"Years down the line, I became a food stylist." Sally Schneider

Food styling... What is it? Well, any food you see on T.V., (be it a show or commercial), on the big screen or in a photograph, has been styled. Not an easy job either! Each yummy looking morsel has most likely been laboured over for hours by a food stylist. Sometimes the food looks very contrived into perfection, but the stylists I have worked with are striving for 'real food'.
After I was done testing for the cookbook, Jane suggested that I go down to the studio to help with the food shots for the cookbook. I worked with Jane's good friend Kate. Kate Bush is a semi-retired food stylist who still has the reputation as being the best in Toronto. She wants her food to look as natural and real as possible. I was surprised to see how closely she was following the recipes I tested. I just figured that she would pull some crazy tricks out from up her sleeve and would contrive the whole thing! Nope! She said that the food needed to look real and be exactly what the home cook would be preparing in their kitchen. It would just look a bit nicer, of course!
The other stylist I worked with is Ruth Gangbar. I helped her for an edition of the LCBO magazine 'Food & Drink'. Don't the pictures in there always look amazing? Well, it takes weeks of meetings and hours of preparation just for one picture on one page. It certainly is not a glamorous job. I remember also working with Ruth on a shoot for Cavandish potatoes. I spent the first day organizing, by size, about 8 huge sacks of potatoes. The second day I had to collect 12 russets that represented the typical russet. They all had to be the same size, weight and shape, with no blemishes... Let's just say that I went to 6 grocery stores, 3 specialty stores and met with every produce manager on my quest, with no luck. Simply, it was the wrong time of year. It was July. Also, I had no air conditioning in my car and I ended up in a minor fender bender... Argh!!
Well, hopefully today will go much better! I'm meeting Harry and his lovely wife Dana, here in Georgetown for the shoot in a couple of hours. Oh no, I'm starting to get nervous! 'Come on Sarah, you can do this!' ' You're right, Sarah!' Ok, I better get up and get moving... I still have a couple of things to prepare! I will blog about the food styling adventure tomorrow! Bye for now!