Photo by Donna, cooked eggnog with meringue and nutmeg
Photo by Donna
The thing I like about this photo is that you don't know how big this egg is. It could be a huge dinosaur egg because there is nothing to put into perspective. The fibers of the napkin could be of a blanket and the blue is unidentifiable. As Michael said in his blog, the egg measures 1-3/8ths inches high.
When I started to photograph these tiny little gems I thought I should put something in the photo to show it's scale, but then felt that I was only putting something in the photo for that purpose—a contrived pairing of objects. There are times when it is necessary because it's useful to know how big something is and you can't, or don't want to, saddle your photo with info. Then, when it is necessary to put a fork or a lemon wedge ...
Photos by Donna
Fried quail egg on arugula, bacon, English muffin croutons and Hollandaise
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Photos by Donna
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have been publishing innovative books about cooking and the chef world for longer than I have. Their popular Becoming a Chef was published the summer I was harrassing the Culinary Institute of America to let me in to write about, well, becoming a chef. I was mortified they'd beat me to it. It proved to be not just a different book from what I was attempting, but a valuable research tool for me then and throughout the years (its history of American restaurants and chefs with opening dates or significant restaurants is something I've returned to throughout the years). It remains a valuable book especially for people considering entering the profession.
Their most recent book, The Flavor Bible, published last year was one I kept hearing about. Finally I got around to having a look ...
The most exciting cookbook of the season, to me, is without question, Momofuku, by David Chang and Peter Meehan. Momofuku combines great cooking and restaurant kitchen photography in the journalistic style I love, recipes and techniques I was eager to learn about (steamed buns, spicy fried chicken), and an intense, passionate narrative by Meehan that captures the distinctive nature of this unusual chef. My partner in Charcuterie, Brian Polcyn and I were lucky enough to find a seat at Chang's noodle bar this fall and had a fantastic meal. As soon as I read Momofuku, I bought a copy to send to Brian.
I think it's a sad state of affairs that Chang has been getting so much media attention that people have begun to grouse about it. What I don't like about it is this. ...
I've been forcing myself to explore more creative compositions in my shots. I think we all have a first instinct as to how to frame a subject. As we approach it, our minds are deciding overhead vs. low—real tight or backed off to include other elements. With this shot I had been taking some shots when Michael said to me, "I really want to show this", and he pointed to the little holes at the end of the cut chives. I started getting in real tight, but was losing the length of the full chive, so I tilted the frame to get the most out of the corners. If this shot were not tilted, the rest of the chives wouldn't be there, and if I made sure they were in with a straight frame, I wouldn't be as close as ...
Photo by Donna
Here is the interior of a gougere, a cheese puff that was made for the video. I like this photo because you can see how it could also be a pastry puff filled with puddings, creams or chocolate. I photographed this for Michael's Ratio book which ran in B&W. Below is a photo of pets de nonne (nun's farts). Little donuts sprinkled with confectioners sugar.
Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I blog about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll join the conversation.
