COOKBOOKS COME OUT OF THE KITCHEN
© CLARKSON PO T TER/PHO TO B Y GABRIELE S TABILE
stuff they shoot. We never worked like that,” Stabile
says. Tosi and her fellow cooks would simply present
Stabile with a finished dish, he says, “and we had to
make something out of it.”
The challenge, he says, was making something
that’s terrifically appealing in real life translate into
two dimensions. “A chef looks at what he or she
does, and feels it’s perfect,” the native Italian says,
“but then you look through the lens and it looks like
shit, maybe. With the cakes,” for example, “they’re
delicious, but maybe as soon as you plate them, they
crack, or they crumble a little bit.”
The book, designed by creative director Marysarah
Quinn, includes still lifes of finished treats; process
shots; step-by-step illustrations of how to assemble
more complicated recipes like Kimchi & Blue Cheese
Croissants; and several artful photographs of ingre-
dients. The final spread, for example, shows Tosi’s
“crumb,” the flavor-packed creation that stars in
many of Milk Bar’s desserts.
What sets the book apart is how Stabile captured
Milk Bar’s team of hip young women at work in the
bakery and its commissary. Candid shots show them
working or joking around. In the opening spread, a
baker is hauling crates of milk across a slushy street.
Stabile also photographed an overhead view of three
women moving trays of cakes.
“I look at it as a cookbook that is ours, an exten-
sion of what we do and who we are,” Tosi says. “It was
very important to tell the story of Milk Bar, infuse the
attitude and sense of humor and heart behind what
we create, how we create it and how it continues to
evolve every day.”
Allegra McEvedy, head chef at The Good Cook in
London, also wanted to take a personal approach
in her fifth and latest cookbook, Bought, Borrowed
& Stolen. It’s a collection of recipes and knives she’s
gathered in her travels over the past 20 years, ar-
ranged by country. “The whole concept of the book
is very different” from her earlier books of recipes,
McEvedy says. Jonathan Christie, art director of the
This page: Gabriele Stabile photographed staff at Momofuku’s
Milk Bar, and elements of chef Christina Tosi’s creative
desserts. Opposite: Chef Allegra McEvedy chose Andrew
Montgomery to bring a fresh look to her latest cookbook.
