Man Meat BBQ and the Weber Grill Academy: Food Photography
This week, I was honored again to appear on Mikey Kay's excellent podcast Man Meat BBQ. While on my last appearance we talked about a little of everything, this week we covered something even closer to my heart, food photography. As always, Mikey was a gracious host and we had a fantastic time. If you aren't already a listener, you can subscribe through iTunes or his website. I encourage you to check it out!
Speaking of food photography, last week I traveled to the "Mother Kettle," otherwise known as the headquarters of Weber-Stephen Products in Palatine, Illinois. Over three days, I taught grillography for my friends in marketing and the grill academy.
The sprawling headquarters is beautiful and the perfect backdrop as we captured images both outside and indoors in the Grill Academy.
I covered everything from theory, to workflow, to shoot planning. And as usual, not only was I able to impart some knowledge, I took some away myself.
Probably one of the coolest aspects of the headquarters is the indoor Grill Academy. You haven't lived until you fire a kettle up indoors on a cold spring morning. If only I was so lucky on my grill deck.
Thanks to huge vent hoods, five plus grills can be roaring along in the teachable space with movable workstations positioned where needed.
On the final day, we executed our practice with practical exercises, including plated and on grill photography. And, like with all of the food we grilled, we eat like there was no tomorrow.
A special thanks to Kelsey, who whipped up some pesto provolone stuffed spinalis. Spinalis is the meat cap of the ribeye and is probably the most flavorful piece of beef on the cow. These stuffed pesto bites were simply fantastic.
My thanks again to Mikey and everyone at Weber for a great session. We have a lot of exciting work ahead!
Note: My work for Weber is compensated.