It has taken a few months, but I am finally getting around to telling you all about the Goodall’s A Modern Irish Cookbook and Book Launch. A Modern Irish Cookbook featuring recipes from Ireland’s most active and respected food bloggers. The book’s aim was to focus on Irish ingredients, producers and traditions with a modern emphasis and Goodall’s of Ireland was leading the way as publisher. I was asked to do the layout and be involved in other elements of the cookbook’s execution – and it was an honor! The cookbook was done in a short time with intense enthusiasm and devotion from the team Roisin O’Shea of Goodall’s, Margaret Smith, editor Kristin Jensen and myself as well as the printer. In the end, 50 recipes are bundled in a beautifully designed book with all profits going to two Irish charities.
I was honored to have two of my recipes included as well as 12 photos! I’ll share just one here but the others will wait for another post because I want to tell you about the book launch here too. So the only food photo in this post is of my friend Jeni Pim‘s Plum Cake. The subtle use of cardamom gave the cake such depth! Yes, I am not only a food stylist but a food eater. No food goes wasted from one of my photoshoots (unless it is at the wrong temperature too long, which rarely happens).
The book launch itself was a celebration of the completion of the project and a chance for the 40-some contributors to meet, sometimes for the first time. The launch was held at the elegant Merrion Hotel in Dublin. At the last minute, LB had to come with me so what was meant to be a little alone time ended up being a fun mother-son overnight. We took the train up the day before and enjoyed a late lunch at the very lovely Citron Restaurant in the Fitzwilliam Hotel. I’ll tell you about that in another post, don’t worry! We stayed close to Powerscourt Townhouse because I do love sleeping as close to This Is Knit as possible.
Here are some photos from the launch.
The launch was a lovely lunch in the Cellar Restaurant. I was amazed to discover a highchair set up beside my own chair with a balloon and Merrion Hotel toy bear and a placecard with LB’s name on it! What amazing attention to detail. LB was with me every step of the way for my work on the cookbook so in the end it seems fitting he was able to celebrate with us! We snuck out of the dining room for a moment to snap this photo in front of a few of the dishes from the cookbook and Goodall’s ingredients. This was after LB enjoyed a little nap while I visited with Jeni.
On the trip home, we enjoyed sharing the train trip with Chantelle Wallace, who is just as nice as she seems online. This was the view as we traversed the beautiful Irish countryside from Dublin to Cork.
I promise a few more blog posts to share more photos from the cookbook, my included recipes, details of my lunch at Citron, and a special post with photos of the cookbook in all sorts of the places.