“They’re oysters, have you tried them?” asks actor Mark Ruffalo to Emma Stone’s character in the movie Poor Creatures. “No,” the actress responds as Bella Baxter, before taking one of hers and putting it in her mouth. Many of the viewers who saw that scene probably are unaware that in real life the actress is vegan and what is seen on screen, no matter how much it may seem like it, are not oysters. “I have several techniques but in principle I make them with rice flour and different mushrooms,” reveals Zoe Hegedus to La Vanguardia. The young Hungarian was in charge of food styling in the film that won four statuettes at the last Oscars.
What actors eat in fictional series and movies is real food. Even the human limbs that actor Mads Mikkelsen devoured when he played Hannibal Lecter were real. Of course, the show’s food stylist, Janice Poon, didn’t cook any people. She also confesses that she has different methods to recreate the texture of meat, even when she has to cook for vegan actors.
“When I start a new project, the first thing I ask is what the actors can eat, what allergies they have, what intolerances, and from there, I can start working,” explains Zoe Hegedus. Behind every dish you see on the big screen, there is a person who designs it, cooks it and is responsible for keeping it fresh during filming. It may seem simple, but food styling requires a unique combination of vast culinary experience and, above all, great creativity. “Sometimes the scripts detail exactly what needs to be seen, but there are others in which they only describe the environment and the characters that are around a table.” So the job of a culinary stylist is to do research on the era in which the film takes place, the traditions of that culture and start creating.
“In sci-fi movies like Dune, where what you have to see doesn’t really exist, I have to spend time in the kitchen and find a way to invent something new.” Zoe Hegedus was also the mind behind the fantastic menu that makes up the universe of the films starring Timothée Chalamet. “They are in the desert, they don’t have much of a source of food, so I had to make drier things that they could hold in their hands and chew.” Although gastronomy is not the protagonist of the story, it is an important part of the visual composition that brought Frank Herbert’s books to the cinema. “It’s a challenge and it stresses me out, but I honestly like it better than if I just have to grill some vegetables.”
Before dedicating herself to food styling, Zoe Hegedus trained in gastronomy and culinary arts at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián. “There I acquired a very deep knowledge of cooking and hospitality in general.” During her early years she worked in the kitchens of different restaurants in Spain, from traditional Basque establishments to establishments with three Michelin stars such as El Celler de Can Roca. “Although it is very easy to fall in love with work in the kitchen, I always knew that my career would not be in a restaurant.” After her years in Spain, she moved to Milan to pursue a master’s degree in culinary design.
The food stylist is in charge of making the food look as fresh as possible and not lose its shape after hours of recording. “I change what the actors eat in almost every take, it will be about ten or fifteen times per scene.” This, Hegedus recalls, was one of the biggest challenges he faced during his first film job: Midsommar, by director Ari Aster. The horror film was filmed during the summer of 2018 in Hungary, with temperatures of more than 40º. “I came from the kitchen, I wasn’t used to my food suddenly blowing away in the wind, drying out in the sun or getting covered in flies.”
In horror films, food often takes on a peculiar and disturbing dimension. One of the authorities on the subject is the Canadian Janice Poon. “Spending three seasons creating gourmet food for a cannibal really solidified my place in the genre,” Ella Poon explains to La Vanguardia. The artist was in charge of culinary styling in the series Hannibal, the project that brought the iconic character played by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs to television. She also worked on other series and films such as The Boys, American Gods, the most recent versions of Star Trek and The Shape of Water.
Unlike Hegedus, Janice Poon did not come from the world of cooking. “My first approach to culinary styling was when I worked as an art director in an advertising agency.” The work done by the people who prepared the food for the camera captivated her and, later, led her to venture into that world.
What Poon enjoys most about his craft is the moment when an abstract idea comes to life in reality. Like when he had to make “raw whale meat” suitable for a vegan actor, a “baby octopus” that had to pretend to be alive on stage, and a banquet for a Vulcan party (the humanoid species in the Star Trek universe), where Two vegan actors participated, one gluten intolerant and another who did not eat anything fried.
It is important that the flavor of the food in the fictions is not too strong. “I don’t use a lot of condiments because I don’t want it to be a distraction for the actor who has to do five to twenty takes while eating.” It is best to keep the flavors pleasant but neutral. Poon’s favorite ingredients vary over time. “For a few years I used octopus in everything; “Then I went through an eel phase, which horrified my assistant who had to deal with live eels as they slid through the refrigerators.” It also usually uses ingredients typical of Asian food, since most of them do not contain gluten or dairy.
Getting around the different restrictions or intolerances of those who consume food on camera is an important part of the work of culinary stylists in film and television, but it is not a problem for those who work in social networks, as is the case of Laura López, more known as @lauraponts. The Catalan does not consider herself a photographer or stylist, but she is one of the leaders in the food styling industry in Spain and has 385 thousand followers. “I studied cooking and pastry at the Hoffman Hospitality School in Barcelona and my dream was to open a restaurant,” but her career took a turn when she began uploading content to Instagram. “Nowadays I work for brands, chefs, restaurants, and I do all the content with a mobile phone.”
The work that Laura Ponts does requires a lot of attention to detail. “From using excellent quality products, to choosing the right background, the perfect cutlery, the right plates, and of course, good lighting.” Taking photographs is what she enjoys the most, although, as she explains, they tend to be much more work than videos. “In a video everything happens very quickly, an Instagram reel lasts a maximum of a minute and a half, and cooking is not that; cooking is hours of dedication.” Everything she shows on her networks is real. “If I take a photo of ice cream, it’s real ice cream, it’s not plasticine or potatoes with food coloring.” In addition to photographs and videos of her, the artist also shares with her followers some of her recipes and restaurant recommendations.
The most striking thing about the creations of culinary stylists is that they manage to captivate an audience that probably will never get to try the food they see. But that is precisely what encourages them to try to recreate it in their homes. “I love the way the dishes I made for Hannibal came to inspire fans around the world – says Janice Poon – ignited their interest in cooking and made them reflect on the deeper meaning of sharing food.” It was this that prompted her to publish the book Feeding Hannibal: a Connoisseur’s Cookbook, a collection of recipes inspired by the series.
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