…so, as I mentioned last week, here are a few behind the scenes from my last shoot with maria magazine. I only had my mobile phone with me to take photos with at the time, and I was very sick with the flu you might recall, so I could only capture a few shots on this particular occassion, but I hope you appreciate them none the less.

Above you see some photos of the table while I was getting it ready. I was standing back, visualizing what colours I wanted to be prominent. I loved the colour of the rosé we were featuring (more about that in a moment), so I made that the prominent colour for the table setting with white and cream as the backdrop, and a splash of green for Spring! A sprinkle of rose petals here, and an antique knife and fork there.

Can you see the photographic equipment outside the window, ready for our outdoor shots? Below are some behind the scenes photos of the outdoor table where we shot the savoury tarts with smoked chicken, dill and goat cheese (recipe here)…

…as you can see Jeroen is ‘making Spring’ with his light set up! clever thing he is. meanwhile, I manage to find some Spring-like flowers in the garden store the day before, so I was busy picking flowers off and ‘sticking’ them on not so flowery plants on the table. Just another one of my stylist’s tricks!

…we had a baby on set! who doesn’t love a baby on set? unfortunately I was too sick to go near baby Yannick, otherwise i would have smothered him in cuddles and kisses. So hair and makeup stylist Mascha, Yvette and her mum did a great job at making up for my lack of affection.

In the second photo Mascha is doing Fleur’s (incredible red) hair. Fleur (the mother of baby Yannick) is the star of our shoot – it is her wine we featured! She actually has an award-winning wine named after her, how awesome is that? Fleur’s family owns a beautiful winery called Domaine de L’Amaurigue in France. Yvette came up with the brilliant idea to shoot a Spring Ladies Lunch based around Fleur’s wine, a delicious rosé, perfect for Spring! Yes of course I tasted the wine, and it is indeed delicious.

The third photo is behind the camera, the fourth is the tarts in the oven, fifth and six are the table setting again. Below is a sneaky shot I took of Yvette in the kitchen while I was standing outside freezing my buns off! I rather like this artsy shot…

I hope you’ve like these behind the scenes photos! Click here to see the full magazine story. And here if you’d like to see more of my behind the scenes photos.

Oh i can’t believe it’s already Friday! Where did the week go?

So here it is, the full spread from my last shoot with Maria magazine. And I am very sad to say it will be our last shoot with the magazine as it recently announced that it will no longer be published, like so many others. I loved working with Yvette (recipe writer + food stylist) and Jeroen (photographer), and I would really like to keep working with them as we make a great team. So, if anyone out there needs a fab food production team, please email me. Yvette and I have a number of awesome stories suitable for international publication that we are itching to produce, and if you’d like to see our previous work please click here, here, here and here.

This shoot, as Yvette mentioned in her post in the (blog)house kitchen, was shot at her mother’s beautiful home. I had just arrived back from sunny Sydney and had developed an horrific flu. I was barely able to walk, it was the middle of winter here, and I needed to create a Springy atmosphere! in the freezing cold! The pressure was on… but I made it through the day! with thanks to Yvette and Ms. v. Boven helping me through with plenty of hot cups of herbal tea while I stood outside with Jeroen “creating Spring”. By the end of the day I flopped onto the couch while Yvette and her mum cleaned up. I felt so guilty for not helping! But I was in no shape to do so and they wouldn’t let me. Bless their little cotton socks!

Here is what we produced, I do hope you like…

I will tell you more about the menu and the story of the shoot next week, with some behind the scenes.
For now, I give you these, and two of the recipes in English, posted in the (blog)house kitchen with many thanks to Yvette.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I am going to indulge in a computer-free weekend myself, which I will be sure to tell you all about next week. I will also be gorging on chocolate, but what’s new! Lately it’s with no thanks to Green & Black’s making the most delicious easter eggs ever.

See you back here on Tuesday, mes chers amis!

xx

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Lente Ladies Lunch courtesy of Maria magazine.
photographs by Jeroen van der Spek.
food styling and recipes by Yvette van Boven.
styling by Pia Jane Bijkerk.

photograph by jeroen van der spek, food by yvette van boven, styling by me

…click here to do so!

(I’ll have all photographs + news about the shoot up by the end of the week, including behind the scenes!)

