The process of creating a book is the result of a chain of thoughts and creativity carried out by different professionals working towards the same project. From the moment the interest in writing a story is born until it reaches our hands, years have passed and with them, ideas, designs, words, sketches have come and gone. There are three things that we can remember about a book (in this order): the title, the author and the publisher. But we don’t usually know who designed it, where it was printed, who made the cover or the illustrations, who took the photographs, who translated the work… “A gastronomy book is made by the chefs, those who take the photos, the editors, the designers and those at the printing house. They are all a creative part of a book. We all have something to contribute,” explains Francesc Guillamet.
Guillamet is one of the most acclaimed photographers in our country. He has worked with the best chefs, capturing the ephemeral creativity of Spanish gastronomy. Some of his books are kept on shelves as true bibliographical gems, read Ferran Adrià’s first book, Mediterranean flavourand all the volumes that elBulli would publish years later; the book Foie gras by André Bonnaure or some of the books by Paco Torreblanca, Carme Ruscalleda or Paco Pérez, among many others. Their work has been and is worth to leave proof of the importance of gastronomy in our country and to give the value that it requires to culinary photography “I feel very respected by the publishing world, but I understand that the photographer is the great forgotten, you rarely know who is behind the creative process of a book”. And photography in gastronomy books is fundamental.
Francesc Guillamet and the three chefs from the Disfrutar restaurant, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, met during their elBulli years. In 2004, the publishing house RBA published the first volume of what would soon become one of the most prestigious and acclaimed collections of gastronomy, the history of the Cala Montjoi restaurant, told year by year since 1983. That work led to the photographing of more than 1,800 dishes. Since then, the photographer and chefs have not stopped working together. Now, the four of them form a creative team that is bringing to light some of the most important bibliographic works in Spain.
The first of them was in 2017 with the publication of Share. When elBulli closed, Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas and Eduard Xatruch decided to continue their professional career together by opening a Mediterranean restaurant in Cadaqués called just that: Compartir. After a few years, and with the help of the recently launched publishing house Planeta Gastro with Jon Sarabia as editorial advisor, the first book was published with the chefs’ recipes and Guillamet’s photographs. “That was the necessary start for an editorial project that had just begun. Oriol, Eduard and Mateu were clear that they wanted to leave a record of their work and to do that they had to start with Compartir and then continue its story,” says Sarabia.
This is how the first volume of the book came out, years later. Enjoy. A compilation of the recipes, techniques and life of the restaurant since its origins in 2014 to 2017, once again with Jon Sarabia —now in charge of the Abalon publishing house— and the restaurant itself, united to launch an ambitious and long editorial journey. A voluminous volume, very much in the image and likeness of those elBulli books, divided into two books: one where we find the prologue by Ferran Adrià, the life of the chefs, their travels, the Asian influence, the inspirations; and another, folder-type, where more than 100 recipes are collected. The book received the 2021 National Gastronomy Award for the Best Gastronomic Communication, the ADG Laus 2022 Bronze Award in the Editorial Graphic Design category; or the Design & Art Direction ‐ D&AD Awards 2022 Shortlist Book Design, among others.
He volume 2 of Enjoy It arrived in 2023 with all the creative processes from 2018 to 2020. 96 recipes, more than 180 photographs and a few Bidi codes where the reader can transfer the paper and see the videos of the basic techniques of many of the recipes. “In order to publish these books, I had to resort to specialized art printers because the characteristics of this type of publication required it,” emphasizes editor Jon Sarabia.
Photography is one of the key elements in all of them. In each volume we find stamp photos, full-page and double-page. Beautiful compositions that go beyond the boundaries of the subject itself. “I have known them for more than 20 years, we complement each other so much that even before we get on the photography set, we already know what we want to find and tell in that image.”
In his work there is a sought-after and provoked play of light, a moulding of reliefs, a subtlety of framing, the trompe l’oeil of reflections, the volatility of the ephemeral. “Food photography has to be on a par with the chefs you are working with. That means understanding the chef’s work and trying to portray it. Not abusing certain techniques such as out-of-focus shots and, above all, photographing the truth,” explains Guillamet.
The third volume of Enjoy It is already in the editing process, although nothing has been confirmed. Perhaps by 2025 we will have the new batch of dishes, techniques and fulfilled dreams of those who, today, are the architects of the Best Restaurant in the World. The story continues.
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