Dessert First

What Else Has Been Baking in the Oven

I thought I would take a moment to update my dear readers on what other food-related events have transpired recently in my life. First off, my second article has been published in Edible East Bay! You may remember that I toured Charles Chocolates' new factory and store a while back; now the full story plus photos I snapped of the production line are in the Fall 2007 issue of Edible East Bay.

This issue is filled with fascinating articles, from a history of cattle ranching in the East Bay to a profile of a local beekeeper and artisan honey maker, to a tour of Hangar One, an innovative vodka distillery on the little island of Alameda. Incidentally, Hangar One is where I went this weekend and where I took the top photo: they make the striking Buddha's Hand citron vodka that Alice Medrich recommends for her Citron Vodka chocolates in her new book, and they also make an absolutely divine dessert wine:

   

Just be careful when pronouncing that name aloud in polite company!

If you aren't near a copy of this issue of Edible East Bay, they will soon post up electronic versions of the articles on their website. You can also read my earlier profile of Charles Chocolates.

Second, I'm happy to announce that Sarah Phillips of Baking 911, one of the most comprehensive and helpful baking sites available on the net, invited me to contribute to her monthly newsletter. Sarah is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and a fabulously accomplished baker: I am amazed at the amount of information on her site, from recipes to step by step tutorials for making just about anything in pastry. I'm very pleased to be part of Baking911, and for the November newsletter I've created a recipe for a chocolate caramel pie - a wonderful addition to the holiday table!

In order to view the newsletter, you will need to become a premium member of Baking911. Membership is $24 a year, but Sarah is currently running a promotion where membership will only cost $14 if you join before the end of the year. Read here to see all the benefits of becoming a premium member. Even if you don't join Baking911, I hope you still find it a useful baking resource - I've found many of her articles helpful when researching a recipe or pastry technique.

Finally, the capper to a really lovely weekend: I got to see the advertising cards for Pâtisserie Philippe - with my photography on them! You may remember me rhapsodizing about Philippe's peerless pastry; I recently did a photo shoot for his holiday line and now the Thanksgiving advertising card is out!

There's just something about the tangible realness of a photo on smooth, substantial stock that's completely different from an image on a computer screen. If you have MooCards, you know what I mean. I have to admit it was quite thrilling to see my photos hung in the store windows and on the beautifully produced cards. I was also very relieved when Philippe told me he thought the pictures looked "like (he) wanted to eat them," - so glad I'd done justice to his creations!

   

If you live anywhere near Pâtisserie Philippe, I urge you to pick up one of his desserts for Thanksgiving; I can personally assure you they are all fantastic. If you want a closer look, descriptions along with some more of my photos are on his holiday menu, and you'll get a bonus peek at a shot I did of his Yule log!

You may have noticed the outrageously beautiful apple tart on the front of Philippe's card; he gave me one to take home after the photo shoot and I ate about half of that! Check back later this week to see my humble take on this apple tart!

Tagged with: Edible East Bay + Charles Chocolates + Baking911+ Hangar One+ Patisserie Philippe

Bite This!

Back from Vacation: Not-So-Good News and Good News

Interior of Dushanbe Teahouse, Boulder, Colorado

picture source   

Hello!

I'm back from Colorado, which was beautiful in a dry, stark, majestic mountains in the clouds sort of way, and Kansas, which was beautiful in a humid, lushly green, sipping lemonade by the lake as the sun sets sort of way. It's good to get away from home once in a while and see what else is out there.

The above picture is of the Dushanbe Teahouse in Boulder, Colorado, a gorgeous traditional Tajik teahouse, or choihona, given to Boulder by its sister of Dushanbe in Tajikstan. All of the parts of the teahouse, from the elaborately carved ceiling panels to the statues in the interior fountain, were made in Tajikstan and shipped over. It's a stunning, one-of-a-kind place to have a cup of afternoon tea and imagine yourself in ancient Persia - the tea list is excellent, as well as the rest of the menu.

My return from the midwest was supposed to be good news for my sadly non-updated blog, but unfortunately, bad news awaited me: I came home to discover that my computer had decided to break down in my absence (perhaps reprimanding me for my lack of care? I dote lovingly over my kitchen equipment but rather much less so on my poor computer - I guess it got tired of the lack of attention) It is in the process of getting fixed, so some of the posts I had been planning to do on my return may not make it up until next week.

In the meantime, I'll share some good news that brightened my return: I found out that Schmap Travel Guides has included some of my food photos in the new edition of their Paris guide. For those of you who haven't discovered their website, Schmap's digital guides make trip planning an interactive, surprisingly fun experience. Each city guide is linked with a Google map that shows all of the city's attractions, restaurants, hotels, and other items of interest so you can easily see where everything is located.

