Making A Bestseller – 125+ Behind The Scenes Shots From The Sobo Cookbook

by Andrew Morrison | I just saw that The Sobo Cookbook cracked Globe & Mail food writer Chris Nuttall-Smith’s list of the 20 best cookbooks of 2014, which is awesome news. The book has been out for over half a year now and it’s been great to see it getting so much recognition from coast to coast.

Michelle Sproule and I had the great fortune to work on the project with the good folks at Appetite (a division of Random House), photographer Jeremy Koreski, and Lisa and Artie Ahier of Tofino’s Sobo (two of our best friends on the planet). It took a long time to wrangle (a few years), and saw so many back and forth trips to The Island for brainstorming sessions and amazing photoshoot escapes – to places as remote and magical as Wick Island – that it really became more of an adventure than a job.

While we’re glad and proud to see the book doing so well, it’s nevertheless a little sad that the experience of making it is has ended. At least we have Michelle’s photos, which I’ve included below…

The Sobo Cookbook
Chef Lisa Ahier
Jeremy stokes the fire
Splayed quail over hot coals
Lisa squeezing
Cox Bay sunset surfers
As delicious as it looks...
Smile
Tofino detail
Carving on the beach
Applying slaw...
Dawn surf
Artisan's hand
Halibut cooking for the camera on Wick Island
Fiddleheads, fleeting
Tofino lesson #523: always have gumboots at the ready...
Sobo noodles!
Shallow fry chicken
Bobby cooking corn on Mackenzie Beach
Finger compass FTW
Artie Ahier
Salmon
En route, Kennedy
Shooting quail
Eating the subject is always fun...
Lisa and Andrew, talking chicken...
Michelle on Mackenzie Beach
Lisa during service
Arrival on Wick Island
Michelle and Jeremy stage a shot for the SOBO cookbook
The shot
Wick Island
Double wide shrimp at SOBO
Wick Island amenities
Surf, MacKenzie Beach
No more light means Margaritas
Sunset on Mackenzie
Wick island woods
Making coals
Ella and Sarah
Snug
Relaxing after a long day of work
Wick Island
Aw...
Andrew and Jeremy setting up a shot
Tofino
Our son Pip on Wick Island
From the drive over to Tofino
Shoot prep on Wick Island
James on Mackenzie Beach
Lisa Ahier, working on the line at Sobo
Salad, Sobo
Kelp, MacKenzie Beach
Mmm, quail...
Wind chime, Wick Island
Sunset on Chesterman
Stacking for a feast
Shuck yeah!
Tofino Brewing Co.
Bobby Lax
Scallops
Scuba dude
Artie gets a fire going on Wick Island
Carving Festival, Tofino
Ella and Pip
Skating a half pipe on the beach
Andrew takes a break at the Tofino skatepark
Jeremy and Sarah on Wick Island
Growler (not a prop)
Jeremy with his genius margarita necklace
Andrew and his Mom, Laura, during a break in the oyster shoot on Wick Island.
James and Barkley on Wick Island
Wick Island
Prepping biscuits
Break at the Wickaninnish
Andrew on Wick Island
Jeremy adjusting the fire
Wick Island
Jeremy shooting biscuits
Pie making at Sobo
Artie on the beach
Oysters
Tiny rocky outcrop landscape on the beach
The old Sobo menu board
Key lime pie!
Lisa's raspberry pie
Good boy, Duke.
Hippy chicken with fiddleheads
The Ahiers
The Koreskis
Tide pool
Tofino campsite bottle caps
Lisa Ahier at Sobo cooking up a delicious duck taco storm
Ahier's
Beet salad construction for the SOBO cookbook
Andrew & Bobby Honey | Chesterman Beach | Tofino
Cornbread
Miso with udon and tofu at Sobo
Barkley and James, rewards...
Ella and Pip, more rewards...
Saucing
Ocean soaked and fire roasted summer corn on a friend's deck
Wick Island
Wick Island
Best!
Oyster feasting
Andrew taking refreshment on Wick Island
Wick Island
Wick Island
Pip in the rain on Wick Island
Wick Island detail
Star Wars break
Group tasks
End of the day on Wick Island
Biscuit prep
Cox Bay, Tofino
Setting up
Michelle on Chesterman
Lisa with ice cream sandwiches
Artie and Ella
Beachfront cabin
Staff meal...
Mmmm...
Key lime detail
Key Lime Pie
Photo editor

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Reverence, Respect, and Realization: What The Acorn Taught Me

At 21 years old, I'm still just a kid and relatively new to working in restaurants, but I grew up umbilically tied to the hospitality industry. My father was a food writer, and my mother is a photographer. Their careers meant that most of my early years were spent in kitchens and dining rooms instead of on playgrounds and soccer fields; consequently, I learned my table manners before I could count past one hundred.