12 Days of Christmas, Day 1

Hey everyone, a very Merry Christmas to you. Welcome to day 1 of my 12 Days of Christmas where I’ll be choosing one photo from 2018 and sharing a little of the story behind it. Today we’re shooting for Art Culinaire Magazine with the legendary Clare Smyth at her new restaurant Core.

If you work in the hospitality industry in the UK you will have almost definitely heard of chef Clare Smyth. From 2012, she was  Chef  Patron at Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. Otherwise, known as RHR (Royal Hospital Road) Clare Smyth was the first female British chef to hold and retain 3 Michelin Stars and has been awarded the Worlds Best Female Chef in 2018.

The call to shoot Clare Smyth

As you can imagine I was delighted when Art Culinaire Magazine asked me to, once again, photograph a top chef for their publication. The food was exquisite, masterfully cooked and presented making it a true joy to work with. Working closely with Clares team, primarily with her Head Chef Jonny Bone, we captured some of the characters of Core.

As usual, I kept things pretty simple for the lighting. My one light of choice and a reflector to lift the shadows.

I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with such incredible people and I look forward to working with so many more in the coming year.

If you’d like to learn more about restaurant photography please take a look at this earlier post.

I hope to see you back here for day 2.

JT