good sport that he is cause believe me this really isn’t his sort of thing, came and did some of the photos for me and he enjoyed himself. He really is the handsome and fit right in among the models even though he has no experience. I enjoyed immensely working with them all but to be candid it was hard work. I was always thinking, directly, suggesting what I would like, working with the photographer to get just right shot that matched what I had pictured for the cover and the back cover. We spent over an hour in the kitchen and then I trucked them all upstairs so we could shoot a fun picture with everyone with a glass of wine in the beautiful but also huge bathtub upstairs. Finally we came back down and finished with a number of pictures of people enjoying food at the dining room table and then all of a sudden the day was over! Everyone ate the food I had prepared and then headed home.
But for me, it has felt really surreal. Suddenly it has all come to being. I can hardly believe it is really happening. I had trouble sleeping and awoke this morning still thinking about it. It is like a dream coming true, and similarly to your wedding day, it all passed in a happiness soaked blur. Back to grind now of finishing the recipes and laying it out and all the other tasks I have ahead of me, but yesterday was a true joy to me. That I could make it happen, that it happened the way I wanted, that it exceeded my expectations, that everyone involved enjoyed themselves immensely, that I felt their excitement in doing it and their excitement for me for taking on this challenge of creating a cookbook, it was a moment of pure joy. I am on a high right now and deeply grateful for the experience and for everyone who made it possible. Special thanks I have to give to Lesley my photographer and her assistant, to Nicole my make up artist, to all my models who generously came on a snowy difficult day to make it happen, Carmela, Rose, Jean, Shanti and Lindsay and the men Ryan, Ian, Luis, Matt and Ken, to Henry for all the food styling, for Claudette for her incredible powers of organization, to Nick for the use of his beautiful home. And to my guy, who ran, cajoled, carted, arranged, set up, took down, styled, carried, encouraged, supported, laughed and supported me through the whole day. I could not have done it without him, and I really understand what they always say now about how in marriage the union of two becomes greater than each of them singly. It was a spectacular day that I will always remember and I am now so excited for you to see the photos! This is a crazy journey and today I can’t stop smiling.
