“It’s done!” “I sent the manuscript off!” These are lovely words to hear from a writer. And these are the words I was thrilled to hear on Monday from my friend, Kim O’Donnel as she sent off the manuscript for her new cookbook, Licking Your Chops: A Meatless Guide for Meat Lovers, due out in September 2010. And, wow–you are going to love this book. The recipes are terrific (I was also one of the recipe testers). They have been given a regular rotation in our kitchen. And, I’ve made them for other friends–who are all clamoring for the book. Seriously, this book will be a definite “must” for your kitchen library.
For the past couple of months, I’ve had the honor of helping her and the photographer, our pal Viv (Seattle Bon Vivant) as a kitchen assistant during the photo shoots for the book. On photo days, I would be at Kim’s house to do whatever was needed to get the food ready for photos. Prep, cook, taste (yum), arrange, hold, you name it–I helped with it. The photo days were long and we all felt exhausted after them–but boy were they fun. I really enjoyed myself. I liked the energy that permeated the photo shoots–by turns intense and quiet, and then raucously loud and filled with laughter. I consider myself to be a pretty good cook, but being in the kitchen with Kim was a learning experience in addition to being enjoyable. Which makes sense since she is a trained chef in addition to being an amazing writer. And watching Viv photograph the food was a treat. She is the consummate professional and her photos are simply gorgeous.
On the last photo day, Viv’s pal, Luuvu Hoang, was there to make a promo video for the book (he is also an amazing photographer). The video is of Kim making her arugula pizza (which was to die for). Here it is:
Licking Your Chops / Teaser from LuuvuH on Vimeo.
I cannot wait until September to get my hands on this book. It’s gonna be good!
