About a year ago, I had this idea around food and how could we show the reality of cooking rather than the stereotypical white tablecloths and tweezer styled dishes. I’ve known Julie Van Rosendaal for a couple years now, and like most, I’m a massive fan of what she does and accomplished. If that name rings a bell, you’ve probably heard her on the CBC, every Tuesday on the Eye Opener, sharing her various cooking tips, ingredients, and trends. She also writes a successful blog, Dinner With Julie posting photos and weekly recipes of what she’s making at home averaging 250,000 views a month. Yes, you read that correctly. A quarter-million people are tuning in. So when I reached out to her back in the Spring about a concept I had, her answer was an immediate yes without giving me time to explain. I knew then, this was going to be fun, and the pressure was on to deliver.

Coincidentally, Julie was in the process of creating her 11th cookbook, and she needed a portrait to separate herself among the rest. As fate would have it, my idea aligned perfectly with the new publication, and we decided to make two portraits, with only one intended for the book. After a couple more conversations, we set a date, and pre-production was in full swing.

Given the many moving parts of this portrait, I decided to bring on the incredibly talented, Locke Vincent, a local Calgary filmmaker, to take some behind the scenes video of the entire process.

If you live or find yourself in Calgary this weekend, Julie will be at Cafe Gravity This Sunday (Oct 27th) from 6-8pm scribbling her signature and having her book available to purchase. I look forward to seeing you there.

In the meantime, enjoy some food while getting a little dirty.