Home cooking: How our monthly recipe feature comes together in a Baton Rouge chef’s kitchen

When I was told back in 2012 that part of my job would include editing a monthly collection of recipes for 225’s food section, I had my worries that I could screw this up majorly. I wasn’t much of a cook or baker then, and what would happen if I accidentally printed the wrong ingredients? What if a little old lady in Broadmoor called to complain the proportions were incorrect?

Fortunately, those recipes each month come from someone with much more experience in the kitchen: Tracey Koch. She’s a chef, cooking instructor, author and has been writing and testing the recipes for 225’s “Dining In” feature since May 2012—along with the help of her sister and Business Report editor Stephanie Riegel.

In their hands, the readers get clear and simple instructions on a variety of dishes, and I’m free to move on to my favorite part of the process: shooting the dishes with Tracey and photographer Amy Shutt.

Once a month, we gather at Tracey’s Southdowns home with plates and bowls, poster boards and on-theme dinner napkins in tow.

You might not know it from the images that appear in these pages, but they are all shot in Tracey’s home: at the breakfast table, at the more formal dinner table, on the concrete kitchen counters and even outside on the back porch. Amy has been known to climb a step ladder or chair in wedge sandals in order to get the perfect shot of the spread.

I’ve raided Tracey’s china cabinets for interesting dishes or silverware to use, and by now I know her kitchen as well as my own.

And with each month’s menu, Tracey has continued to surprise with her fresh ideas and takes on recipes people in south Louisiana might think they know by heart. She can make the most complicated dishes seem less intimidating, and she’s always game to try her hand at international cuisines.

She’s also not above scolding me if I try to throw on a garnish that doesn’t belong during a photo shoot.

And that’s why I’ll always leave the recipes and the final say to Tracey, 225’s cooking pro.

Setting the scene

Lighting, props and a couple other tricks have helped create fancy dinners and brunches, casual picnics, family meals, holidays, tailgates and spreads that call to mind international destinations.

Working with your hands

It’s not all just about the plating. Our photo shoots for “Dining In” also include some process shots of Tracey preparing the dishes, to give readers a visual of how the more complicated ones are made.

This story originally appeared in the November 2020 issue of 225.