If you look to the right sidebar of this page, you'll see a Schmap of Paris - you can move around, zoom in, and investigate the listings on the map. If something interests you, say the ice cream shop Berthillon, you can either click on "Photos" to see some images of the store or click "more..." to go the Schmap description of the place. Pretty ingenious, no?

It was a pleasant surprise when Schmap contacted me and asked if some of my photos of Paris could be used for their entries. I am sure it will come as no shock to any of you that all my photos are of food! If you are curious, here are the photos they selected:

Dalloyau - their service is impeccable, their opera cake to die for. Even though I only bought one slice of cake, they wrapped it up carefully and thanked me as politely as the customers buying boxes of macarons and petit fours.

Fauchon - the displays at their store on Place de la Madeleine are always nose-to-the-window fabulous.

Pierre Herme - of course a must visit for every lover of pastry in Paris!

Pierre Herme again - Schmap has currently misattributed this photo to another Paris icon, fashion house Hermès. Honestly, I think I'd rather be spending my money on some of Pierre's macarons than one of those scarves...

Chez Michel - one of my favorite little bistros in Paris, just blocks away from the Gare du Nord. I had some divine foie gras there, as well as a lovely Paris-Brest.

The photos are all from my trip to Paris a couple of years ago...I was so thrilled to be there and wanted to document every pastry that I saw. The photos were also  how I met the wonderful Carol, who confessed to finding my pictures on Flickr and loving them - now I'm the one who goes to her site and envies her trips to France and the beautiful watercolors she produces! What a lot of magic Paris can produce!

And finally, I learned that the photo I submitted to the June 2007 edition of DMBLGIT won in a couple of categories: tying for second in Edibility and placing third overall!  Many thanks to Bea for hosting - if you go to her post you will see she made cute little bar graphs showing the performance of the top ten in each category - I'm pleased to note I actually did show up in all of the categories. I need to thank Helene for providing the inspiration for the St. Honoré cakes, otherwise I wouldn't have had the photo to submit!

Back to the kitchen for me...hopefully by next week I'll be able to share my creations again with you all!

Tagged with: DMBLGIT + Schmap + Dushanbe Teahouse

Bite This!

I'm in Edible East Bay!

Please allow me to share a very exciting bit of news: I have been published in a magazine! Edible East Bay, a quarterly magazine that focuses on local and seasonal foods in the East Bay (for those of you not from around Northern California, that would be the area east of San Francisco - think Berkeley, Oakland, Walnut Creek, Livermore.) has just come out with its Spring issue.

My contribution is an article on Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe, a little shop in Oakland's upscale Rockridge area that I've mentioned before, and where I've been making pastries in the kitchen for the last few months. I'm pleased to provide a behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of the croissants, muffins, and other sweets that customers order with their hot chocolate, as well as give a little history on how this haven for chocoholics came to be.

Edible East Bay is available by subscription or it can be found free around the East Bay. If you're not able to get your hands on a copy, you can still take a look at the cover of the issue above, which shows...yes! Bittersweet's very own Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream, photographed by me.

It's been a very sweet January, indeed!

Tagged with: Edible East Bay + Bittersweet Chocolate Cafe

Bite This!

Food and Wine Photo Contest Winners

Food & Wine has selected the winners of their food photography contest, and they are gorgeous! I'm humbled to note that my entry was selected as one of 25 honorable mentions, and is part of the photo gallery on Food and Wine's site. For someone with basically zero training in photography and who is pretty much learning on the (blogging) job, this is certainly a thrill!

Be sure to check out all the photos - they are all lovely and very inspiring - I'm off to keep improving my photography!

A Double DMBLGIT Surprise

I received a pleasant surprise in the middle of last week when I discovered the winners for September's Does My Blog Look Good in This had been announced by Katherine of ToastPoint- and I was sharing the top spot with the lovely Bea of La Tartine Gourmande! Of course, Bea is one of the standard-setters for gorgeous (not to mention prolific) food photography in the blogosphere, so I have to say I'm quite humbled to be mentioned alongside her!

And, just to round out the weekend, I came home to find that Emma of Laughing Gastronome had put up the winners for the October round of DMBLGIT - and I had been chosen for Most Originality in a Photo! That setup was a stroke of luck - I had just purchased the polka-dotted placemat the weekend before, and when I made the meringues, they fit perfectly with the dotty scheme! Another secret - the sorbets started melting as I was shooting and when I removed the meringues, there were red and orange drips all over the placemat! Thank goodness it washed out!

Be sure to check out the other winners on Katherine's and Emma's sites! Many thanks again to them for hosting these rounds of DMBLGIT and for organizing the judging- I'm immensely flattered to have been chosen out of so many beautiful and drool-inducing entries!

Tagged with: DMBLGIT

Bite This!

