This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
Quebecers’ favorite culinary entertainer, Josée di Stasio, is launching My season diaries. Spring-summer, just in time to welcome the warm season with open arms. Freshness, greens and the scent of flowers are all brought together at the same table.
It’s spring and it’s summer
To celebrate the beautiful days that are finally coming back, My season diaries. Spring-summer present fresh and colorful recipes, showcasing the harvests that arrive one by one on the market stalls. The book even includes a chapter devoted to flowers, those that perfume the house and embellish our tables with their delicate beauty.
As usual, the attention to detail of Josée di Stasio’s books is very present. His infallible recipes are surrounded by beauty and invite the reader to ask himself, to read his book from beginning to end like a novel. There is also something poetic in his way of describing dishes and giving culinary tips. We can even hear her voice reciting the ingredients and guiding us through the preparation steps, as if she were by our side.
“I find it important to have very simple recipes, like a peach and prosciutto salad, rather than having more elaborate recipes,” she confides. We don’t want readers to feel that they have to perform in the kitchen or that everything is perfect. Moreover, those who receive the best are those who are a little more cool, who take the time to be there. »
With ease
From his very first recipe book,At the di Stasio, Josée presented simple recipes, made from quality ingredients, like Italian cuisine. This signature, she has been refining it since her beginnings. “When I was young, I didn’t know what I was going to do when I grew up,” she says. I told myself that one day, I would like that, to publish a book. But, for me, it wasn’t a job, it was vague, it was more of a project. When she starts working as a food stylist, the book project becomes a little more concrete. Hosting a cooking show also helps to make it happen and above all, to do it your way.
This 6and book brings together the most popular recipes on its website, in addition to new creations inspired by spring and summer. “The theme comes from a feeling, it comes naturally, we don’t sit around a table to choose that, she explains. Then, the color comes to me, the dressing, then we want to bring this light to people. »
Surround yourself with magic
Once the theme and the recipes are chosen, tested and written, it’s time to put them into pictures. “Photo days are my favorite days in the process of creating a cookbook,” she says. This is where the true color of the book takes shape, where the magic happens. We seek the light, the atmosphere and we settle in a desired environment. »
Since The red notebook, Josée di Stasio collaborates with multidisciplinary artist and photographer Dominique T. Skoltz. “It was she who contacted me a few years ago,” she says. She had put the photos in a red Moleskine type notebook, like my notebook! We had a coffee, then the complicity immediately developed. »
In the artistic direction, Annie Lachapelle, from the Atelier Chinotto signs the visual of the book. “Graphics require as much sensitivity as photography,” she explains. Then, I like that the books are timeless, that they are not too trendy so that it lasts over time. According to her, her small team of great talents has a knack for creating this type of object book, the kind of work that we browse like a book of photos or architecture.