Lately I’ve been helping my mom build her food business by photographing her food whenever I get the chance to do it. I’m having a lot of fun with it, actually. Last night she brought me over a Hot or Cold Chicken Salad & Mango Curry Chicken Salad to photograph (& eat!! yay!). Initially I was slightly puzzled on how to really make these dishes shine.
The Hot or Cold Chicken Salad, in particular, is an improved basic chicken salad casserole dish, which are generally SUPER yummy, but not very pretty. To add some interest, I did a bit of food styling & pulled out some of the water chestnuts & added a little greenery. I put all of this on one of my celery-green plates that I’ve been dying to photograph something on. Then, to add some contrast, I put tomatoes in the blurred background (the dish has red bell peppers in it, no tomatoes, so this was a bit of a fudge, but I think it still worked). While the actual food may not be as gorgeous as others, I do think it looks bright, fresh & overall pretty dang delicious.
[Hot or Cold Chicken Salad: nice big chicken chunks along with chewy wheat berries (thats the fancy term for cooked wheat), celery and water chestnuts, with a hint of lemon]
The Mango Curry Chicken Salad was MUCH easier to photograph & a lot more exciting as there is a lot of color & contrast in this dish. I plated it on a blue dish, setting everything on a lettuce leaf.
[Mango Curry Chicken Salad: curry dish, with Mango preserves, celery, grapes (red or green), and wheat berries]
To view my mom’s site/blog & see more of her yummy culinary creations, visit http://cookingwithmelanie.wordpress.com.
limelightfoodphotography.wordpress.com 