How important is the recipe’s photo?

May 2, 2024 by
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These days it’s rare to find a cookbook that isn’t filled with dozens (if not hundreds) of gorgeous, perfectly-styled photographs that accompany the recipes. Not only do these photos make one’s mouth water, they also provide valuable context for the recipe. I’ve frequently used an accompanying photo to clear up confusion on how a dish is to be assembled or to reconcile an apparent conflict in the instructions. Since the default seems to be more photos rather than fewer, food writer Dianne Jacob wonders if cooks are becoming too reliant on these pictures.

Jacobs admits to feeling “like a dinosaur” because she has focused on the words of recipes for decades only to now become aware of a seismic shift in the way people learn things. With the rise of social media the video format reigns supreme, and many people profess that they simply can’t cook unless they see a photo of the dish. While this may be anathema to cookbook writers and editors who note that adding photos drastically raises the price of creating cookbooks, some are embracing the trend. Chef and television host Adam Liaw says he will “spend more time getting the photo right than [he] will the written recipe in a book because the photo is the more communicative part. A written recipe is actually a fairly poor format for communicating information relevant to cooking. There’s a reason nobody learns to ride a bike from a numbered list of instructions.”

EYB Members well understand how important visual clues can be to a recipe’s success; hence the more than 30,000 images Members have uploaded to the site since we rolled out the option to do so. (Thanks!) We’ve discussed the role photos play in a recipe before; in particular I’m recalling the article on whether people make the “orphan” recipes in cookbooks. As several Members pointed out in the comments there, this is largely (although not exclusively) an age divide, with those of us who started cooking from books before photos were widespread not relying on the pictures as much as later generations. Although I fall into the former category, I am a fan of more photos rather than fewer because I use them not only for context but for inspiration. It’s easier for me to get excited about a recipe that I can see versus one that is only written. How about you?

Category: Antipasto

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17 Comments

  • breakthroughc  on  May 2, 2024

    I like photos, but am very skeptical. I’ve just experienced too many times where the photo is so stylized or staged it doesn’t reflect the recipe. I thinking of a cake and frosting recipe I made where there is no possible way the color of the frosting in the photo can match the ingredients in the recipe. Or a jam recipe with a beautiful photo of mint sprinkled on roasted strawberries, but you actually don’t add the mint until 3 steps later when the jam is almost done. It is a beautiful photo that might inspire me to make the recipe, but I still find it irritating that it was a completely staged photo.

  • KatieK1  on  May 2, 2024

    Commenters on amazon often complain about a lack of photos in cookbooks, and I think that’s unfair. That said, who doesn’t like beautiful pictures? I just wish they were all honest.

  • EmilyR  on  May 2, 2024

    Another vote for honesty in styling and photos. I don’t have to have a matching end result to the photo, but I will unquestionably start critiquing harder if the photos and ingredients don’t align. Make the recipe, write a blurb about garnishing, but don’t pretend my eyes are playing tricks on me.

  • demomcook  on  May 2, 2024

    Another for wishing for more accuracy in photos. Not only staging, but using equipment to achieve results, when no home chef will have that equipment in their kitchen. And I often find photos that do not reflect the recipe in the book! Ingredients that do not match, or just the wrong thing altogether. You may (possibly) see errata, but I’ve never seen a photo corrected. I’ve trained two daughters to cook, and they can be very discouraged when the final outcome, while tasting fine, looks nothing like the photo led them to expect.

  • ccav  on  May 2, 2024

    I do like photos that are informative but really prefer if there are not endless pictures of people in a cookbook that have nothing to do with the recipes (as if they were in an advertisement). And I have a very soft spot for cookbooks with hand drawn illustrations.

  • Fyretigger  on  May 2, 2024

    I’m a member of camp “photo”. I’m an avid photographer myself (I contribute here regularly) and I’m a visual learner. But I’m also in the photo honesty camp.

    Right now I’m baking from Modernist Bread at Home and while many take issue with the authors’ technical illustrations that sometimes destroy kitchen equipment, they are also instructive. And once you’ve seen what’s inside a stand mixer, you understand why it needs to be run regularly for it to last a lifetime. But I digress. Their photo showing the span of bread browning (15 shades of baguette?) and suggested targets was far superior to some word salad analogy of oak or mahogany shades. And I would be lost without the photos detailing dough shaping, proof testing and scoring.

    With more photos there would be fewer questions on EYB about what a particular author means by smashed or crushed garlic and do they really mean minced.

  • FuzzyChef  on  May 3, 2024

    I am sad that illustrations in cookbooks have been supplanted. A good illustration can be much more instructive than a photo.

  • matag  on  May 3, 2024

    Give me an inspirational photo!

  • redbird  on  May 3, 2024

    I don’t mind an occasional, realistic photograph; however, pages of photographs annoy me. I would rather have more recipes. Particularly annoying are the books filled with glamour shots of grinning, toothy authors surrounded by adoring friends and family in their Instagram-worthy kitchens. I’m at the point where I won’t buy a book if it has this type of filler content.

