Do you spend a lot of time trying to take the perfect picture of your meal? Is your Pinterest and Instagram account filled with photos of your food? Do you look at photos of your dishes and know what you should improve to make them look better? Looks like you could be a great food stylist!
A food stylist is responsible for making food look its best in photos, commercials, TV shows or movies. They work with both photographers and art directors to coordinate amazing shots and put together meals
Competition in the industry is fierce, so if you want to succeed in this profession, you should get a degree in catering and culinary arts. Apart from that, you should have knowledge about food and style trends. But that is not all! You must know color theory and the principles of composition. Cooking skills and experience will help you stand out from the competition.
Fine dining is an important part of the guest experience at an upscale hotel or resort. Food stylists can be hired by luxury travel properties to give dishes a unique touch. They can also prepare attractive shots for new menus, website, and promotional materials.
Some restaurants also employ experienced and talented food stylists. These mentioned professionals work with the chef to prepare stunning meals to be photographed.
A food stylist works with a photographer and marketing specialists to ensure that the food or food products look appealing. The works of their labor can be seen in cookbooks, magazines, and advertisements. These stylists are familiar with the techniques, tools, and principles involved in food preparation and presentation
It takes a lot of time and effort to master recipes and create eye-catching delicacies. A food stylist works with a photographer to select props for a dish, such as cutlery, plates, and sometimes sauce stains. He tells you what he thinks the perfect shot should look like. Sometimes minimal changes need to be made to represent the aesthetic qualities of the dish. Interestingly, some dishes are really hard to photograph. Frozen foods present a huge challenge because of their texture. Many culinary stylists like to work on burgers, salads and colorful food
The aforementioned professionals spend a lot of time styling and adjusting the food featured in the photo. The photographer captures every little turn of the carrot or change in the texture of the pasta
They are culinary professionals who prepare dishes for photographs, movies, TV series or shows. They know a number of useful techniques to make meals look great, even if it means substituting pancake syrup for motor oil
A good culinary stylist doesn’t just arrange food ingeniously. He or she often has to make sure the food tastes good, too. For example, when preparing dishes for commercials, cooking shows or movies, you cannot pour motor oil over pancakes. After all, the actors will have to eat the prepared dish
Imagine you’re flipping through a cooking magazine and find an article about ice cream. It is accompanied by a picture that makes you salivate. You can see chocolate and vanilla ice cream served hot in a frosted glass goblet. Interestingly, it could actually be a scoop of mashed potato or a mixture of corn syrup, sugar and baker’s fat. This ice cream is too good to be true, and it’s all thanks to a talented food stylist.
The hardest part of any food stylist’s job is knowing how to make food look better if it actually looks unattractive. All sorts of tricks will come in handy here. In addition to skill, a professional should have countless tools and substances to enhance the aesthetic qualities of a meal. Some stylists specialize in specific foods, such as ice cream, chocolate, baked goods, meat, salads.
Main article photo: photo by Paula Vermeulen, source: unsplash.com
