Grilled Seared Scallops at Orso Bayside

Grilled scallops can sound ordinary as an entree but this one that we had at Orso Bayside is just at different level.

Grilled Seared Scallops

 The green part is finely cut deep fried seaweed – and the little cubes around the base are crouton. At the base of the scallop is the scallopini potato cut.

The shot

We were quite happily seated in the corner right beside the window so plenty of lights for taking a photo. The corner wall also acted like a big reflector on the opposite site – you can see that there is virtually no hard shadow on the shot.

The Editing

I did something different with the editing on this one. I make a photomatix-tonemaped copy of the original (the so called pseudo-HDR) and then overlay it back on top of the original with around 75% opacity. The tonemapped copy is by itself a bit too unnatural – that’s why I overlay it back to the original.

In addition, only the part that is in focus is overlayed with the tonemapped copy – the rest is masked out. I think the out-of-focus part looks a bit weird when tonemapped. I mean pseudo-HDR tonemapping is about enhancing details and local contrast – so there is little point to apply it on the blurry part of the image.

Finally I add the vignette effect along the plate diagonal to make the scallops “pop” out more.

Brunch at Signorelli Gastronomia

I know it’s been a while since I post something on this blog. I’ve been made busy by the arrival of the new member in the family! Jonathan was born in June we couldn’t be happier. You can find some of his shoot in here, here, and here.

This post isn’t exactly about food photography – although it definitely have something to do with food. Last Sunday we went out with a group of friend to have brunch in this tucked away cafe in Pyrmont called Signorelli Gastronomia. We were really impressed – the decor, definitely the food, and also the “food market” within the cafe. High quality stuff there. (Let me clarify that I’m not in anyway affiliated with the restaurant – just one happy customer!).

Anyway I made an attempt to take a picture of the food we were having there. Quite difficult with the available light since the atmosphere was rather dark. I have to bump up my ISO and that’s why the graininess of the shoot. The first course is antipasto with mushroom and grilled tomatoes to share:

Breakfast Antipasto

The second course is truffled scrambled eggs with in-house beetroot cured salmon and cavola nero

Truffled scrambled egg with in-house beetroot cured salmon and cavola nero

Well – we spent the afternoon catching up with good friends with fabulous food and we all walked out happy. My wife and I took a walk around and actually came back to buy some spicy salami to bring home. We’re going to enjoy it tonight with a glass of vino. So much food, so little time….

Verrine Project #12 – Verrespresso and Petite Four

“But…, but… it’s not really a ‘verrine’!”  I hear you say. Yes, yes, I know that traditional verrines have lots of layers, where as this one is one, well, it has only one layer – the coffee itself. But hey, why can’t we be creative?? Coincidentally I’m listening to Ana Vidovic’s version of “Asturias (Leyenda)” as I’m typing. What an awesome performance! and she is damn pretty too! I hope I can play that piece some day. Something to boost my creativity part of my brain huh? But let’s come back to our “verrine”.

 

Verrespresso and Petite Four

Food Prep/Prop/Styling

The prep for this one is pretty easy. A good strong coffee straight into the verrine. The choc pieces need a bit of trial and error to arrange. You see, I can’t just lay the pieces flat on the plate, it just doesn’t look good. And I also want to show the pretty patterns so I have to somehow make them “stand” a bit so that the surface with the patterns are at least partly facing the camera. As you’ll probably guess, there is another piece of choc behind those four pieces that acts as a support – so maybe I should name this “Petite Five” instead.

The Shooting

Camera set at 4 o’clock, high up pointing down at 45 degree angle. Big reflector on approx 8-9 o’clock, also rather high to fill in shadow and provide more top lighting. This also lights up the background a bit. I decided to make the whole front part of the setup in focus. I tried blurring the verrine only but didn’t feel quite right. I also tried very shallow depth of field so that only one of the choc piece is in focus, but I feel that it’s such a waste that the beautiful patterns are blurred out of focus.

Something to talk about…

I zoomed in a lot here to fill up the frame. The actual choc pieces are only approximately 1.5cmx1.5cm. I wanted to make the patterns of the choc pieces as the main subject.

