Making Culinary Magic: A Look into the Life of a Food Stylist

By Alyse Whitney

A freshly baked chocolate graham cracker crust is filled to the brim with chocolate mousse. On top, mountain-like peaks of whipped cream round the entire circumference of the pie, sprinkled with shavings of semi-sweet chocolate. The sight is mouth-watering and a lingering scent of slowly melted chocolate wafts through the air, catching the nose of the photographer’s child. As she wanders over, she is quickly stopped, a dangling fork snatched from her eager hands. “You don’t want to eat that,” her father warns with a laugh, gesturing toward the slice. Although it appears to be a standard chocolate cream pie, the inside has been hollowed out and replaced with a sturdier (and more savory) filling – mashed potatoes.

Although the idea of a chocolate and mashed potato pie may not be appealing to the palate, neither is a droopy-looking piece. Humans are notorious for eating with their eyes first, and hell, animals may be just as guilty. Because of that, when food is photographed, it must be precisely tuned to appeal to both the eyes and the stomach of the reader. To achieve perfection under hot studio lights for hours at a time, a bit of culinary magic has to occur, and head magician in this case is Angela Yeung, food stylist extraordinaire.

At only thirty-one years of age, Angela Yeung has gartered quite an audience. After only being involved in food styling for two years, she took the $10,000 first place prize in Food Network’s “Food Magician” Challenge in February 2009, ranking above professionals that had been working in the industry for over ten years. The jump-start to her career came from her father, Ka Yeung, who worked as a food photographer for thirty years. Angela says she “grew up watching food stylists come through his [her father’s] studio and was fascinated by their work. That fascination eventually grew into a full fledged love affair with food.” That affair with food brought her out of an undecided program at school and into a culinary arts degree at a New Orleans Community College. From there, she received training at the prestigious Ecole Superieur De Gregoire Ferrandi in Paris, France and went on to ‘stage’ or apprentice under world-renowned Chef Christian Constant at Michelin Star restaurant, Le Violin D’ingres.

Despite her love for restaurants – whether it was as a line cook, a pastry chef, or a train cook in Alaska – it was challenging. While she was at Le Violin D’ingres, she was working double shifts six days a week, sometimes from 8 in the morning to 2 the following day. “French kitchens are like the military – not real friendly,” Yeung explains. “There’s a hierarchy there, so even the dishwasher treats you like crap,” she adds with a laugh. Her experience in France was rewarding and an important learning experience, but at the end, she felt burnt out.