Continuing with our Atlanta Food Stylists Q&A series is Peg Blackley. Peg brings many years of experience and a strong attention to detail to every food shoot we collaborate on.

Peg Blackley Q&A

Peg Blackley “stopped by” via Zoom to chat with us about her extensive career in the food photography world. She works with us at our Atlanta studio on several accounts, including Barilla, UniPro Food Service, Kitchen Collaborative, and Coach Joe’s. Take a look at Peg’s work at pegblackley.com

Q:  How long have you been a food stylist?

A:  I started food styling in 1991, so it’s been about 35 years now.

Q:  Do you have any sort of formal culinary training?

A:  No, I never worked at a restaurant. I did do a little bit of catering for friends, and that sort of got me started in being more adventurous about recipes. That’s when I started thinking about food as something that I might like to do for a living.

Q:  How did you get started in food styling?

A:  It was serendipity. I happened to meet a food stylist, Terry Colby, when I was about 22 years old. She was a good friend of some friends of mine, and when they got married, their reception was at her house. I became immediately fascinated by all the beautiful food that she prepared there. And then I got to be friends with Terry, and she needed an assistant, so I jumped in.

Q:  Who are a few of your clients past or present?

A:  I’ve worked a lot with Barilla and Kitchen Collaborative, which is part of Flavor & the Menu Magazine. Both of those accounts have probably been the biggest stretch of my abilities, because they’re all chef-created recipes. I’ve also worked with Creekstone Farms, Tyson, UniPro, and Jimmy John’s.

Q:  What is your favorite dish to cook for your family?

A:  Stir-fry. I like a one-pot meal!

Q:  What is the first thing people ask when you tell them what you do for a living?

A:  It generally has to do with two things: One is, how did I become a food stylist? Because many people today are more familiar with food styling, but 5 years ago, the majority of people had never heard of it. And then, of the people who do know a little bit about food styling, they want to know if I use Crisco for my ice cream and Elmer’s glue for milk.

Q:  What is the one biggest misconception clients or photographers have about your job?

A:  I think the planning that goes into it ahead of time, the work that you put in before you get on set. I like to feel like I fully understand what everybody wants, and that I’ve done my best to be prepared.

Q:  What is the one biggest misconception friends/family have about your job?

A:  Oh, they think it’s a lot more glamorous than it is! For the average person, they just see some beautiful product, and being on a food shoot sounds very glamorous, but we’re workhorses back there.

Q:  What are your favorite and least favorite foods to style?

A:  I’m not a big fan of melty cheese. As a food stylist, I think that we like to be able to control what’s happening, and melty cheese has a mind of its own. So, you’re kind of, like, herding cheese in order to have it drip in the right place while shooting it.

I love desserts. I love anything that you can put a lovely garnish on that makes it sing. I’m fortunate because the majority of what I do is my favorite.

Q:  What one thing would you like for food photographers to do differently?

A:  Make their sets accessible. You know, you don’t want to spend a lot of your time leaning over a set, and… I understand, sometimes there’s a lot of lighting and other things that it does make it difficult to get in, but having a set that’s accessible makes such a big difference.

Q:  How does styling for film and video differ from styling for still photography?

A:  Styling for video involves more pressure. You have a lot of people depending on you because every minute is costing someone a bunch of money. You don’t want to be behind, and you want to make sure you’re absolutely prepared.

Whereas with still photography, you get to know the clients better. It’s a more friendly atmosphere in terms of being laid back, and everybody is part of the team.

Q:  What are your most unusual styling techniques?

A:  I love vanilla pudding. It’s a modified food starch that it transforms a lot of products to make them have a longer lifespan on set.

Q:  What tool in your kit would you say you use the most often?

A:  I use my tweezers the most often, and I use a sharp paring knife.

Q:  What’s the weirdest thing in your kit and what do you use it for?

A:  I have a 1950s, 60s paint stripper. They’re illegal to sell now because they’re not something that you would want to strip the paint on your house with… you might set your house on fire.

It’s great for melting cheese. It’s a really intense heat source that, unlike a heat gun, it’s not blowing the food, it’s just heating it.

Q:  If you weren’t a stylist, what do you think you would be doing instead?

A:  I would be an artist. It’s my side hustle anyway, so I would probably just be more intense in my home studio. I was an art major, so I’ve always appreciated art, and it’s something that I need for my own self-expression. It calms me down, and it makes me happy to make something with my own hands. (To learn more about Peg’s side hustle, go here luxedesignworkshop.com

Q:  What would be your “dream” shoot?

A:  I’m fortunate. I get to have my dream shoot all the time. I love working with independent companies who have a product, and they want beautiful photography. They want it to be on current trend in terms of food presentation.

Q:  What’s the most unusual food you’ve had to prepare for a shoot?

A:  Uni. (NOTE:  Uni, Japanese delicacy, are the edible, reproductive organs (gonads) of the sea urchin!)

Q:  Is there anything else you’d like people to know about you and your job?

A:  I try to tell people, especially young people, to be open to opportunities that happen. If you think you want to be a food stylist, reach out to people, but be prepared to jump when they have something for you to do. Before I got started in the business, I certainly had never heard of a food stylist, and I am just so lucky to get to do what I do.