Bringing Food To Life with 3 Stellar Food Stylists

Food Styling brings food and ingredients to life, combines cooking and aesthetics, and is a visually stunning addition to any platform. Magazines, cookbooks, advertisements, websites—wherever food is shown professionally, it has most likely been staged and photographed by a food stylist. It’s all about presenting food in a desirable way and creating an image of mouth-watering food and drink. It takes sheer talent and dedication to create stellar pieces of art through food styling and photography, and whether it be styling the food that they have cooked, or styling other people’s food for photography, the options and opportunities are endless.

Food stylists are who fill our magazines and advertisements with stunning and inspiring imagery, so let’s take a look at a few of our most treasured.

Vanessa Lewis

Award-winning food photographer Vanessa Lewis is no exception when it comes to creating fresh and sophisticated imagery. With over 15 years of food photography under her belt, she has a multitude of impressive achievements, such as publishing numerous cookbooks and photographing celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Roger Vergé, not to mention French chef Paul Bocuse’s kitchen. Her beautifully styled work has been featured in various magazines, including Nadia, and her collaborations with Meadow Fresh, Fererro Rocher, Silver Fern Farms and McDonald’s have been nothing short of marvellous.

Vanessa has also written an inspirational cookbook, Little Tables: Breakfasts from Around the World, which comprises 72 breakfast recipes for kids, from 32 countries across six continents. The exceptional photography and recipes demonstrate Vanessa’s extraordinary eye for detail and aesthetic. It truly is a testament to her skill, as Vanessa is able to produce stunning imagery from modern and sleek, to country and rustic, and everything in between.

We chat with Vanessa to find out more about her career as a food, décor, and lifestyle photographer.

When did your career in food styling begin and what attracted you to the role?

I am a food photographer who sometimes styles my own work. The styling part started when I photographed my first cookbook, Little Tables, in 2014-2015 and decided to style the images for that.

What does being a food stylist mean to you?

I am no food expert, I just know what usually works visually. I work closely with the chef/cook on set, I would supply the props and together we would decide on styling that would work from a technical and visual point of view.

What does a day of work look like for you as a food stylist?

There are pre-production days: meetings with the art director, clients and the chef/cook involved, and planning the look of the shoot. Then, a shopping day to gather all of the props and items that were agreed on to use for the shoot.

What is the most rewarding aspect of working in the industry?

I love food. I have learnt so much about food preparation and food trends. I photographed three cookbooks in 2019 and they have all taught me different things about food. One was Vegful by Nadia Lim — so much more to veg than you think! Another was Summer with Simon Gault — real easy but ‘chefy’ stuff at home, and the third was for a health retreat where I learnt about pre- and probiotics, pH in food and the correct balance required for a nutritious meal.

How does your personal creativity fuel your work?

I’m always looking for a fresh way to shoot a subject. I’d often try a range of backgrounds or techniques to see what suits the subject matter (usually food) the best, given the brief. I like to try new things and turn the old on its head.

Is it a job that allows for a successful work-life balance?

Yes, I think so. It depends on how you manage it. Sometimes you have deadlines, as an example with one cookbook, I ended up shooting on Sundays which was not ideal, but I was happy to make this sacrifice.

Jane Collins

Sydney-based food stylist Jane Collins has been surrounded by food since she was a child, cooking in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother. This interest in food became a passion, and her professional career began as a formally trained chef under the likes of Kylie Kwon and Neil Perry. Having worked in some of Sydney’s top restaurants, Jane has curated exceptional skills in cooking, which has led her to forge a career in food styling. Over the past 15 years, her freelance work has landed her in leading Australian magazines such as Women’s Day, Bauer custom media magazines, Coles Magazine, Westfield Food Magazine, Weight Watchers, and many more. Jane has worked with large companies, and has also produced exquisitely styled food for Masterfoods, Muffin Break, Subway, Dolmio, Breville, and Sanitarium, among many others.

Alongside food styling, Jane has started her food blog – Sizzle and Swirl, a space to share simple and delicious recipes that can be created right from your own kitchen.

When did your career in food styling begin and what drew you to this job?

I had always been drawn to the visual aspect of food in magazines and photography. It seemed a natural progression to move into the publication industry where food stylists are employed usually on a freelance basis to style and produce images for magazines. So after 10 years of cooking for a living, I changed tack and began my new career. I started by styling a few images with a photographer called Andre Martin-whom I still work with today. I had about five images in my shiny black portfolio, and I walked the streets of Sydney, showing my work to potential publishers. Soon I was booked, and had regular jobs, with Murdoch books, ACP books, and monthly styling jobs in magazines. This was the groundwork to producing my style. I believe having the chef background and training also had me well-placed for working in food publishing. It provided me with the skills to know how food works on the plate.

Briefly tell us about working for yourself and owning your own food styling business: how did the idea come about, and what are the benefits?

I love the flexibility of working for myself. I have many repeat clients which I believe is the best compliment. Working for yourself, you can control what clients you style for, who you target in marketing, and believing in their product is essential for showcasing its worth. The benefits for my own brand shine through when you love what you produce, and it shows in the images and stories you create.

Which food companies have you worked with that stood out?

These days I mostly work for web clients, food producers, or food industry products and packaging. I started my career in traditional publishing, which was an amazing learning curve, and gave me the experience and knowledge to develop my style and fine tune my food styling. This led me to working on videos, TVCs , and social media content. I love working for Breville, their products are high quality and produce beautiful images. We produce lots of videos, and recipe cards. This makes my job easy as the food is always photo-worthy and tasty.

