The job of food stylists is to style the appearance of food and dishes that appear in magazines, cookbooks, advertisements, food packaging, TV commercials and even films.

 

By using appropriate scene backgrounds and culinary artistry, a food stylist is responsible for making food look exciting, enticing and seducing to the viewer.

 

The main task of a food stylist is to carefully and artfully arrange food so that a two-dimensional photograph is able to transmit the perception of taste, aroma and appeal of the actual dish. 

 

Depending on the ingredients used for food presentation, brushing or spraying the food surface with water or a thin coat of vegetable oil, and keeping it under a food cover, is the most basic technique of a food stylist. The food will not only appear fresh but also look juicy. 

 

High heat will cause the food to continue cooking and eventually appear dried out. Hence, poultry and meats are undercooked, or cooked at lower than normal temperatures to prevent them from shrivelling or shrinking. A roasted look is achieved by brushing with gravy colouring or browning with a blowtorch. As for a grilled look, grill marks are branded onto the food’s surface using red-hot skewers. Often, vegetables are undercooked and kept in cold water to retain their colour.

 

Employers of food stylists are usually companies that deal with food-related media and women’s magazines like Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Rasa and Saji to name a few. Large food corporations like Giant, Tesco, Parkson, Econsave, Old Town Kopitiam, McDonald’s and Bistro need food stylists too.

 

An experienced and resourceful food stylist can earn a lucrative salary of between RM3,000 and RM5,000 a month in the food services industry. In Malaysia, there are only a handful of professional food stylists, so there are plenty of job opportunities in this field.