Tag Archives: vegetarian

Beyond Veggie

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Those Secret Recipe people harboured a secret. To open a chain of health food places that specialise in meatless menu. The Beyond Veggie restaurants are now up and running with several outlets in Klang Valley.

Photographed here is their Spaghetti Carbonara with shiitake (and other) mushrooms. The vegetarian noodles tasted like white Penang Hokkien Mee but is delicious. Most dishes are a bit pricey but portions are generous. I love this cafe at Oasis Square for the al fresco dining experience by the lovely fountain pool.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f4, 1/60 sec.

Beyond Veggie's Spaghetti Carbonara

The Window Seat

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I love IKEA’s vegetarian pasta. For most textured food, the light should caress it from the rear or side. Only then do you see the texture, thus making it look sexier.

You can’t control much outside a studio setting but you can make your task easier. First thing I do, when eating out in the day, is to find a window seat where natural, diffused  sunlight seeps in. Not an easy task at the IKEA cafeteria as it is always crowded.

Tips for restaurant owners: To make your food look appetising on the menu, do not shoot from an overhead angle. Photograph from about 45 degree or lower. Psychologically, when the customer sees the food picture at the angle similar to that as viewed from a dining position, he or she will want to eat it.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 250, f10, 1/40 sec.

IKEA's Vegetarian Pasta

The Softener

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If I am in the studio, I will start with a Broncolor and a big soft lightbox over the food. Then I might add a secondary light or use a variety of light shapers to style the look. The food stylist, art director and the client will eventually be happy, hopefully.

What if I am eating inside a very dark market and need an impromptu photo for myself? I tore off the styro foam box cover and placed a small light behind it. I used a Manfrotto ML-240 in this case, but a phone’s LED light will do almost as well. The idea is to soften an artificial direct light source.

I was attracted to the chicken char siew rice because it is totally vegetarian. It is mock meat but it sure look and tastes like the real thing. See the close-up in the second pic below.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 200, f3.5, 1/30 sec.

The Softener

Char Siew is like the pork version of Tandoori Chicken, if you think about it. This char siew and chicken rice meal is the vegetarian version, probably made from soy and/or wheat gluten. It is found in the Hot Springs New Village market food court.

To show texture better and to give your food a more three-dimensional look, shoot from an angle of about 45 degree or below.  If possible, soften the light but you probably don’t want to diffuse the light until there are no highlights. Shadowless “light tent” shots are good for supermarket product catalogues but not ‘magazine-style’ food photos.

Since you are doing it for yourself, experiment and style it to your own taste. The fun is in learning how both natural and artificial light shape the food in front of you.

Olympus OM-D, ISO 2000, f6, 1/80 sec.