FORAGING FRIDAY: PLATING BACKDROP

Foraging Friday documents Kitchen Toro's exploration of New York's diverse restaurants, neighborhoods, stores and their ingredients and flavors.

As I've previously noted, to graduate from the French Culinary Institute you need to keep a consistent grade average, move up through levels one through four, pass a midterm, hand in a final project and then pass a final. Last week I went shopping for plates and this week I went looking for my shoot materials.

I'm not saying pictures need to be taken this way but it's the way I've seen food shoots done in the past (at left, the taco shoot). I went searching for a roll of white paper and foam board-- large pieces of white board, one to put behind the plate I'm shooting and one below it. I was also looking for white foam or hard-board which could be used to help reflect the light on the side.

My first stop was Staples but it was a wasted effort as they didn't have the foam board I was looking for or the roll of white paper. My next stop was Utrecht near Union Square. Sure enough Utrecht had everything I needed and more.

Once upon a time back in college when I was a studio art minor Utrecht was toy store. While my days of sketching, etching and drawing are currently on hold (mostly) it was still hard to resist other toys besides my immediate needs while looking around at all the pads, canvases, pencils, paint tubes and clay tablets.

But it helped my willpower that the little money I had in my pockets wasn't exactly burning a large hole. I decided to go with the foam board over the paper mostly because I didn't want to carry the roll of paper all the way home (which may come back to bite me because the foam may be reflective while the paper will probably just absorb any flash). The point is just to have a blank background so hopefully the boards will work for that.

In addition I was looking for a smaller piece of white cardboard-like material to reflect the light of the flash to the side of the plate of food placed on the foam board. No problem there either.

So I have the plates, some photography tips and the shoot materials. Now to just round out the menu and get cooking.