Sunday, January 17, 2010

Food Styling: Why Good Food is like Penelope Cruz At the Golden Globes



Did you know that food, like an A-list celebrity, needs a stylist before it is photographed? You won't see Penelope Cruz walk the red carpet without the perfectly fitted Giorgio Armani Privé dress, sixty-nine carats of sparkling Chopard diamonds, and shimmering lip gloss. And whenever you see crusty loaf of bread on a cookbook cover, that bread has had its own "Rachel Zoe" spend hours perfecting its look. We spent some time this week understanding the art of food styling with food stylist extraordinaire, Adam Pearson.

Food styling is all about creating, arranging, building, adjusting and ultimately sculpting the food for a photographer to capture. It's not only actually cooking and preparing the dish but considering the positioning of ingredients and elements and creating a story for the photographer to capture. There can even be a separate prop stylist to select the appropriate linens, flatware, dishware and accessories to accompany the food! Who knew that a loaf of bread could be so high maintenance!


We eagerly watched Adam prepare a simple plate of spaghetti using his personal toolkit which included everything from small scissors to trim the spaghetti, to a spritz bottle of water to add moisture and shine to a bit of museum wax to anchor a well-placed fork. We could tell you how he cracks his own peppercorns to get large, visible pieces or how he gently coils the spaghetti around his fingers and trims it to size. But instead, we also took a video of his demonstration to show you. He only makes it looks easy!

Thank you to Adam for sharing his craft with us at Food Blogger Camp!