You may not know this, but I’m deep into a project I like to call, “Christine’s Continuing Education.” I’ve been picking up odd catering jobs, bugging people I respect to let me come shadow them, and doing freelance jobs from food publicity to, well, just about anything. I find myself looking for an elegant, made-from-scratch finger food to keep on hand, and over and over I’ve been reaching for these versatile lavash crackers, adapted out of Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice. They’re kind of a blank slate food; flavor them with Italian herbs and you’ve got a Mederranean party. 5-spice with sesame seeds give you an Asian feeling, or big salt crystals are beautiful and work well with just about anything. So many options!
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of helping out Denise Vivaldo & Cindie Flannigan of Food Fanatics (the very best in the business, no joke) and photographer Matt Armendariz of Matt Bites at their food styling and photography seminar. I learned an enormous amount, met some fabulous people, and have a whole new set of tricks up my sleeve for beautiful pictures. It was so great to spend two working days in Matt’s Long Beach studio (the props, my god, the props!). Seriously, I can’t recommend it enough–it was an invaluable addition to the “Continuing Education” quest, and a hell of a lot of fun with these hilarious, slightly crazy, and totally wonderful food professionals. For the second day of the seminar, we had the opportunity to bring in our own projects to style and shoot with the help of all three experts. Since I’m so in love with these lavash flatbread crackers right now, I was giddy like a little kid at the chance to bring them into Matt’s studio to style and shoot. And photograph we did. Look!