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Being a huge food lover, I was extremely excited to receive a copy of Simply Fresh: Casual Dining at Home at the office. This cookbook is interesting for two reasons: one, it was shot entirely by Heather Anne Thomas of Beall + Thomas, and two, it’s a Ruby Tuesday cookbook. So what kinds of recipes are in a Ruby Tuesday cookbook? Well, it turns out that the book is full of great ideas, inspirational recipes, and beautiful photos. I quickly got in touch with Heather Anne to learn more.
My first question was why would Ruby Tuesday create a cookbook? It’s not the typical thing for a casual chain restaurant to do. Heather Anne— who worked directly with Ruby Tuesday to create the book’s images—filled me in,
The book allows people to experience the brand in a new way. Ruby Tuesday places incredible value in the quality of the food they serve and the experience of their guest. They work very hard to ensure they have the best ingredients and a great atmosphere. They know their guest can’t eat every meal at Ruby Tuesday so when at home, they wanted to share some tips for great meals. At their core, they know sharing a meal is about so much more than eating.
With the concept of sharing a great meal with the freshest ingredients, Heather Anne and her team got to work illustrating the recipes. She’d worked Ruby Tuesday in the past, shooting menus and promotional work, but this time she took it in a new direction with a different style.
Heather Anne says her goal in food photography is to “keep everything as fresh and delicious looking as possible. The important thing with food photography is you need to want to eat what you’re looking at. It needs to motivate the viewer to make the dish!’ Obviously, this shoot was no different in that regard. Heather Anne explains how it all came together,
We spent about 3 weeks total shooting this book. It all happened very quickly! A couple of meetings with our Ruby’s liaison, a meeting with the publisher and art director, a few rounds of estimates, booking everyone, writing a shot list, and finally, the SHOOT! We shot in our studio for the majority of the time, and some on location. Once the shoot began, we went through 5 – 7 shots a day. The client and art director were on site to approve and provide any feedback. We shot with the Hasselblad tethered so feedback was immediate.
The shoots went smoothly with their only real challenge being, “resisting all the delicious food.” Luckily, Heather Anne and her team were able to sample most everything, that is, after the food was photographed of course. Heather Anne enjoyed the shoot and stated that her favorite part of the experience was working with a talented team.
Without a doubt, the client absolutely loved the images, and the book came out great. I myself can’t wait to try out this cake recipe!
