A Day in the Life of a Recipe Developer

Oops. Let's try this pizza crust again....

Some things you should know.

1. If I am developing beef recipes for a client in an ongoing manner (months)--it won't matter if my family loves loves LOVES the recipe. They won't see it again, because next month? Next month I have to develop five NEW beef recipes.

2. You might have to be a guinea pig if you come to dinner at my house. You can't just say "this tastes good." You will have to weigh in on salt, missing something ingredient questions and how to improve a dish. Don't be shy.

3. Yes, I really do test every recipe.

4. Yes, dessert recipes are waaaaaaay more difficult for me than savory recipes. Lemon meringue pie at a photo shoot once reduced me to tears. But I learned some stuff.

5. Not every recipe is a winner, and my family DOES let me know.

6. Sometimes you will eat turkey and cranberry sauce in July in my house.

6a. I am the one buying 5 bags of cranberries for the freezer AFTER the holidays (see #6 above). I will need them in July.

7.  No matter how much you wish it, you cannot make a real pumpkin appear in July. I know this from experience too. However, a great photographer can make a fake pumpkin look close to real by  giving it some soft focus in the background.

8. Count on some superior editor will say how SHE would have photographed the pumpkin soup IN a pumpkin (pooh, so original). In July. Good luck with that one. SHE was not on the phone call with sources IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE who were willing to maybe ship a pumpkin (although not necessarily the jack-o-lantern style pumpkin you are expecting) for several hundreds of dollars (when your food budget was $100--for the entire shoot). If you're curious, yes, this I also have lived through.

9. Yes, you CAN cook for me. I am not really a food snob--well, unless that means cooking me good food. And good food can, indeed, include a hot dog! Just make it a good hot dog on a good roll with good mustard.

10. Yes, sometimes I think Cheerios makes a great supper.