Couple weeks ago my friend Danielle had tweeted "BRIOCHE" and since I love brioche I clicked on the link that was in her tweet. That link got me landed right on Pastry Chef Chris Ford's blog, Butter Love & Hard Work. Chris Ford is the pastry chef at Wit & Wisdom down in Baltimore, Maryland and most recently won the People's Choice for East Region Pastry Chef at Food and Wine. The 2 things that I love are both in Chris Ford's blog. 1) Behind the scenes photos. As some of you may know I'm a little obsessed about that. 2) Big giant images. Beautiful images are meant to be shown as big as possible. That night I ended up going through his entire blog and I believe you will also.
Q. Can you tell me what you’re trying to capture when you take your food photos? A. I want to capture my love and appreciation for that particular product. I think it's the love in the details that tells my stories through photos, you see what I see, bad or good.
Q. Have you always been interested in photography? If not, when and why did you decide to start taking photos? A. I have always been a creative person. Drawing and painting have always been a great passion of mine, which I still use in pastry today. Although photography is my true second love. From a young adult I decided I wanted to capture my life through a lens, never to forget an experience or food I ate. One day I can look through them all and re-live those amazing moments.
Q. Do you see any similarities between dessert making and photo taking? A. In a way yes. It is the creative drive and inspiration part that binds them both together for me. I will see something and it will inspire me to make a dessert with it or see something I want to take a photo of and tell a story.
Q. What is photography to you? A. Photography is a outlet for my story, ideas and talent. I have always said that food is my passion, photography is the outlet for that passion.
Q. What inspires you as a chef and as a photographer? A. Creativeness inspires me, doing something that I haven't seen or eaten yet. I love the sound of things that don't make sense, like brioche macaron. They are two complete different things, yet a simple idea brings them together. I am a very visionary person, whether its planning a photo or a dessert, I usually have the end product's picture/taste in my head. Q. Best meal you had so far in 2012? A. I had the chance to enjoy an amazing meal in early January, meal of desserts that is! Killed By Dessert, brought together a group of seriously talented pastry chefs, 12 courses of sweet 7 savory. It was such an amazing meal and so inspiring at the same time!
All photos courtesy of Chris Ford from Butter Love & Hard Work.
Last week I had the pleasure of dining at Donatella, in Chelsea, along with Donatella Arpaia and fellow food bloggers. We were getting a taste of the summer menu plus some of the dishes from the regular menu. Each dish were expertly prepared by chef Jarett Appell. We were also lucky enough to have Chef Appell talk about the inspirations behind the new menu. Then pastry chef Andrea Jarosh presented us a plethora of crazy delicious desserts. This may just be one of my favorite 2.5 hour lunch and I can't wait to go back to try more!
One of my favorite food trucks, 
If you don't know by now.......this is my favorite treat from 
