(Part 2) Top products from r/FoodPorn

Thank you! Yes it's a plate. I love shooting on dark tables, plates, and backgrounds. It can add really nice contrast to an image.

The most important thing for food photography is the styling so being a chef should give you a huge advantage. Grab the book Light Science and Magic to get an understanding of lighting and you will be producing masterpieces in no time!

I hear ya. I didn't get into the habit of making food to look as amazing as it tasted till after I worked in a few restaurants, I still get lazy most of the time and don't dress stuff up. Particularly when its just me eating it.

Taking you at your word of knowing nothing about cooking, despite some evidence to the contrary in an image above, I typed out my standard advice to someone looking to know more about cooking:

• If you want to learn more about cooking, Alton Brown's books/shows are a fantastic resource because they also tell you the how and the why that is missing from many contemporary cooking shows.
  
  
• A good resource for recipes is a copy of the Three Rivers Cookbook.
  
  
• About the only things I learned working as a line cook at a few places were: some pretty sweet knife skills, how to tell the done-ness of meat by touch, and that I NEVER want to work in another kitchen for the rest of my life. But I still like cooking for myself / my friends.

This recipe was adapted from The Uchi Cookbook.

To make the squid, I first made a marinade (roughly inspired by kimchi). Get about 30 g each of ginger, garlic, and shallots and mince them. Mince about 60 g of green onion. In a sauce pan, saute the ingredients in 30 g of vegetable oil - adding the green onions last. Once softened and aromatic, add 30 g of sugar and 30 g of toasted sesame oil. Remove from the heat. Once cool, add 55 g of fish sauce and mix thoroughly.

I bagged a calamari steak with this marinade and let marinate overnight. Next, I cooked the calamari sous vide at 140F for 2 hours. I removed all of the marinade with a paper towel, then cooked on the stove over high heat to caramelize. Once cooled, I sliced the squid into strips.

I cut 1/2 slices of green tomato and vacuum compressed them with some homemade nam chim (fish sauce, water, sugar, garlic, ginger, shallots, and Thai pepper).

For the gastrique, I mixed a 1:1 ratio of fresh apple juice to white vinegar, then added some curry paste I had on hand with some sugar and reduced to a syrup.

To finish the salad, I tossed the calamari, compressed tomatoes, thin slices of green apple, and romaine hearts with a a bit of the nam chim from the tomatoes, then piled over some of the gastrique.

It's a great book by a great guy, I'd highly recommend it if you're into grilling or meat in general really.
https://www.amazon.com/Meathead-Science-Great-Barbecue-Grilling/dp/054401846X

Negima usually uses the white parts of the scallion, but I prefer the green, too.

You can puree the bacon with paprika and use it as a marinade for the chicken. The fat and salt keep it tender, and it picks up a nice smokiness as it cooks.

If you like Japanese grilling, check out Tadashi Ono's "The Japanese Grill". There are many good books on robata and izakaya, but Ono's is the most accessible and consistent.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I cross posted this from /r/52weeksofbaking

Another pic

Recipe from the Ovenly Cookbook. I won't post it publicly because it's not published online, and it really is a great cookbook, but if you want the recipe just PM me.

This recipe is all about the chocolate, so I used a fancy organic fair-trade 60% cacao chocolate.

Now I don't actually like chocolate, especially dark chocolate, so I can't vouch for the taste personally, but others have told me it's pretty good!

I gave my brother (who is a great cook) this book for Christmas, along with a jar of Himalayan salt. There is a section (IIRC) on grilling on a salt slab. It looked like a fascinating book and had information on more varieties of salt than I even knew existed.

Absolutely, if you are a complete beginner this book is great to start with. As you progress this other book will be a good next step. The salt cured pig blog on Facebook has a ton of info on it for home curing. So I’d start with the first book and go from there, you can hit me up with any questions!

Found it in here Amazon

Youtube Video made by Gennaro Contaldo

So easy. So delicious. U have to try and dont forget the dryed Oregano, its a must have in there.

If you're interested in becoming more of a burrito scholar yourself, I highly recommend this book.

This is my favorite restaurant in Kansas City. Their cookbook is great too!

On a side note, the Garrelts (chef-owners of Bluestem) are opening a new restaurant soon called Rye. An employee at Trezo Vino, a restaurant that the Garrelts took over in May 2011 but closed in March this year, said that Rye would focus on being a slow food restaurant. This may have something to do with the rumors that Trezo Vino closed due to soaring food costs.

Flavour profile. Onions/avocado/tomato/cheese/fatty meat in a dish is as Mexican as abject poverty and random decapitations. The moment you switch over from recipe cooking to flavour profile cooking (The Flavour Bible is a great introduction) you'll eat so much better.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Presentation-Secrets-Techniques-Professionals/dp/1554074916/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Working-Plate-The-Food-Presentation/dp/047147939X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Styling-The-Preparing-Camera/dp/0470080191/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-5

http://www.amazon.com/Stacks-The-Art-Vertical-Food/dp/1580080626/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1335573464&sr=8-4

There's a cookbook

http://www.amazon.com/This-Youre-Thin-Forever-More/dp/044654860X

Game of Thrones Cookbook

https://www.amazon.com/DMWP001OR-Machine-Pumpkin-Individual-Breakfast/dp/B07V6M95F2