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.
