Dallas Food Photographer: Behold the Power of Mac and Cheese
I don’t know that there are enough adjectives in this world to describe various dishes from this feature. The reason? The subject matter was macaroni and cheese. If you are anything like me, you probably just drooled a little bit when you read that sentence. That is unless you don’t like cheese, in which case I weep for you.
Speaking of weeping, I will say that this Dallas food photographer did get to partake of many of the dishes featured, which did make my stomach cry, though I’m not entirely certain whether it was joy, or maybe more of a “please stop feeding me this rich deliciousness because I can’t take this no more” kind of cry. The ability to sample dishes is both the joy and curse of doing editorial food photography, and sometimes it is tough business.
In fact, you can go ahead and thank your Dallas food photographer now for not showing all of the dishes I photographed, because you would probably have to drop some mad tums just from the sight. I did the hard work so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.
Like many features of this type, I enjoy seeing the creativity that various chefs and restaurants use in developing what seems like a pretty straightforward dish. After all, anything called ‘macaroni and cheese’ seems basic. However, for the people whose creations I captured, that is really just a launch point, or general guideline. Does it have macaroni or pasta? Check. Cheese? Yes sir. Now how much cheese, the specific blend, pasta types, and of course extra ingredients make the sky the limit. I got to experience everything from macaroni and cheese infused with truffle oil, such as the Truffled Mac and Cheese from Into the Glass in Grapevine, which was absolutely ridiculous (in a very good way), to the Truluck's Mac and Cheese that had crab baked on the top.
Major mouth watering going on, glad I’m blogging with a bib on. Some had a crazy blend of cheeses to them, and of course many used the glorious superfood known as bacon. One of the prime examples of proper bacon usage was a restaurant called Brewed, which is in Fort Worth, has a great atmosphere and is an excellent coffee/brew house. Their image is the one with the beer flight in the background, which consisted of local craft brews. That makes this Dallas photographer very happy, as I have been on a kick recently of drinking as much Texas beer, and more specifically beers made in the metroplex. We have some many excellent breweries now, but that will have to be discussed later. After all, mac and cheese deserves respect, both yours and mine.
With all of these plated shots, I knew there would come a time when we got the money shot, which is the melted cheese shot. When I came out to Buttons, my chance arrived. If you haven’t heard of this place, they serve killer soul food made by one of the funkiest cats, I mean chefs around, Chef Keith Hicks. He busted out a huge casserole dish of mac and cheese, and once I saw him start to scoop it out to plate, I knew we were going to have to get a sexy shot of the spatula grooving with the dish. We did several takes until I had the light and lift just right, and it ended up being one of my favorite images from the series. I am all about capturing moments, so this shot tied into that perfectly.
I hope that you enjoy the images; I'm taking bets on how many of you order mac and cheese in the next week!