Very Merry Cocktails Deck

Last summer I had the pleasure of styling holiday cocktails for the Very Merry Cocktail Deck. Sort of like a book, but these are individual cards, which is pretty handy! It was great fun to play Christmas in July, and work with talented friends Ren Fuller and Stephanie Hanes.

I love being a Food & Beverage Stylist on jobs like this, and getting to work in Los Angeles is always a treat. Even better is when we get such nice creative direction from the clients we work with.

New Work for Minute Maid

Last December, I was hired as the Food & Beverage Stylist for a Minute Maid Zero Sugar campaign. We were highlighting four flavors, and I needed to pair a food scene with each. They gave me some parameters, such as wanting to see grilled corn, tacos, and sandwiches, plus something appropriate for a nice indoor dinner. But overall the guidelines were pretty loose, which I enjoy. I like researching precisely what food will complement the shot and then gathering inspiration to illustrate what I want to do for the client to review.

Also, how amazing is shooting in California? You’d never know it was about a week before Christmas here.

Photographer: Sidney Bensimon

Photographer: Sidney Bensimon

Fried Chicken Madness

Back in March, I teamed up with food photographer Jennifer Chong and prop stylist Jaclyn Kershek here in Los Angeles to make as many varieties of crispy, spicy fried chicken that we could in one day. As a food stylist, I love the challenge of a sandwich build. It’s a three-dimensional structure and I find I really have to consider everything I do about 5 moves in advance. When I’m hired to make them on a proper photo shoot, I’m usually given a deck with the client’s specifics, including the order of ingredients, how many pickles, how many slices of tomato, etc. And every brand likes a different look - we get asked for“perfectly imperfect” a lot; some ask for really tidy even levels with no crumbs or drips and others are a little looser in their approach. I have spent countless hours trimming the edges of a bun, toasting it just so on an electric griddle, and rearranging the sesame seeds on top with a bamboo skewer and Elmer’s glue. And measuring the thickness of tomato and onion slices with an actual ruler to make sure they are 1/4” thick, or 8mm, or whatever the specs are.

Since this shoot was just for us, we could have taken any approach we wanted, but decided to treat it like a regular commercial food shoot and keep it “ad-style”. It’s a good muscle to flex and personally, I like trying to find the beauty within the rules. Sometimes!

Food stylists tend to have pretty good knife skills but I would just like to point out that, even so, cutting scallions into strips is extremely painstaking. But also oddly zen and rewarding, not to mention a tasty complement to the gochujang sauce this fried chicken was dipped in.

Look at those little chives! Also: do not, under any circumstances, eat something like this on a first date.

New Late Summer Work!

No-bake Strawberry Cheesecake Pie

Few things make me happier than an assignment that involves making dessert. Five desserts, to be exact, and three of them didn’t require turning on the oven. Perfect for this time of year!

I’m a fairly experienced baker, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the simplicity of these easy summer treats. My favorite is also probably the most complicated of the bunch, since it involves making a choux pastry. I rather like making a choux - it’s the only pastry dough to be made on the stovetop, and it comes together wonderfully quick. The other two components, ice cream and caramel sauce, can be store bought - unless you are looking for an all-day project!

The full recipes are over on AARP’s The Ethel, which I’m linking to here.

Profiterole with Ice Cream & Caramel

Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake

Piña Colada Popsicles

Coffee Puffs

Image Credits

Photographer: Ren Fuller

Food Stylist: Laura Kinsey Dolph

Prop Stylist: Nidia Cueva