Over a period of 3 weeks during a hot summer in London, I photographed the newly published book ‘Magic Soup’. Magic Soup is written by Ottolenghi’s former head chef Nicole Pisani and author Kate Adams. The two ladies have come up with a fun and nutritious set of soup recipes for all different occasions, some are to impress your guests with, some will give you strength and will feel like an immense hug when you’re feeling unwell, some look dainty, others look robust and down to earth. There is a soup for everyone in this book. I might be biased but I think this book is great and it places soups back on a higher shelve.
Not only does the book tell you how to make a good stock, it teaches you how to make your own Kimchi, scallop ceviche and cured salmon. Exciting much? Soups range from a fertility soup, pickled soup, nettle soup with flowers, beetroot and burrata, Ramen, Miso to a good old watercress soup with crab toasts. I tasted most of these dishes during our delicious lunches, they are good.
Shooting this book was so much fun I really wanted to share it with you, here are some pictures from the book, but also some ‘making of’ pics and incidentals.
Many thanks to the lovely ladies over at Orion Publishing, Nicole and Kate, the authors and inspiring chefs, Tamzin the prop stylist extraordinaire and Caroline who did everyone’s work justice with her design of the book. We were a great team.
I’m giving away a book
Finally, I have one book to give away. I’m not asked to do this by anyone, I just want to spread the soup love. So to win this book, just like my facebook page, twitter if you’re on twitter, and instagram (if you already are, superb!) and let me know if you’ve done it in the comments below, also tell me what your favourite soup is, just for the fun of it. Straightforward. Then I’ll just stick your names in a hat and pick one out. No fancy systems, just old school.
Magic Soup was published in February 2015 by Orion/Hachette.
The book is for sale at most book stores and online.
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| Happy New Year Ozoni |
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| Pea and mountain ham – right: curry leaves |
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| French onion soup – Lime & Lentil soup with marinated feta |
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| Tomatoes and a pretty blue dress |
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| Lamb shank left: Magic Soup |
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| Kate Adams and venison meat balls |
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| Nicole Pisani |
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| My setup at Fist Option Studio Shoreditch – the many props |
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| Nicole and her pretty blouse |
Don’t forget to leave a comment in order to win a copy of this book!
The Competition is now closed and has been won by Sally! Thank you everyone for entering, how amazing!! Again I am sending this book at my own expense as a gift to one of you.
Regula Ysewijn is a food writer, stylist and photographer, with a particular interest in historical recipes. he is a Great Taste Awards judge and a member of The Guild of Food Writers, as well as one of the two judges on 'Bake Off Vlaanderen', the Belgian version of 'The Great British Bake-Off'. A self-confessed Anglophile, she collects old British cookbooks and culinary equipment in order to help with her research. She is the author of 5 books: Pride and Pudding the history of British puddings savoury and sweet, Belgian Café Culture, the National Trust Book of Puddings, Brits Bakboek and Oats in the North, Wheat from the South. 
Congratulations! Your photography is gorgeous.
I've like you FB and I follow <ou in Twitter.
Cheers,
Rosa
not only the photography looks stunning, but the recipes look soooo good too!
Alessandra xx
I know how you love your work, and this shines through every single picture you took for this book! Congrats Regula!!
Thanks Juls xxx 🙂
I'll follow you everywhere and forever. Your photos captures moments, silences and tastes. Congrats Regula!!
Thanks so much for your support!! x
Dear Regula,
I guess Im THE biggest soup lover in the world. I love eating soup all year long. Soup gives me comfort whenever Im feeling down, happiness every time I can share a good soup with my girlfriends, joy each & every time I make soup. Im already following you since I joined Instagram last year. Im also deeply in love with Instagram :))) … I love that I get inspired each & everyday by all the lovely brilliant pictures… including yours. Im following you on Twitter. Unfortunately I have no Facebook account as I dont agree with Facebook Privacy Policy. Good luck with the book. The picture you’ve posted today on Instagram look gorgeous. So goodbye for now, Im going to make a watercress soup now… XOXO, Mich aka @healthyisfunky
Thanks Mich, Watercress soup is one of my all time favourite soups! This book serves it with crab crackers which was a very good combo!
Hi Regula,
I don't have a FB account but i'm one of your instagram follower for ages.
