Baba! A Collection of Family Recipes
Art Direction, Book Design, Photography, Writing
Jan – May, 2020
Baba! is a cookbook devoted to exploring my family's culinary heritage. Inspired by my grandmother's recipe archives, I named my cookbook ‘Baba’, meaning ‘grandmother’ in Serbian. Baba! is organized into three different chapters. The first, My Way Home, follows my journey into learning the basics. After becoming comfortable preparing these dishes, I progressed my exploration into the recipes only made for special occasions in the Best Served chapter. The final chapter, Next Steps, focuses on the recipes that have been introduced into my family's collection through recent relationships and friendships. The recipes in all three of the chapters are interspersed with personal stories and photographs that reflect the making of or the remnants of a well-enjoyed meal.
This project earned me the 2nd place Mellon Award for
Loyola University's Fine Arts Senior Exhibition. This set of test photos made me realize how integral showing the process of cooking was, thematically, to the cookbook.