Seven Things I’ve Learned About Food Styling

I have had the incredible opportunity to work with people that have been in this industry for a long time. Along the way, they have taught me about some of the food styling tricks used these days for magazines and TV.

These are seven of them. Simple tricks and rules to make your food look incredibly appetizing for the viewer’s eye.

 

Salads: The Greener, The Better!

Salad greens are tricky. Trying to get good-looking lettuces for a TV show is a job. I once spent a whole afternoon jumping from place to place in NYC trying to get a decent amount for one recipe that called for lettuce. They have to be in almost perfect condition. No signs of being spoiled or small brown spots. Cameras pick up brown colors very quickly. Though you can easily Photoshop any imperfection for a print work, you can’t change the final product in videos or it can be very expensive to do so.

 

Meat and Fish: Dry It With Paper Towels!

Pick the best piece you can buy for that one shot. Always dry it with paper towels. Any slime from it will make it look sloppy and not very pretty for the eye of the viewer.

 

Symmetrical Cuts Are The Best!

Same cuts are attractive to the eye.

 

Keep Herbs Green!

A trick to keep these babies in their bright green color, use a damp paper towel and cover it in between shoots.

 

The Rules of Chopping Herbs!

• Never chop thyme. These herbs will turn black in a blink of an eye.
• If you do need to chop herbs, try to do the least amount of cuts to it in order to achieve the desired size. The more you use your knife on them, the more they will get spoiled, especially if you are using a knife that is not sharp.

 

Cooked!

Meats at their edible stage look delicious to your eye face to face, but when it comes to the camera, its eye won’t be getting the same feeling. The above piece of pork chop is way under cooked. I barely gave it a sear to the presentation side for the shoot. I also used chili oil to give it that shiny look to it.

 

Styling An Egg!

Believe it or not, there is a way to make an egg look pretty for the camera. Do you see those white spots around the yolks? Those are the things you don’t want the camera to see. I use a spoon to carefully remove them from the yolk. First wet the spoon with the egg whites, then place the yolk in your hands and slowly remove them. It is going to take a couple of eggs for you to master it but it is well worth it.

If you are using the whole egg in its shell for your shoot, pick brown eggs. They look organic, pretty and very attractive for the viewer.

 

Remember, food styling doesn’t have to be expensive. It only takes simply tricks to achieve that look you are looking for!