03 Magazine: March 01, 2023

66 Magazine | Food
“My parents had a Chinese cookbook that I absolutely
loved – in fact it’s where I learned to make the same fried rice
I make today – and it still sits on my bookshelf.”
grew up in the small rural town of Feilding, in
I the heart of the Manawatū, as the eldest of
four children.
I remember cooking from a very young age.
My parents had a Chinese cookbook that I
absolutely loved – in fact it’s where I learned to
make the same fried rice I make today – and it still
sits on my bookshelf.
I went to a garage sale when I was about ten
years old and bought a plastic box full of deliciouslooking
recipe cards, and a couple of spiral-bound
recipe books with images that made me want to
make my own cookbook.
My most frequently used recipe cards were for
pavlova, stuffed mushrooms and coconut ice, and I
wrote my very first experimental recipe in Standard
4 (Year 6). I’d make chocolate cake, ice cream and
gingerbread houses.
Every now and then my brother and I would
pretend to have a restaurant, and we’d write out
fancy menus and set the table like we were at the
Old Flame (a restaurant in Palmerston North). I’d
cook and he’d be the waiter.
Although I dreamed of becoming a chef, or
rather, designing a restaurant that had its own
kitchen garden and hāngī pit (the dream is still
there, lingering in my subconscious), I ended up
going to the School of Architecture and Design
at Victoria University, and completing a degree in
Interior Architecture.
But not content with designing either modern
living spaces or commercial fit-outs, I went with my
heart, and my thesis project was based around, you
guessed it… kai. I designed my dream restaurant,
but much more than that, I designed spaces based
on the rituals and processes of kai – namely
harvest, store, cook and eat. ‘A recipe for ritual’, I
named it.
One Saturday morning in the middle of winter,
I saw two sets of images on Facebook (this was
the pre-Insta food world) that totally sparked
something within me and set my dreams in
motion. One set of images showed beautifully and
simply styled waffles, honey and a coffee
maker, all in a very dreamy, rustic, white table
setting. The other images were behind-the-scenes
shots from a shoot for a food magazine. No way, I
thought. The pros actually do it like this?
I thought it was just me and my amateur ways
that staged scenes on the floor or on my dining
table! And so, on this rainy weekend morning in
June of some year in the 2000s, I had my eureka
moment. I could do this. I was already doing this.
But I could do it ‘for real’.
I threw myself into mastering my camera and
craft. I used it at every opportunity, and created
styling opportunities for myself. I analysed my
favourite images on Pinterest, blogs, in cookbooks
and magazines, I analysed every little detail. I started
delving into the depths of the internet to find out
about composition in photography, using natural
light, colour theory and camera settings. I learned
how to shoot comfortably in manual mode – and
this was a game changer!
Then I decided to start treating Instagram more
like a living portfolio, and I got my first ‘real life’
styling jobs. Starting with a few small businesses,
styling their products, I was then picked up by a
couple of content-creation agencies, for whom I
shot food products. It was when I was approached
by a major food company here in New Zealand
that food styling and photography became a
full-time gig. One big thing led to another big thing,
and soon I had work coming out my ears.
Now I’m a commercial food stylist, food
photographer and recipe developer. As well as being
a busy mum of three children, I spend my days styling
and photographing food for both large and small
brands, restaurants and cafés, publications, television
commercials and top chefs.
Sometimes I’m in my own kitchen producing
dishes according to a brief or developing recipes for
clients, sometimes I’m capturing the amazing work
of world-class chefs, and sometimes I’m the food
stylist in a TV studio, working with a crew.
My work has been used on everything from
billboards to magazines, food packaging to
websites, TV adverts to cookbooks, and I’m so
proud to have won a much coveted Pink Lady
International Food Photographer of the Year
award in 2021, and the New Zealand Food
Photographer of the Year in 2022.
No two days are the same, and I work with
a good amount of creative intuition, creating
detail‐rich photographs with an ethereal sense of
mood and depth that captivates the senses, guiding
the viewer’s eye through a shot that has been
thoughtfully considered.
I absolutely love what I do, and I am grateful that
I can do what I love.