Can I Have That recipe? What Camera Do You Use?

Now I understand that the above questions seem a bit strange to go together but bare with me as I’m about to elaborate.

As a chef I get asked this question a lot and over the years and my answers have frequently changed. Now I just keep it simple. When dealing with non-chefs I usually direct them to the internet but with chefs it gets a bit more complicated.

When I started out in catering I was always told that you never give away your recipes, after all a magician never revels their secrets. Then later on as I progressed up the ranks I was told by my head chef at the time its ok to share recipes as long as you keep something to yourself. However I’ve now come to a totally different conclusion. In some ways its worse…

Now when asked ” what’s your recipe?’ by fellow chefs I usually but always just give them a list of ingredients. All the correct ingredients, with the correct weights but what I rarely do is give away the method. For the method we have to work together and I will show you how to make it. Then its up to you to write the method down yourself. The above image shows you a basic crumble, shortbread and a list of ingredients. As the image shows from that list of ingredients you can make 2 different recipes, the only difference is the method used.

Now moving onto the above images one shot on my phone and the other shot on dslr. As you can see both images are practically the same to the naked eye. It’s only when you look at little closer or at the data (or try and print but don’t want to get to technical) that you see the difference.

Like in the example of crumble/shortbread image, it’s us as the chef/photographer, our knowledge and experience is what matters not so much the equipment or list of ingredients. In the same inexperienced hands you risk getting a very different outcome. The Chefs experience and knowledge of how to use the ingredients is what makes the dish. The Photographer creates the image not the camera. This level of knowledge and experience takes time to acquire and can not be rushed and neither should it be. I myself even after all this time am still learning and evolving which I hope never changes!

Until next time…