pho

Styled by Linh Trieu / Photographed by Elizabeth Cook
for Cooking with an Accent: An Immigration Lawyer's Cookbook

My mom is making pho today. I can't wait to have some later! Pho brings to mind an intense, long and stressful project I worked on years ago with an immigration attorney. She was my husband's immigration lawyer, she was my client, and not only did we help produce the cookbook, we were even a part of it. Cooking with an Accent featured her immigration clients, favorite recipes from their homeland and each person's immigration story. I chose pho, which I had never made, but loved to eat. My mom made it for me and I just brought over all the ingredients, put it in a bowl, then styled and shot it. Totally cheated of course. But I have to say it was more effort than the other Vietnamese client who made grilled hot dogs. While neither of us cooked anything, I still felt superior. :)

I now know how to make pho, but I don't use the recipe in this cookbook. My mom gave me directions but she cooks from memory. Her directions were long, her measurements were eyeballed and I was thoroughly confused. I use this recipe instead and although not as good as my mom's (of course), it's still amazing.

The following images are from the cookbook Beth and I worked on for free. We were young, we were dumb and we almost blew our heads off working on this project. But we gained A LOT of experience and I'm still proud of working on it. I was the project planner, designer, art director, food stylist and editor. Beth was the photographer and we scheduled and styled the shoots together. George came up with the title and also did some major editing. Would I ever do something like this again? Yes, definitely, but for free? Never in a million years, not for all the experience in the world. You can buy one for yourself here but I cannot guarantee that all the recipes work (see above where I mentioned my mom's pho recipe). Click on the images for a better view.