(Editor’s note: Delores Custer, one of the top US food stylists for the past 30 years, was in town last Nov. 19 at Oceana Restaurant, San Miguel by the Bay, SM Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City. Custer discussed topics in her book Food Styling: The Art of Preparing Food for the Camera.In the seminar presented by National Book Store, Food Magazine and the Lifestyle Network, major sponsors were John Wiley & Sons, the Center for Culinary Arts, Oceana Restaurant, La Germania and Magnolia Chicken. Kusinart, Samsung and Imarflex were minor sponsors. The Philippine STAR was the official media partner and Traders Hotel, the official hotel.)
MANILA, Philippines - Ever since my involvement with Kulinarya cookbook as co-author and its food stylist, I never looked back with my free-wheeling eating days, so to speak. I am now armed with a more observant eye, and with a macro lens investment, I am now more conscious that there’s more to food dishes beyond its one-dimensional grubbiness as something merely to wolf down. I have learned tons of tricks from Delores Custer, whose two previous workshops I attended in 2007 and 2009 — that a food stylist’s job is more than just getting the food ready for the photographer to shoot, but most importantly, according to Custer, “to make it look not just visually appealing but mouth watering.” If a reader sees a food picture and makes him drool over it, then the stylist has succeeded. The only downside in doing my own styling and taking the photo myself, though, is the food always gets cold, coupled with the impatient angry looks I get from a mob-to-be dining companions.
“Matagal pa ba yan? Gutom na kami!” is the usual complaint I get. “Ako rin gutom na, ha” if they only knew. Lesson learned: Never food style with an audience with empty stomachs, waiting like vultures for the spoils. During food sorties with friends, I’ve solved the problem by ordering my own food just to tinker with, and getting my revenge on them — I nibble on theirs first.
A day after the first food styling workshop I attended in 2007, I went on a shopping frenzy scouring the department stores and specialty shops around Makati for my “tools of the trade”, those little gadgets that could fit in a tool box that will come in handy in an out-of-town photo shoot like a mini grater, plastic squeeze bottles, medicine dropper and containers, tweezers, tongs, syringe, and mini pliers. Also very handy are common household items like cotton buds, paper clips, bamboo barbecue sticks, toothpicks, Scotch tape and kneaded eraser. Source mines were SM Makati house ware and infant’s section, Landmark, Cooks Exchange, Gourdo’s, and Ace Hardware.
Food styling has opened a whole new world for me. It is like being McGyver — a resourceful and ingenious fix-it-all guy, making do with whatever is at hand for any contingencies. One has to anticipate everything that could possibly go wrong during a shoot. If a roast chicken dish to be shot asks for a whole chicken, have some five pieces ready to have some fallback. When ace photographer Neal Oshima and I were doing the Kulinarya cookbook, we had to reschedule another day’s shoot for the rellenong manok since the first and only one they sent had a runny egg yolk when sliced. We had to shoot the lechon de leche (roast suckling pig) by Glenda Barretto three times but for entirely different reasons (First try: Ooops, sorry wrong cut. Eat! Second day: Ooops again, skin collapsed. Fry and eat! Third and final shoot: Perfect shot! Time to celebrate by devouring it!) So sorry Tita Glenda, now you know the real reason why we had to take three before we got it right. It’s purely professional, you know? (yeah right!)
One of the major lessons I learned working with Neal is everything must be as fresh and natural as can be. He has this aversion to using artificial colorings or embellishments. Every dish that was shot was directly placed from the cooking pan to the plate — and it was all edible after being shot! Working with him honed my new-found skills learned from Custer and was worth a master’s degree in food styling and photography. But the best part is I literally had my lechon and ate it, too. It’s a hell of a fun job!
* * *
Many thanks to: Bale Dutung’s Pan de Bagnet, chef Beth Romualdez of Rustan’s Gourmet-to-Go, chef Margie Domingo and kitchen staff of Oceana Restaurant and Culinary School, Chefs Selection Angus Burger by San Miguel Great Food Solutions, French Baker for the giant baguette, croissants and hamburger buns, and Säntis Delicatessen of Werdenberg International Corp.