Food Styling for Photographers

CHAPTER SIX

As you work with the patties, you will need to select
heroes. As you fi nish torching each patty, place it imme-
diately into a disposable aluminum baking pan that is
fi lled with 2 to 3 inches of cool vegetable oil. Keep the
patties in a single layer and use additional pans of oil if
necessary to accommodate all of the hero patties. For easy
identifi cation of heroes, you will want to mark pans con-
taining the hero patties. All of the patties need to be
completely submerged in the oil to delay discoloration.
Cover the pan with plastic wrap so that it touches the oil
surface, and set the pan with oil and burger patties aside
until you need them for the building process. Because
you will be building the hero shortly, store the patties in
oil at room temperature.

Adding Color to the Burger Patties

At this point, the burger patties appear cooked on the
outside, however their color is not appealing. You will
be brushing color onto the hero burger patty right
before placing it on the hero burger assembly. Th ere are
several ways to color meat patties. Here are two methods
I often use.

You can purchase hoisin sauce from the market. Th e
sauce is thick as it comes from the jar. Put some of the
sauce in a small bowl and stir it well. Normally it can be
brushed onto the patty at this point. I realize using hoisin

sauce sounds like a quick-and-easy approach, but the

results may vary depending on several factors. My favor-

ite, and a more reliable method to color patties and meats

in general, is to make a coloring agent. Pour about 2

tablespoons of vegetable oil onto a plate. To the oil add

1 teaspoon of gravy coloring and 1 teaspoon of Bitters of

Angostura plus 1/4 teaspoon of clear liquid dish deter-

gent. Mix the liquids together using an off set palate knife

or pastry brush. Th e liquids will need thorough mixing

and should thicken during the mixing process. With an

artist’s brush, brush a small amount of the color on a

stand-in patty. Check the color. More brown can be

achieved by adding more gravy coloring and a redder

color can be achieved by adding more Bitters of Angos-

tura or a tiny amount of liquid red food coloring. Th e

color can be diluted by adding more vegetable oil.

Building the Hero Burger

Up to this point, you have used a stand-in burger to

prepare the set and to perfect the lighting as far as you

can. Before you begin to build the hero burger, you must

be happy with the lighting and the set because the hero

burger will have less than a 15-minute life on set. Use

the stand-in burger as a reference for the hero burger

build and for the placement of cheese corners in relation

to the camera. Before you remove the stand-in burger

from the set, mark the camera front on the stand-in