Food photographer snaps up national award
A FOOD photographer who wrote his first two cookery books while living in Tytherington has won a prestigious national award.
Ilian Iliev’s ‘Cooking with Yogurt’ has been awarded Best Photography Cookbook UK and has been shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2016, along with his second book, The Bulgarian Cheese Cookbook.
The cookbooks reflect his Bulgarian background and contain hundreds of recipes from all parts of the world including Asia, Europe and Africa and recipes from Ilian’s childhood.
They feature some rather unusual recipes too such as cheese chocolates, a cold yoghurt soup with carrot and one of Ilian’s favourite dessert recipes, tiramisu with yoghurt.
The father-of-three, who lived for around seven years on Kentwell Drive and now lives in Cambridge, said: “I’m over the moon to have won and was delighted when I got the email saying both books have been shortlisted for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
“It’s even more special as they are my first cookery books.
“I feel confident one of them will win something because the photography is of a very high quality.”
The photographer’s work has not focused exclusively on food in the past but has covered subjects as diverse as the solitude of life as a monk and the brutal horrors of war.
But his love of cooking inspired him to turn his lens on food.
All the recipes in the books have been tested on friends and family and he shares his passion for cooking with his daughter, Amelie, 12.
At home Ilian, 50, who has contributed to more than 40 cookbooks, spends a lot of time in the kitchen with Amelie, his ‘main cooking partner’.
The sky is the limit now for the photographer, who will attend the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Yantai, China, on May 29.
But the former member of St Peter’s Church in Prestbury misses his Tytherington and Prestbury friends, including Tytherington based dietician Sian Riley, who he has worked with on his books.
He said: “Tytherington is very quiet and relaxing, great for creativity.”