Food Stylist Job Description

Every day consumers around the world open a magazine, turn on the television or get distracted by an Internet pop-up advertisement showing a mouth-watering steak or the most perfect bowl of cereal a human ever laid eyes upon. An obvious question comes to mind: "Why does my steak never look that way when I grill it?" or "Where did that perfect slice of tomato come from anyway?" The answer to those questions is they were grilled and sliced to perfection by a food stylist.

Job Responsibilities

A food stylist works for advertising agencies, cooking networks and other types of lifestyle media to make a chef's recipe or food product look like a masterpiece. Food stylists are hired to do the shopping, chopping and marinating for celebrity chefs, magazines and television shows and often do most of the work themselves. Think about your favorite early morning show where the hottest new celebrity chef is promoting his new cookbook and out comes a cucumber gazpacho and twice-baked salmon with fresh dill and horseradish. A food stylist arrived on set hours before the live interview to dice cucumber, prepare several versions of the salmon, chop dill and grind fresh horseradish into a delightful dipping sauce. The chef of course claims victory, leaves the set to sign copies of the new book and lets the food stylist clean up the mess, take the leftovers home or dish out the salmon to the crew who are ready for lunch at this point in the day anyway.

Job Opportunities

Most food stylists fall into the field simply by knowing the right person at the right time. That being said, the best place to start is by working as a food stylist assistant and working your way up the ladder. Culinary schools are great networking opportunities so current and prospective students should stick close to that classmate who looks like the next celebrity chef or magazine publisher.

Qualitative Requirements

Any food stylist will tell you the hours are long so being able to stand for fourteen hour photo shoots is a must. He or she should also have a good set of knives, tweezers and art supplies that will get that tomato in just the right place.

Educational Requirements

There are no educational requirements to being a successful food stylist but most have attended culinary school and gone on to work as a chef or line cook in a professional restaurant. If you have a great talent in your own kitchen, are creative and have an artistic vision then you should enroll in culinary school of your choice.

Average Compensation

A food stylist can make up to $850 a day for the work on the high end of the scale. That translates to an annual salary of about $221,000.

References

• FoodStylingAndPhotography.org
• Institute of Culinary Education
• Art Institute