A food stylist is a professional who presents gastronomical delights prepared by a master chef and assistants in a visually appealing form for diners and depiction in the media Indra Gidwani
For post-liberalisation India’s newly prosperous 250-300 million middle class, dining out has become a de rigueur lifestyle statement which has prompted the promotion of over 2 million restaurants in the organised sector with an estimated annual turnover of Rs.2.47 lakh crore, and headcount of 4.6 million employees.
With contemporary India’s urbanscape offering one-five star restaurants with a bewildering range of cuisines spanning Jain vegetarian to Tex-Mex, employment opportunities galore — master and sous chefs, restaurant managers, chief stewards, wine sommeliers, and lighting specialists down to well-spoken waiters and fast-talking fast food personnel — have opened up for trained professionals. To this burgeoning list, add the new and hip food stylists vocation.
Essentially, a food stylist is a professional who presents gastronomic delights prepared by a master chef and assistants in a visually appealing form for diners and especially for depiction in the media including dailies, magazines and promotional literature, television and other social media. Given the increasing propensity and the spur of competition forcing food product companies, restaurants and hotels to advertise their gastronomic fare, the food stylist’s role is becoming incrementally important.
“A food stylist is an experienced chef with the visual perspective and knack to translate the taste, aroma and appeal of cuisines into multi-dimensional images,” says chef Vaibhav Mahajan, food stylist par excellence who offers professional services under the banner of Castor Sugar Pvt. Ltd, a company he launched in 2013. A hotel management graduate of the Hafizka Institute, Mumbai, Mahajan began his career at the ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton and Towers, Mumbai in 2003 as a trainee kitchen assistant, and in the course of a decade rose to the position of master chef, and thereafter, went solo in 2013 as a culinary consultant.
Today Mahajan wears many hats — master chef, culinary consultant, educationist and host of Zee television’s Khana Khazana programme, apart from providing food styling services as promoter chief executive of Castor Sugar. Among the company’s clientele are Dinshaw’s Xpress Cafe, ThumsUp, Barbeque Nation, Femina etc. “I am happy in my new vocation as I get to work first as a chef and then progress to styling my creations,” he says.
Study Programmes
Currently, there aren’t any specialised study programmes for food stylists. Young aspirants mostly start their careers as professional chefs after obtaining degrees/diplomas from one of the 21 Central government-sponsored Institutes of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition located in all major Indian cities. Some start off with a diploma/degree from one of the numerous private hotel management institutes countrywide. To develop food styling expertise, it’s advisable to also attend workshops and seminars to learn new trends in food presentation and styling. For food stylists who wish to combine theory with practice, the Culinary Institute of America, and several hospitality management schools in the US, UK and Singapore offer short-term study programmes.
Employment Options
There’s no dearth of employment opportunities in this expanding field with haute cuisine restaurants, pizzerias, eateries and even internet food delivery businesses springing up every other day. All of them need to present the fare they offer attractively, and on various media. Therefore stylists are called in by advertising agencies, restaurants, magazines and food processing companies to present their creations and products invitingly. An apprentice may progress from being an assistant to becoming an independent food stylist with a team of his own. Earnings vary with assignments but a fresher in the industry is likely to start at Rs.25,000-30,000 per month and with some talent and experience, start earning in lakhs.
“In India, food stylists have huge opportunities and are in demand in every type of media — not just for brand-building but for almost anything that has even remotely to do with food. India already has some exceptional food stylists who routinely bag foreign assignments,” says Mahajan.
Bon appetit!