One thing I learn was that you can’t put the choc in the fridge to keep it cool and later take it out and shoot it. Small beads of dews are going to form on the choc surfaces if you do that, ruining the aesthetic aspect of it – unless of course that’s the effect that you wanted to achieve.

As with the coffee, initially I wanted to make a small cappucino in the verrine (Verrincino) but when I think about it, espresso probably suits better because the sweetness of the choc pieces can be balanced by the strong espresso flavour. The only thing that is a bit disappointing for me is that the crema is not thick enough. I guess time for me to take basic barrista course!

Verrine Project #11 – Basil Prawn Chardonnay

Seafood time! People use to say that white wine goes with seafood, so usually the setup is to have some sort of seafood platter with a glass of white wine somewhere in the scene. Let’s try something different this time – let’s combine the wine and the food!

 

Basil Prawn Chardonnay

  

 

 

Food creating, prep, and styling  

I want the colour of the prawn to be the focus – I oil them so that it brings the colour out even more. I mixed some finely chopped basil leaves in the oil before applying them on the prawn. I found that the size of the prawns really affect the overall setup. What’s more, the degree the prawns curl also have a lot of impact. Prawns that don’t curl much can’t ”hook” onto the verrine and will fall off. Prawns that curl too much will hug the verrine too tight. I think I went through a good 20 pieces of prawn to come up with the “right” prawns.With the wine, the biggest challange is to pour exactly the same amount into all three verrines so that they have the same height. If I had a laboratory grade pipette this would be much easier task.    

The shooting  

The camera is looking down at the setup from about 30cm above the surface. Big light from 3-4 o’clock direction, pointing downward at about 45 degree. Reflector from 9 o’clock direction to fill the light from the opposite direction. I handheld the reflector while shooting to find the right angle, that’s why you can’t see the reflector in the setup shot below    

Basil Prawn Chardonnay - lighting setup

  

On Interestingness…   

You will notice that in my previous post I make use of diagonal element quite heavily. It is one fundamental “axiom” in composition – diagonal is interesting. Completely agree 1000%. But I think sometime we are too obsessed with it and forget that other, more “ordinary” setup can also be made interesting. In this setup, I deliberately choose the “ordinary” horizontal setup. My plan is to put a lot of symmetry in the composition, and then “disturb” it right near the centre so it becomes the focus. You can see the that the setup creates several tension points here. You can view it as in the left and centre verrine have the same setup (the prawns are oriented the same way) and then suddenly the right verrine breaks the orientation – that is the tension is between the middle and the right verrine.  However you can also view it as the left and the right verrine is “facing” each other - they are in symmetry. But now the middle verrine needs to “take side”, and which ever side it takes, the symmetry is broken. And our eyes are naturally “disturbed” by broken symmetry and our attentions are drawn to it.  Am I over analysing? Maybe. What did you notice the first time when you look at the shot? Did you notice the broken symmetry on the first sight? or was it more the colour or other things?     The other thing that I considered is how many verrines should I put in the shot? One of the reason I come up with 3 is that it is an odd number. Again, odd number is not “even” (duh!) – what I mean is that somewhat breaks some symmetry. You can place an odd number of verrine so that it has the same number on the left and right for example. Ok, so odd is good. But as for those who are mathematically inclined know, there are infinite number of odd number to choose from (well, not really infinite for me. I have a finite financial capacity from to acquire the actual verrines so maybe a dozen is the maximum that I would go). So realistically, I was considereing either 3, 5, or 7.  Wait, I don’t have 7 identical verrines. So it’s either 3 or 5.  I did try both, but I like the one with 3 verrines better – without any particular reason. Maybe it’s personal preference – but what do you think? 

Verrine Project #10 – Fresh Kiwi Slices With Coarse Crushed Merengue Pieces and Chocolate Flakes

Hola! I finally have a chance to get back to my overdue verrine project. Things has been quite crazy since I found out that we are pregnant and having a boy!! For those who are interested, I did a couple of maternity shot of mom to be in here, here, and here. But lets talk about verrine…

 

fresh kiwi slice with coarse crushed merengue pieces and chocolate flakes

Food creation and styling 

I’m feeling green this time. Not that it has anything to do with the environment. I was looking for some bold colour for this project. I’ve done some deep red in my raspberry pudding post. Actually I’ve used quite a bit of reds in my previous posts so a change would be nice – and one of my favourite colour is green. I also wanted to have some chocolate in it. I think choc and green do go together. I was thinking mint before, but maybe not substantial enough. They may be good for garnishing but not for the main focus of the dessert (at least not this time ). 

