Every morning at 5am, the oven at Black Seed Bagels is already on. When I arrived on a Friday morning at 5:30am, Dianna Daoheung was already tending to the oven, setting things up, sweeping, getting the place ready to open at 7am. Most of the crew rolled in around 6am. Waking up at 4am that morning, I was thinking to myself.....WHY?! Why did I decide to wake up this early in the morning to go photograph at a bagel shop? But I really wanted to see what actually happens before the shop opens at 7am. I wanted to experience, even though it was just that one day. And I wanted for you to see as well. Bagels and croissants and pastas and pulled pork sandwiches don't magically appear. There are hours and hours of work that go into making it. Bakers are up at 3 in the morning to get that delicious bagel ready for you at 7am. Working on this project really made me appreciate the work that goes into running restaurants and the people that are running the restaurants.
NYC
Behind-The-Scenes At Toro NYC
People always ask me who or what I'm shooting for when I'm with my camera in their kitchen. I simply tell them, it's for me. Annnnnndddd then I go onto explain how I'm more interested in the behind-the-scenes stuff/the process of cooking a dish/the things rarely people see or care to think about. I also love to just hang out in the kitchen. The orderly chaos during service time. Recently I got the chance to visit Toro NYC in Chelsea and spent couple hours in the kitchen before service on a Sunday night. Thanks to Chef Jamie Bissonnette and his crew for letting me snap some photos.
Also, you should check out the foie gras farm trip I took with Chef Bissonnette and Chef Ken Oringer.
Behind-The-Scenes At Margot's Pizza
After taking a bit of time off, Adam Kuban stepped back into EMILY for his bar pie pizza pop-up, Margot's Pizza. I went and spent a good few hours in the kitchen with Adam, Emily, and Matt as they prep for the pop-up.
La Belle Farm Trip With Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette
Last week I was lucky enough to be invited by Baltz & Company to a duck farm trip with Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnete, owners and chefs of Toro NYC, Toro Boston, and Coppa. Along with other media people, we met up at Toro and took a shuttle up to La Belle Farm in Sullivan County.
La Belle Farm is one of the only three foie gras producers in the country. Everyone on the farm was super nice and gave us a personal tour of the farm. They took the time to answer all our questions, even the tough questions surrounding the controversy over foie gras.
After we were done with the tour, we were all treated to a fantastic meal cooked by Ken and Jamie.