As I am a soup lover, is quit complicated to name one of my favourite soups, but by the look of your pictures, I can tell I would try all of them without a problem.
Cheers,
Lia.
doesn't matter if you aren't on facebook! 🙂 I know it's difficult picking one soup 😉
I'm a carrot and coriander man so nothing too adventurous there !, but I sometimes add chunks of potato or other stuff . Brilliant pics Regula .
Oh me too, my all time favourite will always be a decent tomato soup or watercress 🙂
Beautiful images, lovely colours and subtle lighting. Very gorgeous!
Thank you so much!
Photography in this book is gorgeous – what a beautiful and wholesome book!
thank you!!
So beautiful!!!
Hi Regula,
I simply love the shots! And the soup is probably great too! 😉
x Hazel
haha yes the soup is great too!!
What beautiful photos Regula, we eat a lot of soup in this house, always with home made stock. Our favourite is always the last one we made, usually with freshly pulled garden veg and a garnish of toasted nuts and seeds!
Home made stock, well done you!! That's so wholesome!
Love soups and love your photos! Liked on FB and Twitter (don't have Instagram). My fave soup is sweet potato and quinoa with a good dash of cumin but would love to experiment further with some of these recipes!
Sounds great yum! Yes lots to experiment with in this book!
Love soups big time; but if I were to pick one it has to be the Arabian lentil soup, a dish I grew up eating in Dubai. And yes, I am following you…..everywhere.
Lentil soup with a little Zaatar and flatbread, delicious!!
Gorgeous book!
I adore soup and this looks like a fabulous book. Your photos are glorious.
My most regularly-made soup is lentil. When I have a little more time, then the wonderfully named Cullen Skink is a gem.
Cullen Skink is amazing, if not only for the name!!
Hi 😉
I absolutely love your pictures. Would be fun to help creating them ;))
My favorite soup? This would be too hard to decide… Maybe tomato soup, or not. I dont know, i love all of them 😉
Cheers,
Kiki
ps: I liked you on FB
Thanks 😉 Yep soups, it seems most people love them to bits!
Wow Regula! You did an amazing job! I love the look and the mood in the photos! Of course I like you already everywhere so this just leaves this comment.. 😉 Would love to win a copy!
Thanks Simone, I really value your opinion!! 🙂 You'd love this book! Wish I had more than one to give away!
Would love to have the book just for the images – the soups (… and I love soup :)) would be an added bonus! Lovely work.
I would love to have the book just for the images – the soups (and I LOVE soup 🙂 ) would be an added extra! Lovely work.
Thanks so much 🙂
Straight from IG I'm here to applaud you for your lovely photographs and ofcourse your generosity of this giveaway. Best loved soup in this household is Delia's Onion Soup (might have something to do with that good splosh of cognac) and my husband's Kedgeree Soup.
Straight from IG I'm here to applaud you for your lovely photographs and ofcourse your generosity of this giveaway. Best loved soup in this household is Delia's Onion Soup (might have something to do with that good splosh of cognac) and my husband's Kedgeree Soup.
Thank you so much Jools, kedgeree soup? How cool, must look into that!
I've been following you for ages… in a non stalkerish way of course! My favourite soup is the class chicken noodle soup. A nice delicious broth filled with juicy chicken, hearty veg and so soft noodles! Perfect for when feeling a little under the weather 😉
haha thank you for not following me in a stalkerish kinda way ;)) Chicken noodle sounds great, and indeed perfect to strengthen ones soul!
liked on facebook as timmyeverett 🙂 i love garlic soup: clear, broth type with ooooooodles of roasted and squeezed garlic. failing that, madhur jaffrey's mulligatawny always perks me up
Hi Timmy! Never had garlic soup before!
you should try it. infact, i will find the recipe and share it. the roasting takes the harshness out of the garlic
Beautiful! Love your work 🙂 Liked on FB and Instagram 😉 My favourite soup is tomato soup with adding tomato paste and butter, just as my mum does. Now I prepare it the same way and my children also love it :))
Thanks so much Anna!! Butter? in Tomato soup? I have to try this, I like plenty of butter on the bread I dip in the soup, so it can't be bad. As Julia Child said, butter makes everything better!
that's super wauhh! It's my dream, soon or later I'll shot a book… your photos are amazing, you should promote a giveaway about be there while you are shooting! So interesting having a look! Great job, really we'll done! 🙂
I hope you get to do it some day!!
