After posting about food advertising versus food reality, I got curious about exactly how food stylists make stuff look so tasty for the cameras. Alanna's written about this before too - she notes that adding a tablespoon of soapy water to your coffee will make it appear extra hot and bubbly. Here are a few other tips I learned - hope you've got a spray gun and some motor oil!
- Half-cook barbecued ribs are painted with wood stain for a glossy, extra juicy look.
- Dyed, whipped shortening often subs for milkshakes because it looks so dense and creamy. Mmmm, Crisco.
- Motor oil makes great pancake syrup - super thick and glossy.
- "Roast" turkey and chicken sometimes comes by its caramel-colored skin via a blowtorch and several layers of food coloring.
- Sesame seeds are hand-glued on hamburger buns using tweezers for even spacing.
- Got milk? More like 'Got Elmer's Glue?'
6-02-2008 @11:01AM Justin Marx said... Thanks for writing about this. Not all advertisers use funky stuff though (however tempting it may be). We have a policy of eating everything that we shoot. http://www.marxfoods.com. When you are working with excellent ingredients and you're not corporate (and therefore willing to show blemishes...because that's what food is like in reality)...all the funky stuff is unnecessary.
Later today, we'll be posting shots from our salmon shoot on our blog: http://www.marxfood.com. Ahh...that was a fantastically delicious day...though, admittedly, we didn't eat the piece of salmon that we used in the nicoise salad because I used the wrong spatula on the grill...and some of it melted off onto the grill...and I didn't want any of my staff eating plastic. The rest of the fish was delish.
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6-02-2008 @11:21AM Gobo said... I've worked with food stylists on shoots in the past, and as Justin Marx says, the best stylists take pride in making food look great on camera while still being completely edible.
But I've seen many of the tricks you list here. Probably the most common (besides spritzing everything with glycerin to make it look fresh and moist) is to light a cigarette behind hot foods to give it the look of thick steam.
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6-02-2008 @12:45PM Monika said... For one frozen pepperoni pizza advertisement: sheets of pepperoni are baked to get a handful of pepp slices that are flat and cooked perfectly, tons of cheese shredded, and then all of it is placed on the real pizza to make it look perfect, richer, and cheesier.
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6-02-2008 @4:14PM Alex said... Food Fraud!!!! Putting inedible ingredients (motor oil!!!) on food to make it look good should be illegal and punishable by a sentence of a stictt Taco Bell-only diet for 5 years.
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6-02-2008 @4:38PM Barry said... Um, THE milk trick that was actually used by THE food stylist was mostly whole cream and yogurt, not glue.
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6-02-2008 @6:11PM Ingrid said... I thought tricks like glue instead of milk WERE illegal? There was some show on a long time ago that said advertisers can't replace the product they're selling (so things like motor oil for syrup are ok, as long as they're only selling the pancakes), so they started doing things like Monika described. Has the law changed since this docu-show?
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6-02-2008 @8:15PM Jason said... Back when I was a kid in the 80s, HBO did a show about this.
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7-20-2008 @6:19PM Jennifer Janz said...
what an interesting topic! I am a freelance food stylist working in both advertising and editorial venues (cookbooks and magazines). I know that whenever I am styling food for advertising the product which is being sold must be the company's product and must accurately respresent the quanity you will get when you buy a particular product. I am required by my clients to weigh out each individual ingredient (let's say peas in a bag of frozen peas, corn, and carrots) to the exact weight you will get in your package when you open it up. All of my clients are very strict about this.
With that said, you are allowed by law to use whatever you would like to use for products that aren't being sold. For instance, you may use fake ice cream on the packaging for the cones. The cones are the real deal, the ice cream may not be due to the extreme short life it has on a photo set. That is usually discussed by the client and the food stylist before a photo shoot.
I think that most food stylists try to use real food wherever possible. It may require some hidden pins to help hold it together on set or a swipe of cooking oil to make it glisten but mostly you will have a food that looks as scrumptious as it can possibly get.
I hope that helps make this subject a little clearer.
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