Melina Hammer

“I am a professional photographer, food stylist, recipe developer, author, cook and owner of Catbird Cottage—a B&B nestled in the Hudson Valley, NY. I’ve been a contributor to the New York Times, Food52, Eating Well, Cooking Light, the Edible imprints and Sweet Paul Magazine. To me, fresh, whole food is a love language.

“My first cookbook, Kid Chef is an Amazon bestseller, and I have a new cookbook from Ten Speed Press, published in Spring 2022. I photographed and styled Julia Turshen’s cookbook, Simply Julia. As a visual storyteller, I won the 2018 IACP award for best food styling, and am nominated for a 2020 IACP Food Media award for my Instagram account.

“I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of educators and labor organizers. From an early age I was taught the value of resourcefulness and honoring the ‘whole’ of a thing, and while my upbringing included a lot of casseroles, there were numerous special foods that served as cherished companions to celebrated occasions (my grandmother’s recipe for lemon meringue pie is beloved by all).

“During years spent in the deep south, my husband Jim and I grew friendships with family farmers doing it right. We had opportunities to walk their fields and see how things grew—foods in many cases I hadn't seen outside of grocery store shelves. I saw the incredible, nonstop labor it takes to bring beautiful foods to market. Regular foraging suddenly became possible too. Living minutes from abundant morels, Virginia pine, native persimmons, and many other wild foods afforded me the chance to incorporate them into my daily cuisine. I have preserved and expanded on these discoveries and passions ever since, and they permeate everything I do at Catbird Cottage.”

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