I embarked on this project about two years ago when I was approached by a brilliant and passionate woman with a dream to publish her own cookbook. Caron Melamed had created a name for herself amongst friends and family as an incredible cook always serving up creative delights and was taking her constant influx of recipe requests to the next level.
Over the course of the project, my primary role as Creative Director was to take Caron's vision and bring it to life. Inspired by the fresh, clean style of top French recipe books, where the food is always the star, I used a generous helping of white space to ensure that the visually stunning food would always pop on the page. I worked closely with the food stylist and photographer, accessorising each shot with Provence-style cutlery, crockery and decor in wood, silver and shades of blue to create a subtle thread throughout the book.
Finally, I got to work on the 300-page layout, crafting each recipe, the contents page and section dividers. The headline font used for recipe titles is Aire, a soft, feminine font with a modern feel and a large set of glyphs allowing me to craft each unique title in the book.
When considering the concept for the cover of the book, Caron and I realised that it would be too difficult to select just one food shot for the cover because the books covers various categories of food and does not fit just one genre. The concept was to shoot Caron's great grandmothers salt and pepper sellers atop a pile of some of the exquisite crockery used in the book, the different patterns and textures create a rich, layered shot.
Two years after our very first meeting, A Pinch Of was launched in May 2014 and an impressive 600 copies were sold in one morning. Two months later, almost 2000 copies have been sold. The book is a collection of traditional and contemporary recipes for everyone - its "better than eating out".
