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Tropical pink oyster mushrooms by Reeder (Image courtesy Molly Reeder)
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Heirloom beans by Reeder (Image courtesy Molly Reeder)
When Molly Reeder graduated from Loyola University with a degree in fine arts, she knew she wanted to share her art with the world, but the idea of becoming a gallery artist felt at odds with her quiet personality. Instead, the illustrator took a different path, baking professionally in New Orleans before moving to Hawaii. It was there Reeder discovered her calling — painting portraits of the native flora, fauna and fruit of the islands. Inspired by botanical illustrator Fiona Strickland, Reeder dreamed of working with a chef to illustrate a cookbook in watercolor, but she never expected it would be alongside James Beard Award-winning author Samin Nosrat on the follow-up to her 2017 New York Times bestselling cookbook, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.” But after striking up a friendship with Reeder over a mutual love of beans, Nosrat called on the Richmond-based artist to do just that.
Richmond magazine: Tell me about your background. How did you become a food illustrator?
Molly Reeder: I was working part-time at my sister’s gelateria in New Orleans, and I started baking on the side. It’s very much like artmaking. It’s process-oriented, you’re making things look beautiful and taste beautiful, and I love setting up a pastry case. It scratched that itch of making art. After eight years of baking, I made the transition in my 30s to doing commissions. I lived in Hawaii before moving to Richmond, and while I was there I was so inspired by all the beautiful fruit — passionfruit, guava, papaya — and I started doing portraits of them for myself. Then I realized people liked them, and it just spun from there.
RM: How did Samin Nosrat find and tap you to illustrate her cookbook?
Reeder: Through Instagram. She’s a huge bean lover, and I sent her my big heirloom bean painting through a DM after listening to her home cooking podcast. She was waxing poetic about Rancho Gordo, and I was like, ‘This is Rancho Gordo.’ Last summer, she reached out to see if I’d be interested in a collaboration. She makes apricot jam every year, and she wanted me to illustrate the labels. She sent the jars in the mail, and they got lost. I was like, “My chance to work with Samin is ruined because of the post office!” But she ended up taking photos for me, and I worked from those. In October, she called and said, “I was just wondering if you would want to illustrate my next cookbook,” and it was like time stopped.
Molly Reeder (Photo by Kate Thompson)
RM: Can you share some of what you’ll be illustrating for the forthcoming book?
Reeder: Right now, I’m illustrating a lot of vegetables, and it’s in my style of still life. It’s a lot of seasonal stuff, but … it’s going to be more like, “These are the things I make all the time, my go-to’s, and then these are more elevated things I make for people when they come over.” I think she’s trying to make it authentic to her. I want this to be natural and alive and something people have never seen before in a cookbook. It’ll be like fine art, like an art cookbook.
RM: How does your process change when you have ingredients prescribed for you?
Reeder: When people reach out to me for collaboration work, they like what I do already, so that gives me a lot of freedom to create the piece in the style that I like to create it. My process starts with me being inspired. Like seeing pink oyster mushrooms at the farmers market. I was like, “Those are the most beautiful mushrooms I’ve ever seen; I’ve got to paint them!”