Outback Steakhouse has some seriously delicious burgers, which are sometimes difficult to shoot. Getting all the layers right, you need the right amount of ooze, drips, and drool-worthy deliciousness. I have also worked with Nadia Lim from My Food Bag when she was in Australia, on her books and Food Bag recipe cards. Other food clients include, KFC, Lindt Chocolate, Muffin Break, Kurrajong Kitchens, Doritos, Veggie delights, Soda Stream, Coca Cola, Woolworths, Primo, Goodman Fielder, and Rowlee Wines, White Wings and ICC Sydney.

How does your own personal creativity fuel your work?

I have a particular style, I suppose. I like to cook Asian foods, and experiment with eggs. These two types of food are very photogenic and always make for a great image. I enjoy trying new ways of plating, and creating a simple kind of magic that gets the delicious memo across. I can’t draw, but I think I show my creativity through my work. Over years of working with talented photographers I’ve learnt many tips, tricks, and formulas to encapsulate my style.

How do you see your career progressing from here: is food styling a forever job for you?

I have no plans to stop food styling. Along the way from chef to stylist, I also worked as a food editor, and recipe writer. I have just completed by first book, an e-book on eggs and all the different combos that go with them–you would be surprised how many things taste great with eggs. It will be for sale on my website very soon! It’s called Over Easy. I have another book in the works and plans for 4-5 more options, think pantry recipes, burgers, dumplings and more. I think this is a great creative outlet for me to produce my own style of books, and bring my vision to fruition. I am very excited about it, it’s been a few years in the making!

Fiona Hugues

Fiona Hugues’s endless creativity and experimentation has allowed her career in styling to soar, she was recently named Editorial Food-Stylist of the Year at the NZ Food Media Awards. Her talent spans many fields, including interior design, food and recipe development, fashion, and photography. Fiona has over 20 years of experience in the creative industry, not only working with brands such as Watties, Sanitarium, Best Foods, Sealord, Puhoi Valley, Huntley & Palmers, Essano, and Nespresso, but cooked and styled outstanding food for some of the most influential New Zealand magazines like Denizen, NZ House and Garden, Woman’s Day, Nourish, Woman’s Weekly, Metro, MiNDFOOD, and internationally for Lecker Magazine (Germany).

Her expertise and creative flair has impressed clients in the food and interior design world, with her aesthetic being natural and honest – foods that real people eat. She uses texture and materials to create a visual experience.

When did your career in food styling begin and what drew you to the job?

Food is in my blood; my great-grandfather was a grain merchant and bread baker, and I’m from a long line of creative women and prolific cooks that love to entertain.

Originally, I trained in fine art at Elam but diverted into fashion and interiors starting as a visual merchandiser for various brands moving on to designing stores, travelling internationally to buy ranges, and creating and running marketing campaigns.  Back then the term stylist was new and only really affiliated to hairdressing, but my colleagues and I were all creating, making things look their best, so gradually, as exclusive styling careers became more specific and legitimate, the term stylist became more prevalent.

In 2000 I stepped back from a full-time role to a part-time freelance one to have my three children, and when my son was small a local community design opportunity came up and I launched a weekly boutique food market not far from where we live at Pine Harbour Marina, similar to the village market my husband grew up with in France.

I have run it for the last 10 years and during this time met ingenious food producers that were bringing their products to market. I began working with some of them, helping them with branding, shooting their products and further development. During this time, one of my crazy elaborate children’s birthday parties at home was photographed and the shots made it into a magazine. From there the editorial styling and commercial food styling jobs started coming in.

Which food companies have you worked with that stood out?

I have a number of fabulous brands I have been fortunate to work with and some that I have partnered with for years. My favourites are the New Zealand owned and operated companies that are doing their bit as part of their food developmental process to protect and nurture NZ’s environment. Being part of their story, helping and seeing them develop and adapt to the changing landscape is wonderful and a privilege.

What skills are the most crucial to succeeding in this career, and what type of person do you need to be?

Knowing your craft is key—having a passion for food, understanding what flavours work, what substitutes you can use. What to look for in quality ingredients is important. Having a creative, critical eye is important too—seeing and making natural balance and form on the plate that is honest. Translating that composition for the camera angle isn’t as easy as it looks.

You also need to be organised, as food deteriorates quickly under studio lights. If you’re not fast things won’t look their best for long and you’ll have to start over. This is not ideal when there’s a producer nervously watching budgets and a brand marketing team sitting with their laptops lined up glaring at you in a sometimes cramped studio. So, an element of calm and collected under pressure is needed.

What is the most rewarding aspect of working in the industry?

Meeting people passionate about their craft and products. I strongly believe food builds community from the paddock to plate and New Zealand has a magnificent story to tell the world. I’m a professional member of the NZ Food Writers’ Guild and we are all as a group very ambitious to get the Kiwi food story shared. Discovering new techniques, new ingredients and combinations of flavours is a constant buzz and some of the chefs in our little country are groundbreakers for this type of gastronomic ingenuity. It makes me proud to be a part of such a great national team.

Is it a job that allows for a successful work-life balance?

Sometimes the on-set call times for film work are awfully early, plus as we live rurally so it takes me longer to get to the city, so kids and our farm animals need organising in advance. Occasionally you have long days but they’re few and far between when there’s a great producer on board. If I’m working and shooting in my home studio there’s always great food to be had at the end of the day so those days my family don’t mind at all.

How do you see your career progressing from here: is food styling a forever job for you?

I’ve been hosting sourdough breadmaking classes at my home in rural east Auckland for a couple of years now. I enjoy teaching and sharing creative knowledge, so more workshops and some future collaborations I’m excited about are on the cards. I’ve also fended off immense pressure to pen a cookbook of my recipes for years now, so maybe I’ll look at that one day soon.