03/01/2016 Meet the Author

Now on BBC News it's time for Meet the Author with Nick Higham.

Mary McCartney is a photographer and food writer.

She's also a member of a famous family, sister of fashion designer

Stella, daughter of Paul, a musician of some repute.

At my table is her second food book.

It's described as a selection of vegetarian feasts

for family and friends.

Mary McCartney, this is a book of vegetarian recipes

for all occasions, particularly celebratory occasions,

family feasts and so on.

There's an element of making a case for vegetarian cookery about it.

Are you frustrated as a lifelong vegetarian that you still have

to argue the case for being vegetarian and cooking

in a vegetarian way?

Luckily I actually don't feel these days that I have do argue my case.

Growing up I very much did, I would go to dinner,

the person next to me would find out I was vegetarian and harass me

for most of the dinner.

Now I find it is a good place for me, people are asking

for vegetarian recipe ideas, that is why I have done the book.

You were brought up as a vegetarian.

Did you ever think of rebelling?

I never needed to rebel, because my mum was a great cook

and we all talked about food and ideas to fill that gap

in the middle of the plate.

When I did try, maybe a bit more fish, went I left home and started

cooking for myselfand buying my own food.

I was working as a picture researcher in Soho and I'd go

and get a tuna sandwich.

Then I realised I didn't feel good about it because I know how to eat

this way and I prefer it.

I enjoyed it.

I love cooking vegetarian food.

So, you prefer it and you love vegetarian food.

Is the preference partly because you have an ethical

disapproval of meat eating, or is it merely pragmatic?

It started off for not wanting anything to be killed for my plate,

and then it's turned more into, for me now it's more

about the industry worries me, the big meat industry,

the big fishing industry.

It seems to be damaging the environment.

It makes me feel better not buying into any of that.

You can also make an economic argument for eating more vegetables.

Yes, it's not practical.

Feeding vegetables to animals is a very inefficient way

of processing food for a growing world population.

Exactly.

It just doesn't seem practical to me.

I realise I'm in quite a privileged position to have grown up

as a vegetarian so for me it's not difficult.

If you're a meat eater and you want to eat vegetarian food

it can be a bit daunting, and it can be a bit like,

what do I eat?

So that's the reason for this book.

And it's for celebrations, but it's actually quite

casual, quite home-cooking.

Mainly I cook for friends, very low-key, I like to get a group

of people over, but I like to do a variety of things,

show the variety.

I cooked a couple of recipes out of this, I cooked the warm mushroom

salad, very tasty it was, too, and the courgette and leek fritters.

One reason I liked them is that what I ended up with looked just

like the photograph in the book.

That doesn't happen very often.

You took the photographs yourself?

Yes, and what happened was, I would write the recipe,

I would think of ideas for recipes I thought sounded nice,

like a warm mushroom salad for a dinner for two,

you want it to have a bit more of a wow factor.

So I thought it sounded nice, warm mushroom salad on a bed

of lettuce with new potatoes.

So I test the recipe, check the timings, and then

I would photograph it on my kitchen windowsill very close-up.

You're best known as a photographer of people, ballet dancers,

fashion models and so on.

Portraiture, yes.

What are the particular challenges of photographing food?

The lack of spontaneity.

I like to...

As a portrait photographer, I like to create moments and plan

it, and then leave something to collaboration and spontaneity.

But food photography, I enjoy doing it because I loved

coming up with the recipes for this, but it is not

going to become my career.

It is too exact and planned out.

There's one shot of maple syrup being drizzled over

a pile of pancakes.

You only get one go at that?

Or you have to have an awful lot of pancakes.

It was one go.

It's true.

I was kind of doing most of the whole menu plans

in each sitting.

So I sort of had them prepared, I had the plate prepared,

and said, you start drizzling.

So I had it drizzling, and then I had it drizzled.

We had a choice.

I work fast.

You do!

One hears a lot about the tricks that food photographers use,

spraying glazes on and so forth.

Do you do that?

I have never witnessed it.

I wouldn't know how to do it.

No.

Because, as I say, when I do these, I am testing the recipes at the same

time, and then we would eat them and discuss how they taste.

This is a book which majors on family.

Family celebrations, there are pictures of your children

in it, pictures of you as a child.

That makes it a very warm book.

When I was discussing with the publicist this interview,

they said don't ask her about her family, which seems,

now that I have seen and read the book, an odd thing to say.

Why did they do that?

I think they probably said it in that if you're an intellectual

journalist you can ask, but I think they're used to some

ridiculous questions, so they were probably trying

to protect me.

So if I...?

That's what I imagine.

You can imagine that some of the things we get asked

are really not relevant.

So I think with the cookbook it's completely relevant to talk

about my family and how I have grown up as a vegetarian,

but I think they probably meant don't go off-piste and asked me

something completely unrelated and gossipy.

I will ask you one question about your family.

You grew up in an extraordinarily creative family, your mother

was a photographer, your father a musician,

your sister has become a fashion designer.

There are two ways someone in that environment can go.

One is to turn their back on the creative world entirely,

and the other is to join in themselves.

Did you ever feel inhibited, or were you always clear

in your own mind that you wanted to be a photographer?

No, I wasn't clear at all.

I always knew I loved photography, and my first job

was as a picture researcher.

But I never thought to become a photographer until my early 20s.

I think growing up in a creative family made me think that everyone

could be creative.

I was around a lot of artists and would see a lot

of great artwork.

And it actually took me going through one of my friends'

holiday snaps to see how badly they were taken to really realise

that not everybody could do it and give myself the confidence

to take it up as a career, ironically.

She hates me for telling that story.

We don't know who she is.

I'll tell you after!

If you had to pick out one favourite recipe and why,

what would it be?

It's so hard.

It really depends, because it depends what time of year it is.

I usually think about who I've got coming over.

We're talking in May.

In May, probably the Mexican, because that Mexican menu plan has

got tostadas, it's got corn bread, it's got avocado side dish,

it's a real sharing table.

So I would pick that menu plan.

Mary McCartney, thank you very much indeed.

Thank you.