A Day In the Life

I've noticed many people in my life think that working in the food media world is exciting and slightly glamorous and super fun. OK...there may be days just like that but other days it really is like a lot of other jobs filled with deadlines, salary negotiations, office conflict and work that you are just not in the mood to do!

When I am writing and editing, it's just me, my computer and something snackable near by. Sometimes I talk out loud. Sometimes I talk to the errant spider I somehow always seem to find lurking in a corner. It's far from glamorous. If I'm really focused I will treat myself to some music while I work.

When I am developing recipes away from home, it can be a fun and busy environment. I am mostly on my feet, hopping from a computer where I write and research the recipes, to the kitchen itself where I gather and cook ingredients, to the tasting room where I sample too much of everyone's delicious work that day. The days fly by and I always finish the day feeling full and tired.

The wild card day is when I am working as a food stylist. As a food stylist, it is your job to do whatever needs to be done to make the food look captivating, mouth watering and casually perfect. This can mean anything from doing some on-camera hand modeling, to stuffing pies with reconstituted mashed potatoes (so they hold their shape) to gently arranging a pile of vegetables with a pair of tweezers so they lay just so for the camera. It can take some practice to understand that what might look nice to the naked eye might not look right from behind the camera. Common food styling tools include: q-tips, wooden skewers, distilled white vinegar, tweezers, straight pins, assorted sizes of paint brushes, vegetable oil, Windex and paper towels. Keep in mind these are just the basics and this list has whittled down over the last decade as the trend in food styling has veered towards a more natural perfectly imperfect look.

I'm not normally this red...those lights were hot!

In this lovely candid shot, I was tasked to climb on the counter to garnish a dish for a video shot. The lighting was so perfect on the dish, we didn't want to move it. So that I meant I had to go to the dish! Since all you saw was the tips of my fingers sprinkling some breadcrumbs and parsley, it looked totally natural and pretty, even though I was clearly not feeling overly natural or pretty. It even had my colleague giggling.





So there you have a brief glimpse into what some of my days are like. It can be fun, challenging, boring, exhausting, creative or redundant. Just like your job, right?