How Should My Kitchen Prepare for a Food Photoshoot?
Food starts dying the second it leaves the pass.
By Andras Dietrich
How should my kitchen prepare for a food photoshoot?
Talk to the kitchen before anything gets cooked, then work in batches. Food starts dying the second it leaves the pass, so if the whole table gets plated at the start, the first dish is wilting while the last one is still being lit. Garnish and the finishing touches go on at the last second, with the camera already running.
Why does every kitchen want to plate the lot?
And it makes sense. In service you get it out, get it up, keep moving. So when I turn up, they want to help, and they plate everything.
Then it sits there.
Herbs go dark. Sauce skins over. The steam is gone in seconds. By the time I get to the fifth plate the first one is finished, and it was the best one when it left the pass.
Nothing wrong with the food. It just was not built to sit and wait.
So what do I do before anything gets cooked?
Quick chat with the chef, before anything gets cooked. Agree the order, agree who is doing what, and everyone knows what is coming.
Then batches. One set on, shot, off, next set on.
Garnish and the last touches go on right at the end, when I am already shooting. Someone is on that job and they know it is theirs, so nobody is standing around waiting to be asked.
Why not cook everything to order?
That is the other way to lose the day. If nothing is prepped and every dish is cooked from scratch, the clock runs out before the shot list does. I have seen it.
There is a flow somewhere in the middle, and it moves depending on what kind of pictures are being made. That is the bit I work out with the kitchen.
Who knows the food better, me or your kitchen?
This is a conversation, not a set of instructions from me. They know how their dishes behave, how long they hold, what falls apart first. I know what the camera needs. Put the two together and the day runs.
I have stood on that side of the pass for years, so this part is easy. I am not asking them to change how they cook. I am asking when.
Where does bad timing show up?
Any picture with a few plates in it. That is the shot that catches bad timing, because half the table cannot be fresh while the other half is being finished.
That one is worth getting right.
Planning a shoot in your kitchen?
Tell me what is on the menu and where the pictures will be used. I will tell you how I would run the day.