The Private Edition

The experience, step by step

About three months, at their pace.

1. By video or in person

   Step 1|The Introduction

   Your concierge meets the family, learns whose table it is, and sets the calendar together with you. We make the list of everyone who belongs in the book. From now on, we make sure the others take part too, sharing their own recipes and stories for its pages.

   Week one

   
2. Phone, video, WhatsApp or the table

   Step 2|The Conversations

   About twelve conversations over three months, however they like to have them: a weekly call, a video, a WhatsApp message, a voice note, or at the table. Each one draws out a recipe and the story behind it. If there are eighty recipes, eighty go in.

   • 10+ conversations
   • 3 months of work

   Every week

   
3. Their kitchen

   Step 3|Their Own Editorial Photo Shoot

   A professional photographer comes to their kitchen for half a day, and we make it an afternoon to talk about for years. We want to see them cooking the dish they are known for, the family at the table, the friends who always drop by: the hands, the steam, the laughter. We encourage them to invite everyone who'd like to be part of it. Every dish made that day is photographed the way a magazine would. More sessions can be added.

   Half a day

   
4. From anywhere, by phone

   Step 4|Everyone at the Table

   We make it a shared book. Bring your people into your kitchen story: the ones who are always there, and the ones you wish always were. We invite each of them in your name and follow up until they're in. They can share a recipe, a story or both, however they like: typed, spoken, or a photograph of the card. We clean it, edit it and create its image, and each keeps the place they deserve in the book.

   See how they send it

   Throughout

   
5. Our studio

   Step 5|The Studio Recreations

   A dish no one has made in years can come back to the table. Every recipe not cooked on the day is recreated by our studio from their own words, on their own plates, in the light of the collection. We create and review every detail of each dish, and make sure it comes out the way the recipe says.

   • Up to 80 recipes, every one with its picture

   Month two

   
6. Our studio

   Step 6|The Words and the Pictures

   Like a fine art book, every page belongs to the photograph first. We write the opening essay ourselves, and shape everyone's notes and stories, in their own words, beside their recipes: together they answer one question, what food means to this family. Every recipe is transcribed and edited by hand, and kept true to their words: if it says a pinch, it stays a pinch. We correct the spelling, set it in order and in one style, and place its story beside it. A professional proofreader reads every page.

   • Up to 15,000 words in recipes and stories
   • Every recipe edited by hand, true to their words

   Months two and three

   
7. Wines from around the world

   Step 7|The Wines of the Book

   Wondering which wine goes best with your classic lasagna? Our sommelier pairs up to twelve of your dishes with wines from around the world, and explains on the page why each one is the right match. And for the signature dish, the one the whole family knows them for, we choose a bottle as our gift: it arrives with the books.

   • 12 selected wine pairings
   • 1 bottle for the signature dish

   Month three

   
8. In your hands

   Step 8|Your Approval

   We print nothing until you approve it. First, a single proof copy is printed for you to hold. If you don't love it, we redo what you don't like. If you still don't, you don't make the last payment. If the book is a surprise, the proof is approved by whoever you name, or by us.

   Month three

   
9. Their door

   Step 9|Your Culinary Heritage, Made a Private Edition

   The five copies of their edition arrive, with the bottle our sommelier chose for the signature dish. Their table is now part of the Private Collection, under its own number.

   About three months