Styling is in the details

MANILA, Philippines - I never thought that any-one in the world would ever painstakingly remove hairs from a raspberry. It had never crossed my mind that that an un-depilated raspberry looked as ugly as a beautiful woman with unshaven legs on camera.

This is the extent of Delores Custer’s food-styling techniques. Not one detail is missed, not one wily raspberry hair is left, only beautiful smooth, undulating bright fuchsia flesh, plump and juicy, utterly enticing.

As someone who loves food, who loves to cook and who loves all the sights and sounds from the kitchen to the plate, it was extremely eye-opening to learn purely about food aesthetics. When I serve what I cook, I think more about color and texture rather than composition and geometry. But when styling food for a shoot, it’s a different ball game. No one is going to really eat that food and all’s fair in love and food photography, so by all means, get that image looking delicious. Food coloring? Screws? Marbles? Glue? A totally unsavory blend of strange chemicals goes into keeping a frozen margarita “frozen” for days even out of the freezer!

Delores is a rather jolly woman, who knows her craft and is generous about sharing her technique. She writes in her book Food Styling that ever since she helped her teachers out in sixth grade, she knew she wanted to be a teacher. She leaves no secret unshared, even specifying what brand of ice cream scoopers to buy, despite it being a discontinued retro brand from the ’70s. She’s friendly and thorough and I’m extremely impressed by the mass of information she has acquired throughout the years. Her book is like the bible of food-styling techniques. These things back in the day couldn’t be learned in schools, nor did they have books. Food stylists back in the 1960s and 1970s had to create their own techniques, figure out which tools to use and so forth. From then until now, the look and feel of food has evolved tremendously.

I’ll be honest, though: overly perfect-looking food is suspicious to me. If that turkey looks like it’s spent its summer in St. Tropez bronzing itself on the beach with Brigitte

Bardot and comes out without a single wrinkle on its back, I would think twice about whatever is being sold to me. Show me a beautifully wrinkled and crisp turkey, with burnt parts and uneven specks of pepper and seasoning, the roasting pan caramelized with juices … I can smell it, taste it, my mouth is salivating. Delores pointed out that there is a stark difference between advertisements and editorials. Magazines and cookbooks have gone in the direction of naturalism, whereas publicity and ad campaigns, depending on what product they’re selling, still demand perfection.

Then there’s ethics. How far do you go to enhance the products you’re selling? In 1968, Campbell’s Soup Company was sued because someone spotted clear marbles in the picture. They used clear marbles to prop up vegetables so they wouldn’t sink to the bottom. Since then the US has placed strict guidelines about false advertising, making sure that you truly use the product you’re selling. Everything else around is relative. You could use the rubber milk splashes when you’re selling cereal because it’s not the milk that you’re pushing.

Custer showed us a rather interesting video clip for Domino’s Pizza. It explained the whole process of making that classic pizza commercial, where you pull a slice out and all these delicious strands of melted cheese pull away.  To get this seemingly simple shot they have a pizza maker on the set, a pizza puller … they need to screw everything else down. Yes, literally bolting down the other parts of the pizza so it wouldn’t pull away. There were tons of lights, props and even someone sifting through the perfect strands of grated cheese. At the end of it all, the pizzaiolo says, all that trouble to shoot pizza. “Just shoot it as it comes out of the oven! It looks terrific!” Although somewhat exaggerated, the video was actually an ad for Domino’s inviting customers to send in a shot of their pizza when delivered to them — cute idea, natural and very much like what I believe. Well-cooked food looks good as it is … just a few smart tweaks here and there is enough.

I admire Delores’ flexibility and her ability to keep thinking forward. It can be easy to get stuck in old-school techniques and principles of food styling, but she herself represents not only the fundamentals but also innovation! Very few people can say that. I would say she’s like the Madonna of the food industry — changing with the trends, breaking the mold, keeping things interesting and relevant. Just as Like a Virgin is so different from Music, Custer can style a perfect cheeseburger just as well as a half-eaten one and still make it juicy and enticing. I highly doubt she would ever wear a Galliano corset, but she did agree to wear my tortellini crown!