An Uncensored, Unashamed Look at Our Editorial Photoshoot

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Last week, we told you what actually goes on at a Food52 photoshoot—and this week, we'll give you a similar recap, but one that's not quite as neatly organized.

How else to fully reflect the nature of our slightly-chaotic, always fun shoot days (and because not every photoshoot has nugget-y takeaways)?

So here's our day, unabridged and unashamed, from start to finish, beginning with toast ending with... a whole roasted fish?

Good mooooorning and welcome to our "office," where Ali, who doubles as Book Editor (can't you tell from that stack o' galleys by her feet?) is armed with a mug of coffee—and some wine?

Tuesday mornings make us SMILE! (In anticipation of the cream pie to come.)

A closer look at our "desk" (ignore my feet):

Lucky Peach, Breads Bakery, and Turkish breakfast (in a bowl and a mug). Date syrup, too.

Just a small selection of flowers to choose from (many of which were selected by our Art Director Alexis):

Burnt-ish toast for "breakfast." This melty pat of butter doesn't just happen—we torched it! (Note the supernaturally bubbling butter two photos below):

Take a wild guess as to why we shot this photo:

Hints: headphones; an iPhone (tuned into a certain podcast, perhaps?).

The beginning of cream pie, before we smoothed out the pudding (and before we piled on a whipped cream hat!):

Pudding plops aplenty. Stay tuned for the GIF!

The end of cream pie, the real version:

Best seat in the house!

The end of cream pie, the Instagram-filtered version:

I feel like this happened today but at what time I couldn't tell you!! A photo posted by sarahjampel (@sarahjampel) on Aug 2, 2016 at 3:44pm PDT

A different kind of spill. #pie #whippedcream A photo posted by James Ransom (@jamesransom_nyc) on Aug 2, 2016 at 9:46am PDT

Cream pie, the afterlife:

The first cut is the deepest; the first slice is by and far the messiest!!!

Two angles on the same zucchini cupcakes, shellacked with a frosting that gets it bright-green color from an herb (to find out which one, check back in on Monday!):

And an extreme close-up by James:

#wave A photo posted by James Ransom (@jamesransom_nyc) on Aug 2, 2016 at 10:52am PDT

After dessert, it was time for bed. Ali nestles corn husk soup (recipe coming soon, we promise!) into its placemat blanket (and goes through a lot of basil and cheese to find the perfect garnish):

Lullaby, and goodnight, go to sleep little soupie.

A midnight nacho snack, and additional proof that Ali's hands touch every piece of food we eat:

We put off saved the day's greatest challenge for last—whole roasted fish that Test Kitchen Chef Josh Cohen filleted on set:

Hey Josh: The lemon is waiting.

What else do you want to know about how our photoshoots work? Talk to us in the comments!