Food Stylist: How to make a perfect plate for cinema
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, I'm Yinka Bikini and welcome to Out of Frame. If you love cinema just as much as I do, then you've probably wondered just how your favourite movies and TV shows are made. Well, my friend, this is the place to find out. Each week, I'm joined by talented members of the Below the Line crew. These are the people who bring a director's vision to life. And trust me, it takes a city of people to create a blockbuster film or a high-end TV show. And in this podcast, you'll peek behind the Hollywood curtain like you've never seen before. This is Out of Frame.
Food can be a powerful tool for storytelling. When you're watching your favorite film or TV characters, the food they eat can tell you a lot about who they are, from their culture and heritage to their financial status and even emotional state. Making sure the food looks and feels realistic, that's the job of a food stylist. Catherine Tidy has worked as a food stylist for years. She's worked on action film, thrillers, period dramas, and family favorites, and I'm so pleased to have her with me in the Crew HQ studio. Catherine, welcome to Out of Frame. Thank you very much. So before we get started, I have got two questions for you, which I consider to be a little bit of an icebreaker for you and for our audience.
Okay. Are you ready? Yes. That wasn't one of them. What's the last film that you watched that really inspired you? Nosferatu. Oh!
Weird choice, I know. Yeah! Yes. But I'd seen some of Robert Eggers' films before, I saw The Witch, and I thought Nosferatu was beautifully made. Okay. Just beautifully lit and I love the vibe of it.
Is it one of those things where... Because you work within film and you work in the look and the feel and sort of the emotion that comes from the decisions that are made behind the camera. The set deck part of it. When you're watching it, you don't switch that part of your brains on. Always. Yeah. Yes. I hear that. What would the title of your biopic be?
What does a food stylist do to tell stories on screen?
I did all the pies in Sweeney Todd. And for years, still now, there are crew members from that film who go, oh, look, it's Pie Lady. So maybe it would be that.
Is it, oh, look, it's Pie Lady, or just... Pie Lady.
No, oh, look, it's Pie Lady.
I love it. It's like, yes.
I love it. Do you know what, guys? I've made lots of films since then that did not have pies. And you've worked on some of them. Why do we keep bringing up the pies?
And they're like, hey, Pie Lady, that's enough coming from you. Yes.
Yeah. There were a lot of pies.
I love that. There were a lot of pies in that film. Do you remember how many pies there were on Swinging Todd?
1,587. Shut the front door.
And it just stuck him out because there were a lot of pies. That's a lot of pies. It's a lot of pies. But you know, it's one of my favourite films and when I think back in my mind's eye, there are a lot of pies. There are a lot of pies. I mean, that's the whole jig is the pies. There's the pies with the dead bodies and the pies. Right. Yeah. All right, Catherine, I've given our audience a little insight into why food can be so significant in cinema. But can you tell me a little bit more about what role food plays when it comes to good storytelling from your point of view?
It can be what the mood of the scene is. It can be sometimes... The performance for the actor, they have a plate of food for them and they're feeling sad or they're feeling angry and the way they eat it or don't eat it, that can be significant. In historical films, it can tell a story about the wealth of the person eating it, if it's an aristocratic house or if they're really poor. Sometimes the food is meant to be horrible, like awful prison slop or something like that. It can tell the story like that. Sometimes you just do a beautiful table of food that no one sees because they put 50 extras in front of it. And I like to think that adds ambience for the actor's performance. And I get to take pictures for my portfolio.
Yeah, and it just looks gorgeous.
You're never going to see that. You're just never going to see that.
Yeah. Yeah. You have one of those jobs that people who are watching at home in the cinema, wherever it is they indulge in film or TV, they probably won't think about.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:06
2
What does a food stylist do to tell stories on screen?
2:06–16:02
3
How did Katharine Tidy become a food stylist and start in film?
16:02–21:12
4
How much real food versus models are used on big film sets?
21:12–24:13
5
How long does it take to prep different types of food scenes?
24:13–26:41
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Out of Frame
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