Food Porn Redux-Kitchen in the Market

On Sunday, I attended my second Food Porn class at Kitchen in the Market. This class was a gathering of people like me: Foodbloggers who wanted tips on how to improve some of their photography skills. These two classes have really been a growing experience in my blogging career, I have learned a lot about what I want, and don't want, as well as what I can and can't do, when it comes to content and photos. 

First, the food and some of the photos. Our starter, on arrival, was crudite with vodka and flavored salts. I thought this was a really smart way to present the traditional "veggie" appetizer. The diced vegetables and quail eggs are dipped in the vodka, and then in one of three salts: one was a smoked salt (I am guessing), one fleur de sel, and one a smoky paprika. 

Someone wanted a vodka infused quail egg

The next preparation started with polenta. I tried to get more live action shots this time, but with a digital camera, there is a bit of a delay, so I had to try to anticipate what was next in the action. I liked this shot of some teamwork in the kitchen.

Ingredients for polenta

Scraping the pot, getting ready for the oven

The polenta was baked, cooled, and then cut into little circles. 

Topping with cranberry chutney

Polenta Cakes with Cranberry Chutney

The next course was a black tea encrusted pork tenderloin, served with green oil ? If my palate doesn't betray me I think it was chive oil. The crust was spicy and flavorful, with anise and cumin. I admit, I did take some pictures of the tenderloin before it was cooked, but they were not very appetizing (even for a pork lover like me!) I'm I presenting my shots of the plating of the final product. 

And, of course, every meal needs a little dessert. This was a light, shortbread cookie with lemon and rosemary. It took me about 20 shots to get one of the actual cutting out of the dough!

And the final product (minus one bite)

So now, what did I learn ? I am not a great photographer, and I probably never will be. The whole point of my blog is that I eat like this every day, and I cook, photograph, eat and blog our dinners, and our lives, as we live them. I don't see that changing. Could I take a little more time with staging the food, sure. But sometimes we just want to eat dinner. I plate, I snap a pic, and we sit down and eat. My expectations are that I will continue to learn and grow through this process, and some of the photographs are going to be stellar. 

But sometimes, the food is beige. And no matter what you do, it isn't always pretty, but I will guarantee it tastes good. And in the end, it's the taste that matters to me. I'll stack my recipes up against the best of them, but the photos...will always be a work in progress.