How Janice Poon Styles Food for the Camera

It takes a lot of work to make food look good on camera, and that's just for food being used as props. For food to look appetizing, it needs to glisten, and remain full and plump, which can be difficult since many foods actually shrink when cooked. The color must be full and bright, with any and all imperfections obscured.

"Food for still photography rarely gets eaten, so you can use all sorts of inedible aids to make the food look fresh and delicious," says Poon. "Wire, spray gloss, detergent, and other unmentionables are often deployed and the food can sit under the lights for hours with no worries.

"For still photography, the use of tricks is the fascinating part of the business. One of the most common but unexpected tricks is for perfect roast turkey: I never cook the bird. If you roast it, the bird browns unevenly and as soon as it cools, the skin shrivels and tears and the meat shrinks and pulls away from the drumsticks. I leave the turkey raw so it looks plump, and then paint it with gravy browning and angostura bitters so it looks roasted to golden perfection, then brush with oil so it looks juicy."

Food Styling for Food Safety & Dietary Restrictions

Food that does need to be eaten is a little more difficult to prepare, especially if actors have special dietary requirements. A vegan actor may have a scene in which he or she needs to eat an egg or steak, leaving the food stylist with the task of concocting a convincing and edible alternative. For example, a grilled and dyed slice of watermelon can be made to imitate a juicy piece of steak.

This became especially important on the set of Hannibal, the TV show that drove Janice Poon to notoriety as a food stylist. The story follows a serial killer and cannibal who prepares his victims in increasingly intricate recipes, requiring Poon to figure out how to imitate a human lung or leg.

"Clay-baked man's thigh, Peking-style whole human, anchovies swimming in formation suspended in aspic, roasted rabbits leaping over a campfire, feast for Klingons," lists Poon, detailing some of the outlandish meals she's been called upon to create across a range of productions like Hannibal, American Gods, and Star Trek.

"Food safety is an issue, but not terribly problematic – it's just part of the job for anyone preparing food," explains Poon. "Constantly rotating the food to ensure that it stays within the zones of time [and] temperature of safety to prevent pathogen growth is the only way of ensuring food safety.

"Actor dietary restrictions [are] much more of a problem. Many actors have gluten-free vegan diets. This is the biggest challenge when preparing food that needs to comply with the script, which is often meat/dairy/flour based. For example, I had to prepare raw beef for an actor to wolf down in a vampire show. The actor was vegan, so of course I couldn't use meat, and gluten-averse so I couldn't use setan (a wheat-based meat substitute enjoyed by many vegetarians). And of course, it has to taste good because the actor has to repeat many takes to do each scene."