When Holly Berfield finished reading “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women” by Lisa See, images of Chinese scallion pancakes and jasmine tea stoked her imagination. An historical fiction set in 15th century China, See’s story about female bonding in the face of male adversity infused with authentic Chinese foods, prompted Berfield to head for her kitchen to make the pancakes and other edibles from the story. When done, she aesthetically arranged the foods around the book cover, photographed it and posted the fun and unique visual on her Instagram feed and blog “BookCookLook.”
Berfield, who is a professional photographer, lifelong bibliophile and aspiring at-home cook, recalls how the concept of connecting books with food first came to her some ten years ago.
“There was this delicious sounding dish called mesir wat, an Ethiopian red lentil stew from “Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese. It sounded yummy and I wanted to try to make it.”
After cooking the stew, she framed Verghese’s book cover with a gnarly ginger root, a smattering of raw red lentils and an eye-popping sprig of green coriander garnishing the stew. Captivated with this new visual-literary composite she posted it on her Instagram page instagram.com/bookcooklook along with a recipe link and a short book review.
“This all happened organically, and I wondered if I could do it for a year and maybe for 100 books,” Berfield notes.
Today and 27,000 Instagram followers later, Berfield marvels how her creative lit-food genre has attracted a world of book lovers and inspired well-read culinarians. Links to recipes she sources for each post are on her blog and her Instagram page under “story highlights.”
Berfield’s drive for BookCookLook comes from her passion for stories and its characters.
“When I enjoy a book, I don’t want it to be over and photographing the cover with food is a way to keep the book and characters with me,” she explains. “It keeps me immersed in that book universe and I savor that feeling for a little while.”
As the growing number of book lovers signed on to BookCookLook, word spread. Then, about five years ago, Berfield got a call from Oprah’s Book Club.
“After the initial shock wore off, they asked if we could collaborate on creating holiday cookies themed to their book picks of that year,” Berfield recalls. “One of the books chosen was “Olive Again”, a sequel to Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout’s “Olive Kitteridge” and we made olive oil short bread cookies.”
Foods paired with the “Olive Again” book cover included Olive Oil Sugar Cookies with Pistachio Glaze shaped as either Christmas trees or stars. The experience prompted Berfield to focus on holiday themed books in December.
Other opportunities offering exposure to BookCookLook included creating book-inspired holiday desserts for Bob’s Red Mill, numerous invites to book launches, and author chats at local bookstores. Just this past summer Berfield and her book club were featured on the nationally known show “Today with Jenna & Friends”, where they discussed a current Read with Jenna book selection.
From Law to BookCookLook
Berfield grew up in Harrison, NY and attended Washington University in St. Louis where she met her husband, Michael Berfield. She became a litigator after graduating from the American University Washington College of Law in Washington D.C.
After five years in the courtroom, Berfield knew it wasn’t what she wanted to do long term. She took her writing skills and her law experience and worked successfully in the law firm marketing field. “I really enjoyed working in a law firm environment and being creative,” she says. “I was writing press releases, holding rebranding events, creating websites. It gave me a creative outlet.”
In 2006, when her first son Benjamin was about two years old and her second son Isaac was still an infant, Berfield decided to take a break from marketing. (Today, both sons are in college).
“I started picking up my camera a lot as one does when they have young children,” she notes. “I was photographing nieces and nephews and my friends’ kids. Around 2010, I took up photography professionally and built a portfolio. It was a great thing for me to do and something completely different from practicing law.”
When Berfield moved to Armonk 13 years ago, not only was her photography livelihood well established but it was a way for her and her family to integrate into the community.
“I met young parents in the neighborhood with young kids and as I photographed children in the school and families in the community, my work became known by word of mouth. As the years went on, I was photographing family milestones, high school seniors, and kids on the football team. The kids were growing as my clients got older.”
Author’s Connections
For book lovers, one of the greatest thrills is to meet authors and get to know them. For Berfield, she not only gets to know authors through her connections with publishers and book agents, but she has attracted writers who reach out to her hoping she will read their book and tastefully embellish their cover with a relevant cuisine.
“Every time I hear from an author or an author sends me a book, I feel honored and excited to connect with them,” Berfield claims. “I’ve made a lot of author friends, which I appreciate.”
Sometimes the connection with a known author becomes especially endearing. Berfield paired the book “The Guncle” by Steven Rowley with an assortment of pies referencing Grant, the main character, and his love of pies. After seeing Berfield’s photo with three different types of pies surrounding his book cover Rowley replied to her Instagram account. “The thing about writing characters you love so much is that for half a second, I wanted to pick up the phone and call Grant to tell him all about this photo and how wonderful people can be. THANK YOU,” Rowley wrote.
The Moderne Barn Book Club
There are about 10 members in the book club Berfield belongs to and they meet monthly at the Moderne Barn Restaurant in Armonk. The restaurant became the moniker for the club now known as the Moderne Barn Book Club, a name they came up with when they appeared on the “Today” show.
“We meet monthly for about two hours at Moderne Barn because it’s such a feel-good place,” Berfield says. “They know our favorite table.” Berfield describes book club members as “really smart, dynamic and interesting women.”
The monthly book selection is chosen by a different member who suggests three books and are voted on. After reading, book discussions are what Berfield calls ‘productive conversations.’
“We don’t always agree on something about the book, and it’s helpful if people have different opinions. Some love it but hate a certain character or disagree with a character’s certain decision. It’s always fun, interesting and really stimulating.”
Book club popularity has surged since the 1990s and sources say there are around 500,000 book clubs in America today with about 5 -10 million members. For Berfield, knowing that others are reading the same book at the same time encourages folks to read more.
“For a lot of people, reading a book forces you to slow down, get out of your own head, invest yourself in a story for no reason at all and to appreciate a story for its own sake,” she explains. “Some people feel that unless you’re reading non-fiction, listening to a pod cast or the news, it’s a waste of time and you’re not learning something. But for readers of historical fiction, it can sometimes be a way to contextualize and process the news.”
Berfield understands why more and more people are reading novels. “There’s always going to be a market for escapist fiction where people say to themselves ‘I got to check out and read this rom-com.’”
Offering a safe environment to freely express oneself is the great benefit of belonging to a book club, according to Berfield.
“Discussing a book is a great exercise for people to learn about other people’s perspectives, which is something that’s not abundant these days. You can hear someone else’s point of view in a place where you trust the other people there.”
For the last ten years BookCookLook has been a gauge for Berfield to measure how her visual adaptations have become more meaningful to readers.
“My photographs have become lighter and brighter and are composed in such a way as to tell a story within the frame. The visual elements are a stronger connection to the story allowing for a multisensory way to connect to a book.”
As for the 10th year anniversary of BookCookLook – Berfield is excited to see where it will lead.
“Ten years is an important milestone in terms of growth and what it all means,” she notes. “It’s been very gratifying to see how this project has given me a chance to read and use my camera more intentionally.”
Overall, Berfield finds BookCookLook has been an extremely satisfying endeavor.
“I love when I’m reading a book, and I post it on my Instagram and somebody else says they are reading that book too. It creates a very unique connection. Ultimately people are looking for ways to experience stories more outside the page and to involve themselves in a more complete way in what they are reading.”
