Visual Appetite

I got a call last month from San Francisco magazine Design Director Ellen Zaslow.  She was looking for ideas for April’s cover story called the The Artisan’s Dilemma.  She saw the chalkboard image and thought it would be nice to recreate it using products from the story.  Sign me up!

So, that should be easy right?  Well, not quite.  We had to get the shoot done in a week.

First off, we had to find a chalkboard.  For the original shoot we borrowed a chalkboard that now all of a sudden wasn’t available anymore.  It took a while to find a replacement because we wanted to mimic the texture of the other chalkboard.  Finally, I discovered one from a friend’s coffee shop that worked quite well.   Next was sourcing the food.  Ellen Zaslow, Food Stylist Fanny Pan, and I were able to split up the duties of getting products from 4 companies.  We ended up being late on the Tartine bread order, but luckily had 5 loaves for the shoot.  Scott Brennan of Fifth Quarter Charcuterie came through in-time with a nice selection of pâtés, terrines, and beef tongue.

Next was the day of the shoot.  Our first challenge was to draw the plate, fork, & knife and make it look simple and not perfect.  It took longer than we thought it would, but it turned out really nice.  Our second challenge was to make the food on the plate look simple and not cluttered.  This was the biggest challenge.  As you’ll see in the behind-the-scenes video (below) Fanny cut countless different shapes and sizes of bread, cheese, and pickles and we tweaked the positioning a number of times.  Moving things around a lot meant getting the chalkboard dirty.  Compositing all the elements onto the chalkboard was an option, but that might have run the risk of the image looking too artificial so we opted to clean the chalkboard every time we moved something around.  At the end of the day we came up with a nice, clean image.  Enjoy!

Art Direction – Ellen Zaslow - sanfranmag.com

Food Styling – Fanny Pan - fannypan.com

Photo Assistant – Maurice Ramirez - mauriceramirez.com

Behind-the-scenes video and stills – Maurice Ramirez

Behind-the-scenes video editing – Pons Maar Productions

Photographed at 4th St. Studios San Francisco - 4thststudios.com

I recently had the opportunity of photographing at The Restaurant at Meadowood, which now has 3-Michelin Stars along with The French Laundry.  Chef Christopher Kostow asked me to shoot 4 dishes and a portrait of him.  But, before I started shooting he began to express how tired he’s become of the typical portrait.  I agreed with him and suggested I spend some time shooting journalistically in the kitchen to allow a deeper story to unfold.  He was all for it and I’m quite happy with the result.

Chef Kostow and I also talked about how moving to Napa and planting gardens has transformed him.  Here are a couple of quotes from our conversation:

- “I am an outsider.  I’m not someone who was born on a farm.  I’m an everyday person who is embracing this idea.”

- “I came up here as a good cook.  Being here and having a foundation to the cooking makes you a chef.”

I can’t even begin to list the delights experienced on the island of Kauai.  Everywhere I looked there was something new to taste.  Here’s a tease of what we ate and saw on our 7-day camping trip in January:

Mango bread – Mango is my favorite fruit.  I’ll eat mango in anything.  A roadside stand also had pickled mango.

Starfruit (Carambola) - I just couldn’t get over its shape.  What an attractive fruit!  We also enjoyed guava and grapefruit at the Hanalei farmer’s market.  I didn’t want to leave the market.  That’s what happens to me when I find a place I love, I just stick around and soak it all in.

Smoked Marlin - What an addictive treat.  Seafood Watch, an organization that monitors the effects of overfishing on ocean ecology, says Marlin is a “good alternative” ecologically if caught near Hawaii. Still, I would be careful about forming a habit for it. That fish is BIG and its mercury levels must be through the roof!

Butterfish - Full of flavor.  However, don’t eat too much of it.  It’s known to be a laxative because of it’s high oil content.

Roosters - Those little guys are running over every inch of the island.  They probably have more of a presence than squirrels in Northern California.  At first it was fun seeing them wild everywhere.  After a while I couldn’t stand the sound.  I was thinking the natives must have hundreds of chicken jokes.  The Wall Street Journal has a story about how their population skyrocketed after a hurricane a decade ago.

Kalalau Trail and Waimea Canyon - Both have some of the best views on the island.  Make sure to have good hiking shoes with you.

Shaved Ice - Be sure to get it with ice cream at the bottom!