The Newlywed Table

The Newlywed Table, by Maria Zizka, is a cookbook for newlyweds, published by Artisan Books in 2019. It contains 100 essential recipes, from weeknight dinners for two to celebratory meals for a crowd to kitchen projects for weekends. The book is full of friendly and approachable notes, tips, and strategies that guide couples through the process of cooking together.

Working with Aya Brackett, we created a unified photographic look throughout The Newlywed Table. We paired a lot of light surfaces and ceramics with refined yet unforced food styling to achieve an elegant, bright, and personable style of imagery that feels both real and optimistic. Maria’s goal was for the cookbook to speak to all couples, both in its writing and in its design and photography.

The recipe pages have a clear hierarchy defined through the use of negative space, and the text has been set with cooking in mind, the fractions and instructions enlarged so that they can be read easily from a distance. We created hand lettering for the cover and chapter openers, drawing on the world of wedding scripts for inspiration while keeping the letters streamlined and without excessive flourishes.

Cheerful illustrations by Mark Dingo Francisco are spread throughout the cookbook in the interstitial sections between chapters. We created a soft color palette for these sections to separate them from the rest of the text and to connect the interior of the book to the cover. The Newlywed Table is in bookstores across the country and is also available online.

Direction: Michelle Ishay-Cohen
Photography: Aya Brackett
Food Styling: Abby Solfo
Prop Styling: Claire Mack
Illustration: Mark Dingo Francisco