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Food styling - inspiration or intimidation?

Posted at 10:58AM, 01 September 2009 by Anna Helm - New York-based food writer

You own over 30 cookbooks and there is a leaning tower of food magazines at your bedside, which you flick through daily and wax lyrical about. You're a self-proclaimed foodie, but when you get home from work it's not the recipes you're reaching for but a hidden stash of take-out menus. Or at best a tin of beans. Sound familiar?

How could you ever compete with these food icons?

Or maybe you're a victim of Low Culinary Esteem. You admire those chefs who produce beautifully photographed food and whose TV shows paint a picture of days spent cooking and entertaining, tending vegetable gardens and rearing livestock. How could you ever compete with these food icons? If you're similar to me, you live in a seventh floor flat without so much as a windowsill to grow herb boxes on let alone plant runner beans or house a pig. You make a mean shepherd's pie, but your food never looks as good as the pictures, so why bother publicly flaunting your shortcomings?

Then there are those battling time. Even an advertised 20-minute meal seems unrealistic when you don't have half the ingredients and the nearest shop is a car journey away. For you, a 20-minute meal is just about enough time to rummage the kitchen for a box of spaghetti, a jar of sauce and a scrap of cheese. A call to the local Indian only takes a minute and you can throw the washing up in the bin.

The recent films Julie & Julia and Food Inc have provoked a lot of debate Stateside about how many people actually cook food (as opposed to just ogling it). Cooking from scratch, that is- opening a tin of Heinz and toasting a slice of Tesco's Finest bread does not count. Numbers of cooking programmes and food blogs are growing at the same speed as our expanding waistlines. Millions of people are thoroughly entertained, yet are they actually cooking? Does all this beautifully presented food brings on inadequacies that lead to people actually cooking less?

At this point I should make a small confession- I'm a food stylist by trade. I've always believed my job played a role in enticing people to get in the kitchen but I fear I might be actually contributing to this sad decline in cooking. I wonder how many people view my food as unapproachable eye-candy rather than culinary inspiration. A Food Stylists' job is to make you go gaga over food whether or not it's a bunch of beats still covered in dirt or an oozing chocolate pudding with a sexy woman's voiceover to boot.

I pick and choose lettuce leaves and spend hours using dental tweezers to arrange food on plates- that's what I'm paid for. Models would not go in front of a camera without a visit to a make-up artist first and I like to think that this is what I do for food. I'm a Food Beautician, if you like. But does all this marketing polish put people off cooking? And do TV cooking shows encourage people to cook or merely sell idealistic dreams?

Comments

DNA

1 September 2009, 7:20PM
DNA

I find this interesting as only the other day (Sunday in fact) I was explaining to my girlfriend that the likes of Gordon Ramsay and the such have a food stylist, and whilst they are mentioned in the credits, I doubt many people actually read those. Anyway, that leads onto the point that, perhaps people are put off by these pictures as they feel that their version will never be as good and they will be disappointed by it. However, people would rather have pictures of the food than none at all, even if it does make them feel incompetent. So, are the chefs wrong for hiring someone to make their meals look picture perfect or are the consumers wrong for wanting a picture of every completed recipe and for it to look beyond what they could achieve?

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kittendothroar

1 September 2009, 9:05PM
kittendothroar

I try not to focus on the pictures too much - I know it won't ever look the same, just as long as it tastes good I'm happy! I also have a food blog, my pictures are pretty basic, though I don't always post pictures - some dishes are just not attractive! If there are pictures they are to be merely a guideline, and this probably comes across when I blog! I try to focus more on the recipes, rather than glamour side of things. Though part of me wishes I could produce more attractive food at times, the boyfriend would only complain - he is of the 'mix it all together camp'!

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Margaret Baxter

2 September 2009, 12:24PM
Margaret Baxter

This is a really interesting dilemma! I am a recipe junkie and can't resist the latest cookery book, not least because the pictures make them a joy to read. They also help me to see what the dish should look like (although I rarely achieve such perfection!). However, I must admit I do occasionally feel a bit disappointed when my dish looks nothing like the ideal, but then as long as it tastes good I don't worry too much and my confidence is restored! The pictures are only a guideline after all. If we could all produce picture perfect food, then cooking wouldn't be quite such fun. I think that the majority of cookery programmes are encouraging people to cook (rather than heat things up!) and long may that continue. Keep up the good work as I am sure that luscious looking food is more likely to inspire than disappoint!

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DonnyB

2 September 2009, 11:16PM
DonnyB

this is exactly the trouble with how food media is sold these days! The really popular celebrity chefs push a lifestyle rather than just promoting good cooking (look at Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson or Hugh F-W). The beautifully crafted photos just add to the general fantasy ambience. People buying cookbooks are also buying a little dose of escapism along with the recipes.

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Alec

2 September 2009, 11:24PM
Alec

oh, I love the photos! That's what really makes it for me. I could spend hours looking at some books, and never really cook anything. Much as that sounds a bit sad, it's better than beating yourself up about the food not looking like the magazine cover. Food stylists are an essential breed - if they weren't around, everything would look like the photos on the menu of my local curry shop, and I'd never buy a cookbook again!!

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Eatingtales

3 September 2009, 11:24AM
Eatingtales

I absolutely find I am inspired by the photos. I find it difficult to cook without some kind of picture to direct what I am trying to achieve. When I buy cookbooks I always find myself cooking the recipes that are accompanied by great photographs and the ones that don't have accompanying photos seem to fall to the wayside. There are plenty of photos out there of home cooked food on numerous food blogs taken without special cameras, lighting and props to remind everyone that food can still taste delicious without receiving a special 'makeover'. My blog is a prime example, www.eatingtales.co.uk

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Heather

4 September 2009, 12:04AM
Heather

I'm guilty of buying magazines and cook books that have beautiful images - and I'm always a bit bummed when my dish doesn't look as nice. I work for magazines and have worked with food stylists, so I should know it's all staged - I should know better! Food styling is an art, but does result in disappointment for us at home. I've only bought one cook book that didn't have pictures, and it annoys me to no end! Donny B is right - they are selling a lifestyle - but I love lifestyle, so it gets me everytime.

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Mineke

6 September 2009, 6:36AM
Mineke

Maybe that's why I like cookbooks without pictures. Can't handle the dissipointment. I cook everyday, though. And to me it looks nice.

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busylizzie

10 September 2009, 9:57AM
busylizzie

I never think my food is going to look as good as in the photos so I am never disappointed! As long as it tastes good that is fine, it certainly doesn't put me off trying a new recipe. I do like to have a photo to guide me in roughly the right direction and if I'm 60% there that is fine by me.

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jenny

30 January 2010, 2:20PM
jenny

I know this may be going off the point somewhat but am unable to leave a comment (they have been temporarily removed). I made the Baked raspberrie and Bramble trifle with Drambuie for a party last night. It looked amazing, exactly like the picture in the recipe and I was delighted...it took forever to make and bake which I happily went along with... until I put a spoon in with a flourish and served the first portion, only to find it was total mixed up mush, nothing like the layers of raspberries, madeira cake with Drambuie followed by the bramble jam, culiminating in my home made baked custard and cream. Where did I go wrong? Has anyone else made this? Would love to know where I went wrong - maybe I overcooked the custard? in the bain marie. Thanks for letting me having a moan. I dont think I would go to that trouble again.

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