Food You Want To Eat – a self-published cookbook (+ video)

A few years ago I was entirely lacking direction and happiness so in late 2009 I set myself a challenge to acquire a degree and make a good thing. It’s now 2012 and I’ve just conquered my personal Everest. For the first time in my adult life I feel the cool and satisfying wave of relief and contentment and am truly excited to share the catalyst of my newly-found nice feelings with you today.

Food You Want To Eat is a self-published cookbook encapsulating a year’s worth of photography and recipes entirely created, prepared, styled, photographed, edited, designed and laid out by yours truly. Hardcover, 24x30cm, 142 pages. It’s my end-of-degree project that was just awarded a High Distinction (!!). It’s survived a computer crash, a corrupt external HD, a broken camera and a plethora of printing issues (more on this later). Imagine a blog in a nicely bound book; the hardcover makes me feel warm and fuzzy when I give it a tap. On April 20th I made it official to the internet this was happening and now it’s legit. It’s no longer a collection of files on my computer, it’s a book, it’s tactile, it’s a noun. Only a couple of weeks ago it was on display at the COFA Annual accompanied by some of my prints. It’s real, it’s in my hands,  I can touch it and even give it a little lick if I really wanted to.

Needless to say it was all very hard work and even having this book printed was an amazing comedy of errors. The company made mistake after mistake (for example, the first version literally fell to pieces in my hands fresh from the factory… (I cried)); four versions later the errors were still rife (incorrect colours, problems with the cover, strange smudges ahoy, alignment issues) and a job with a quoted timeframe of one and a half weeks was dragged out over 2 months. I never received an entirely accurate copy and strangely enough what should have been the easiest process of producing this book became the most arduous and made for a very anti-climatic ending. BUT I’ve decided the time for lamenting is now over and with the help of my dear friend The Internet it’s time to celebrate the creation of a really neat thing.

I realise it’s difficult to capture a book of photography with even more photos (yo dawg…) so I’ve put together a small video to illustrate my work in lieu of a JPG-fest (soundtracked by my m8 Yann Tiersen #forevertwee), I really hope you enjoy it:

It isn’t available to buy (doing the DIY thing was my dream but small-run printing is just too hard) so IF THERE ARE ANY PUBLISHERS READING THIS, HI, HELLO, HEYYY! LET’S TALK BUSINESS! This is a project I would be thrilled to have published one day but as a realist I understand the lifestyle market is a saturated competitive one. For now I’ll continue adding to my master file creating an even bigger little anthology of food I like to make as I’m sure it will published one day, maybe. Hopefully. OH PLEASE LET IT HAPPEN. Feel free to spread the word! Please RT, etc etc.

I owe so much to all of my encouraging and supportive friends, new and old, for offering their kind advice and friendly shoulders, this project would still be lingering as a vague possibility in my mind if it weren’t for them, so…

Thank you for helping me realise I’m capable of aiming high and succeeding. Thank you so much for helping me do this.