Violet and The Vicarage
One of my biggest pleasures in life is food, good food, preferably cooked from scratch at home and if possible cooked by someone else.
I was raised by a great pair of cooks at home and have been lucky enough to sample a wide range of cuisine from around the world. Unfortunately living with a vegetarian and a fussy eleven year old, coupled with getting home late after my commute from London each day has turned this pleasure into a bit of a weekend only thing.
My mid week meals tend to consist of fairly standard fair from the freezer and a lot of quorn. Don’t get me wrong we still get to eat but I just don’t get to spend any time being creative in the kitchen in fact my copy of the chefs bible “Escoffier” hasn’t seen the light of day for nearly as long as my Kitchen Aid (I have memorized béarnaise anyway and that’s the best thing in the whole book) I do still try to make an effort with dinner when we get to have a family meal and am quite creative when it comes to making a jacket potato, cheese and beans look good (to an 11year old anyway) but my food styling skills are well out of practice I’m afraid.
This weekend I get to knock up a couple of curries as we have some friends coming over and I am really looking forward to some serious pestle and mortar action and adding a few more turmeric stains to the kitchen worktop.
By this point you are probably wondering what on earth Brucie Blogger is on about this time, are Pixipixel moving into kitchen hire?
Well no we are not, well not yet anyway. I am trying to set the mood so I can tell you about a rather “tasty” project I got us involved in with the lovely ladies at Violet and the Vicarage.
Our involvement started about a fortnight ago when I received a call from Kristin Perers. (A renowned food photographer biased here in Hackney)
She and Claire Ptak operate Violet and the Vicarage and between them they offer the most mouth watering sounding food styling and photography courses, run a bakery, style and shoot for numerous cookery books and write a bakery column in the Guardian so they are a busy pair to say the least.
Claire owns the bakery, is a food stylist and is just starting her weekly column in The Guardian “Cook”. Kristin is a food and lifestyle photographer with a background in styling, painting and fashion design. Together they decided to start Violet and the Vicarage Workshops to share their experience and knowledge about food, photography, publishing, styling, writing and how to be self employed, stay creative and run your own business doing something you love (in Hackney!)
We supplied a small amount of kit and a few freebies for some show-bags for last weekends course with a view to gaining some exposure for Pixipixel in this culinary world (and perhaps something from the bakery).
From the reports I am getting back from Kristin the weekend went fantastically and with a bit of luck another twelve eager food photographers and stylists will soon be knocking on our door and attempting to bribe me into a discount with sticky cakes and yummies of all kinds.
I have very much missed the Coco Black photo shoots I used to host in the studios I worked at down under and my mate Dean Cambray who would keep the office supplied in “broken” chocolate so I am all for any involvement we can get in this side of the photographic world.
Well I am hungry now and inspired to make my weekends curry munching look spectacular and taste even better, so if I have managed to wet your appetite as far as food styling and photography goes please contact the Ladies at Violet and the Vicarage for more details, or at the very least pop into the Violet bakery on Wilton Way in Hackney to sample some great baking or check out Claire’s column in the Guardian.
If you are already a foodie kind of photographer or stylist then why not pop in to see us too while you are local because good food photography needs more than just great looking food it needs great kit and we have everything you could ever need for your next project.
http://www.violetandthevicarage.com
Bon Appetit BB
Stop the presses Kristin just told me they have scheduled another workshop for may 2016 so get in quick foodie people!
Pixipixel 