The word is spreading about the Cart for a Cause Cookbook! Yesterday one of the local Los Angeles Television Stations (KCAL 9) did a spot on it, featuring the founder of the St Vincent Meals on Wheels Program (Sister Alice Marie) the Director (Daryl Twerdahl) and three of the chefs that have been featured on The Cart as well as in The Cookbook.
You can view the segment here along with the accompanying article.
Check out the February issue of PDN (Photo District News). You’ll see our image in an Ad for PDN/PhotoServe (Page 79). To be honest we had completely forgotten that this was coming out until we got a couple calls regarding it. If you don’t already subscribe to PDN, you should… it is the leading industry magazine for professional photography. We’ve been featured several times in it and it is the primary magazine here in our office!
Well we indulged a bit here and took a couple of days off, but wanted to take the opportunity to say that we hope you had the Best of Holiday Seasons and that your New year is Even Better! 2012 looks promising and we hope that is the cases for each and every one of you!
Warm Regards!
I am hoping that you have gone out and purchased the Cart for a Cause Cookbook for your Holiday Gift Giving! Not because I get any proceeds…. I don’t, simply because it’s a great gift and the proceeds DO go for a great cause!
As we near the end of “sharing” this REALLY FUN project with you we feature Comme Ca and Chef David Myers and his amazing Vanilla Hazelnut Pancakes with Toasted Pistachios, Fresh Berries, and Whipped Cream. If you have not been to Comme Ca and had these, you must put it on your to-do list! Also think about heading over after work some evening and enjoying a cocktail at the bar… they do a spectacular job.
We only had about 5 minutes with David to shoot his portrait, but it is among my favorites. Pressure has a way of encouraging results!
We reconnected with Akasha Richmond at the Cart for a Cause event on November 30th (the same night as the major wind storm!) at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles. It was the first time we had seen each other since our photo shoot earlier this summer. She was thrilled with the image we chose and the way the cookbook turned out!
Her’s was one of the few dishes we didn’t get a chance to sample, and just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. I am looking forward to getting over to Akasha to order this tempting French Toast (It Smelled AMAZING!)
So we are coming down to the wire. Only a few more chefs to share with you (after today… 4 to be exact). The Cart for a Cause Cookbook is out, available, and shipping! Reviews are really positive and we are thrilled with the outcome. Now you just need to get one for your kitchen and maybe a few as gifts!
Our next featured chef saved the day. When we had a chef pull a no-show, Robert Sarstedt didn’t just step in and offer to help out, he did it with about 2 hours notice! He and everyone at Craig’s were great, fun to be around, and like family, just kept saying “Eat.. Eat!” … And so we did. I had a chance to sample the Ribs on the Cart for a Cause a week earlier and BOY were they good!
Seriously… Go get one of these cookbooks. Recipes from L.A.’s Top Chefs and ALL the proceeds go to St Vincent Meals on Wheels, it’s a great gift that gives back!!
Well we just wrapped on a couple of weeks of shooting for UnitedHealthcare.
Whew!
We shot over 14,000 images at 3 locations with over 50 talent and 1 irresistible dog. We are still combing through all of the images and prepping them for delivery, but had to share at least one frame from this whirlwind of a shoot.
As usual the crew was amazing and the whole project was just plain fun. How lucky are we to be able to do this for a living?! As we start to really dig into the imagery over the coming weeks we’ll share more with you, as well as some “behind the scenes” footage, though that might take a little longer to compile/edit/post.
Meantime “Thanks!” to the wonderful folks at UnitedHealthcare who are always SUCH A PLEASURE to work with, and to everyone who made up the incredible crew on this project!
Well it is official! The Cart for a Cause Cookbook is out! We spent 3 days on press checks to make sure it was “just so”. And now it is available in all its glory. We’ve been sharing images from the project over the past few months and we’ll continue to do so until we’ve featured each and every restaurant and chef that participated in this great project. Meantime if you want the REAL benefits of this project, hop over to Amazon.com and buy your own copy so that you can have all of the amazing recipes contained in this unique collection, AND feel good that you have played your part in contributing to the Meals on Wheels Program. All the proceeds from the sales of this cookbook go to providing meals to those in need.
This has been an incredibly fun project to work on and we met some amazing people – and ate some amazing food!
Don’t forget to also support the Cart for a Cause by seeking them out on Tuesdays in the Los Angeles area and having a great lunch at a great price that again supports the Meals on Wheels Program.
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the creation of this wonderful book!
More images to come!
We are soooooo close! Today we shipped off the proofs for the Cart for a Cause Cookbook. It looks amazing! As it stands now we should see finished product in our hands by the end of the month! We are hoping the the pre-order site will be live next week. We’ll certainly share that link once it is active!