Exquisite, Regula. Hearty congratulations! I can't wait to see the book in person.
Thanks!! 🙂
Beautiful pictures! I'm a real soup lover and I'm looking for a good soup book but I still haven't found what I want… Maybe this one will hit the spot! I am a longtime follower of your Instagram (I'm @crazygreenfruits there) and I have just liked your page on Facebook (I'm Nina Didge L…). I don't have Twitter sorry!
It's difficult for me to tell you which soup is my favourite, but I really fell in love with pho the first time I tried it. But I also love cream of mushroom, carrots/winter squash soup with ginger/curry/coconut/coriander/all of them. And tomato soup! Ah, I can't decide…
Oh I must admit though I am biased, this is the best ever soup book, seriously, so much variety and so much great toppings and stuff. Really fun! You're obviously a soup lover!
Dear Regula, So nice to hear from you again. What gorgeous photographs!
I loved soup even before I became a Chinese Medicine practitioner and we believe that soup can cure anything! Well, perhaps that's a exaggeration, but we believe that soup can nourish better than most anything else even to the point where we call prepared herbal remedies "tang" (soup)!
I am sorry, I am not on instagram, facebook or twitter… but I like you anyway, even if I can't "like" you! ;))) And I always love to see your posts fall into my inbox, there has never been even one that I am not interested in.
Christina
You are a chinese medicine practicer? How cool!
I forgot to tell you my favorite soup: Depends on the season. In spring, I love Greek Artichoke Lemon with carrots, potatoes, onions, lots of garlic, and fresh dill… I like the same with asparagus. In the fall, my sister's "Hot Stew" from a dive diner in Indianapolis with large chunks of beef and quartered potatoes, then carrots and onions and just a little too much red pepper flakes. In the winter, chili or something with lamb… maybe shanks like one of your pics above and then there's borscht with lamb…. Good Grief! I have to stop now, it's breakfast time here and I already made myself hungry for soup!
Christina
Sounds like a delicious book! My favorite soup is tomatosoup with basil. I love it! 🙂
An oldie but a goodie, me too!
Great work Regula! My favorite soup is either pumpkin-carrot or beetroot soup, I could eat those 2 soups all winter long!
Delicious, me too!
Great book and pictures, I follow you already on all the three accounts and my favourite soup is coconut beetroot and lemongrass soup 🙂 Good luck to all
Interesting combo, I will need to try it out! Thanks
Beautiful photography! Would love to try out the recipies! Favourite soup? I have 3: borsch, bacon/split peas and porcini mushroom.
Thanks! Borscht, been decades since I eaten that!
Absolutely adore the darkness in your photography! Such an inspiration! I am a huge soup-lover, would eat soup every day if my family would agree…At the moment my favorite soup is roasted butternut squash soup with roasted garlic, dried chili flakes and a spoonful of honey. It's so silky, sweet and delicious, with the garlic and chilies giving it a kick! Getting hungry just thinking about it…guess that's for dinner tonight!
Thank you so much for your compliment! You got me hungry now with thinking of your soup!
My favorite soup is very simple, potatoes, celery, leeks and onions, with a splash of milk or cream. Soup is such a comfort and restorative too. A wonderful cookbook, your photos have brought the recipes to life!
Simple will always be best in some cases, thanks so much 🙂
This book looks gorgeous Regula and one can never have enough soup recipes! I would love to win a copy. And of course I always follow all your fabulous media threads 😉
Indeed, you can never have enough of them, so easy and so comforting! Thanks Karin xxx
Done! I'm following you as isalealeggert. Love your work. Hope I'm lucky enough to win this book.
Isabela.
Good luck Isabela, thanks for joining in!
This looks like a beautiful book, and right up my alley as I love soup. My favourite is chicken noodle soup with seaweed – yum! All my "liking" is done, so count me in!
This looks like a beautiful book, and right up my alley as I love soup. My favourite is chicken noodle soup with seaweed – yum! All my "liking" is done, so count me in!
Seaweed? Can't be bad, I have to try it!