Some of you have told me how much you enjoy getting a glimpse behind the scenes when I am on a shoot. You’ll be pleased to know that I was able to take some snaps during the winter buffet shoot that I posted about the other day, and here they are…

how divine is that wooden board I borrowed from Julie and Odette’s antique store! Can I be in love with a piece of wood? ’cause I am.

For this shoot we set up camp in Yvette’s gorgeous lounge room. The light from her windows is rather glorious, and she had a lovely buffet table that I wanted to use. You can see I have claimed most of the space for my props (oops). Below is photographer Jeroen capturing the pineapple turnover cake which is basked in beautiful natural light…

…oh yeah and that’s me ironing! With a smile on my face of course. I’m smoothing out a tablecloth for the next shot while Yvette is busy in the kitchen, cooking up a storm…

And do you remember for the last behind the scenes post, we had a little helper named Marie. So where is she for this shoot? we called out to her many times but she was no where to be seen. Finally, we found her…

She refused to help! Obviously snuggling up was more what she has in mind for the day. But she soon realised we were having fun without her out in the lounge room so she came to join us in the end.

can you see marie snuggled up on her bed by the window? perhaps she is dreaming about treehouses…

And here are some snaps of my props laying about the place. In the basket are some pineapples that I decided I needed as props so I walked down to the grocery store with my shopping basket and bought some…

choices choices, what will I decide to use in the end…

Toward the end of the day we packed up and went over to our other location which was the house of Yvette’s friend Karlein, and with daughter’s Luna and Madelief we baked up some evening treats…

It was a super long day but super fun as always!

for starters, mini polenta cakes with goats cheese, palmaham and sage, miam… i used maramiki’s tulip screenprinted fabric as a loose tablecloth…
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So here is Yvette, Jeroen and my food story for the 4th issue of Maria magazine (see the spreads for issue 1, 2 & 3 here, here and here).

Yvette’s idea for this shoot was to create a winter buffet as a housewarming present for some friends who have just moved into a new home here in Holland and are a very busy working couple with two gorgeous girls names Luna and Madelief. We initially moodboarded a golden yellow palette, with warm brown tones, soft whites, and a touch of bottle green. It was a beautiful palette and as it happens sometimes, when I started propping something else came forth… I found a gorgeous old wooden board at my favourite antique boutique that I wanted to use as a backdrop to the buffet table and the colour of the board was this incredible soft turquoise. I just fell in love with it and so Yvette and i decided this would be our main inspiration (this sounds like we decided all this over a series of meetings over a series of days – but it was a series of phone calls over a series of minutes that started with me speed-talking something along the lines of…”oh my god i’ve found the most beautiful piece for our story but its not the right colour but i want to use it anyway i think it will look fabulous and i have this incredible fabric that will compliment it beautifully and so what do you think?!?!? her answer was something along the lines of “you go girl!!”).

On I continued, wandering around Amsterdam collecting props with a skip in my step from finding this maginficent piece of art to use as my inspiration palette. So, along with the above photograph, here it what we created…

… a buffet setting that is rustic and wintry but warm, carefree & inviting. This is a double page spread in the magazine (it’s ALWAYS best to see the images in print as they are much bigger, so if you live in The Netherlands, check out the latest issue of Maria to see the whole story and have all the recipes)…

white winter vegetable soup with brown butter and cashewnuts

portobello pizza

almond apple muffins – aren’t those little apples cute? the girls loved making and eating these!

pineapple and coconut upside down cake.. which we ate for dessert than night for dinner and it was scrumptious.

and here is Yvette cooking with Luna and Madelief.

Do you remember the sneak peek collection of props I showed you last month? Well now you can see what I created with them. The lovely props come from Juffrouw Splinter and my own props cupboards, with special thanks to Julie Arphi for lending me her gorgeous artwork for the day.

photograph credits…

magazine: maria
food and production: yvette van boven
photographer: jeroen van der spek
stylist: me

xx

Happy weekend everyone! Tonight French Boy and I are off to see Emiliana Torrini at the Paradiso and I can’t wait. I’ll see you fresh and energised on Monday, with another truckload of posts for the week which I hope will both inspire and delight. until then!