There’s something special about baking from the comfort of your own home. Your blog is named after your New York City apartment. How does baking in your own kitchen foster your creativity?
YA: Working and baking from home allows me to work at my own pace. Sometimes that pace is really fast, and sometimes it’s slower and more methodical. When I’m developing recipes and figuring out new flavors, having time and space in the comfort of my home is nice.
What is your favorite baking tool you can’t live without?
YA: My maple dowel rolling pin from the housewares department at Zabar’s on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. My favorite kind of tool—simple, inexpensive, and gets the job done.
Your father is Iranian. Did you eat Iranian food growing up, and how does that affect how you bake today?
YA: It definitely affects how I bake. Iranian food is all about balancing rich ingredients with lighter ingredients. For example, we eat rich meat dishes with a plain, tart yogurt. When baking, I often use citrus zest and juice to balance out sweeter flavors. I strive to make all the things I cook well-balanced.
You chose to write and photograph Sweeter off the Vine entirely by yourself. What’s it like to work independently through the whole process of cooking, styling, and photographing the recipes you create?
YA: I did all the baking, styling, and photography (and most of the dishes) for the book on my own. The volume of work was overwhelming at times—testing five or six recipes a day, then dealing with a document that’s over 40,000 words with over 100 photographs—but it’s also the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. When I got my first physical copy of Sweeter off the Vine in the mail, it was such a great feeling to hold what I created with the team at Ten Speed.
But I also love to collaborate, and when I’m able to focus on one part of the whole process—just preparing the food or just photographing it—the work is different. I don’t have to worry about keeping all parts of the process in line.
[…] story of its origination. Weinstein adapted her recipe from “Sweeter Off the Vine,” by Yossy Arefi, a cookbook of fruit desserts for every season…organized by season and […]