Sharon Gatonye: Chef and food stylistG

As a food stylist, Sharon Gatonye’s job is to cook either simple or complicated foods from scratch and make them look picture-perfect for advertisements, magazines, film or cookery books. PHOTO | COURTESY 

By Kari Mutu

IN SUMMARY

• As a food stylist, Sharon’s job is to cook either simple or complicated foods from scratch and make them look picture-perfect for advertisements, magazines, film or cookery books.

As a child, Sharon Gatonye enjoyed decorating cakes and collecting chipped bowls and vintage cups. There was no connection between the two interests until the day she discovered food styling.

“I knew this is what I wanted to do. It’s like art and food put together,” says Sharon, 21, in reference to a career that merges her twin passions.

Sharon knew from an early age that she wanted to work with food and remembers hurrying home after school to catch the cooking shows on television and scribble down recipes. “I was always a food person and the kitchen was where I felt I was calm and had no stress and I could do anything,” she said.

She was just 17 years old when she joined the Institute of Culinary Arts in Stellenbosch, South Africa to train as a chef. Her final year specialisation was in food media, even though she admits to being shy and timid about conducting presentations.

An apprenticeship in the studio kitchen of a professional food stylist is what got her creative juices flowing. In one section of the fully equipped studio kitchen, whose walls were a gallery of incredible food images, was a long table filled with all kinds of props.

“Knick-knacks, colours and very odd things,” recalled Sharon. “There is a whole process behind styling food apart from cooking. It’s about using your food knowledge, putting a spin on food and making it pretty. It’s very creative and I love that,” she added.

Sharon got into food styling from the culinary arts side but depending on your other passions, you can get into it from a background of either photography, print media or even interior decorating. “You don’t have to have a food background, you just need a passion for food and to have the creativity.”

As a food stylist, Sharon’s job is to cook either simple or complicated foods from scratch and make them look picture-perfect for advertisements, magazines, film or cookery books.

Thus food styling and photography go hand in hand and are a powerful medium since a single mouth watering image used on a billboard, magazine or even a brochure has the ability to inspire millions of people to want to buy an item or eat a certain food.

“A photograph has the power of suggestion and perception,” said Sharon adding that, “You want a picture to look amazing but in a well-thought out creative process.”

So Sharon trained in photography too but later realised that, “It’s a whole different game and as a food stylist, you’ll need to get a photographer whom you can synchronise with because every photographer has their own way of doing things.” A professional photographer is an essential component of incredible food pictures, otherwise a delectable meal can look dull and uninspiring.

To make an ordinary pot of stew or any other everyday meal look sumptuous in a photograph calls for a creative mind and a bagful of tricks. A food stylist may need to break up and reconstitute the recipe, and figure out ways to preserve vegetable colours even after cooking or bring out the perfect golden-brown hue of baked foods.

Using chunkier than normal food cuts or using more of a particular ingredient may also accentuate the textual and visual appeal of a dish. These are tricks a food stylist has to learn.

One of the things that drives her as a food stylist is the need to showcase the rich food traditions of East Africa in fresh ways. “We are used to doing things the same way over and over. Nothing has changed since when we were growing up. I want to show more of how we can use our food in different ways,” explained Sharon.

“I love the local food shows on TV. We have the ingredients, we have the personalities, but the food could be styled a bit better and we could become a little more creative,” she added.