The Making of Dinner Done 2: Exclusive Behind the Scenes Footage

Once the recipes for Dinner Done 2 were written, there was still a lot more that we needed to do! Here’s a peek at some of the elements we planned along the way. 

There is so much to share that we don’t even know how or where to start. 

But we just wanted to bring you–our loyal, patient Between Carpools readers and Dinner Done fans–behind the scenes to give you some glimpses into the making of the soon-to-be-released Dinner Done 2.

The recipe creation is one thing, but there’s a lot that happens and a lot of additional decisions that need to be made!

Once the recipes were (mostly) written, it was time for Renee to go shopping for new, fresh props, with a color scheme similar to the first Dinner Done. Some blues, whites, some denim, that BCP touch of pink…

Next came the surfaces. Bright and airy, lots of stone….Most of the surfaces in Dinner Done are large tiles. All of the little details that you don’t even notice contribute to the experience of cooking from a book! They’re all carefully planned ahead of time so that the whole look is cohesive but with enough variety.

Time to cook! We started shooting about a year ago, just a couple of times a month. What you see in the photos is what you get…all of the food is 100% real, true, tested, and fed to our families. 

Even though this is the way our families are more likely to enjoy it…still, everything gets eaten up after the shoots!

9×13 recipes are a bit more involved to shoot because we show two photos, one prep scene and one finished dish. Here, we’re gathering the ingredients to set it up. Not sure which one this was but looks like it’s something with chocolate chips. 

In this image, Renee is setting the stage for our Maple Rub Boneless Flanken Roast. The meat is in the 9×13 you see in the corner. The roast is going to go on that cutting board, and that bowl is going to get some cole slaw. 

Once Esti frames the photo, we have a better idea of where the food needs to go. That comes next. Turn to page 137 if you want to see the final result!

The book is coming along. This is our photo wall, aka a ping pong table. When we wrote Dinner Done, the photos damaged the wall and it needed to be repainted. So, Dinner Done 2 needed a Plan B and ping pong table it was. 

It’s important to post all the photos after they are shot so Esti and Renee can tell if there’s enough diversity within each chapter as the recipes aren’t shot in order. There should be a good flow, but recipes that are close to each other can’t look too similar. 

The Very Vanilla Birthday Bars are one of the recipes that are bound to be a kid favorite. If you look on the inside cover, you’ll see an image of our kids getting involved in the baking (one of these kids is the same as the baby on the back inside cover of the first Dinner Done…they are growing up!). 

Divider pages are also important. Dinner Done’s divider pages had a nice collage of different hacks and tips relevant to each section. This time, we wanted something cleaner, pretty and airy…but they should still contain a really helpful hack! (This teeny tiny onion tip didn’t end up going in but it’s still a great tip!). 

During one meeting, we decided that the way to welcome our readers to Dinner Done 2 is to show that no matter who we are or where we live, there’s something that binds us–we all need to come home to get dinner on the table. And we wanted to show that by having a photo of lots of different place settings, representing all of you. But just how would we execute that? How many could we fit on a page? It took some planning….

A few different options…a few adjustments….which one represents you?

Now it was time to work on the cover. It’s always hard to choose what to feature on a cookbook cover. It can’t be fish because it doesn’t appeal to everyone, as pretty as our fish photos are. It can’t be meat because it’s too dark and often expensive to represent the book. Not a soup, side dish, or salad, because they’re not main dishes. Not a 9×13 baked good because it’s not a dessert book. That leaves us with chicken. And a sandwich is perfect because it’s approachable, affordable, speaks to both adults and children, and is a complete dinner. This one is especially cover-worthy because the sauce has a nice of pop of color too. 

The aftermath of our cover being shot. That green lego must have been propping something up. The food, though, is always real! 

Now for the design. The big debate: Did we want Dinner Done 2 to look similar to the first Dinner Done? Should it stay familiar–or would it be too confusing? Would people that stopped into a bookstore notice that it was a new version–or would they think it was the same book? Do we keep the layout the same? Slightly different? Dramatically different? These were some versions of the cover design that were  nixed. 

And this was the final result…a similar layout, but more open, airy. The pink line went away, the authors moved to the bottom, but the overall look is consistent with what you expect.

Pre-Order Dinner Done 2 now!

Dinner Done 2 on Amazon

Dinner Done 2 at Artscroll