Everyone’s getting in on this alphabet craze. First, the group from Nestlé Purina created the alphabet photographically, which inspired me to do the same, which inspired my brother Stan to try his hand. He lives in Rome, and did this over just a day or two this week. I was a hippie college sophomore when I got interested in photography, and my younger brother Stan was already deep into the world of photography as high school yearbook photographer. He decided to pursue a career in music instead, but hasn’t lost his eye.

First pizza of the season

Nathaniel with pesto, red pepper, olive, and goat cheese pizza

We took advantage of another unseasonably warm day to fire up the wood fired oven and make a few pizzas. Max, Rob, and Nathaniel joined us for a jolly midweek get-together. Max assisted, and we made four different pizzas: pesto with roasted red peppers, olives, and goat’s cheese; tomato sauce and mozzarella; caramelized onions, blue cheese, and Walt’s home made sausage (see post below); and the cover recipe from Dierbergs Everybody Cooks magazine: cherry tomato, fresh mozzarella, and arugula.

I miss wfo pizza during the winter, which is one thing that makes it special when it is in season. The first firing of the oven went well, and the pizzas cooked in just a  couple of minutes as they should. Looking forward to many more before winter comes again.

Wednesday night on the patio

Walt and Matt, first grind

My friend Walt has made sausage three times now, and is a self anointed King of Sausage. He invited me and a couple of other friends to help make sausage last Saturday. Each of us brought different ingredients: Walt’s was a southern style pork with lots of sage, in the style of the sausage made by his late father-in-law in North Carolina. Scott’s recipe was hunter style pork, and his special ingredient was bacon that he had cured and smoked. I decided to make merguez, a North African sausage made with lamb and harisa. With each batch we fried up a small amount to taste, and they were all delicious and unique.

Grilled Merguez Sausages

Walt said each time he makes it he learns something. This was my first time, and I learned to bring more meat next time. Once you get going, it doesn’t take twice as long to make twice as much sausage.  The next evening Max and Jen came over, and we grilled some of the merguez and served them with Angela’s home made chutney. Barb declared that the heat went right up to the line but did not cross into the discomfort zone.

Whenever we visit London, it’s always a difficult choice between trying new restaurants and returning to old favorites. We usually compromise and do a little of both. In the category of old faves, we enjoyed  lunch at River Cafe and dinner at The Wolesely. At both places I ordered a version of sardines, since we don’t often get fresh sardines here in the midwest.

Grilled sardines at River Cafe, after

Tom Aikens has been around a while, and after a recent remodel to the restaurant and the menu it has reopened. We thought the look of the place was still a little sterile, and it had some very ironic quotes on the wall about dining and wine. The set menu at lunch was a good deal, and the cheese course didn’t even incur a supplement. It was one of the better cheese courses I’ve had. When I asked the wine waiter to recommend a white wine to drink with it, he suggested port. Curious.

Cheese course at Tom Aikens restaurant

Dabbous is a new restaurant that has been getting lots of good buzz, so we had a dinner there. The decor is post-apocalyptic in a tasteful way. The chef proprietor, Ollie Dabbous, has trained with some big name chefs, and seems to be emulating the northern European style of Noma. One of my favorite dishes was a coddled egg with woodland mushrooms and smoked butter, served in an egg shell in a little clay pot with hay as a base. Small, but quite rich. Alas, too dark for any photos.

I mentioned recently that we hosted a group of marketers from Nestlé Purina, who had a photo lesson and assignment to create the alphabet photographically. They did such a great job, and seemed to have a good time, so I decided to try it myself while we were in London last week (Barb gave me the idea)

We spent last week in London, and a couple of highlights of our trip were two special exhibitions of British artists, Lucian Freud and David Hockney. Freud was a portrait painter who died just this year at age 88, and the National Portrait Gallery mounted a huge showing of his work, spanning most of his career.

Girl in Bed, Lucian Freud, 1952

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, Lucian Freud, 1995

Freud did portraits almost exclusively, and painted only those subjects who interested him. As a result, there are paintings of the Queen, performance artists, family, and a benefits supervisor. The highest priced painting by a living artist was “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”, sold in 2008 for $33.6 million. We noticed that several paintings were of his children and wives, quite a large number in fact. Later we looked up some of his biographical info and discovered that he was as prolific a breeder as an artist. It’s estimated that he fathered around 40 kids. The audio guide was great, because it included comments from him as well as the curator. He was actively involved in the planning the exhibition for a few years, and was painting right up to the end of his life – the unfinished last painting he was working on was displayed.

The Hockney exhibit, at the Royal Academy, was breathtaking in it’s scope. My impression of Hockney’s work was that he lived and worked in California, and made very clever photo montages among other things. Although he has spent decades in southern California, more recently he has returned to his roots in Yorkshire, England, and has been busy recording the landscape there in every season.

David Hockney video, Royal Academy, London

He worked for several years on this exhibit, and was very mindful of the space. Upon entering the exhibit, there are 4 large landscapes of the same view, different seasons. In the largest room, he filled it with paintings created on his iPad, a total of 51 works printed on paper. Like the Freud exhibit, the audio guide included comments from the artist, and we loved to hear how humble he is, and still so motivated to move in new directions after a long successful career. He has embraced digital technology, and made a series of films using 9 cameras on a rig, showing slightly different perspectives of the same scene.

If you have a chance to see either exhibit , make haste! I was truly inspired by both exhibits.

Last week we hosted a group from cat marketing at Nestlé Purina for an all day session on basic photography. About 20 attended, and they were keen students. My colleagues Greg and Nancy helped with the presentation, Nancy giving tips on photographing children and Greg on technical topics. We spent the morning on a combination of classroom and hands-on learning, and sent them off around mid-day with the assignment to create the alphabet photographically. Each person drew a letter and was challenged to photograph something from nature, architecture, or humanity to create a recognizable letter.

They only had 2 hours to complete their assignments, and I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and creativity they showed. As a matter of fact, they inspired me to do the same assignment, so look in this space in the coming week or so.

Last Thursday we had no shoots going on, so our crew went to the St. Louis Art Museum to see the new exhibit, An Orchestrated Vision: The Theatre of Contemporary Photography. Within this motif there were a great variety of artists and styles, but most were large scale. It was interesting that my favorite work, Untitled (snowy valley) by Gregory Crewdson was Barb’s least  favorite. I highly recommend that you check this out, and don’t miss the small gallery upstairs with works of a similar theme from earlier times, titled The First Act: Staged Photography Before 1980. The scale is smaller, but the prints are gorgeous. There is a work by Julia Margaret Cameron from the mid-19th century that has a timeless quality that I loved.

The latest issue of Dierbergs quarterly Everybody Cooks is out, and I’m thrilled that the cover photo is one of my pizza recipes. When Barb Ridenhour, the editor, was talking about topping ideas for the pizza story, I gave her a suggestion that she liked: cherry tomato, arugula, and fresh mozzarella. The props are from our kitchen at home, so it looks very familiar to me. She also knows that I make a lot of pizza at home, so added a little story on that topic.

A group of photo students from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale came by for a visit today. Professor Dan Overturf brought his C&P 432 Applied Photography II for a studio tour and portfolio review. Greg and Nancy, both alums of the photo school at Southern, reviewed their work and commented on the high quality. My education there was many years ago now, but I still value the experience and feel that it gave me a good foundation for my career.

Nancy at left, Greg in red shirt, Professor Dan third from right with SIU students