  • lkgrover  on  May 3, 2024

    A good recipe photo inspires me to make the recipe. Sometimes it is instructive for technique to see the desired result. A published photo that doesn’t reflect the recipe is confusing. I appreciate EYB member-added photos because most are done by home-cooks like me, so I assume that they are realistic.

    I have many cookbooks focused on a particular country or region. I appreciate a few photos of the place and people, to help me imagine the context for the recipes (especially if I am unable to visit).

  • MollyB  on  May 3, 2024

    I’m happy to have some photos in my cookbooks, especially step-by-step photos for complex tasks, but I want good recipes more than I want more photos. (The Everyday Baker by Abigail Johnson Dodge is an example of a book that does step-by-step photos really well). One risk with photos, especially if they’re too stylized, is that they can put readers off, and I suspect they can make a book feel dated, too. There have been several popular cookbooks recently where the photography style irritated me so much that I decided not to get the books.

    And I’m with FuzzyChef in wanting more illustrations! I’m currently reading Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, by Lucy Knisley, a graphic novel/memoir that includes beautifully and clearly illustrated recipes, and I’d love to have more recipes presented that way.

  • dbuhler  on  May 3, 2024

    I really love reading all these responses!! I also enjoyed revisiting the older blog post about “orphan recipes”…such good stuff in the comments there! I am one who definitely feels inspired by the photography in a book and I prefer to have a photo of the finished product as a point of reference. My grandmother, a trained chef, always told me that we first eat with our eyes, and I have noticed that I lean heavily in that direction. I will however, completely avoid a cookbook if the photography is not to my liking. One author comes to mind whose books all contain photos that were all or mostly taken outside at high noon with very harsh direct light and stark shadows. That particular style is such a turn off for me that I couldn’t bring myself to try any of the recipes and the books promptly went back to the library. If I can’t stand to look at the photos I don’t want to make the food. With that said, after re-reading the “orphan recipe” post it has me thinking that one of my cooking intentions for next year may be that I try to cook at least one “orphan recipe” from every book I own (that have such recipes…many of my books have photos for every recipe).

  • sanfrannative  on  May 4, 2024

    I like making an unknown recipe and seeing it unfold. It’s a surprise!

  • KarenGlad  on  May 5, 2024

    Coincidentally…Supermarket Vegan was in my mail box on Friday. I ordered it online mainly because I liked the title and premise. I don’t have any other books by Donna Klein so I didn’t have any expectations. Other than the cover photo (vegetables!) there are no pictures, not even of Donna. But, there are 225 recipes, most of which sound really good and I want to make. Did I mention the price? A quarter to a third of the price of most of the cookbooks new to the market. Yes it’s nice to see and be inspired by your idyllic life but give me content…real food …real recipes that work. And darn it!! Now I want all her other books!

  • Zephyrness  on  May 5, 2024

    Unless there is a technique I am unfamiliar with (various stuffed dumplings, for instance), or presentation is key (sushi rolls) I am not a photo fan. That is never what my dish looks like!

    Since cookbooks are a form of travel for me, I enjoy photos of places and people, but put them in the intro, or at the beginning of chapters. When I get to the recipes, I want recipes.

    Being an experienced cook and someone who naturally goes with the flow, I don’t always need exact measurements. However, I do want clear instructions. If a certain cut makes a difference, or the order of operations is critical, that is much more important. Fyretiger’s mention of the bread-browning photos is one of the times when photos really help. However, I recall a recipe my son found on the internet for chicken and brocolli casserole. The writer didn’t mention that chicken needed to be cooked first. Just layer this and that and cook until the cheese melts. He didn’t know any better, and a photo didn’t help. He proudly presented his first cooked meal in his own apartment, and it was raw, with no way to save it.
    So, all in all, fewer photos, but keep the truly critical ones. And yes, honesty over style.

  • susankay  on  May 6, 2024

    I was just admiring my copy of “The Enchanted Broccoli Forest”. I love Mollie Katzen’s drawings, designs, and lettering in it, and also in “The Moosewood Cookbook”. I began cooking from cookbooks in the 80s. At that time, the food photos were much less attractive – in fact, they could really make a dish look unappealing. The Silver Palate cookbook (including “The New Basics”) also had beautiful drawings.

  • MaineDruid  on  May 30, 2024

    Photos are unnecessary unless they’re in a recipe to demonstrate an unfamiliar technique (thinking of “how to flay a squirrel” in an older edition of Erma Rombauer’s “Joy of Cooking.”). Otherwise they’re just porn. I was appalled a number of years ago to come across a poor rating of my all-time favorite cookbook, Deborah Madison’s “Greens Cookbook” based only on the fact that it contains no pictures. Seems to me we buy picture books for children so that they can enjoy looking at them before they learn to read. If you can read–and have even a minimal imagination–the picture is already in your head. Cookbook publishers, stop wasting paper.

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