Nikas Culinaria

(Dan Macey and assistant, packing up after their class, “More Than One Way to Roast a Chicken or Make a Burger” June 2, 2007)

June 1-4 was the International Conference on Food Styling and Photography at Boston University, sponsored by the BU Culinary Arts Program. It was also some of the longest few days in my life. I can’t really say why other than its because I had been looking forward to this for so very long and because there were so many things packed into a short period of time. Another huge reason is because I was surrounded by some of the neatest and nicest people you could hope to meet.

I got to meet Bea from La Tartine Gourmande and Lara from Still Life With .. and Cook & Eat.. two awesome people. It was wonderful to get a chance to meet these two lovely ladies and we didn’t get enough time to chat, another time!

I have various photos only from a very small part of the conference. I will share more below from this presentation by Dan Macey, a food stylist who does an amazing job of lecturing on food styling in a very dynamic way. The only two drawbacks to that seminar were 1) way too crowded, and 2) right before supper. Food photography and styling is hungry work, especially if your just watching from a distance. If I am shooting, I do not get hungry at all because I am all caught up in white balance and f-stops and focus and depth of field and composition and food styling, etc.

To give you a taste of those few days, there was master class on chocolate called “Chocolate: History, Politics, and Practical Techniques for Photography” taught by Melanie Dubberley, a master class called “More Than One Way to Roast a Chicken or Make a Burger” by Dan Macey, and then a class called “Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts” by Judy Peck Prindle and Jim Scherer. There were visual presentations exploring the aesthetic qualities of good food photography and how one might achieve that. There were presentations on the ins and outs of food styling.

Because I am busy working on the transition from passionate but pro-am food photographer to an employed food photographer (OK, I already am that but one who has the business acumen necessary to make the process least painful for all involved), I attended presentations on the business aspects of food photography. I learned so much but there was very little that was photogenic about the dark auditorium :-). You will just have to take my word for it.

About half way through, we had a meal catered by Jasper White’s Summer Shack - a lobster bake. We sat in the ballroom at 808 Commonwealth Ave on the BU campus (with all the traffic whizzing past) and proceeded to drink wine, beer, and delight in some of the most delicious clam chowder I have had in Boston (I used to be a Jake’s fan, thats changed now). It was light and bursting in several layers of flavor - cream, clam, spirits. After that, the servers brought out platters for each of us filled with youthful lobsters (thankfully, they were sweet and the shells were not iron hard), chorizo, corn, potato, mussels, and little neck clams. I must have been in the perfect mood and with the right people because it was a real simple pleasure to slowly pick out all those morsels of meat as I listened to the conversations around me.

Jasper White came out at one point and received a standing ovation from all of us lobster juice-covered people.

This meal, though, is almost an afterthought, if you can imagine that, because of who I was sitting next to and chatting with. I spent a delightful evening chatting with Harold McGee (none other than the modern food science godfather - read his book “On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen”, 680 pages of foodie go-to data) and Shirley Corriher (She is my all time favorite personality on Alton Brown’s “Good Eats”, she is the nutritional biochemist and fantabulously funny woman who knows a whole lot MORE than Mr. Brown, thank you very much).

Shirley and her husband Arch have delightful and comfortable Georgia accents (I went to school in GA for so long, it was sorta like being there again). They were also made for each other. They are TOO funny and they both constantly made me laugh. I admit that I was fascinated and had a hard time saying anything because I just wanted to sit and listen to soak it all up instead of talking over any of it. Harold McGee was a very friendly person who seemed so familiar to me, I can not put my finger on why. I think I have had professors like him before and so he sort of brought that back for me. I admire both of these people very much and am quite thankful that they took the time to come to the conference.

They presented their talks on Sunday morning (June 3) to a packed house. They are quite appreciated in this community and had quite a few requests for autographs (OK, I requested one too, had McGee sign my new copy of his On Food and Cooking book)

I got to meet Jim Scherer, a Boston area food photographer who I have been hoping to chat with one day. He gave a great presentation and was very friendly.

I also got to meet Romulo Yanes, the staff photographer at Gourmet Magazine. His presentation was fantastic and his story of how he came to Gourmet and how the covers have evolved over time was fascinating. He is a super nice, very accessible person.

I can not imagine any other way or setting where I would have had the opportunity to meet these people.

For this reason I am so very thankful to Lisa Golden Schroeder, a key player in making this conference a reality. It looked like the result of a massive amount of collaboration and effort.

What follows are some photos from the “More Than One Way to Roast a Chicken or Make a Burger” class by Dan Macey.

Here you can see how we were packed in like sardines. This is edited down too, you cant see the people behind me either!

Some of the meat prepared in the class. Looked very delicious and was torture because our lobster dinner was like 1.5 hours later!

Some of the techniques for making a beautiful chicken:

After stuffing the bird with newspaper, Dan pinned the chicken skin under just so and also glued the wings in place.

After being sprayed with a browning agent and then a quick 10 minute cook, the bird gets singed with a blow torch, crisps up the skin.

