Why it is that food photos in magazines and cookery books always look so luscious? That’s because Job food stylist are hard at work behind the scene. Be it the food you see on TV, in advertising shots of kids’ food recipes or others and in magazines, they are carefully styled by specialist food stylists. Food presentation/styling is like work of an artist. When recipes from offline or online recipe book and art direction are on point, the outcome turns out best. Here are some tips on how you can improve in this front. With these food styling tips, your food will stand out with a definite signature mark-
• Tell a story with your styling, think about what you want to convey – like metal props are more urban, copper more country.
• You need to see all the ingredients in a dish, if the recipe says it contains chilli, for example, find a way to show it.
• Whether you’re tossing a salad or icing a cake, think about how your ingredients will transform over the course of the cooking process and how quickly they’ll wilt, melt or dry up while waiting for their close-up.
• Don’t over dress a salad, just a little dressing brushed on the leaves at the last minute or pooled in spaces around the plate is best.
• Gently place your base components on a plate, then reposition any stray bits and add extra ingredients for texture or color. If you try to individually plate every strand of pasta or salad leaf, your plate will never look natural.
• Soups and stews, have some of the ingredients on the top, i.e. not covered in soup or gravy so that you can see the textures and it looks fresher.
• Tell a story with your styling, think about what you want to convey – like metal props are more urban, copper more country.
• You need to see all the ingredients in a dish, if the recipe says it contains chilli, for example, find a way to show it.
• Whether you’re tossing a salad or icing a cake, think about how your ingredients will transform over the course of the cooking process and how quickly they’ll wilt, melt or dry up while waiting for their close-up.
• Don’t over dress a salad, just a little dressing brushed on the leaves at the last minute or pooled in spaces around the plate is best.
• Gently place your base components on a plate, then reposition any stray bits and add extra ingredients for texture or color. If you try to individually plate every strand of pasta or salad leaf, your plate will never look natural.
• Soups and stews, have some of the ingredients on the top, i.e. not covered in soup or gravy so that you can see the textures and it looks fresher.
