It’s the next installment of food photography and kitchen stories! If you’d like to see the last post, find kitchen stories pt 1 here.
I had a lot of roommates in my twenties, but the people who became close friends and stayed that way after we moved out were the ones who wanted to spend most of our time at home in the kitchen.
In the house on Columbia we made pasta and saag paneer and drank way too much coffee. On First Ave we made jam and pizza and I learned to love tofu. On Salsbury we made risotto and chorizo and caramelized onions and, once, a banana cream pie.
Cookin’ Up Some New Friends (sorry)
I think it was a big part of getting to know each other and learn each other’s stories, both food-related and otherwise. It’s still one of the best ways I know to connect with other people. andrea and I lived together for year after meeting in school, and we made dinner together more often than not.
We also did a ton of baking, and because they’re gluten intolerant I got pretty good at making gf flour mixes for various baking endeavours. (I use those skills all the time now since my partner is also gf.) We didn’t have a yard but we did have a back stoop and a stone planter, so we attempted to grow greens and herbs and didn’t do too badly. (In addition to their baking prowess, andrea is a very talented writer, with a new memoir, Like a Boy but Not a Boy, coming out soon.)
Two Ferries Can’t be Wrong
About a year ago andrea, her partner and their baby moved to Powell River, and we’d been trying to plan a visit for months when I sent out an email to some friends about this kitchen stories and food photo project I was working on. andrea was the first to write back, and the chance to hang out in her new kitchen and make food together again was the perfect impetus to finally book those two ferries and make the trip.
When I got there andrea pulled out a homemade cookbook full of handwritten recipes. It was open to a pizza recipe, and reading through the smudged blue ink, both the recipe and the messy printing looked familiar. It was my messy printing! And my pizza recipe, modified to be gluten free.
We proceeded to make dough, tour the garden, collect herbs and prep toppings under the watchful eye of both the toddler and the cat. (Mackerel. Tell me a better cat name. You can’t because there isn’t one.) The evening ended with sunset from the deck, some French children’s books and a few round of the NYT crossword app.
It has now somehow been 10 years since andrea and I met. I am one lucky dirtbag to have people like them who keep me around.
When andrea asked me to take new headshots to go with their upcoming book, of course I jumped at the chance to visit again. We rode bikes to the beach and cooked more delicious things (Will’s granola is to die for, and our go-to peanut butter cookie recipe is a classic for a reason. Everyone knows food photography is mostly about eating) and read French-language books with Sinclair. It was the best.
Family for me means food, so family photography and food photography are the perfect match.
This little food photography project is an ongoing thing, so if you’d like to work together to document your favourite dish, just gimme a shout!