The Success of Great Food Fast

Leapfrogging its success from the pages of Everday Food magazine, it's no surprise that Martha Stewart's latest cookbook, Great Food Fast, is enjoying a successful run among booksellers. A recent article in Napa Valley Register had the cookbook on the top of the New York Times bestseller list as of April 1st, a spot previously enjoyed by Rachael Ray's 2, 4, 6, 8 cookbook last January.

Fast and healthy recipes and full color photographs fill the cookbook, and the editors definitely put a lot of focus on the pictures, both in the magazine and the cookbook.

The editors say visuals are always front of mind.

The food staff takes their own photographs of every dish to storyboard each issue long before the dishes are professionally shot. They try to avoid having too many dishes with the same dominant colors, or ingredients, and study how the dishes come across in sequence, says Sandy Gluck, food editor.

“Everything made on the photo shoot is eaten,” Gluck says.

And that’s pretty much how they hope it will be when readers try the food at home.

“More than anything,” Lewis says, “we want people to be successful in the kitchen.”