Unna Burch: My Garden Kitchen, Easy weekdays and slow food weekends
“By doing what you love, you inspire and awaken the hearts of others.”
Unna Burch, food photographer, stylist and author says in her first cookbook, “One of the best things in life is cooking, sharing and eating good food”. Easy weekdays and slow food weekends encapsulates her life – recipes reflect weekdays when hungry kids require tasty straightforward meals, and weekends with the family signal a change of pace, time for more leisurely food – a book that people will want to cook from all the time.
Unna’s love of food and photography comes from her grandparents. Childhood memories captured by her grandfather on his Leica and printed in their home darkroom. Precise rows of home grown vegetables. The connection that ‘food is love’ was made being by her grandmother’s side in the kitchen. As Unna explains in the video made to showcase her food philosophy: free range, fair trade and fresh, and to capture the essence of her book, “My husband and children are my purpose – they are who I love to cook for”.
My Garden Kitchen (Burch, 2015) gave Unna the opportunity to share her love of cooking, taking produce from her backyard garden: fresh honey from their own beehives; eggs from their free range chickens; and fresh organic vegetables and to show how those sustainable ingredients are used in everyday cooking. The Forest Cantina blog name came about simply because they live on the edge of a forest and Unna’s kitchen is her cantina.
All recipes are beautifully styled and photographed by Unna and as explained in the video (minute 2:48), “I hope that the recipes and the images that go with them in my book inspire you to grow, love, cook and share good food.” The lifestyle images depict her daily life.
A little story accompanies each of more than 100 favourite things Unna cooks for friends and family. It captures her passion for an end-to-end food experience, her symbol for a sustainable good life.
For more information on Unna Burch and The Forest Cantina: