Food Friday #10

Debbie Wahl

http://www.debbiewahl.com

1. Reading your biography it looks like you had a passion and vision for a food career at a early age, was food a big part of your family growing up?

My mom was an excellent cook!  What amazed me was that although she worked full-time, we always sat down together for a full home cooked dinner that included vegetables, salad and a main course. I was her little “sous chef” and always had my assigned chores to help get dinner started.  When I was about 12, I read a book about someone working in the test kitchens at General Mills and I realized then that was something I would love. I attended Ohio University and got a B.S. degree in Commercial Food with an emphasis in food for business. I also received  a minor in Communications which required coursework in art, advertising and marketing—I draw upon what I learned from those courses in almost every job. 

2. Where are you originally from? Where do you currently reside?

I’m originally from Ohio but reside in Maryland. I was recruited by Marriott Corporation to come to the DC area and never left. I mainly work in Pennsylvania, D.C., and Florida. But I love to travel for work—I think I am headed to Texas for a job next week!

3. How did your other services you provide come into play when being a food stylist?

Having a Bachelor of Science in Foods required me to take chemistry and a lot of food science courses.  This proved to be tremendously helpful in knowing how foods are going to react.  Working in restaurants and test kitchens at both Marriott and Stouffers gave me valuable experience in the food service area—knowing how to scale up or down recipes, knowing restaurant equipment, etc.   I mainly do food styling now, but occasionally I am asked to provide recipe development and media support for chefs—it is always fun to do that—I appreciate their skill and they appreciate the fact that I can make their food look good for the camera.

4. Has being a member of different organizations helped your career in making new friends or job opportunities or both?

With over 25 years in the business, I have made a lot of contacts—many of whom have become good friends. Being exposed to actual production—through visits to various production plants has given me great background knowledge. In food styling, it’s knowing where to find that absolute best items for the shots –great produce suppliers, farms,  bakeries,  butchers and fish suppliers,etc.

I’ve used NRA (National Restaurant Association , Linkedin, and IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) for contacts. Early on, a group called Home Economists in Business (HEIB)was terrific in linking food stylists and other women in the Food Business. I met fellow food stylist, Lisa Golden Schroeder, at the HEIB Minneapolis Food on Film seminars. She and other contacts I made there have been most valuable.  In fact Lisa and I now co-teach an online food styling class through http://www.photostylingworkshops.com  It’s fun to compare notes with peers and see what they are going through. I’ve gotten job opportunities through Google. Now 85% of work is word of mouth and with my established relationships. Clients such as McCormick, Campbell's, Perdue, and Friendly’s are some that I have had for many years.

5. Did you start out on t.v. and film styling or was it photography?

I first went to T.V. commercials for Stouffers as their company representative—it was there I saw wonderful well-known food stylists in action. My very first food styling job on my own came when I was actually still working for Stouffers—had to style a hot fudge brownie sundae with real ice cream.  I still cringe when I think about it!  Along with print and film styling, I styled for a couple of feature films ---I loved the grand scale of all the movie production, including the massive amount of food needed.

6. Who was your first break through client?

Marriott (which owned Roy Rogers, and Big Boys) was my first big client when I start free lancing.  At the time, Roy Rogers owned about 250 restaurants so I did a ton of print work for them in New York and traveled for them to L.A. for tv shoots.

7. What type of food do you enjoy styling?

I like styling everything. I like the variety. Styling produce is great because the natural beauty and organic shapes. I like to keep things loose and playful as far as my styling. The trend now is a little loose. A casual real approach is what most clients want now—nothing overly styled.

8. I know putting food under hot lights is hard to keep fresh but styling on a grille with a open fire, is that harder? Do you use real fire?

I’ve styled with real flames. I had to keep replacing the food because it would burn up. Now many photographers shoot images of grills with flames and then shoot the food on the grill separately and merge the two shots together.

9. Where do you look for your inspirations?

I look online--Donna Hay, Martha Stewart,  Real Simple, and all the magazines. I look at other stylists work. Donna Hay’s work was groundbreaking in the 90’s. She was the pioneer in the selective focus, “blown out”  look.

10. Do you think social media such as Linkedin helped your career? Is a lot of your work now word of mouth?

Social media is important. It’s helps get your name out there and gives you a chance to show your experience.  A website is essential—but the website just sits there unnoticed unless you have a way to draw people to your site.

Food Friday #9

Karen Quatsoe

www.karenquatsoe.com

1. How did you get into styling?

I got into prop styling in a round about way. In colleges(SVA in NY) I did an internship and worked in a photo studio. The photographer had me running around gathering props for him for still life projects...he shot for AVON quite a bit. I was an advertising/graphic design major but realized by my last year that  I couldn't really see myself doing that as I didn't enjoy drawing story boards or choosing the point size and style of type. After graduation I started a costume jewelry business w/ a childhood friend selling to stores around the country including Blooming, Bendel's, Nordstrom's. After about 8 years our cottage industry needed to move to another level and my friend and I both decided we wanted to pursue other things so I thought about styling. Someone I knew from my neighborhood in Brooklyn was a stylist and I started assisting her.

2. Did you start out styling rooms or food?

The woman I worked for did both  prop styling for food shoots and room shoots. After a few years when I was off on my own I ended up  working for  both HOUSE BEAUTIFUL SPECIAL INTEREST PUBLICATIONS and WOMAN"S DAY SPECIALS styling  for titles such as Home improvement, Kitchen and Bath , Decorating and Remodeling , Home Building. So for several years I traveled around the country as a field editor/stylist working exclusively in homes styling rooms.

3. What do you enjoy styling more? Why?

I currently do more food shoots locally...mostly NYC... A variety of projects including magazines, cookbooks, advertising, and packaging. I started doing more food shoots in the mid 1990's. I would say I enjoy both equally but shooting homes involved traveling and I was really sick of living "out of a suitcase" from May thru Oct.

4. Where do you find your ingredients for your food shoots?

I find props in stores, flea markets and prop houses. The prop houses are the most valuable tool for a prop stylist as the house so many props in one place that may be difficult to find at retail in a timely manner. When you are working on magazines or catalogues you are shooting out of season. Say a Christmas shoot in July so the prop houses are vital.

5. Do you see yourself getting hired directly by photographers or art directors?

I would say both.

6. Who is one of your biggest clients?

A partial client list is on my site. In addition to those listed I have worked for Goya and for Rodale on the BIGGEST LOSER:FLAVORS OF THE WORLD COOKBOOK.

7. Where do you primarily work? Any travel involved?

 I primarily work in NYC. I live in Bucks County. Pa. and would love to work closer to home.

8. Do you see social media as a helpful tool for your business or is a lot of your work word of mouth?

Mostly word of mouth but sending e-mailers with a link to my website. Art directors, photographers and  food companies has definitely been worthwhile.

9. Do you have a favorite food you enjoy styling? Pretty food? Easy food?
 
My favorite projects whether they be still life. rooms or food usually involve combining old and new props, strong color and texture. I worked on a personal project on a farm in NY state with a team that included 2 food stylist and a photographer.

Counter Culture Coffee...

Copyright 2011 IPhone

I took this a few weeks ago while up in New York and wanted to share it. 

This was at Bluebird Coffee Shop in the east village. 

It's small, flavorful, and friendly. 

-Felicia 

 

Food Friday #7

Lisa Russell

http://www.stylingbylisa.com/

1.) How long have you been in the food styling business?

I have been prop styling for seven years. I started food styling about five years ago mostly out of necessity because several of the shoots I was styling were about entertaining and therefore involved food.  I’ve always been an avid cook, I’ve taken a lot of cooking classes, knife sills classes, etc. and also built my prop styling career by working in the restaurant business at night.


2.) What is your education background?

I have an undergraduate degree is in journalism and I worked in publishing both in Philadelphia and New York for several years before going back to school for photography.



3.) Who was your first break through client?

I’m not sure that I’ve ever had one break through client but there have been three employers on my career path who have given me significant guidance and opportunities.  The first is Barry Halkin, a Philadelphia architectural photographer who I worked for after graduating from art school.  He introduced me to the world of architecture and interior design.   Zave Smith, another Philadelphia photographer who I assisted for, introduced me to the idea of prop styling as a career and gave me a lot of opportunities to develop my styling skills on his shoots.   Anne Bigler, the Art Director for Philadelphia Home magazine gave me my first editorial styling job.  

4.) What do you enjoy styling the most?

I love styling food because it’s so precise.  I think fresh produce is the most beautiful thing in the world.


5.) Your site shows your wide variety of expertise, do you enjoy styling food or rooms more? 

I enjoy them both.  As I mentioned food styling is very precise and it allows me a professional outlet for my OCD.  Styling interiors gives me a chance to play with different styles of design because every location is so different.

6.) 
Do you travel a lot for work? 

No, I don’t really travel for work.  I’m based in Philadelphia and most of my clients are located in Philadelphia, New York or D.C.



7.) Where do you find your prop? Stores, Trash cans? Best resource?

I’m definitely a collector.  I love thrift stores and yard sales.  My grandmother was an antique dealer and my mom displays a lot of her old glass, plate and cookware in her home.  I borrow from my mom regularly, and refer to her home as "my second prop closet". I’m also lucky enough to have a large group of friends who are collectors of all sorts of things from old cameras and tools to vintage fabrics and jewelry.  I’m shameless about hitting up everyone I know for props.



8.) Is a lot of your work word of mouth now? How hard was it to break into styling?  

Up until a year ago, all of my work came from word of mouth. Now I list myself on several online film and photo production directories and I find them to be very effective.  Breaking into styling was not very difficult for me but I’ve had a lot of very generous people passing my name along and many clients who have been very loyal even in challenging economy.

9.) Do you find yourself working with art directors or photographers more? Or is it a middle collaboration? 

I find that I collaborate with photographers and art directors equally.  Usually the art director presents an overall vision for a project and then the photographer and I will typically work together to bring it to life.  



10.)  Hardest thing you had to style.

I think the hardest thing I ever had to style was a grilled cheese sandwich.  I have some favorite cheeses that I like to work with but for this particular shoot I had to use the client’s products, which were not very cooperative.  Also, the art director was not at the shoot so the photographer had to quickly shoot each sandwich and email it to the art director.   Every time the art director wanted to make a change, the sandwich was already too old to shoot again.  I must have made 40-50 grilled cheese sandwiches that day in order to have a perfect option ready at all times. I do however, still enjoy a good grilled cheese!

Food Friday #6

Chef Chris Koch

http://www.foodstylist.us/

www.chef-chris.com

"I love to tie history and food together."

1.) With your Broadcasting degree did you think you were going to end up as a food stylists?
No. I didn’t even know what a food stylist was back then.

2.) What made you decide on going to school for a culinary degree?
I had been working for CBS at channel 10 here in Philadelphia and at the same time was the sales manager.  When CBS sold channel 10 to NBC in 1995 or 96 I stuck around with NBC for a year. The way they did business wasn’t the way I wanted to, so I left the station. I just decided, being a very successful sales guy with money in the bank I have always wanted to work in the restaurant industry and wanted to go back and learn what the chefs were doing.  Learn the “secrets.” I have cooked and bartend in the past and I knew there were things out there I didn’t know.

3.) You have a substantial list of chefs you’ve worked with, do you think that’s where the majority of your work still comes from or was that a door that opened into more possibilities?
Neither. I came to be able to work with all those chefs in one or two locations. When I was in culinary school there was a job posting on one of the bulletin for food stylist for QVC . I didn’t know what that was so I just went to see what that was all about. I went to work for QVC. I started meeting clients out there that needed a food stylist.  Worked with industry clients T.V. styling that way.  I started with the Christina Pirello show. Started to work for Banyan Productions. At the time they were a production company that handled Christina’s program for PBS.  That’s how I got into T.V. styling production. Then started producing another show for Discovery Channel Epicurious. Which there is still a version of that on internet.  I was the kitchen director for that show. Had a team of food stylists working for me. The T.V. production business is a small inbred group that move to together to production companies. If you don’t know anyone you won’t get anywhere. Wants your in, your in. If you do a good job also. You gotta believe you can make a clients vision happen.

4.) Did you start out doing T.V. food styling or was it still photography?
Started out doing live T.V. styling with QVC. What’s great about still photo now is its digital.

5.) Do the chefs you’ve worked with have their own restaurants or was it primarily individual chefs that had recipes and cookbooks?
They were all very well known chefs with their own restaurants, cookbooks, and recipes. Paul Prudhomme, Emeril...

6.) What do you enjoy styling the most?

I like styling more than anything. Very tough to style drinks. You can recreate anything in photoshop. Digital has made it easier from a food stylist and photographer’s standpoint. Also clients get images immediately.

7.) What kind of garden do you have at home?
Vegetable, fruits, herbs. An Organic garden. I started with my seeds in the basement. Things I tend to grow are things that are usually more expensive. Eggplants, peas, tomatoes, green yellow beans. I grow my own culinary herbs. Fresh is the best!

8.) Who was your breakthrough client?
Christina Pirello. She played a pivotal role in my food styling career.

