ave mario

slate magazine recently had an article questioning the "somber" style adopted by gourmet magazine regarding its cover photography.

i think the style is more reverent than depressing... there is such the new 'cult of personality' that suddenly surrounds chefs and all things culinary, thanks to education from public television, beautiful celebrity cookbooks spun off from food network 24/7 and the millions spent on fabulous/not so fabulous new restaurants; there has been a popularizing of once-exotic ingredients and utensils... (i remember being laughed at in college because i actually had a garlic press among my random thrift-store kitchen acoutrements. now i'm press-less but have some really wicked kitchen knives to chop garlic by hand = much more craft and art, right?)

this is one of my shots that i took in my kitchen. is it depressing? good, because i was in a sad mood when i shot it.

but seriously, i think that we're all getting a little too sophisticated for the lame, straight-on, full focus shots above-the-menu at the noodle shop in the mall. (unless you are a certain japanese bistro in scottsdale.)

cooking has become so commercialized, so even wal*mart sells satay skewers (under horrid flourescent lighting i might add)

as chefs get more and more sophisticated, as restaurants spend more and more money decorating their spaces so that the guests enjoy the exact experience the proprietors want to pair with their food and wine, we need to be able to show that reverence and complexity that everyone has given to very basic needs.