Photographing Vanilla Bean Lemon Cake with Raspberries

Although I have not succeeded in reducing my pile of recipes to try - on the contrary, it seems to grow longer all the time - sometimes it's nice to revisit an old recipe and remember what you loved so much about it (Not to mention all the times my friends and family get fixated on one of my desserts and insist on it over and over again, despite all attempts to entice them with new creations). This vanilla bean lemon cake is from a recipe by the Barefoot Contessa and is one of my favorites - I've made and devoured it happily many a time. It is a gorgeous example of pound cake: a moist, velvety crumb under a soft golden crust, with a rich, tangy-sweet lemon flavor (it smells so fabulous straight out of the oven). I added some raspberries this time to celebrate summer - not only do they add some pretty color, they make the cake even moister, and the raspberries pair quite well with the lemon. A perfect bite for tea-time.

In trying to shoot pictures of the cake, I was inspired by a talk I attended the night before at the Apple Store - a very fortuitous last-minute discovery of a presentation on food photography! As the Apple Store is but a short walk from where I live, and I had no plans for that hour, it was perfect timing all around.

The store was packed - although I should not be surprised that San Francisco would have an abundance of photography enthusiasts, foodies, and/or both! I was lucky enough to sit near the front and watch a food photography session with food photography Caren Alpert and food stylist Basil Friedman. They had a basic setup with a Canon EOS 30D, a backdrop and a light with diffuser, and proceeded to take a picture of a bowl of pasta. Of course the camera was hooked up to an Apple laptop so all the shots could be instantly projected onto a screen for the audience to see:)

A shot of the setup. You can tell from the poor quality that the lighting really wasn't that good in that part of the store! Unfortunately, I could not get a copy of the final shot, but go to Alpert's and Friedman's websites for some beautiful, mouthwatering examples of their work.

It was fascinating to watch the progress of the shoot, as Alpert and Friedman discussed props, angle, and placement. While Alpert has the photographer's background and Friedman the chef's training, the shoot was clearly a collaborative effort as they discussed whether the colors of the napkins went with the food or how the pasta should be arranged.

It was also interesting to hear their insights into professional food photography - for example, how Alpert will often shoot photos for with deliberate blank areas, so that text can be placed there. She stated how she always shoots "full-page", because if she shoots a picture that can be shrunken and put on a corner of the page, that's what will happen many times! Alpert also said that many magazines have not gone to digital photos yet, which was a surprise to me. Responding to a question from the audience about depth of field, Alpert indicated that many magazines are moving away from the shallower DOF that is so popular now and towards shots with more of the background/surroundings in focus. She did note that she still prefers the shallower DOF, but will shoot both ways for clients for them to choose.

Friedman shared some funny stories and tricks about how to make food look good - when asked about the dilemma of shooting steam, he replied that a classic trick was to have someone smoking a cigarette on set who would blow smoke into the shot! He also remembered a shoot involving coffee where they made the room as cold as possible and brought in a very hot cup of coffee- which created visible steam for about 30 seconds. Perhaps not the most comfortable of shoots!

In attending the talk, I actually came away impressed with the quality of photography to be found on blogs these days. Professional food photography shoots have oodles of technical equipment and gadgets, a warehouse worth of props, and team of artists - the photographer, the food stylist, the prop stylist, and all the assistants - to create those gorgeous pictures you see on magazine covers. But I look at what Bea, Nicky, J, and so many others I don't have room to list have done all on their own and I think those shots are just as wonderful. In the end, if you have a passion for what you do, it will show through!

Vanilla Bean Lemon Cake with Raspberries

adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

1 3/4 sticks butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

Zest from 4 lemons

4 large eggs, room temperature

3 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1-2 cups raspberries, depending on how many you want

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar together in a mixer until light colored and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add in the lemon zest.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Combine the lemon juice, buttermilk, and vanilla in a small bowl.

Add the dry and liquid mixtures to the mixing bowl alternately, beginning and ending with the dry mixture. Mix just until everything is combined.

Pour batter into pans.  This batter with fill two 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 2 1/2 loaf pans, or about (24) 3 1/2 x 2 x 1/2 mini loaves, or about (16) 3 1/2 diameter mini bundt pans as pictured - it's a lot of batter!

Place raspberries on top of the batter, and using a spoon or spatula, gently swirl them into the batter. I've found that if I fold them into the batter sooner, they tend to sink to the bottom of the cake. This method allows for a more even distribution.

Bake until a tester comes out clean -about 45 minutes for a large loaf, 25-30 minutes for minis. Let cool on wire rack.

Tagged with: vanilla bean lemon cake + food photography

Food Photography Workshop

Last weekend I went up to Sonoma, not for the wine but for a food photography workshop being held at VIVA, the Culinary Institute of Florence and Italian Cultural Center in Sebastopol. Surprised that such a place was out in wine country? So was I, but it is a beautiful little building designed in that sleek, cool, modern aesthetic Italy is so good at, offering an intriguing array of classes in Italian culture, from language to food to wine.

