I disliked it the first time, finding it tedious and struggled my way through it for most of my school years. I had to work hard at it. For someone who had a sharp perception in every other area, I was not used to this kind of struggle. Had I known I’d have to go through it a second time I would have paid more attention the first time round. Fact is that I was so happy to skim through it, I never bothered looking back … or forward.
An exchange of ideas, thoughts and emails, soon we were in the midst of comparing our calendars in search of free dates. The rest came so easy. As Sumayya Jamil from the famed niche blog Pukka Paki and I put our heads together great things began to flow and it was hard to stop them. I shared my concept with Sumayya about creating a slightly different workshop series I am planning to execute next year and she put her faith in me and my idea, joining me for the first in this series.
Before we knew it we had chiseled out a fantastic schedule, booked the perfect venue and planned a luscious menu for what I hope will be an amazing 2 day Supperclub | Food Styling and Photography Workshop in London, UK.
The idea is to create a full food experience for the people who attend this workshop. Broken down it’s a food styling/photography workshop, where you will learn all the elements you need to hone your skills in food photography and learning how to find your way through the jungle of food styling to create the perfect set-up. Moreover, I am thrilled to have our special guest Jeanne Horak-Druiff, who will be teaching an extensive session on restaurant and low-light photography we will address the needs of bloggers and reviewers who need to polish their skills in taking photos in busy restaurants and with nasty lighting. There will be many practical exercises, a lot of theory and an on-location shoot. Sumayya will take our participants on a divine culinary tour, where you will not only learn different cooking techniques used in the Indian/Pakistani kitchens and create some mouth-watering dishes, but you will also indulge in an array tantalizing South-Asian street food.
We have booked the stunning kitchen at the Central Street Cookery School, which provide huge windows streaming with gorgeous natural light, plenty of space for cooking, styling, photographing and eating! Being very centrally located the Central Street Cookery School is absolutely ideal, providing an exceptional experience for us over the course of the two days.
How does all this sound? If I have enticed you some here are the details of what we will cover, what the course costs are and where you can register.
Workshop Details
Dates to diarize: February 15th-16th, 2013
Location: Central Street Cookery School, 90 Central Street, London EC1V 8AJ
Website: http://www.centralstreet.org/Preliminary Programme
Day one - Friday 15th February 2013
- Meet & Greet Brunch - prepared by Sumayya
A feast for the senses - Sweet, Spicy Sub-Continental Brunch:
This menu is based on Pakistani brunch-style, with Sumayya's contemporary twists along the way. Usually always a mixture of sweet, sour, hot and many different textures, flavors and aromas, this is a beautiful celebration of South Asian spicy sweet breakfasts!- Photography Fundamentals by Meeta
Mastering the camera, natural light techniques, focusing, learning the techniques etc.- Styling Fundamentals by Meeta
Composition and placement, creating a mood/atmosphere, the right props, color, texture etc.- Free-Style Photography Exercises
Short exercises to warm you up- Evaluation and presentation of exercises
Constructive feedback, discussion and critique on exercises- Restaurant photography by Jeanne Horak-Druiff
- Pushing Photoshop by Jeanne Horak-Druiff
Post-processing your low-light images- Gastropub Photo shoot
On location photo shoot to practice taking shots in a restaurant atmosphere and in low light conditions.- Dinner at Gastropub
Day two - Saturday 16th February 2013
- Enlightening yourself with Lightroom by Meeta
Workflow, post-processing, watermarking, tagging- Styling demo with Meeta
- Styling session for assignment with group
- Cooking session and demo with Sumayya
This will include different quick techniques of
Tempering - using hot oil/ghee to top temper a street style lentil dish with dried chillis, cumin, garlic topped with fresh coriander and ginger
Paratha bread making - making ghee flat breads on a flat pan and rolling them out
Deep frying street snacks - dipping vegetables in spicy chickpea batter, frying and serving quickly topped with spicy chaat masala and lemon- Lunch prepared by Sumayya
A walk through a South Asian-style food Street - based on a street style Pakistani / Indian menu, will include kebab rolls, tarka daal, pakoras, bun kebabs, chaat and sweet samosas- Intensive work on assignment
- Evaluation, discussion & critique on assignment
Constructive feedback, discussion and critique on assignment- Finale Cocktails by Sumayya
Be surprised by Sumayya’s luscious cocktail creations like Anartini, Imlitini and more.Ticket includes:
Does NOT include:
- 2 day food styling, photography and cooking sessions with Sumayya, Meeta and Jeanne
- Friday: Meet & Greet Brunch, Dinner at Gastropub
Saturday: Lunch, Cocktails- Snacks and beverages during the workshop
- Travel costs
- Accommodation
Registrations can be made using the registration form and are accepted on a first-come-first-serve basis
Limited to max 12 participants
See you in London!
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2011 Meeta Khurana Wolff unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First
After my return from Dubai I was thinking of taking a few days out before jumping into the familiar high powered routine I usually have. We arrived just in time for a bank holiday in the middle of the week and there was nothing standing in the way of a few extra days of tranquility and lounging around the house recuperating from the intense eight days in Dubai. I was not tired nor did I feel drained, on the contrary I was full of energy and motivated, raring to shift into sixth gear and zoom ahead.
“Militante!” shouted Giorgio punching the air with his fist and grinning at us as he turned around and walked back into the cool air-conditioned Ronda Locatelli leaving us feeling exhilarated, ready to take on the world. Giorgio Locatelli is a man of great passion and it is easy to become infected by his passion as he shares his love of good Italian food with many stories of his childhood.
The surprise Sally and I had arranged for the participants of the Dubai Food Styling and Photography workshop was a full on success. Meeting Giorgio Locatelli was a well deserved treat that happened later on the first day after a packed few hours of photography and styling techniques and theory. Sally and I had organized our second food styling and photography workshop in Dubai, this time at the gorgeous venue of Miele’s lovely gallery.
