Food Photography- Revisited.
For some, food is a necessity for survival; a basic need for one's body to function.
However, my relationship with food is based on sheer reverence and love for food, and how an explosion of emotions conquer my senses when my tastebuds experience flavours and textures harmonising.
Pork Adobo
My love for food started from a very young age and I can still remember the aromas wafting from my grandmother's kitchen whilst she conjured up multiple dishes for our weekly family gathering. I would go to the kitchen under the pretence of wanting to help out in the kitchen just to get the first taste of the braised meat or silky congee she had painstakingly prepared even before we had breakfast. It took her no time to see through my act and capitalised on my greediness to gain a willing kitchen help. Memories of standing on a short wooden stool help my 2 year old self to gain some height in the kitchen to help in peeling, stirring, and tasting are ones I hold fondly in my heart.
Three Cup Chicken or San bei ji/ 三杯鸡
Two decades later, my love for photography developed and I found myself getting food photography assignments where I got paid to photograph (and eat the food!) for each successful project. My joy was short-lived, as a customer who was a mutual friend failed to pay me after using my photos for the shop's menu and advertising put me off taking future photography assignments for years.
Having stepped away from food photography, I continued getting photography assignments for humans and pets alike until recently, a colleague at work decided to create a recipe book for someone who retired just before the pandemic hit. This project took almost 1.5 years for us to coordinate our schedules to cook, photograph, and test out the recipes before sending it out to print! Seeing these photos of a physical book reminded me of my passion once more and hopefully this year brings about more projects of such!
The book's cover page
My all time favourite- Pasteis de Nata
Some desserts from the book