The Week India – July 21, 2019

66 THE WEEK • JULY 21, 2019

FOOD

@LEISURE

hey say that cooking is love made

edible. Then food styling must be

love made edible art. Even in culinary

shows, the first thing that the judges

notice is the presentation. With many choosing

visually appealing dishes over plain spreads,

food styling has become a much sought-after

profession. Shivesh Bhatia, however, got into it

accidentally.

“I got into baking when my grandmother fell

sick and was hospitalised,” he says. “I was 16

then and wanted to bake her favourite cupcakes. I

ended up burning a whole batch despite carefully

following the instructions on the box of the Betty

Crocker cake mix. It did not make me stop though.

After a lot of trial and error, I got the hang of it and

started developing my own recipes.”

At an age when most boys spent their time

playing football and video games, Bhatia was

busy baking. Soon he was a hit among family and

friends who encouraged him to go public. This led

to the birth of his blog and Instagram account in

2014.

“When I started baking, I did not know there

was something called food styling,” says Bhatia.

“I just wanted to make my photographs look good

so that I could post them on social media. I was

inspired by a couple of internationally recognised

food bloggers and started taking the aspect of

presentation more seriously. Instagram played a

huge role in giving me the identity of a food stylist.

It is an art; it cannot be taught and it does not

happen overnight. I take up food styling assign-

ments only when I like the brand as I believe in

substance over style.”

Before long, he started getting noticed for his

creative food photographs. He has worked with

the Grand Hyatt, Google Maps and tourism boards

of different countries. He also got featured in

Vogue’s ‘20 under 26’ in 2017.

“I work with simple inanimate objects,” says

Bhatia. “You can find everything from paperclips

to rustic clayware in my food styling projects. I

love keeping it simple yet bringing out the vibrant

essence of food.”

T

At 23, Shivesh Bhatia is one of

the youngest and most popular

food stylists in the country

BY OSHIN GRACE DANIELL

His first book on baking

and food styling, Bake

with Shivesh, happened

when an editor at Harper-

Collins noticed his Insta-

gram page. Initially, when

he got a message from

the editor on Instagram,

he thought it was fake.

The book was an Amazon

bestseller.

He now conducts styl-

ing and food photography

workshops for bakers in

India and outside. His second book will be out

later this year. “The biggest challenge for me

right now is the pressure of putting up regular

posts,” he says. “With workshops, travel, other

events and my second book coming up, I some-

times end up not being able to post new recipes

on social media.”

Plating art

EDIBLE ART

Lemon-poppy seed

madeleines