What’s a Food Stylist?
I get this question a lot, especially at holiday parties or gatherings where I’m the new guy...
“So where do you work?”
I typically answer simply. “I’m self employed.”
They lean in, or look at me with the sideways head tilt like a German Shepherd puppy. They’re actually interested, so they try to dig deeper… “So what do you do?”
That’s when I drop the smoke bomb of confusion. “I’m a professional food stylist.”
When I started back in 2013, it was really hard for me to even explain food styling. Most people mistook me for a professional food photographer, or thought I was a chef that also happened to be a photographer.
So I knew I had to narrow it down to a simple clean sentence to explain the big question: What is a Professional Food Stylist and what do they do? Here’s what I came up with:
Professional Food Stylists make the food for commercials and commercial photography.
I’ve heard it put another way (and I wish I had come up with it myself):
“I’m a makeup artist for hamburgers.”
Pretty cool huh?
Once people realize that I’m the one that makes the burgers that go on menus look so pretty, I’m often forced to acknowledge that, yes, I am the magician that made that burger on the menu look way better than it looked once you got it.
For your dinner, I do apologize, but only to an extent… because that means I did a great job! You ate with your eyes and ordered that burger because it looked so fantastic.
And even though I am that food wizard, there was other sorcery that made that picture-perfect irresistible burger, too.
Food stylists work with professional food photographers, prop stylists, creative directors, and food brands to make the magic happen.
Our goal is to make you want that food... and we do a pretty great job.
Professional food styling comes in many forms. It can be a commercial, editorial work in magazines, packaging for food brands, recipe images, social media images, menu boards…