Food Styling for Photographers

BURGERS, SANDWICHES, AND BEYOND

the bottom hero bun resting with cut side up on a separate

plate in a separate bag. Mark the plates of both top and

bottom buns according to the bun’s hero ranking.

We decided to toast the hero bun top and make grill marks

on it. If you want to follow this approach, use a clean skillet

or griddle surface heated to medium-low heat. Brush the

cooking surface with melted butter. Also, brush the cut

side of the top bun with melted butter and place it on the

preheated cooking surface. Do not mash the bun. It will

brown along the edges that touch the pan. Use a nylon

cooking spatula to lift the edge of the bun to check the

color of the bun several times during this process. Remove

the bun from the pan when the edges that touched the

griddle are golden. Preheat an electric charcoal lighter. I

had my charcoal lighter customized so that one side of the

heating element is narrower. I used the narrow side of the

hot lighter to make grill marks on the bun as shown.

Once you have three or four hero buns for each bun

represented in your shot as well as buns reserved to use

as stand-ins, you can turn your attention to other ele-

ments in the shot. Working with a stand-in burger, deter-

mine the arrangement of food elements in your burger.

For instance, starting with the bottom bun and building

upward, our burger’s order of elements is bun, lettuce,

meat, cheese, tomato, red onion, and top bun. You may

want a diff erent building arrangement. Th is decision

should be made during the planning stage. A few words

of advice: Cheese is easier to handle and looks more

realistic if it is applied directly on top of the meat rather

than elsewhere in the burger.

Prepping Burger Components

Let’s assume that you are planning to build a burger

similar to the burger image in this chapter.

Here’s what you will need and the techniques you can

use in achieving this look.

For a typical burger construct, I normally purchase two

heads of either romaine or leaf lettuce. Normally the

outer leaves of the lettuce head are not hero quality, but

under those leaves you are likely to fi nd the leaves best

suited for burgers. Hero leaves will be a rich green color

with unblemished ruffl e rimmed edges. Remove the hero

leaves from both heads of lettuce. To store the lettuce

SAFETY NOTE Electric charcoal lighters become very hot. Follow

the manufacturer’s manual for safety procedures and instructions on

how to use such a lighter. I use a landscaping stone as a surface for

food items whenever I apply a torch or electric charcoal lighter to the

food. The stone absorbs some fats that might be liquefi ed during

torching or branding and it also provides a safe non-fl ammable

surface as you work. The stone is also a safe place to lay the charcoal

lighter to heat up and cool down before and after use.