GARNISHING BASICS
Garnishing Guidelines
Making beautiful garnishes begins with having the
right tools for the job. A sharp knife, peeler, zester, etc.,
will make achieving a beautiful garnish a lot easier. Th e
second crucial element is having fresh produce or herbs
to create the garnish. As always when working with
food for photography, it’s vital to shop wisely. Shop for
the very best example of each item you need and pur-
chase several examples of each item for insurance. If you
asked me to name a third element necessary for making
beautiful garnishes for photography, it would be ice.
Many garnishes are kept fresh, trained into shape, and
freshened with a visit in or brushing with ice water.Most garnishes need to be really, really fresh. Herbs,
gourmet greens, and citrus are examples of this. When
working with herbs and gourmet greens for garnishes, I
usually give them a shower in the sink when they arrive
at the studio whether they come from the grocery store
or the garden. To wash herbs at the sink, hold them
upside down, so the tender leaves will be protected from
the force of the water. Gently shake the majority of water
from them, snip the stem ends with scissors, and plunge
the freshly snipped ends into a wide-mouthed glass
waiting with a couple of inches of cool water in it. Invert
a plastic bag over the herb and glass assembly and put it
in the refrigerator until you are ready to add them to thehero plate just before the fi nal capture. Th e garnish is
typically the last thing to be added to the plate before
fi nal photography. Garnishes in the herb and gourmet
green variety will hold in the refrigerator for the day
while awaiting their short life of stardom on the set.Citrus Garnishing Ideas
Citrus garnishes won’t hold all day; in fact, they need
to be cut immediately before being placed on the hero
plate on set. I often cut citrus fruit garnishes on a work
table near the set after fi nal adjustments are made to
the other food on set. All fruit elements of the citrus
shot in this chapter were cut and placed on the plate
immediately before fi nal photography. Both the fruit
and plate were spritzed with cold water in this shot to
convey freshness as well as to keep the fruit in hero
condition. A variety of cuts for citrus fruits are depicted
in this shot. Because most citrus fruits have seeds, good
hero slices and wedges can occasionally be hard to fi nd.
When you plan to cut citrus fruits for photography, it’s
a good idea to over purchase those fruit items.
Lemon slices or “wheels” can be built into hero glasses
with ice or acrylic ice for beverages, as I did for the iced
tea shot in the beverages chapter (Chapter 3). Purchase
three lemons for every slice you think you’ll use. A good
lemon slice for this application is an even, thin slice about
1/8 inch thick. Make sure you use a sharp knife with a