2012, after meeting in New York to approve the cover of their cookbook. “I was training at the French Culinary Institute when the book cover was finished, so the girls had to come to me, which was awesome anyway,” Maxine says. Jessie chimes in, “It was amazing that we were all together in New York when we received the cover and all the proofs in December 2012, because it had been the first time in years that we could arrange to be together – we all got the travel bug pretty early on!” Maxine continues, “Georgie and I moved to Bristol, London, when we were 18 and then Jessie came and lived with us. Jessie then moved to Japan for a couple of years before we moved back to Australia, living in Brisbane for a bit. I then moved to New York and came back and now Georgie is in London. It has been a constant revolving door!” It was during this brief year while living in Brisbane the concept of the book came about. “We pinpoint it to a time when we were having dinner with about 15 friends on a balcony in Brisbane at our house and we all started drawing at dinner,” Maxine remembers. “Some people quite literally drew the food, others drew how it made them feel, others drew cartoon characters.” Jessie says, “We had had a few bottles of wine and a lot of our friends are cartoonists and illustrators, so they just started drawing pictures from dinner. I think we had a Mexican banquet, so there were these little cartoon tacos and pictures of chillies with faces! We scanned all the drawings and thought they would be good to illustrate some recipes, and the idea started from there.” “At the time (five years ago now) cookbooks were only being published by mainstream chefs, such as Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. There was nothing that really fit with our generation and because it was post Master Chef, we had a good shot at getting it published.” With this in mind, the sisters set about sending out their favourite recipes to artists around the world, asking them to read and cook the dish before drawing it. Artists from America, London, France, Spain and Australia jumped onboard, no one turned them down and they soon built a bank of quirky art work to illustrate their delicious dishes. “At first we were going to photoshop the drawings and lay them over the images of food, but the artwork we started getting back was just so beautiful on its own that we decided to just solely use it, and give ourselves a point of difference from all the other cookbooks out there,” Maxine says. Georgie remembers, “Every artist we approached said yes, and the ones that didn’t, it wasn’t that the idea didn’t appeal to them, it was just that they june 2014
were too busy with other work. Everyone was keen because it is such a unique concept, no one else has really done it before.” Sixty-six artists and 120 recipes are featured in The Bookery Cook, with more artists coming on board every day to add a new flair to their recipes online. Their fame has skyrocketed since the release, but being as humble as they are, the sisters are reluctant to talk about the attention. “It was hard because I was in New York when the book was released, so I didn’t really get to do all the interviews like Jessie and Georgie did when they were back on the Coast last year, but I did get some nice feedback at a festival a few months ago and it was quite nice because I hadn’t really been around that kind of spotlight before,” Maxine says. Georgie says, “I also read a review about people being quite intimidated about buying a cookbook where they couldn’t look at the images and compare their results in the end. But the reviewer also said that sometimes it’s nice to just create your own artwork, which is exactly where we were going with our book.” The sisters plan to reunite at the end of the year in London for a family friend’s wedding, as well as spend some time planning the next move for The Bookery Cook. “Our Dad was born here, so we all have British passports and have a good network of friends over here, but I can’t wait for the girls to come over at the end of the year,” Georgie says. Jessie jokes, “Georgie plans to never let us leave!” “I am going to try and get them to stay,” Georgie laughs. “And we are hopefully planning some pop-up dinners in the summer. But we do have grand plans to stay in the one place together for at least a year … right girls?” We just have to wait and see what this exciting Sunshine Coast trio have in store next, and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.
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