This looks wonderful, Regula! I absolutely adore your photography. My favourite soup is the Tom Kha Gai they serve at a small Thai restaurant I know. Closely followed by my dad's tomato soup. Mmmm…
Thanks so much Bettina! Your dad's tomato soup, how sweet!
I knew this book will be stunning because of your gorgeous and mouthwatering photos! 🙂 Great job, Regula! I'm really proud of you!
Thanks Zita!! You've been there since the start 🙂
Stunning work, well done Regula! You've done a fantastic job, the book looks so beautiful with your photography.
Thanks dear Sari, that means a lot coming from you! xx
I've been a FB fan for some time now. Added Twitter and Instagram. If I had to pick, which is very difficult, today I would pick Lentil soup. Call me crazy. 🙂
Thanks for joining me at Twitter and Instagram! Lentil soup is amazing, I love it with some Zaatar and snappy flatbread, a dash of yoghurt too.
Magistral work, Regula, love every single one of these shots. Love the look of this book and it sounds right up my alley – I never say no to soup. I obviously follow you everywhere so I'll just say my favourite soup: zuppa di pesce, of course! x
Thanks so much Valeria, I'm sure you would have fun recreating some of these dishes! Especially because you are at the source of amazing produce at your workplace!! xx
wow, I see a lot of competition here, good for you. Well I have been following you for a while now. First your blog, then I realize I could follow you in fb and twitter, which I do. My favourite soup is a portuguese winter soup made with red bens, tomatos, kale, carrots and of course onion and garlic. Not important to win the book but just in case.
Thanks for joining in, wish I had more books to give away now! But it does come out of my own pocket 😉 Your portuguese winter soup sounds fab, I love anything with beans tho!!
Sooo difficult to choose only one soup! In summer a good Tuscan Pappa al pomodoro and in winter a Carabaccia onion soup is very comforting (and totally different to the classical French onion soup). Do I have to go hungry in spring and autum?! Already 'like' you and what you do on FB very much!
Well I was waiting for someone to mention the ever tasty Pappa al pomodoro, it's so good!! Never tried Carabaccia, I'll have to look it up!!
Fabulous work by Regula, a star in the making. I love the pretty blouse picture and of course the soups. 😉
Thrilled to know you shot this. I saw it reviewed by Glamourous Glutton and adored it instantly. Love the behind the scenes shots too. Beautiful. My favourite soup is Avgolemono – or egg and lemon soup… as made to KP's grandma's recipe.
Never heard of that soup before! So many soups in this world!!
following you since forever (almost :)) on FB and Twitter : LOVE your work… Inspiring stuff!
Best soup I ever had? Can't decide, there's 2 : 1. Ribollita (if you are in Siena, go to Osteria Il Carroccio, en tell Renata I sent you… Fabulous tuscan food!) and
2. a bowl of "Pho Bo" I ate at a street stand in Hanoi, Vietnam. Words can't describe……
So, do I love soup? Yes. OF COURSE! 🙂
PS : runner up has to be my grandmothers "boere-tenen-soep"; a plain simple vegetable soup, made with lost of Love and nothing but home grown ingredients, with LOTS of those big white beans, "molbonen" in dutch, or as we call them "boerentenen"…. Memories………………
What incredible photos. And who doesn't like soup?!
Oh, and my favorite soup is Caldo Verde, a Portuguese potato-based soup with hot chorizo-style sausage and either leek or kale. Absolutely delicious!
Oh I remember when you posted some pictures from this shooting during the summer! Photos are breath taking. That place looks like heaven and their props (specially their china!) are gorgeous! You must be very proud 🙂
It would so unfair to choose one of these soups. I could have soups 6 days a week, maybe even seven. What's the one on the cover with the poached egg?
It's yoghurt soup! :))
Stunning pictures!! you know your craft! 😉
aww thanks Nico!!
Lovely book! I would love to win it in order to offer to a friend who struggles with the soup issue. My favorite soup has to be with roast tomatos and red peppers. There's something about it, with basil and a drizzle of evoo that just makes me smile 🙂
I already follow you FB and Instagram accounts, but I'm not on Twitter!
Once again, congrats for the work, the photos are amazing!
Thanks very much!!
How simply gorgeous Regula! Stunning shots and so full of life. COngrats!
Thank you, we were a great time together and I think the book shows that!