Tasty Impressionism

Can we eat an art that is good to be looked at? The title might be confusing, but in a sense, it is true nowadays. Food photography had become a genre and more famous than any other genre of photography. It is easy and very down-to-earth for many people, as we do get tempted and hungry by looking at the picture of browned caramelized roasted chicken, or cheese that is melting between burger buns. A very humble art but is it "that" humble?

Pouring Tea. Duncan Davis/Getty Images

            Behind many great pictures and video of food or beverages, there is the director who arrange it all: Food Stylist. It’s like a movie producer, Food Stylist produce the picturesque version of food. Is it an important job really? Is it that hard to "style" your food?

            “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” can’t be truer when it comes to food. People feast with their eyes, and then their mouth later. That is how important on styling a food, whether you are serving it to the guest, or trying to make them drool by the photograph. But it’s not only the photographer who can gain the benefit of food styling. Who are the others?

1.     Restaurants

Like Shanna Fujii said in Bloguettes, falling in love at first bite doesn’t happen unless the food is right in front of you. Falling in love at first sight, however, is how you can hook people in from a mile away. A great look of food from your restaurant can increase the selling. Plus, many Instagramers now are posting their pictures of good looking food. So if your food can go viral enough to end up in Explore page, it’s an automatic win.

2.     Chefs

Some say that a chef makes food that tastes good; a food stylist makes food that looks good. But what if a chef makes food tastes and looks good? You don’t have to be a Food Stylist to be able to style a food. It is a plus point if you can make the food looks tasty and appealing. With your own characteristic in styling, your name can even get renowned by many.

3.     Bloggers

Lots of food bloggers are actually getting famous only by reviewing and even still counting. It is a win-win for the blogger, restaurants, and the netizens. Some restaurant can offer some promotion to the blogger to review their place, and the blogger gets the advantage of trying it out. It can be a business for the bloggers for just reviewing and some photography of what they are munching.

Fry bar by Kiss The Cook Catering. Photography by Carlo Mendoza. Styling by Megan Wappel.

            Now let’s go back on the Food Stylist. A food stylist is a culinary professional whose job is to prepare food for photography, video or film. Making food photogenic is no easy task, and the best food stylists come to the job armed with an array of techniques to make meals look their best – even if it means replacing pancake syrup with 30-weight motor oil. Yes, that is right. Not every pictures you see is edible. An example like a scoop of ice cream made out of mashed potato, add up the sweet sauce on top; some sprinkle iron filings on food and then add hydrochloric acid over it to make it look piping hot (don’t eat the photo object!). But again, the main objective of food stylist is to make the food looks good. It is unnecessarily edible, unless the food is meant to be eaten in front of the camera of course.

            SPEdit team interviewed a Food Stylist on how’s the life of Food Stylist like. In a nutshell: adventurous and challenging. Such as styling ice-creams in summer, that too if the art director or client insists on an outdoor shot. A dummy ice cream scoops can be used, but really depends on the client, “both can be made to look nice in the picture.” Does a Food Stylist do all the work? In smaller shoots, the food stylist organizes everything; in larger ones, there is a designated propstylist. It’s more fulfilling for artists if they do the whole thing, as then they can visualize the whole picture and bring it to life. Another adventure is to follow a trend OR be the trendsetter. Like fashion, food photography has its own changing trends too. People love to be in trend so we follow the “nowadays” era.

            If we do think about it, many people had styled their food without we realized it. For a show in their feed on Instagram, or simply to show it to friends and family on how awesome their meal is – it is an act of food styling. Slowly, food styling is going to affect the world in term of culinary, entertainment, and business. It became easier to be heard through social media, and get things captured for the trend. Food styling can be a great and fun business if people are into it. More food styling / food photography workshops begin to mushroom and growing people’s interest on it. On a note point: food styling is always a plus point!

From google.co.za

References:
C. (2016, December 05). What is Food Styling and why is it Important for your Restaurant? Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://www.claytangroup.com.au/food-styling/
Team, S. (2014, December 26). Importance of Food Styling. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from http://smartphotography.in/importance-of-food-styling/
Who Can Benefit From Food Styling? (2017, February 16). Retrieved November 13, 2017, from https://bloguettes.com/who-can-benefit-from-food-styling/