Vintage meets yummy meets fun

Posted on 19. Jan, 2011 by gilly in READ

Ok, time for some shameless plugging and boasting.

I practice octane-fueled word-of-mouth all the time, especially when someone I love or admire (or both) launches a successful venture, takes a creative leap or publishes a book. In this case, it’s the latter.

My amazing, bubbly, beyond-inspirational friend Nancy Coste was recently commissioned to shoot the artwork for a cookbook based on Belgium and Holland’s pet-biscuit, the beloved speculoos. Nancy is an inordinately talented photographer who hails from New York. She has lived in Paris, Santiago, Rome and now, as fate would have it, in Brussels, right around the corner from me.

For the book, Nancy was to schlep around the country and shoot an array of dishes (mostly deserts) integrating speculoos in some form or another, including some oeuvres created by major Belgian chefs. The publisher held her to a tight budget which was barely enough to pay for her food stylist (flown in special from Italy) and Nancy was worried about the cost of renting interesting plates and platters for the shoot. I volunteered the use of all my vintage dishes, cake stands and canisters and, voila, no more budgetary headaches!

The book came out just before Christmas and, beyond delighting in Nancy’s beeeyyyoootiful photos, I derive no end of pleasure admiring my babies shown to great advantage in so many delicious pages. All my platters, cake stands, cocktail glasses come from a decade of scanning flea markets and churchyard sales. Not one piece cost more than €5, most set me back less than €1. Ironically, I have a soft spot for cake stands, despite the fact that I really don’t bake.

And so for the plug. If you are a speculoos fan, buy Nancy’s book now (you’ll get to see my vintage dishes)! And if you’ve never heard of speculoos, time to come and sample them in Belgium.

speculoossucettessmall