The two-afternoon workshop was taught by Cosimo Bargellini, an experienced photographer whose work has appeared in many publications, including cookbooks, and who teaches food photography in Florence. He was funny, charming, eager to share his knowledge but also just as eager to have us students find our own vision. While he imparted some basic technical and compositional concepts about photographing food, he emphasized that the most important thing was for us to not be afraid to experiment and learn what looks good and what does not.

Because of the limited time and small class size, he kept the class quite informal and more of a workshop than a class.  The first afternoon consisted of critique and analysis of slides showing his former students' work, and some discussion on what makes a good picture. But the second day he basically let us loose in front of his setup and had us just start taking pictures. Although we were all rather nervous at first, probably hoping he would give us some more instruction, he told us with a smile that if he set everything up for us "we would just be taking his pictures."

And after we overcame our stage fright and started taking pictures (although some people with fancier equipment used their own cameras, Cosimo let us use his camera - what a chance to use some high-end equipment!) he would step in making observations, giving us pointers on where to focus, what type of lighting would bring out the texture of the food, how using reflectors would improve the lighting, etc.

The teacher at work. The setup is not that elaborate, mostly because he was traveling from Italy to Montreal for a conference and therefore did not bring much of his equipment. Normally his camera (a Fuji Finepix, I think) would be hooked up to a computer so the picture could be viewed more easily; here we had to rely on the viewfinder. There are two standing lights, one with a diffuser, off the side, and also a third light being used for strong side lighting of the subject. There is also a gold reflector being used to give a warmer cast to the food.

Is it surprising that we were still able to achieve quite good pictures with the simple, impromptu setup? Cosimo believed that while better cameras will produce better pictures in general, it is not necessary to get the most expensive camera or tons of equipment. With a couple of lights and reflectors, and interesting papers from the art store for backdrops, you can get some nice results! Here are some of my favorites from my shooting session:

A chocolate mousse dessert (another student brought the food, but I did the plating!:) ) I liked how the red plate and green background matched elements of the dish.  Also notice the off-center placement and cropping.  Cosimo is a big proponent of "not centered", as he calls it, because having the subject smack dab in the center of the picture is usually much less exciting and dynamic.  At one point I jokingly asked him if there were any straight lines in his house:)

French onion soup.  We used a wood board to enhance the rustic feel, and strong side lighting to show off the texture of the cheese. Of course now I also notice the wet spot on the board; these pictures have not been finetuned in Photoshop!

A simple pasta dish.  The point of this exercise is that the wonderful golden color of the pasta is from putting some saffron in the boiling water; without it, the cooked pasta looks rather anemic and unappealing. Do the experiment yourself - it's amazing!  This was just one of the little tricks that Cosimo showed us. In the world of food photography, there are many techniques used to help  make food look more appealing for shooting, but which usually render the food inedible. While Cosimo admitted that sometimes it is unavoidable, he prefers to work with the actual food as much as possible and not use fake ice cream or chemical sprays because afterwards no one can eat the food - he is a true gourmand!

Brown sugar pecan cheesecakes and a study in depth of field. I am very fond of the "endless rows of food" shots. The gold reflector was used here to make the cheesecakes look even more golden and luscious.

Crème brûlée. I liked the reflection of the ramekin on the black dish. See the picture above of Cosimo for what the whole dish looked like. This was actually part of a set brought in by another student; I have to say one of the best parts was having so many fun props to work with.  I need to hit the markets more and build up my collection!

Another cheesecake shot. I really like the colors here, plus they did such a beautiful job with the fruit!

A word on all the food in the shots: with the exception of the pasta, all of it was brought in by students on their own initiative! We were told that all the food would be provided, yet some students decided to contribute their own creations - I am only sorry I didn't bring anything of mine to see how it could look when photographed professionally!  We were very lucky to have Susan, who has been making and selling cheesecakes for 20 years, and Roger, chef/owner of La Gare, a beautiful French restaurant voted "Most Romantic" in Sonoma Country, bringing in so many of their creations for us to play with!

In all, I was very impressed with VIVA and the class.  I wish the workshop could have been a longer-running class so we could have had more time to learn about technique and refine our photographers' eyes, but those two days were wonderful creative sessions that opened my mind to how we can capture the beautiful food we make, to remember long after it has been consumed.

VIVA

7160 Keating Ave

Sebastopol, CA 95472

1-800-655-8965

Note: There do not appear to be any photography courses in the near future, but I was told Cosimo does fly in from time to time to teach.  There are also many food and wine classes being offered on their calendar. The VIVA staff is exceptionally friendly and gracious and will happily answer all your questions.

Tagged with: food photography + VIVA