"food styling" news and stories

Burger King got served -- by independent regulator of sales promotions in the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The agency ruled against the fast food company's Tendercrisp campaign, alleging the television advertisements may mislead customers to believe the chicken burgers are heftier than the reality of their drive-through counterparts. The commercial in question features a man shacked up in a motel with a substantially portioned and prettily composed Cheesy Bacon Tendercrisp.

The ASA stated that they "examined the size of the burgers in the hands of an average-sized man and considered they did not fill the hands to the same extent as the burger featured in the ad."

Consumers are often reeled in by the promise of juicy, chargrilled burgers and crisp, golden fries, which are often artful illusions created by food stylists (professional "make up artist for food," Jennifer Eustock proudly demonstrates some techniques here). A debate among food stylists as to whether "dirty tricks" should be employed when prepping food products exists in the blogosphere. One blog cleverly captured the disparity between these doctored food products and the soggy, foil-wrapped reality.

First, Domino's decided their pizza was lame and told us about it. Now, in a continuing effort to open company doors to consumers, the pizza giant's newest marketing tactic is taking on none other than...marketing tactics.

In their newest commercial/campaign, Domino's takes us behind the scenes at a pizza photo shoot, where we can see all the time and preparation that goes into making a pizza commercial look good -- and, more importantly, into making the pizza itself look good.

Featured in this new three minute video is Margaret the Hand Model, who claims she's done "many cheese pulls" in her day. For the unfamiliar, a cheese pull is literally where the slice of pizza is pulled away from the pie, visually showcasing the cheese's elasticity and gooeyness. "It requires great concentration," Margaret goes on to say. "You have to know when the cheese is ready to be pulled. Just feeling the cheese. I breathe when I lift up."

Food styling has always been a field that I would love to go into, but I lack the skills and have no clue how I would proceed even if I did. So instead, I just read my boyfriend's digital food photography books and think about the tricks that one might use in the profession. Sometimes I consider using them for my personal blog, but I believe it constitutes cheating. Anyway, I thought I'd share some interesting ones just in case anyone needs to make their food more beautiful (though in some cases, it will result in it being inedible!):

1) To make your coffee appear bubbly and hot, add a teaspoon of soapy water.
2) For an extra cheesy-looking slice of pizza, cook the pizza halfway, then cut out one slice and add extra cheese around the edge of the cut. Finish cooking the pizza, then photograph the extra cheesy piece as you lift it out.
3) Use food-colored mashed potatoes for ice cream. I would actually never do this because my likelihood of forgetting and eating mashed potatoes with chocolate sauce is way too high.

Any others, perhaps ones that don't render the food inedible?

For all you budding foodporn snappers - how about a holiday (sorry, vacation) in Tuscany taking pics of food.

Still Life With... alerted us to the details - 5 nights and 4 days at il Bareto, in the hills, 14 kilometers southwest of Siena. Each day a different aspect of food photography and cooking is covered. The course is run by Ignacio Urquiza (aka Nacho) is an established photographer, and has published over 60 books, including several award winning cookbooks. They have been running photography workshops since 2003. Just look at the superb photos in the brochure, if you end up taking pictures as good as these it has to be money well spent.

Sadly I wont be going. The cost is just too much for a lowly scribbler. The week costs $2950 not including flight.

Source

I have just been flicking through the August issue of Olive and ran across an interesting snippet of info from Gordon Ramsey. He writes a regular column Ramsey's Rant and this month covers the look and presentation of food. As well as being of interest to the dinner party entertainment crowd I also thought the points were of interest to the budding food photographer.

The key to food presentation is to keep it simple and not make the dish appear to have been prodded by 16 different people.

Food Presentation Dos

• keep it clean and simple
• use odd number of ingredients on the plate
• add hot sauces right at the end
• visualise what a dish will look like before arranging it on the plate
• cut things in half if they look too big

Food Preparation Dont's

• use herb garnishes unless they go with the dish
• go for looks rather than flavour
• clutter the plate
• serve the food cold because you spent too long dressing it
• move things around the plate once you have put them down, this will just make a mess

Ramsey also suggests imagining the plate as a clock face. Hot food tends to be served with the meat or fish at 6 o'clock (ie near the base of the dish) with other ingredients at three and nine. For cold food the main ingredient is usually put in the middle with the rest dotted around it. A presentation ring helps for getting some height.

The picture here was submitted to the Slashfood Flickr group by by Posies Place