Cookbook: First Pass

Everything about making a cookbook during a pandemic is a little unusual. For the photo shoot, our crew was tiny, we wore masks, and we kept a safe distance from each other, among other precautions. For the recipe testing, we embraced substitutions when go-to ingredients weren’t available at grocery stores, or when we were limiting shopping trips for safety reasons. (I think the recipes will only be better with more options for everyone.)

At this point in the process, first-round edits have been made to the text and design layouts are being finalized. We’ve reached the exciting stage called “first pass” (aka “first pages”). This is the moment when the book starts looking really real to me, when the photos are paired with their recipes and everything coalesces. Normally, the publisher would print out the designed book, clip the pages together, package them up, and send them to me via snail mail for my review. I have loved working in such an analog way, marking directly on the pages with a pen. You might remember this phase from the making of The Newlywed Table. Instead of pen and paper, this time around I am using an iPad and a digital pencil to make changes to a PDF. It’s not the same, for sure, and I do miss the thrill of a large package landing on my doorstep with a thump, but I’ve had fun with our new system. Now I’ll email the marked-up PDF to the publisher, and the book will move forward to the next stage: second pass!