Why You Won't Find Cooking Photographs In Ruby Tandoh's New Cookbook
Ruby Tandoh is proud of everything she's achieved as a writer and a food personality. As she writes on her website, "I was a finalist on the Great British Bake Off in 2013, and have been working in food ever since: I've been a pastry chef, recipe columnist, cookbook author, food writer and more at points over the last few years!" Wow.
Tandoh has a refreshingly honest approach to food; one could even argue she's leading a quiet revolution. She told The Guardian in 2016 that she doesn't see anything wrong with someone devouring an instant meal. Tandoh said, "I want to remind people that it's actually fine to enjoy a ready meal. We live in a time when you can get a macaroni cheese and it's done in four minutes — that's pretty amazing."
The recipe developer has only continued to grow and evolve over the years. Her new cookbook, "Cook As You Are," is fuss-free and down-to-earth, according to Tandoh's tweets. Uniquely, the cookbook doesn't have any professional food photos and includes wholesome illustrations instead.
She has a solid reason for the decision
Ruby Tandoh explained on Twitter that her cookbook "Cook As You Are" steps away from including "photos taken in a glossy studio kitchen" because it's not what cooking in an actual home kitchen looks like. "I also didn't want you chasing perfection, comparing your dishes to professionally styled photos," she added. Instead, the team opted for beautiful illustrations by Sinae Park and the results seem rather promising.
Tandoh said that Park's drawings are realistic, inclusive, and have "all the chaos of real life around them." The illustrations are also an attempt to ensure that her readers will get a chance to admire all kinds of realities associated with home cooking instead of being forced to accept a restrictive idea of what cooking should look like. As Tandoh added, "...this approach is a chance to ditch the aspiration and actually embed yourself in the ordinary, unglamorous rhythms of cooking." In a world where impossibly pristine, Instagram-worthy food reigns supreme, Tandoh's approach feels more important than ever.