With the traditional verrines the layers are mostly horizontal. That is, you put one layer on top of another. I’ve always wanted to create verrines that somehow have vertical layers. I tried a couple of times but it’s damn difficult to make (well.. I’m not a chef or even a cook). I mean, how do you make the layers vertical? do you tilt your verrine 90 degree before making the layers and somehow “freeze” the layers so they stay in place? Gravity is not our friend anymore. 

Anyway, I came up with this idea of putting the (thin) slices of the kiwi agains the glass so that the whole cross section of the kiwi can be visible. I think it makes quite an interesting subject of focus. I then put the crushed merengue pieces in the middle so it keeps the kiwi slices stuck against the glass. I found that the thickness of the slice is quite hard to get. Too thin and the slice becomes rather translucent and you don’t get the deep green colour showing. Too thick and the slice won’t follow the curve of the glass. And because the verrine glass are typically smaller in size, the curvature of the glass surface is greater. 

I also put some kiwi cuts on the background to complement the subject. A couple of choc pieces on the plate to complement the flakes. 

The shooting 

As usual, camera angle is about 30cm above the table set, and the focus is primarily the front slice and the big choc flake on the top. The camera is set at f5.6 at 1/60. I want to second verrine on the back to get quite blurry and hence the f5.6. 

The softbox is at 2-3 o’clock and positioned at around 50-60cm above the set. A reflector was used to bounce the light back from the other end, especially to light up the details of the choc flake 

Discussion 

 In the past, when I need to come up with and idea for the verrine project, I always start by thinking what subject should I use this so the end result looks good (photographically). While I think this is a perfectly valid approach, maybe we need to consider more other aspect, especially with the food shot. 

I think what makes a food shot looks good is not only the colour (or combination of colours) in the end result. When we look at a food shot, we imagine what the food taste like. Some of the combination are just not workable no matter how beautiful the colours (or colour combinations) are. Beautiful chocolate colour details with beautiful colour seafood are just not on (or may be it is… when there is a world caliber chef who is game enough to serve them at their restaurant). I mean, heck, I was served a trout sorbet in one occassion when I went to a fine dining restaurant. Trout sorbet! and you know what? it taste FANTASTIC! I wouldn’t have begun to imagine that combination – trout, cold temperature, and sorbet texture. Sometime unlikely combination can creates sensational taste. 

Having said that, the kiwi shot above may create some controversy as to whether it is created just for the look or it actually tastes good. On one hand, it has 2 strong (and maybe opposing) sensation of sourness (from the kiwi) and the sweetness (from the choc). Are they conflicting, or are they complementing each other?

Verrine Project #9 – Salmon Ceviche With Alfalfa Sprouts and White Raddish Pickle

Happy New Year everyone, and this will the our first verrine project in 2010. I think I’m now due for a savoury verrine so I’ll start the year with that.      

I have always wanted to to a savoury verrine with salmon. I like its vibrant and bold colour with the whitish strips (the fat).   For you who don’t know what ceviche is, it is traditionally a dish of raw fish mixed with vegetables and lemon squeeze. I first had my ceviche in Peru when I was on my honeymoon. Haven’t forgotten the taste of it since then! 

salmon ceviche with alfalfa sprouts and white raddish pickle

  

Food Creation/Preparation and Styling      

The salmon is prepared fresh, and cut into cublets. The part that I hate most is separating the flesh from the skin. I think I need to take a culinary course.      

First I prepare the base layer with quite a dense layer of alfalfa sprouts. The layer gives a hint of green colour that I think sort of “neutralise” the bold salmon colour a little bit.      

The white raddish has a deep red colour on it’s skin which I think contrast well with the salmon when cut in cross section. I put a couple of slices of the raddish on top of the alfalfa sprouts so that the salmon pieces can have flat base to sit on. I also push the salmon pieces agains the glass so the orange salmon colour and the white fat strips can be clearly visible.      

