Mmm… now that looks delicious!

Picture this: You are driving along EDSA. It’s the rush hour, and traffic is at a standstill. With nothing else to do, you glance up at those monumental billboards our country is famous for. (Why, we should be called the land of billboards – the land of Kris Aquino billboards to be more exact.) Then, your attention focuses on this gargantuan picture of an appetizing chicken on a rotisserie. The longer you stare at it, the more it seduces you. You feel and half hope that any second now, the delicious roast chicken would jump off the billboard and fall into your lap, which is a scary thought to consider since it looks 20 times your size and weight. But at this moment, you don’t care. You are hopelessly smitten by it and won’t mind being crushed underneath its broiled wings just to have a bite of its succulent-looking meat. And since that is highly unlikely, you do the next best thing. You turn right at the next stop, and look for the nearest house that chicken built.

Such is the magic and power of food styling, the force that makes you salivate when you see a photo or display of food. Its goal is to create appetite appeal, to draw people into the kitchen or restaurant, to buy a product, or to just seduce the senses with the most irresistible, primal desire: to feed ourselves in a deeply satisfying way.

Before a photographer focuses his lens on the grilled steak or ice cream scoop, which you see in a magazine ad, a food stylist has already worked hard to make the food picture-perfect, experimenting with natural ways to keep the meat looking succulent, the fruit fresh, and the greens green.

In a world of food presentation, there is a magical and sometimes make-believe land of styled food where food is presented in the form of artfully arranged photographs for cookbooks and advertising, in enticing television commercials, on food packaging, etc. The food stylist is responsible for planning, making, and effortlessly presenting this vast array of food.

Food styling is a craft to behold. I’ve written on its importance and my experience as a food stylist at a time considered to be the dark ages, when food stylists were still using Polaroids. Each shot we took was patiently anticipated as we had to wait for the film to dry, oftentimes putting the negative between our armpits to hasten the process. Thank goodness for digital photography, which made the whole process infinitely easier with its instant results!

A dish has to look as wonderful as it would taste. However, edibles are temperamental subjects. What looks good in real life might not be photogenic. No one knows this better than famed international food stylist Delores Custer.

Custer describes the work of a food stylist: "We must be able to handle foods that misbehave." The goal of a food stylist is to create images that appear to be freshly made, coming straight out of the kitchen to one’s dining table. The ability to do this, despite having handled food a great deal or having food that must stand for long periods of time on a set, is what makes food styling an art and a science

Last week, Delores Custer visited the country to share her expertise on the craft, thanks to Food magazine and Magnolia Gold Butter. It is always good that we in the culinary profession update ourselves on the latest trends in the international scene. This was indeed an event marked on my calendar.

Custer is world-recognized as one of the finest names in the food styling profession. She has been working for magazines and advertising agencies, public relations firms, television, feature films, and food companies since 1978. A glance at her resume shows some of her prominent clients. They include Pillsbury, Procter and Gamble, Campbell’s, Wendy’s, Tupperware, and Nabisco, among others.

My good friend Helene Pontejos, general manager of San Miguel Great Food Solution, gave me the chance to meet this grand dame of food styling and learn from her when she conducted a seminar exclusively for the San Miguel staff. Yes, I met and interviewed her for this column, although I sadly missed her food styling seminar last March 4 at the ELJ Communication Center because of a previous commitment.

At the San Miguel Purefood Culinary Center, I caught her demonstrating lime bars, using calamansi as an alternative to US limes. Earlier on, they had trouble procuring dayap, which is the common substitute. Resourcefulness called for the use of the humble yet versatile Philippine citrus fruit, the calamansi, which proved to be an adequate replacement.

Custer’s recipe will be used as cover of the April issue of Food magazine. Of course, who else would food style it but Delores herself. I have seen and tasted this recipe. It’s a winner!

Surprisingly, she was very generous and open when it came to sharing the magical secrets of the trade. With no airs about her, she was down-to-earth and a pleasure to chat with. I did not find it hard to warm up to her. It was as if we were good friends. She loves teaching (which was her first career choice), and she feels it is important to give back. And as a teacher, I couldn’t agree more.

She shares that the wonders of digital technology are a boon to the food styling profession, since it gives you results in an instant and opportunities to alter and enhance the look of the captured image. However, the trend today is to have the food look more natural.

The food used for most shoots is real. There is a certain degree of enhancement that happens now because of computer technology. Even if sometimes images are moved around, they are usually shot from real food. Food is almost always kept moist or preserved in various ways during the course of a shoot if it has to stand out for a while. The goal is to keep the food looking as fresh as it did when it was first prepared, and to shoot the food as quickly as possible.

In past years, there were more instances of using non-edible items as stand-ins or added to food. But the trend has been for a more natural approach in the past decade. And most food companies have policies that dictate nothing artificial be used in a shoot, particularly in advertising where there are laws that govern these issues.

There are formulations that simulate certain foods that are very difficult to work with, like ice cream. But the recipe for fake ice cream is edible; it’s basically a very thick frosting that can look like ice cream when scooped. Sometimes foods are cooked down, like maple syrup, so that they become thicker and easier to control. Or in the case of poultry, especially turkeys, the bird may only be cooked in the oven with steam until the flesh is firm but not completely cooked. This is because a fully roasted bird, once cool, will wrinkle and look very unappetizing. By cooking the poultry less, then coloring the skin, the cooled bird looks fresh, like when it first came out of the oven.

It’s funny now to remember about just how crude the methods were in the past. Before, a local food stylist would paint chicken with soy sauce mixed with a liquid detergent so the color would adhere.

Delores showed me a recent Martha Stewart holiday baking magazine, and one particularly memorable photo was of a picture-perfect madeleine cookie standing alone with another cookie placed on top of the standing cookie with pristine white powdered sugar dusted on it. It was a tight shot on just a plain white background.

She quizzed me on how this was achieved. Spray hairspray on the cookie so the powdered sugar doesn’t fall off the baked product? I guessed. The answer was to keep the cookie moist.

I also guessed that a toothpick was used to make the cookie stand. She said it was possible.

She says it is in the presentation style where stylists can show off their talents. Every good stylist brings something unique to his job. I always believe that everyone gets inspiration by being aware of what’s happening in the food world, eating out, traveling, looking at new publications, and generally challenging themselves each time.

She is excited about the unique theme for a cookbook she’s creating: cooking for one. Whether one chooses to be single, a widow or separated, Delores believes that one is not such a lonely number, especially if good food keeps you company. Thanks to her belief, gone are the nights when one eats instant food over the kitchen sink.

She is also fascinated by local ingredients and would like to explore working with ingredients like desiccated coconut, which she says is different from what she uses back in the States. Even our powdered sugar is different, and she attributes the difference to humidity.

Delores is a genius at what she does, all because of a great love for food and beauty. Above all, I find her a warm soul. I shall make it a point to visit her this summer in New York as I look forward to taking cooking classes, which I enrolled in at the Culinary Institute of America where she also teaches.

And to all aspiring food stylists out there willing to follow in her footsteps, the formula is this: Have a taste for great food, creative flair, patience, a meticulous personality, and a passion for hard work. Pretty soon, you just might create culinary magic that looks spellbinding as it is delicious to eat!

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E-mail the author at henysison@pacific.net.ph