(I shall now enroll Baker in a food-photography course )

As for the photography question: Photography for a cookbook is a complicated thing. Everything has to be done “just so” to look professional–the lighting, the background, the compostion, etc. A while back, I had a professional photographer take some shots of my dishes to use as a possible cover. He had never done food photography before and he was doing it for free just for the experience. Long story short, I couldn’t use them because they weren’t quite right for a number of reasons (enter Sheri). Usually, the photos you see in a cookbook are taken by a professional photographer hired by either the pub house or the author. However, if you have a knack with a camera, by all means, shoot as you cook–if they are good enough, your photos could be a selling point to a publisher. Food photography is a specialized area, so that is a subject for another posting.

So, I’ve answered absolutely nothing for you. Will you still come read my blog.

I have long wanted to write a cookbook. I know I’m utterly unqualified, of course, but it’s a dream. So this is exactly the kind of info I need!

Question (maybe a subject for another blog post?): Do you photograph each dish as you make it? Because I personally much prefer cookbooks that feature pictures of each completed recipe. And if so, tips for how to do the photography?

Finally: do you do bread? Could you plz write a post (or two, or ten) on what the effects of milk vs water are, or adding egg, or milk powder, to a bread dough? And how you get crunchy vs soft crusts? And how you get a really fine crumb? And how you get a really soft texture inside? And stuff like that?