I also put a circular slice of raddish on the top of the glass to make it a bit interesting. Finally I added a toothpick with a piece of salmon cublet and a raddish slice into the verrine. You may remember I used similar setup in my previous post on tapioca verrine.    Finally I squeeze a generous amount of lemon juice and vinegar mixture on the salmon cublets. The juice makes the pieces more reflective and shiny when photographed. 

The Shooting   

The camera is setup at quite a low angle with the soft light at 3 o’clock direction coming from quite high up. I used my usual 100mm macro lens, it hasn’t failed me since I had it. The camera settings are set at F8 1/2 ISO100.    

To achieve the low key shot I used my black T-shirts to as the base, which I further darkened it in the post-editing.     

Observations     

 I found that when the light is not high enough it produces an unpleasant highlight at the bottom left of the verrine. You can still see the highlight on the bottom left of the verrine.     

I chose low key again in this project because I quite like to contrast the orange with the dark (almost black) background. Incidently, the red on the raddish works quite well on the dark background too.     

There are quite a bit of diagonal elements at play  in this setup. The verrine arrangement is obviously in the main diagonal of the frame. The toothpick on the verrine at the back also reinforce the main verrine arrangement. The toothpick in the front verrine are placed on the other main diagonal of the frame.     

The the circular raddish are deliberately positioned so that it lies on the “diagonal plane”, ie the plane angled against the lens focus. I find this gives more interest to the whole shot compared to if the raddish slice is co-planar with the focus plane.     

Finally, you can actually see the reflection of my kitchen window and the Windex that I use in this project – not that it’s important, but I thought it’s worth mentioning just for fun!    

Verrine Project #8 – Dark Chocolate And Coconut Truffle Trio with French Dessert Wine

This is probably going to be my last verrine project for this year. I know this week is supposed to be a savoury week but I can’t help it when I saw these truffle that my wife made in the christmas gathering we had last weekend.

A little story behind the truffle: we have been planning (well, actually, she has been planning) to make this truffle for the christmas gathering for quite a while. But something always got in the way. The first attempt we didn’t have unsalted butter. The second attempt failed because apparently the white chocolate that she brought home did not want to melt. It was quite amazing. You would think that if you heat up any kind of chocolate it will melt. But this time we both stand in front of the bowl of white chocolate sitting on top of a pan of boiling water and it just doesn’t melt.  Apparently it has to be a cooking chocolate that we have to use. Anyway, finally the third attempt the beautiful dark and white spherically shaped dessert came about my sight and I can’t wait to take a photo of them.

Dark Chocolate and Coconut Truffle Trio with French Dessert Wine

Food Creation, Preparation and Prop

Well I wasn’t involved in the actual making of the truffles so I can’t talk that much about it (it’s her secret recipe ). One thing I know is that she use bits of orange peels so the truffles actually have a dash of citrus taste when you eat it. But I digress. 

Initially I was trying to use my other verrine that I used in my previous post. However I could only fit two truffles into it and the formation didn’t look good. It’s like two chocolate balls hanging in the glass with no purpose. Anyway I did try to use different combination of truffles, use two verrines with two dark chocs and the other verrine with two coconut truffles but they just didn’t work. So I gave up using my favourite verrine and settle with this tall verrine. It turns out that fits exactly three truffles into it. Perfect! 

Now that I decided on the verrine I need to decide on what combination of truffles to put it. Assuming I’m going to use one verrine, I have several choices: all three in dark choc, all three in coconut, alternate dark – white – dark, and alternate white - dark – white. I voted for the alternate colour one – it would be a waste for me not to use the available combination. And I just happen to like the dark choc more so I chose the dark – white – dark combination. 

I always associate dark chocolate with elegant dessert finishing off a fine three course dinner. So again, low key setup come into mind.  What else comes with dark choc? Dessert wine maybe? What? of course it’s French dessert wine! It’s also an excuse for me to use my favourite verrine in this shot. 

Also notice that I create a similar copy of the main setup and put it as a background. 

The shooting 

Camera is rather in low angle position to accentuate the height of the verrine. Softbox is at 2-3 o’clock pointing down 45 degree from the top. I did try to lower the softbox to light the verrine from the side but the reflections are so bad that I abandon the idea straight away. 

