Fish, Fur, and Foil

Seven food stylists whose work jumps off the page.

Dear Readers, today’s “Notable Creatives” for Headnotes paid subscribers presents the work of several exceptional food stylists. I included photographer credits where I could find them, but please comment below if you have more information about the creative team behind each image—especially any additional stylists.

A couple of notes: If you’re not a paying subscriber and you’ve been tagged anywhere here, please message me for access to the full post. This post may be too long for some email providers, but you can click the subject line to read it on the Substack website or app.

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Food stylists are the unsung heroes of many a cookbook photo shoot. The very best of them combine an impeccable attention to detail, a high degree of patience and resourcefulness, and MacGyver-like kitchen skills. They use these qualities to bring recipes to vivid life in front of the camera, and to assist authors who might otherwise find shopping, planning, and preparing a dizzying number of dishes on their own overwhelming, to say the least. Some food stylists also style props,^¹ and this skill set is an added benefit in composing each dish for the camera.

Victoria Granof and Emily Caneer write informative and entertaining Substacks about food styling, and I highly recommend checking both out if you’d like to take a deeper dive into this world.² But for now, let’s dive into the work of seven artists whose unique talents help make a cookbook’s food irresistible.

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Jamie Kimm

Website / Instagram
Location: New York, NY
Selected work: The Gourmand’s Egg, The Gourmand’s Lemon, The Gourmand’s Mushroom

Jamie Kimm’s work is bold and surprising. I like the drama of a flaming fresh fish (last image, below), and especially enjoy how the glistening red orbs embedded in what looks like a pineapple slice resemble an alien wound (first image, below).

Photograph by Bobby Doherty

Photograph by Bobby Doherty

Photograph by Yasu + Junko

Photograph by Bobby Doherty

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Lee Blaylock

Website / Instagram
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Selected work: All Day Baking, Epic Salads, Sustain, Sweet, Rumi

Lee Blaylock’s food is gorgeous. She has an incredible eye and is an equally skilled prop stylist. I would never have thought that a plate of tartare staged on animal fur would be even remotely appetizing, but in her hands, it absolutely works (see the last image, below).³

Photograph by Mark Roper

Photograph by Pete Dillon

Photograph by Pete Dillon

Photograph by Armelle Habib

Photograph by Adam Gibson