9.) Have you ever worked or been hired directly by a photographer?
 I’ve been hired by a photographer through a client. Never directly by a photographer. Usually a creative director between photographer and myself. Or a production manager with a company or magazine. I’ve been directly hired by photographer Dan Engongoro. His studio is Studio E Imaging in Lambertville, NJ. 

 

10.) What is your favorite home meal to make?
I don’t cook like I used to. I changed my eating habits in the past 2 years. Chicken Marango is my favorite dish. There is such a great story behind that dish. Sauteed chicken breast which is served over a piece of toast. On top of chicken is crawfish which have been sauteed in vermouth toped with a fried egg. Great backstory: 1804-1806 Napoleon found himself on battlefield near Marango in Italy. Moved around a lot for battle and left his supplies behind once. He was hungry and had to eat something so he finds a chicken and had cognac and vermouth. Finds crawfish at local stream and goes back and cooks a meal. Apparently first use of chicken and seafood on same dish. “Culinary legend”

Food Friday #4

Nir Adar

http://www.niradar.com/

 

 

1. Your site is very impressive because of your wide range of food you’ve styled. What is your favorite to style on a photo shoot? 
Thanks, happy you like it. I love challenges, I love collaborating with good photographers and my favorite kind of assignments are art projects involving food.

2. What did you get into first, styling in still photography or T.V.? 
I started with working on still photography, the transition to TV is a long one. TV require a totally different set of skills beyond just being a good food stylist. These days I work on both and love the mix.

3. You have a culinary background; where did you graduate from? Any degrees in styling? 
I studied in Switzerland and Israel, I worked as a chef in both places and had the opportunity to open several successful restaurants. I don’t believe you could graduate with a food styling degree, and if you could it wouldn’t be more than a good place to start.

4. How did you incorporate your fine art sculptures into your food sculptures? What came first?  
When I got to NY in 1990 I knew I wanted to be a food stylist, I had no clue where to start so I called a photographer friend of mine and asked him to photograph some art pieces I made of food. I fall in love with creating art work using food out of the plate. When I had three pieces I called Food Arts Magazine and arrange a meeting with the editor, I walked into the office and met the late Michael Batterbery the founder of food Arts Magazine. He fell in love with my work and commissioned me to work on several front covers and double spreads. Michael also introduce me to local photographer Peter Pioppo that gave me the opportunity to work of paid jobs. In my day to day work I try to bring the artistic vision and sense to every image, I believe that there are three important element to a great image. Composition, uniqueness and in our case appetite appeal. Each client pays us to work with his ingredients and ask us to creat a unique one of a kind piece of art (even when its only a burger). This is how approach my work on a daily base.

5. Ice cream is one of the harder foods to style because of it’s short life span under lights, what did you do to come up with such a unique recipe to help it last longer? 
Ice cream was the first food I worked on, Peter (photographer) specialized in shooting ice cream and I had the opportunity to observe. I came up with new techniques that allow me to hold ice cream for a longer period of time. One of the biggest secrets of a successful food stylist is having the ability to improvise, invent and be open to new ideas. Every day we are challenged with new problems, client concerns, time restriction or equipment malfunctions. The ability to solve problems is crucial.

6. Do you see yourself getting more work through photographers or art directors? 
There are several stages in a food stylist career, in each stage calls might come from different sources. Initially most calls come from the photographer who likes working with you, as you establish yourself calls will start coming from the agency as they start looking for you to maintain the look or create a new for their campaigns not necessary using the same photographer you started working with. As you establish and prove yourself to the client as the person who best understand their food you will be getting calls directly from clients as they would try to ensure they have you on set for their next project even before the agency knows of shooting days. I love having the mix of the three.  

7. Any current personal projects you are working on? 
Couple, I’m starting to put together a concept for a new book, I’m working very hard on bringing my Crispycones product to market. www.crispycones.com

8. Do you primarily work in New York or do you travel a lot for shoots? 
Most of my work these days is out of NY, I travel half my time for TV shoots in LA, Dallas as well as other places and I do work a lot in Philadelphia your home town. I love to travel.

9. Would you ever consider opening a restaurant?  
Good question. I still LOVE cooking and I dream of opening a small place with 12-20 seats that I could cook my food and have guest stay over night as a part of the experience of hosting and making guest feel at home.


10. Favorite flavor of ice cream?
Haagen Dazs Vanilla ice cream and Ciao Bella Blackberry Cabernet sorbet