The camera is set to F3.5 1/25th at ISO100. 

Observation 

The dessert wine is slightly out of focus, which is delibarate. I made them both in focus at first but find them competing with other for attention so I opened up the aperture a bit to throw the dessert wine a bit off focus. 

Also I angled the camera so that the bottom dark choc has the white plate as it’s background and the middle coconut truffle has the black background. Now I did have problem with the top dark choc truffle because it is dark and the background is also dark, giving a bad contrast – you can hardly see the edge of the top truffle. This is the main reason why I create a second copy of the setup and put it in the background. I positioned the second copy so that the top truffle has something bright as background. 

Also noticed that the top right part of the glass have some choc powder on the glass surface. That’s deliberate otherwise I couldn’t get the edge of the glass visible enough against the background. 

There you go, my last verrine project for the year. I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas everyone!

Verrine Project # 7 – Honey Coated Tapioca Pearls with Mini Orange Slices

I finally had a chance to get back to this project after almost a week delayed. This week has been crazy and it’s really a joy being able to come back to do what I really like.

This time is my creative time again – so instead of picking ideas from the Verrine book, I decided to create a verrine myself with my own “recipe”. I have this idea in mind from last week to create something with black sticky rice topped with thick coconut cream and a dash of mint on top. Guess what – I can’t find the sticky rice. I tried local groceries and asian groceries and they just don’t have it in stock. What can you do, I just find a substitute. I found this black tapioca pearl – I am actually glad that I didn’t find the sticky rice and found this tapioca pearl instead. They are chunky round shaped and has a reflective surface , which can be pretty to be photographed (in my opinion anyway).

 

honey coated tapioca pearl with mini orange slices

Food Creation and Preparation    

The tapioca pearl need to be hard boiled and cool down to room temperature, otherwise the inside of the verrine will become foggy. The pearls are sticky too (especially after you coated them with honey!) so I need to carefully arrange them into the verrine otherwise the honey will be everywhere.    

Initially I wanted to put another layer on top of the pearls. I did try to put a layer of thick coconut cream on top but that was a bad idea. The cream just sink down into the pearls. I tried to put some gelatine powder into the cream to make it firmer but then they looked like a white blob of glue sitting on top of the pearl. I abandoned the idea.   

Then I saw an orange laying around and I thought, why not use it? I’m thinking the honey coated tapioca will give quite a sweet tast so a little bit of sour taste from the orange will make it more balanced.  Sometime what you pre-visualise is not what you end up with    

The Prop      

I decided to go trio this time.  The alternate arrangement of the orange slices and the toohtpick works quite well I think. I really like the toothpick. The idea didn’t come straight away. At first I was using a red wooden spoon that I just bought from Japan City. But I just don’t think the colours work together (ie orange and deep red). I tried wooden chopstick (I know using chopstick sounds funny but I was thinking since the dessert is in pearl shapes maybe we can use chopstick to pick it up – something a bit different!). But that too didn’t seem to work well. However it leads me to the final idea. What else can I use to pick up the pearls but not using the usual boring spoon? Yeah toothpicks!! The part on the shot where the toothpicks criss-crossing each other is my favaourite part. The orange slices on the corner is coated with honey so they are more “shiny”.   

Kitchen mess

   

The Shooting   

Camera setting was set to F5.6 1/8 ISO100. Again I’m using my usual 100mm macro since I want to get close. I set the main focus to the orange slice. I also make sure that the main subject’s toothpick is on the same focus plane as the orange slice so both the orange slice and the toothpick are in focus (if only I have a TS lens!). The camera is looking down at the subject from 25 cm elevation. Light is set at 3 o’clock this time, up high shining down at the subject. This has the advantage that the light doesn’t form a reflection on the glass itself.    

lighting setup

Before the shoot as usual I was tossing between high key and low key shot. My first instict tells me that high key would be more appropriate since the pearls are black-ish and you need something to constrast it against. Black on black is always harder to do. But I really feel that this sweet verrine is a dinner dessert. So call me contrarian, I go with the low key setup. I still need something bright to constrast the pearls against, so I put them on a white serving plate. That brings out the pearls part quite well I think. I particularly like the part where the pearls are pressed on the glass wall creating a dark black circles on the glass surface. Anyway, I also frame the setup so that most of the main orange slice is against the black background, giving higher constrast.   