In the meantime let’s talk about something close to my heart.. Italian Food! We visited Whist at the Viceroy in Santa Monica to photograph Chef Tony DiSalvo and his DiSalvo Family Meatball Recipe. Amazing. That’s it. That’s all I have to say.
I have the privilege of being friends with some amazingly talented people. High on that list are my good friends Andrea & Camy Favilli and Jay Sfingi. This week they had us over to photograph their design firm (Favilli + Sfingi) in action. I have known Andrea since high school and always known him to be amazingly multi-talented. I would list his skills here but you’d be scrolling for a while. Since high school and our time at Art Center, he has surrounded himself with more insanely creative people (i.e. his wife Camy, business partner Jay, and their staff and creative team). But being in the office with them and watching what they do on a daily basis just reinforces / reminds me of what I already knew… Damn they’re good!
At any rate, we had a fun day (as you can see by the photos) and would welcome the opportunity to go back any time and feed off of their wonderful energy!
Thanks Team F+S!!
We’re getting close! I saw the final manuscript for the Cart for a Cause Cookbook over the weekend. It is being sent off to the printer this week! Very Exciting! I was hoping to be able to share a link for pre-orders in this post, but the page on the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels site is not live, quite yet. The page for the book is up on Amazon, but they are not accepting pre-orders there anymore… What’s up with that?!
What we can share this week is another series from the book. This is from The Foundry on Melrose and Chef Eric Greenspan with some Albacore Tuna Tartare.
One of the Sponsors for Cart for a Cause is POM Wonderful. They provide all of the great POM Beverages and FIJI Water for the Cart each Tuesday. The folks at POM Wonderful also collaborated with several of the chefs on recipes for the CFAC Cookbook.
One destination while shooting the CFAC Cookbook was the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, where Executive Chef Ashley James creates all kinds of amazing meals for both the hotel and restaurant. His contribution to the cookbook is a sinfully delicious POM Velvet Cupcake with POM Cream Cheese Frosting…..YUM!
Once again, another great experience! Chef Ashley was so accommodating and enthusiastic. He walked us through the entire site himself. The hotel and restaurant had many visual opportunities but we felt most at home in the very traditional library. Once we settled in to the location the shoot was a breeze. Great natural light… a little fill and Presto! We’re hoping that we get many more opportunities to collaborate with him!
Can you believe I have never dined at Spago?…Me neither! And honestly I had not thought about it in years until we arrived to shoot Sherry Yard for the CFAC cookbook. Sherry is SUCH a sweetheart and makes you just want to give her a big hug. She was so delightful, easy to work with, fun to shoot, and then she fed us breakfast! Not only was breakfast delicious, then we got to polish off the two Raspberry Chocolate Chip Souffles that Sherry made for the shoot. It was tough but I would take another one for the team… just so no one else would have to suffer!
We found out today that we received FOUR Honorable Mentions in the 2011 IPA’s. This along with the Communication Arts Photo Annual, and the Hasselblad Masters, makes this a banner year! Thanks to all who contributed to creating these winning images!!!
We spent a lot of time in Santa Monica shooting for the CFAC Cookbook. One afternoon we were at the Miramar Hotel, a place I remember going to with my grandfather when he got his hair cut… and the barber shot is still there! However we were not attending to shaves or having “a little off the top” on this particular day. Instead we were photographing Chef Raymond Garcia at Fig Restaurant. He prepared a beautiful Quinoa Salad and the natural light really cooperated with us. My list of “restaurants to visit” has grown yet again!
One of the more unique recipes we encountered while shooting the CFAC Cookbook was at Napa Valley Grille where Chef Joseph Gillard served up his savory Beef Jerky that this Westwood eatery is so well-known for.
I grew up in an Italian family in Santa Monica, so I felt right at home walking into Il Grano. This was another location where the natural light did all of the work (okay… most of the work) for us! The bonus was that there was a little mix up in communication about which recipe we were supposed to be shooting for the CFAC Cookbook. Consequently we shot (and ate) two recipes. Chef Sal Marino was SO gracious and welcoming, and just plain fun to be around (can’t you tell?). I can’t wait to go back and sit down with another bowl of this amazing Caramelle di Burrata e Pomodorini (for which Chef Marino grew all of his own tomatoes).
My students are always asking about copyright and their imagery. While I could regurgitate all of the various pieces of information on this topic, someone has already done an excellent job of thoroughly and fairly concisely aggregating the most important points on this matter. Check out Ken Kaminesky’s blog where he collaborated with Carolyn E. Wright to impart some great information. Click Here for the article. Also check out the follow-up posts that are listed in the right sidebar! Nice Job Ken!!
