The Tweezer Times

By Barb Freda, Food Editor, Florida Table (www.floridatable.com)

Last March 2007, my dream job presented itself. After more than 10 years as a freelance writer, a fellow writer pointed me in the direction of a well-established publishing company. This company had just issued a test magazine to the local market, a magazine about the regional food scene, taking a look at food, chefs, restaurants, markets, trends, etc. The first issue went out without a single food person involved on the editing side, and errors made it into print. But it became a hit anyway, and the publishers decided to proceed with it as a quarterly magazine.

I chatted on the phone with the editor. She and I hit it off, but I remained wary. I asked her to send me a copy of the magazine, which she promised to overnight. When I opened the packet the next day, a glossy, beautifully photographed, full-color magazine was in my hands. I already wanted the job.

I did some research on editing jobs, decided what I needed to make and how to pitch myself. I met my boss and the publishers, who didn’t flinch at my asking price, the fact that I wanted to be a consultant, not an employee and the fact that I only wanted to work half-time. I was hired on the spot. When I was introduced around the office, I found out that someone had been hired before me.

She had lasted one day. I began to get a little nervous.

When I signed on, I was told I would be responsible for editing one section of the book (as magazines are called in the industry) and for reviewing recipes before they went into print, ferreting out errors. Of course for some things, that also meant testing recipes and tweaking them to make for the best presentations, etc.

For our first big photo shoot of pumpkin recipes, we used a stylist who came recommended. I was worried, because I knew our sensibilities were not in synch. But the shoot went professionally and smoothly: we learned about “pre-pro” and petty cash for food (I certainly had been expecting her to expense the food, but not asking for money ahead of time). We were surprised when the bill came with a kit rental fee and mileage for the two days of the shoot. No, she hadn’t used a contract, and although we all let her know we were new as clients, she hadn’t done much to explain how it would all go.

When the second shoot came up, the art director and photographer asked if I could just do the styling myself. I said yes.

I am confident in my culinary skills. I went to culinary school and worked for nearly 10 years in professional kitchens. I worked well with the photographer and the art director, and though we were all neophytes in this arena, the art director knew what she wanted, and I felt confident I could give her what she needed in the food.

Since then we’ve had four or five shoots with no major mishaps, and we’ve done some tough stuff that I had to figure out on my own: ice cream, sorbet and roast chicken (although by the time the roast chicken came up, I was in Lisa’s online class* and pestered her with questions). Because of my former career as a chef and a caterer, I already had a basic stylist’s kit, and I knew how to pack and transport food and how to work at difficult locations (I catered events in the middle of fields with propane-fueled ovens).

Because this is a food magazine, I am adamant that the food we shoot NOT be doctored. In fact, on that first shoot, the one shot that got doctored didn’t make it into the magazine–it looked so fake that I couldn’t approve it for print. Lucky for us, the trend in food photography is toward the natural, so a bit of melting on that ice cream and some uneven crumb in a cake? Looks great.

So my perfect job became even more perfect because I am getting invaluable experience I never expected to get. And I welcome it.

As food editor now, I look at every recipe with a critical food AND artistic eye. I find myself wondering how it will photograph. What can I do to the written recipe to make sure the end result is even prettier? I am developing a lot of the recipes myself, too, so I find I can really determine how a piece will look by the recipes I decide to develop. Of course, I am also thinking of how we will shoot the food as I’m doing all this, too.

I also study, STUDY food photography I see in the big guns–Martha, Saveur, Delicious, Real Simple, Gourmet, Bon Appétit. If I see something new as a garnish, I want to use it. When we did our chicken shoot, I lost sleep because I thought it wasn’t pretty enough. Of course, when I got back to the office and saw the photos? I was wrong. They aren’t perfect, but they are great. And I’m not looking for perfection, just excellence.

*Barb is referring to Editor Lisa Golden Schroeder’s Food Styling 101 class, an online course offered through www.photostylingworkshops.com.