Observation   

Making the background completely dark was a challange in the kitchen. There are always something that reflects the light – the wall nearby, the windows etc. So I PS the background to make it black. As you can see, I used my black T-shirts to cover the bench to create a dark surface. It works alright, but I think perspex will work better. I’m gonna get some black perspex next time.   

As usual you can see the reflection of the serving plate on the glass. I could have avoided the reflection by using a darker colour serving plate but it won’t give a high contrast between the black pearls and the background. It’s a trade-off I guess.   

I’m really into this kind of setup lately where there are a repetition of the same subject coming from the background and leads the eye towards the main subject in front. You can find similar setup concept on my past work on profiteroles and zucchini puree. I has the effect that the main subject is moving from the background, following the line of repetition towards your eyes and come into focus. It’s all about psychology isn’t it.   

Verrine Project #6 – Zucchini Puree with Mayo and Dried Coriander

I am feeling creative today. Last night was our first anniversary and I decided to make a full 3 course dinner for my lovely wife complete with pre-main and pre-dessert in betweens. I won’t bore you with the complete menu except for the pre-main dish.

 

Usually when we go to fancy restaurant where they serve pre-main dish, the purpose is of course to clean your palate so you can start off with a clean slate before you start the main dish. It can be something fresh, but to my recollection, a lot of the time it’s in some form of puree. So guess what, I made a zucchini puree as the pre-main thinking that it’s really special, until of course I google it for recipe and found literally hundreds of them scattered around the web. Well, there goes “something special” – but I still go ahead with my plan simply because there was no time to change.

 

With my highly tuned estimation skill, I used way to many zucchinis and ended up with big bowl of beautifully coloured unused zucchini puree. And this is what I end up doing.

 

Zucchini Puree with Mayonnaise and Dried Coriander

Food Creation and Preparation

The cooking is easy. The zucchini is chopped into inches, boiled, then processed using food processor. To my surprise, the puree come out straight with enough consistency for easy filling into the verrine – not to runny, not to viscous. Now, since this was originally cooked as a real dish, I boiled the zucchini in chicken broth to give a bit of flavour. The consequence is that it becomes oily, and it is really a pain if it sticks on the the part of the glass that is supposed to be clean. Windex helped, but still pain.

The rest is straight forward. Put a bit of mayo and dried and finely chopped coriander on top.

Food Preparation

Composition

As I said before, I am feeling creative today. Repetition can be boring, but sometimes it reinforces ideas. That’s what I’m trying to do here. Six identical verrines in the frame and that’s it. No other prop this time, only repetition (or pattern if you like) of the six verrine in some arrangement. Now this is a classic curve that leads the eye from the background spiraling clockwise to the foreground and end up at the bottom left of the frame. It looks quite natural to me, but I am wondering if left handed people would find counter-clockwise arrangement more natural. Anyone?

 The Shooting

Camera angle is normal, ie approx 25-30 cm above the surface set at F4 at 1/50 ISO100. Light is at 9 o’clock with reflector at 4 o’clock. I really need to play around with the position of the light and the reflector to make sure that the main subject – ie the glass in front - has a clearly visible edge definition. Glass is hard to be photographed in this sense. If the positioning of the lighting is not right, the glass seems to “blend” in with the backgroun (because it’s transparent). There is this technique that I read in the book “Light: Science and Magic” by Fil Hunter and Paul Fuqua. They dedicate a whole chapter detailing how to light transparent objects so that the edge definition is clearly visible. Highly recommended.

Lighting Setup

Observation

As I mentioned before, repetition can be boring but sometime it can reinforce ideas. There is a subtle balance between them. To many of them, the repetition become boring. To few, the reinforcement of the idea just didn’t happen. What I believe also, particularly in this case, is the number of item in the repetition. In my previous post about profiteroles, I mentioned that I prefered to use an odd number of item in the repetition since it is somehow “off balance” because it’s not even and therefore makes thing interesting. I did start with 5 verrines in this setup but then when I play around with 6, I think it turned out to be ok too. So even number works as well, but I can’t really pinpoint what or when to use odd or even. Maybe the fact that it arrangement is curved has influence on it. Any takers?