Techniques for making the perfect grilled steak:

Searing grill marks into meat with cast iron grill pan.

Making grill marks with charcoal starter heating element.

Blow torching steak fat to make it crisp.

Comparing cast iron grill pan marks to no marks to charcoal starter heating element.

Meat can be prepared a day before a shoot, marks and all, and then held/stored under oil to prevent oxidation.

Idealized baked ham, at huge slightly unappetizing proportions.

Again, I can’t say how amazing this conference was!

If this is something you are interested in and if they run this again next year, by all means, find a way to attend.

Biographies:

Shirley Corriher (Atlanta, Georgia)
Most people recognize Shirley as the “Mad Scientist” on Good Eats TV show and she has also appeared on Smart Solutions, Sara Moulton Cooking Live, Homecooking, and Nathalie Dupree. She won “The Best Cooking Teacher of the Year” in Bon Appétit’s “Best of the Best” Annual Food and Entertaining Awards, 2001. In 2004, Shirley received the prestigious “Research Chefs’ Holleman Award” for outstanding achievement in technical communication. She is also a prominent food writer and syndicated columnist. Her book, CookWise won a James Beard Award for “Best Reference and Technique Book” of 1997. Shirley was a contributing editor and wrote a regular column for Fine Cooking for 10 years, and she continues to write a syndicated column in The Los Angeles Time Syndicate’s Great Chefs Series.

Melanie Dubberley (Rahway, New Jersey)
Melanie combines her background in food biochemistry, studio arts, and her experience in restaurant and food manufacturing to create and style food. Her specialties are chocolate and elegant desserts, and her clients include Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines, and Godiva Chocolatier. She is also a food stylist for the Kosher by Design cookbook series. She does recipe development and testing and technical food writing through her company, Food Fashions.

Lisa Golden Schroeder (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Lisa is a 25-year food industry veteran, specializing in consumer marketing services. Her consulting business includes food journalism, recipe and new product development, and food styling for photography. She is founder of Foodesigns.com, an online resource for food stylists and photographers, which also offers an online publication, The Tweezer Times. A longtime advocate for food styling education, for ten years Lisa served as program chair and presenter for the successful bi-annual seminar Food on Film for ten years and now teaches food styling at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, regional community colleges, and privately as a workshop coach and online instructor. She currently chairs the Food Photographers & Stylists section of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her food photography clients include the Target Corporation, Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Tyson Foods, General Mills/Betty Crocker, Land O’ Lakes, Sargento Cheese, SuperValu Foods, and Caribou Coffee.

Dan Macey (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Dan, of dantasticfood, is a food stylist for print advertising, packaging, and editorial. He also provides food styling for many television programs, live and taped, that include Emeril Lagasse, Lidia Bastianich, Michael Romano, and Nick Stellino. His work can be seen regularly on CBS Early Morning Show. In addition he has consulted for Aramark Foods and Cabot cheese, and has worked on product development with several Fortune 500 companies. He has appeared in Cook’s Illustrated, TV Guide, and Restaurant Business News.

Harold McGee (Santa Clara, California)
Harold is author of the 680-page tome On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen whose revised and enlarged edition was named best food reference of 2004 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and the James Beard Foundation. In 2005, Bon Appétit magazine named McGee food writer of the year. He also authored The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore (1990), and has written articles and reviews for many publications, including The New York Times, The World Book Encyclopedia, Nature, Food & Wine, and Fine Cooking. He has appeared on public television’s “Diary of a Foodie,” the National Geographic Channel, and CNN, and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” “Fresh Air,” and “Science Friday.”

Judy Peck Prindle (Los Angeles, California)
Judy began her career in the business at the early age of fifteen and has written twelve books, and two films at Henderson Publications, Inc. She was director of food styling and photography for the Peterson Company, a television production company. She is currently a freelance food stylist, whose list of clients include: Kraft, the Beef Association, Pizza Hut, MacDonald’s, Subway, Outback Steak House, Bob Evan’s, Chili’s, Burger King, Pillsbury, General Foods, Kellogg’s, Gallo Wines, the Egg Council, Heinz foods, Taco Bell, Sunkist, Dole, and many more. Judy also teaches seminars and workshops on food styling in California.

Jim Scherer (Boston, Massachusetts)
Jim has been shooting food for advertising agencies, corporations, magazines and cookbook publishers for over two decades. Among his clients are Dunkin’ Donuts, Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse, McDonald’s, The Capital Grille, Trader Joe’s, and the Boston Globe Magazine, to name a few. He also has photographed cookbooks for Julia Child, Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, and the Moosewood Restaurant.

Romulo A. Yanes (New York, New York)
Romulo is Gourmet Magazine’s staff photographer who has photographed over 150 covers and over thirty cookbooks for Gourmet. His work has also appeared in Texas Monthly, Lucky, Wired, CNP Traveler, and Australian Vogue Entertaining. Other books that he has worked on include Gluten-Free Baking by Rebecca Reilly, the highly profiled Cooking for Madam: Recipes and Reminiscences from the Home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Marta Sgubin, and An Invitation to The White House by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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