Cafe Cuil Cookbook

Cafe Cuil is a much-loved cafe on the Isle of Skye run by chef and author Clare Coghill, whose modern Scottish cooking has earned it a devoted following far beyond the island. The cookbook — published by Kitchen Press — is a deeply personal project, and Clare's warmth and connection to the food she makes is central to what makes it special.

I travelled to Skye — one of my favourite places on earth — to shoot the book entirely on location at Clare's home, working with her directly as she styled and cooked each dish herself. Shooting there rather than in a studio gave the project something you can't manufacture — an immediate understanding of her as a person and what the photography needed to be. We were on the same page from the start, and the work is better for it.

The visual approach was editorial in spirit — graphic and considered, with careful attention to composition and light throughout. Cafe Cuil is my seventh cookbook produced with Kitchen Press, a long-running creative relationship that continues to produce some of my most personally rewarding work.