Verrine Project #5 – Caramelised Banana, Frozen Raspberries, and White Chocolate Truffle

I know this week is supposed to be a savoury verine week, but I decided to put my inferiorly developed creativity up to test and see what I can come up with.

 

A bit of story behind this shot. I was going to this factory outlet with my other half the other day. I, as usual, wander around aimlessly waiting for her to shop. Usually when we come to this factory outlet, I have a routine schedule to visit all other stores except the fashion related shop. So I usually start with the News Agency where I can spend a good half an hour reading through magazines – until the owner ask me with irritated tone “How can I help you?” – then I know it’s time to leave. You know the rest, I visited the pet shop, hardware shop, photo frame shop, even the supermarket. Then, as if it’s destined to be, I visited the David Jones warehouse last and guess what – I found this set of verrine glasses. Not exactly high quality, but I do like the high cylindrical shape.

 

 

Caramelised banana, frozen raspberry, and white chocolate truffle

Food Preparation/Creation

The longest part of the prep is the caramelisation of the banana pieces. After cutting the banana into small pieces, I rolled them on a bowl of caster sugar and use chopstick to pick it up and put it on the open flame to burn the sugar until it caramelised. And I have to do it one by one. I wish I had a butane flame blower to do this – much much quicker. Then I let them cool before I put them into the verrine.

The rest is really easy. A couple of pieces of raspberry and then the white choc truffle. I had this white choc truffle that my wife made as part of her French Pattisserie class (how convenient). Then I top it up it a mini mint leaves from my herb pot.

That all sound easy, but I did have to assemble the verrine twice. If you’ve dealt with frozen raspberry before, you’ll know that it doesn’t stay frozen too long. Adding on top of that, I was shooting on one the hottest day in Sydney that time (the temperature peaks at 41 degree Celcius that day). So what happened was I did my first verrine fine and beautiful with the truffle pop out a little bit higher than the verrine glass. As I prepare the scene and the props, etc the truffle has sunk to half the height of the verrine glass. The raspberry layer just get squashed as the raspberries reach the room temperature and become really soft. I decided to keep going and finalise my props before I make the second version. Gotta be quick with frozen stuff. That’s one of the hard part in shooting food stuff.

The Shooting

As with the props, I choose to put a cup of black coffee on the background along with a relatively sizeable sugar container. I wanted to convey the dinner mood at the dessert time. The sugar container sort of reinforce the “sweetness” of the dessert – at the same time balanced out by a black coffee, giving a bit of that coffee-bitter taste so that the overal scene is not to “sweet”.

I also deliberately choose black coloured coffee cup so it almost “blends” in with the dark background and doesn’t become distracting. With the big sugar container, I wasn’t quite sure about it initially because I thought it could be distracting because it’s going to look like a big bright blob at the background. But it kinda turned out ok I think. Maybe the neutral colour with some blurred writings on it makes it work. It sort of draw your eye away a bit from the verrine so forcing your eyes to explore the entire frame a bit more instead of just fixated on the verrine glass.

Camera is really at low angle this time to accentuate the height of the verrine. Also, with low angle, the layer is more visible as is, ie not “squashed” because of the high angle perspective. I did play a bit with exposure to make sure that the frozen ice layer on the raspberry is correctly exposed.

I covered the surface with black cloth to create the low key shot. Soft light is positioned at the usual 10 o’clock direction. Big reflector from 4 o’clock direction elevated quite high so it doesn’t produce a reflection on the glass. I also choose to use portrait orientation because I thought it goes better with the shape of the verrine.

Camera settings are 100mm at F5.6 1/4 second at ISO100.

Observation

A bit of reflection of coffee cup on the glass – again I left it as is. A spot highlight appears on the bottom right of the glass, casting a bright spotlight on the dark surface. I find it quite interesting. Obviously it comes from the softbox and get refracted that way. I’m still trying to get my feel on the type of the verrine glass that’s suitable for dessert or savoury. Some says tall verrines are good for savoury whereas low wide verrines are good for dessert. I deliberately make it the otherway around this time. What’s your take?