1010 Printing Award for
Best Cookbook 2015
Winner 2015
Designer Gary Stewart (The Gas Project)
Title Depot: The Biography of a Restaurant by Al Brown
Publisher Random House New Zealand
Format 250 x 200mm, 344pp, section sewn, PLC, quarter bound. Tip ins 450gsm kraft paper, diecut, coasters. Paper stock 130gsm Yulong Pure Cream
Judges’ Comments From a restaurant that prides itself on a genuine, no-fuss approach to eating out, Depot feels like a deliberately unpretentious book that is designed very much for use. It is a dense and bustling cookbook that combines image, instruction and narrative appealingly. Depot sets out to tell a story about the restaurant and the design helps achieve that admirably. Colour plates feel integrated into the book as a whole, shifting seamlessly from hero shots, to sketch, to restaurant ephemera, adding to the sense of narrative rather than a simple catalogue of recipes. This book would wear in well, the inevitable splashes and smudges accumulated through kitchen use would add to its charm. Depot also has a cracking cover.
