[Greg]

Well, don't leave us hanging, Nick. Out with it!

Hi Nutritionpost, Welcome.
I'm glad to know there is a food writer here as I write, style and develop recipes too. I agree with you about taking an aesthetic approach to nutrition writing. Too much is written about nutrition and food that focuses the reader away from the pleasurable aspects of food and cooking and makes healthy eating and cooking seem boring and unappealing.What kind of writing do you do? Are you freelance? How do you find your subject matter and who to submit to? I'm currently struggling with all these issues and would appreciate any input or recommendations.

[Nick.Shu]

well here goes. A friend of mine was doing a food styling gig in singapore for a television commercial.

As food styling goes, the usual little bits of trickery were in place, i.e. oiled up glossy food plated up to look good and pinned down etc.

However, the commercial called for the food to be steaming on the table. Dry ice, microwaved bowls of water under the food stuff like that seemed either unnatural or obtrusive.

So the hero of the story has a flash of inspiration and disappears down to the shops for a few minutes.

He returns and rearranges the food and gets it to steam perfectly, the scene now complete. The director films and finishes up and comes over to my friend and asks, "that looks great, how did you do it?", my friend says, 'lift up the food and take a look".

The director lifts up the food and sees 4 steaming swollen tampons sitting on a plate. Apparently if you soak these things in water and then microwave them, they are perfect for the job.

I've used that trick several times. Feminine supplies are very useful to the stylist-we also use pantyliners under pieces of meat to keep the juices from running all over the prop, garnish and set.

[Nick.Shu]

no i do understand, just to some of the uninitiated, it can sound very bizarre.

Its is very much like the turkey carcasse that makes a miraculous reappearance each and every buffet as a centrepiece, long after being stripped of the very last piece of meat.

[Pastachef]

How interesting these posts are. My favorite part of cooking is the presentation. I love to make my vegetable platters (as well as my cooked vegetables) as bright as a bushel filled with M&M's. The college kids scarf it up! I can see that there is so much I can learn here

Greg,
How do you create those animated smile faces? I find them strangely facinating...
CS

[Greg]

Those are hold-overs from the last version of the bulletin board software. To get the bouncing one, you typed (I think, might have been :bouncing: ). I'm sure Nicko will bring all of them back as soon as he's done with the upgrade to the new software. There are some animated ones now; look to the lower left of the message box next time you post and you'll see the "instant graemlins". Just click on one and it will insert it in your message wherever the cursor is.

[ March 10, 2001: Message edited by: Greg ]

[ March 10, 2001: Message edited by: Greg ]