Designing with a full heart (and stomach)
To Nourish with Love
Memoirs and Memories from Mussoorie to Malaysia
Book design
Nicky, the photographer, is not a foodie. Neither am I. And I’m not a great cook either. Neither of us have done anything close to a cookbook before, so our portfolios reflected this gap in our experience. Of course, this was not lost on our clients, Manju and Bettina, and they voiced their concerns.
Nicky and I shrugged and said, “Well, we know how to make things look beautiful.”
And with that, these two lovely ladies entrusted to us their precious project, already years in the making, and deeply significant to Manju and her family.
What followed was weeks of intensive cooking, shooting and styling in eight stunning locations – homes of friends and family of the authors – who generously threw open their homes and kitchens for us to do as we wished for the day. In return, there was the promise of a delicious lunch prepared by Manju. For friends who have tasted Manju’s amazing food and charming company, resistance was futile.
We had a rather unusual way to plan our shoot schedule. We planned it according to what Manju would like to prepare for lunch, and what our hosts would enjoy eating too. We would start in the morning – Manju would prep and cook, while we shot, and styled alongside – and by noon we would all sit down and eat together. After lunch, fighting food-induced stupor, we started again. So, yes, dear readers, I have tasted every single dish in the book, and it is all wonderful!
One goal of To Nourish with Love was that the food images be replicable, reinforcing the promise that these were dishes easily prepared at home. It required a readiness to create images on the fly, not something that traditional food art directors or photographers are terribly keen on. It called for a willingness to yield control. Her first cookbook was frontier land mastered with the trademark Allie Hill equanimity: a calm, sound and valuable partner in a whirlwind production, with whom the unplanned, even accidental in the kitchen could be turned into moments of brilliance.
Bettina Chua Abdullah
Photo by Nicky Almasy
Illustration by Rebecca Duckett
A tribute to the wonderful flavours of India, To Nourish with Love explores food that celebrates the sparkling sours, joyful sweets and the welcome fresh, together with recipes of heat and spice, comforting savoury and game-changing bitters.
In order to minimise disruption to our hosts, we did not have pre-shoot recces. In every home, the right corner, setting, or backdrop would be found as each dish was prepared. It was a process of faith meeting serendipity, which was exciting, fun, and stressful at the same time! Sometimes, even the props we had brought were left untouched, in favour of more beautiful surprises found onsite.
More than just a cookbook, To Nourish with Love encompasses a breadth of stories and recipes that mirror life and its flavours. Through a childhood lived in the cool Mussoorie hills, to a cook’s coming of age in the tropical heat of Malaysia. Rebecca Duckett’s whimsical illustrations added a special dimension to these stories.
Illustration by Rebecca Duckett
In the spirit of Atithi Devo Bhava (a guest is akin to God), Manju was taught to prepare meals with a service so profound that it bestowed upon every recipient a sense of the divine. This made me wonder, what if I imbued my work with the same sacred essence?
Looking back, I hope that we were as authentic in making the images and book, as Manju was in making the food. My cooking is actually a little better now, and my vocabulary of Hindi food words has improved somewhat from just ‘masala’ and ‘chai’. But my understanding of cooking as an active form of love and charity, has increased tenfold.
KEY COLLABORATORS
Authors / Client
Manju Saigal
Bettina Chua Abdullah
Book designer
Allie Hill
Photographer
Nicky Almasy
Illustrator
Rebecca Duckett
Editor
Gareth Richards
Publisher
Hikayat
Printer
Percetakan Osacar
