Bean Sprouts Kitchen Cookbook

While messing around on Facebook last winter I came across a post from an old friend of mine who works in publishing.  She’s based in California and was looking for a food photographer in the Chicago area.  Having photographed a year of social media posts for Hershey’s, I threw my hat into the ring for the gig and was connected with the incredible team behind Bean Sprouts Cafes and the new Bean Sprouts Kitchen cookbook, Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen.

Of course, the first estimate I put together was my dream package;  rental studio, food stylist, digital tech, and an assistant. But then I got on the phone with Shannon and got a feel for what she wanted, after all, she had been photographing the food herself in her own living room.  Shooting with natural light is my favorite way to photograph and I knew I had to make this all work, so I suggested that I take over her living room while she focused on putting the recipes together, and I headed up to Madison for a very packed and delicious week.

Eager to learn more about my new client, I checked out their website and found that there was a Bean Sprouts Cafe not far from Chicago, although most are located in museums on the West Coast. Making it a fun day for the family, I grabbed Craig and Aleck and we headed to the closest Bean Sprouts Cafe in Naperville at the DuPage Children’s museum.  What struck me most of all was how all the food was given personalities, identities, and arranged carefully on the plate.  I knew giving food a “life” of its own, was going to be a fun challenge and I worked with various angles to make dishes like waffled zucchini feel like a jellyfish in “Under the Z”, the photo shown here.

One very common mistake clients make when looking at a shot list is identifying the “easy” shots, the ones that won’t take too long, and then vocalizing them.  It brings out the Yiddish Yente in me and I find myself mumbling, “kenahora” and spitting on the ground.  Like this adorable Tirami-Shoe which ended up being quite labor intensive.  Not only did the marshmallows have to be shaped perfectly, but they had to be spaced just right in order to look like a footprint, and that wasn’t easy since they preferred to drift along in their mug.

What I loved the most about working with Shannon, besides our shared love for musicals and singing at the top of our lungs, was how collaborative she was.  I’d photograph the food as she brought it to me, but then if I had an idea she’d let me explore it, and together we were able to bring this food to life.  Like in the image above, the recipe doesn’t call for any leaves on the tree, but I thought a few little greens would help make her Hootabaga feel a bit more at home.