Our last stop of the day on June 1st was Tavern. While shooting for the CFAC Cookbook, there have been a couple of locations that were just a dream to shoot in,… this was one of them. It took virtually no time to find the set-up and be ready. Mostly due to the fact that the back dinning room is like a big softbox just waiting to be taken advantage of. Since it was our last stop and Chef Suzanne Goin was such a sweetheart, we had no problem staying for a beautiful glass of wine. We also thought we’d help her with some dishes… okay so we only cleaned the one from this photo.. but is was spotless once we were done with it!
We arrived early at Joe’s when we were shooting it for the CFAC Cookbook.. actually before they opened. We wanted to grab a bite before we started shooting. I wish it wasn’t all the way over in Venice.. I would definitely frequent this restaurant more often! I had a stupendous Ravioli, however the dish we were shooting was a Tuna Tartar. And of course as these things go, we did not get a chance to taste it and the following week we come to find out that it is rated one of the Top 5 in L.A.!! Arrrrgh!
Michael’s in Santa Monica has been around since I was a kid. I was born in Santa Monica so I have a natural affinity for all things related. Michael’s is walking distance from where I lived in my early years and even closer to what was my grandfather’s store on Wilshire (Mike Caruso’s, a men’s fine apparel store), but I digress… This is about the Cart for a Cause cookbook and one of its contributors.. Michael McCarty. Here he is with a Duck Confit Salad…
I still have a very strong sense memory of the Burrata in a Glass that Chef Rainer Schwarz made when we were shooting at Public for the CFAC Cookbook. It was one of the few dishes we did not get a chance to savor. We were up against the clock that day and had to dash out, but the aroma that wafted up from the plate as I was shooting still makes my mouth water to this day. Now that all of the photography is done for the cookbook, its my goal to revisit all of the restaurants we photographed and sit down and properly experience the fine cuisine that was, oh so briefly, placed in front of our camera!
One of the chefs that has contributed to the Cart for a Cause is Michael DeMaria. He and his company M Catering are based out of Arizona so when Lexus decided to have an event in Tucson and we found out that both Chef Michael and the Cart were going to be there, we packed up and headed east to photograph him for the CFAC Cookbook.
We are thrilled to be included in this year’s Communication Arts Photography Annual. CA has always been a benchmark for the highest quality work going on in the industry and we are truly honored to be included in this collection of such talented creatives!
Thanks to Jim Rosen for the concept, Oliver Martin for set design, Animal Savvy for talent, and Lisa Carney for retouching!
Today is our last day of primary photography for the Cart for a Cause Cookbook. But we still have a bunch of images to share.
This next set is from Nobu. I cannot wait to get back there and sit down with this amazing steak and savor every bite for myself. The couple bites I had when we were done shooting took me to a very happy place, and I want to go back!
Chef Alex Becker was great to work with and the location was ripe with options. It was tough to settle on where we were going to shoot, but we ultimately were really happy with what we got.
For the next stop on the Cart for a Cause Cookbook tour we traveled great distances to the hinterlands of Pasadena (detect the subtle humor mixed with exaggeration?), to The Raymond Restaurant. Out of the entire shoot, this was actually the closest restaurant to us. I’ve dined here before and they do not disappoint! The Raymond was in the midst of adding a beautiful outdoor dinning patio, which I cannot wait to try out with the warm summer evenings upon us! And how appropriate that Chef Tim Guiltinan was preparing a Green Grape and Almond Gazpacho for our shoot! Cool and refreshing, I’ll be trying it again on that patio with a glass of wine, very soon!
As we continue to share the imagery we have shot for the Cart for a Cause Cookbook, our next offering is from Palate in Glendale, California. Another fun shoot! And come to find out that our subject, Chef Octavio Becerra, is married to a classmate of mine from Art Center College of Design! Small World!
Last night I went to dinner with some colleagues and we decided to head over to Elements Kitchen to try something new and different. We shot Chef Onil Chibás about a month ago for the Cart for a Cause Cookbook. He was a PLEASURE to work with! We ordered the Marinated Flank Steak & Kimchi Tacos featured here, and they, along with the rest of the meal, were delicious. Chef Onil really plays with mixing flavors, to great success. We were at the Kitchen location, but they also have the Cafe location which I have eaten at several times before and never been disappointed! Check them out next time you are in Pasadena, especially if you plan on seeing a show at The Pasadena Playhouse as Elements is right there off the Playhouse courtyard.
About a month ago, we were a month into shooting the Cart for a Cause Cookbook. On that day we ventured down to the beach to shoot Chef David Lentz at his new Santa Monica Canyon location of The Hungry Cat. My mouth is still watering from the crab cake that I did not get a chance to sample (we were on the go that day!). The presentation was beautiful and we’re looking forward to heading back there to get the full experience of the new location!
We’re heading out to shoot the Cart for a Cause in action today. Come join us and be in the photos, and while you’re at it, get an amazing lunch at an amazing price for an amazing cause!
Today the Cart will be at California Market Center at 110 East Ninth Street in Downtown Los Angeles from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Hope to see you there!