2024 06 06

Regular collaborators Txa Txa Club (Liz and Daniel) in their home workspace. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

One of these days, I’ll tell you the story about how I photographed an entire cookbook and didn’t even get the cover image. I bring this up only because I wanted to post this image, which was made on that shoot. Still, I’m glad I took the assignment because it sort of shifted my perspective a bit for the better and made me want to further engage with the world of photography and cookbooks. If any of you famous chefs out there reading this are looking for a motivated photographer, hit a guy up (me)!

Last week I stopped by Huge Galdones’ studio as he was photographing a new book for chef Joe Sasto. His space is great! In our brief conversation we had as they were broke for lunch, my perspective on things was again shifted as I realized I need to up my game and become more of a legit food shooter. Compared to their setup, my cookbook shoot was a rinky-dink DIY operation with a budget to match! At least we had a cat assisting us, which made post production even more enjoyable (cat hair and food = bad combination — again, hire me for all your cookbook photography needs!)

-Clayton