Over the years my friend Carron has bought me some very beautiful cookery books, and boy do I love a cookery book! Yesterday Carron presented me with 'What Katie Ate.....recipes and other bits and bobs' written and photographed by Katie Quinn Davies.
Katie began her career as a graphic designer, she decided to combine her creative background with her love of food to become a food stylist and photographer after her mother's death in 2009.
To launch herself into the public eye Katie started a blog which was to serve as an online portfolio, 'What Katie Ate' was born and became an Internet phenomenon.
Katie's book is full of simple and seasonal recipes but the appeal is in the photography. Having shared a studio with a food photographer during her career as a designer, Katie understood first hand the meticulous preparation required for food photography.
Undertaking the role of food stylist and photographer herself, Katie quickly learnt a few of the vagaries of the food photography game. Firstly that you need to buy ten times the amount of food than you actually need, just to get that one 'perfect' photo.
The seductive photos we see in cookery books are science projects masquerading as culinary delights. The tools of the food photography trade are used to make us believe we can create such delectable dishes. By illusory sleight of hand photographers present us with food we amateur cooks struggle to emulate.
Tricks such as using deodorant to add a desirable frosty veneer, brown food polish smeared on raw meat to give it colour, white glue used as a substitute for milk or cream and sponges, cotton wool balls and tampons, soaked in water and microwaved to create steam, are just a few of the common practices used in the trade.
Beautiful food photos depend largely on lighting, indirect natural light creates the perfect glow, but for the home cook this isn't always possible. Professionals have the advantage of studios full of photography equipment often worth thousands of pounds.
Picture the scene at my house, Glenn and Bert are sat at the table, hungry after a days work, knife and fork poised in anticipation. I'm in the kitchen, fuggy from all the heat and steam, desperately trying to tweak the food on our plates before rushing around the house, plate in hand, trying to find the best light, increasingly difficult during dark winter evenings! Since writing this blog I don't think we've eaten a meal that hasn't gone cold due to all the faffing around I have to do to get a half decent photo.
So, for those of you who have critiqued my photography maybe this will give you a better understanding of why my photos are not professional looking. They are however 'real', as Katie says: 'burgers for example are one of the trickiest to get looking good on camera (seventeen cold burgers, anyone?') I of course find it abhorrent that there is so much food waste in the quest for the perfect hero shot.
Katie's book is certainly one I shall treasure, I love the recipes and the stunning photography which has definitely inspired me, one day I would love to create my own tome full of photos, stories and recipes.........here's hoping.
Getting back to Katie's comment about burgers being tricky to photograph I had to give it a go. We have little rituals in our house eg hotchpotch Monday (a pie made out of Sunday dinner leftovers) Christmas dinner Sunday, in the run up to Christmas Glenn will say of every Sunday roast dinner: 'this would be the perfect Christmas dinner.' And burger Friday. Burgers are one of Bert's favourites, possibly because he was virtually denied them as a child, quite often I get a text on a Friday morning from Bert asking 'are we having burger Friday?'
A good burger needs great meat, I always get my burger meat at my butchers and I have found the best combination is skirt steak minced with streaky bacon, the fat from the bacon adds juiciness and holds the burger together. I don't add eggs or breadcrumbs and I add different accompaniments after the burger is cooked eg chilli sauce, fried egg, raw onion slices or fried onion rings, salad leaves, tomato, maybe even cheese depending on how healthily we've eaten during the week and how indulgent I feel.
Classic burger
Recipe
4 generous burgers
600g skirt steak
100g streaky bacon
Olive oil
4 brioche burger buns
Ask your butcher to mince the steak with the bacon
Form the meat into 4 patties and keep them in the fridge until required
Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan, cook burgers over a medium heat until well browned on both sides
Lower the heat and cook for a further 2-3 minutes each side
Serve on toasted brioche buns with accompaniments of your choice
If you don't combine the bacon with the steak you could add grilled bacon to your finished burger
'It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it.'
- Julia Child
Love Donna xxxxxxxx
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