Flatbread with olive oil and balsamic

© Copyright 2010-2011, GastroFOTOnomia | ShootMyDish | Manny Rodriguez   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

J. Jo's "Better Than Sex Risotto"!

That is what husband Tom said to wife Jan Jones one New Years eve after tasting her mushroom risotto for the first time.  That was many moons ago and Tom is still around, so I am sure those were the best words he could find at the moment to compliment her fine cooking on that festive evening.  Jan Jones is our Shoot My Dish Kitchen Goddess for this month.  Check out the rest of the story and her, at the very least, aphrodisiacal recipe in our Shoot My Dish section.  

© Copyright 2011, GastroFOTOnomia | ShootMyDish | Manny Rodriguez   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Insalata Caprese with Heirloom Tomatoes

© Copyright 2011, GastroFOTOnomia | ShootMyDish | Manny Rodriguez   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Maggie's Flan

The Cuban Flan.  Every country south of us from Mexico to Argentina claims to have invented the Flan, and they all have their unique yummy variations.  What makes it Cuban is, well, first it's made by a Cuban Goddess, and second, this flan is richer and more decadent than other variations.  And that is what Maggie does, she makes everything more decadent!  

See the rest of the shots here.

 

Food stylist, Yvonne Clark.  Prop styling and art direction, Kristen Butler.

Craft Restaurant in Dallas

I don't eat at the super fancy restaurants that often.  Beleive it or not, I am not a very adventurous eater. However, I try to go to Craft as often as possible.  I think Tim Bevins is a genius! Maybe I should give credit to Tom Colicchio.  Either way the food at Craft is simply perfect.  And the way he plates everything is just picture perfect.  These images were taken with my camera phone, available light, my hand shadowing some of the overhead directly above me.  Eating great food while taking a picture of it, life is good, no?

Chocolate Art by Katherine Clapner

 Holiday In Cambodia from Dude Sweet Chocolate.

PBJ

I don't like peanut butter, but I would like to.

Cebolla Colorada

Red Onion for those of you north of Miami.   Shot with my camera phone while food stylist was prepping for a shot.

Doughnuts, A Bakers Dozen

This was breakfast this morning. I only had two, and they were the plain cake doughnuts, so a little less sugar, ok? And it wasn't my fault, I didn't buy them either.  My amazing food stylist, Erin Quon (see her website here) and my fabulous prop stylist, Heidi Adams (see her website here) decided to brings doughnuts for our last day of shooting Neiman Marcus' Holiday catalog.  So sweet of them.  The funny part is that almost all of the crew pretends not to give in to the temptation, yet by noon about 24 doughnuts (and the pigs in a blanket) were gone.  I never saw a single person eating them.  Amazing!  ;-)   Does this happen elsewhere?

_______________________________________________________

The doughnuts were shot on wax paper, simulated diffused window light on the left. No fill light.

The final look of the image was achieved with editing software.  it's something you just have to play with till you get what you see in your head.  Ansel Adams talked a lot about learning how to previsualize your final print/image. It comes with experience, but it is something you should always be doing while you're shooting. Do it long enough and it becomes second nature.  

It didnt take a long time for me to photograph and edit the 13 doughnuts. Maybe 45 minutes total.  For my taste, if it doesn't happen fast, it's not going to happen. Period.

Banana Time

They were there and I just had to shoot them.