SMILE AND SAY, "TACO"

Last Thursday I got a call from the photo editor at Dining Section of The New York Times asking me if I wanted to do the food for the front page of the section. I did the cooking after class on Wednesday night and today we did the shoot.

More on how it's done on the jump.

I woke up and made the same salsa I'd tested a few days ago, a recipe for Salsa Fresca from Mark Bittman's book, "The Best Recipes in the World," (p.610).

With a half hour to get to Union Square I added the salsa to my bags of food in the fridge, grabbed them and my knives and rushed out the door.

When I arrived at the photographer's house I realized I'd forgotten the head of lettuce and the avocado in the fridge so they had to be procured while I warmed up the food in the oven. I got there at about 11:45 a.m. and didn't end up leaving until about 3:30 p.m. that afternoon.

The setup was a low table covered with white paper. In the middle of the table the food was shot. Around the center where the food is placed is a white wall corner that that casts a small shadow until the picture is taken and the flash goes off.

First, each ingredient was shot individually in a small glass bowl. Then they were each shot individually in small corn tortillas. Then the steak and the chicken were each shot independently stuffed with salsa, guacamole, and shredded lettuce on a plate garnished with guacamole and a lemon wedge.

The photographer, John Lei, said he wasn't used to tasting food used in a shoot that was actually seasoned as the seasoning doesn't bare much relevance to the shoot. I'd imagine that it would when it comes to close ups of food, roasts that have been cooked with a rub, in any event while I'm not naive that all kinds of tricks are used in food styling from glue and hairspray to cardboard and paper, but I can't imagine doing a shoot of food for a recipe without using the real thing.

Overall, I was happy with the way the food looked, though the steak definitely looked better on the second day than the pork or the chicken.

Afterwards I was pretty beat. Knowing I was only a few blocks away from Madison Square Park I ventured over for a Shack-Burger, fries and a chocolate concrete with peanuts.

It will be interesting to see the finished result on the Wednesday cover!