Welcome to our Food Stylist Q&A series! As anyone in the business knows, food photography requires a great deal of collaboration between the photographer and the food stylist. A lot of people wonder about what food stylists actually do, so we decided to go the source and get the real scoop! First up was Atlanta food stylist Bree Williams.

Bree Williams Q&A

Bree Williams at Food Styling by Bree took time out of her busy schedule to chat with us. Mark and Bree have worked together for years with several different clients, starting with the Big Green Egg Cookbook (available on Amazon). They’ve also teamed up on Boar’s Head, Longhorn Steakhouse, Southeastern Mills, Jimmy John’s, and Zaxby’s photo shoots (just to name a few!) at our food photography studio in Atlanta.

Q:  How long have you been styling food?

A:  I started working as an assistant food stylist about 23 years ago, I have been doing lead work for about 17 years.  

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

A:  I started working in the restaurant industry when I was 15 years old and worked my way up through various kitchens over the years. I was able to do a baking and pastry certificate through the Art Institute of Atlanta. Volunteering with various charities and festivals gave me a lot of experience with established chefs and helped to build my skill set.  

Q:  How did you get started in food photography styling?

A:  It was a case of right place, right time. I volunteered at a Wolf and Sub-Zero showroom. They used to do customer nights with visiting local chefs, and it was there that I met Gena Berry. She was a culinary producer for Turner South, and she hired me for behind the scenes work in the kitchen prepping with a variety of people in the business.  

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

A:  Boar’s Head, Jimmy John’s, Outback Steakhouse, Pilot, and Zaxby’s are all current clients. Better Than Bouillon, SouthEastern Mills, Louisiana Hot Sauce are a few that I have worked with.

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

A:  Pasta, hands down.  I came home yesterday from a long trip, and I made some shrimp fra diabolo from scratch, pasta included.  It was delicious.  

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

A: You’re the photographer, do you take the pictures? That’s the first question they ask me. Then, I think the biggest question is, so, you’re sitting there all day gluing sesame seeds to buns, using motor oil for chocolate sauce and glue. I think people believe that everything that we do is fake. 

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

A:  That it’s stress-free, that it’s easy. People don’t understand when you’re doing a large commercial shoot that has food involved, that it all comes down on you and the team behind you. I would not be as successful without my team. We are all equally important. I like to think of it as controlled chaos.  

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

A:  Favorites are… there’s a lot of them. I love to make steaks, hamburgers, sandwiches, of course, which is definitely, you know, my niche. I enjoy when we have a little bit of creativity, where we’re not as restricted by menu requirements. Creating and testing recipes for clients is another favorite.  

I think the hardest would be real ice cream, and I won’t touch it. I don’t have the arm strength to even do ice cream anymore. And I’m quite clear on that. When I was just starting out, I definitely took jobs that I wasn’t ready for and paid the price.  

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

A:  I don’t have any complaints about any of the food photographers that I work with because everybody that I work with is very professional. They know the business, they know what’s needed by the food stylist, and what it’s going to take.

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

A:  Film is a little bit more forgiving, because it’s such a quicker pace, and you’re going to only have your eyes on it for, like, a split second. Whereas, I think when we photography food on white, and we’re stripping everything out, the food is the main focus, so everybody is focused on those details. TV and film are definitely way more forgiving in my mind and way more stressful, but I love it. 

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

A:  Probably my knives, and then my tweezers.

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

A:  I think the weirdest thing is a tool that was given to me by my mentor, Nice Minor. It’s a butter curler that’s used to take “bites out of things.” She had it shaved down a little bit, and it makes the food look like someone’s bitten into it.

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

A:  It would have to be something creative. There is no way I could sit behind a desk. I always envisioned myself doing the windows at the large department stores in NYC. In the past I used to decorate and set up my mom’s booths at the regional furniture markets.  

Q:  What would be your “dream” photo shoot?

 A:  I don’t think I have a dream client, because I love the clients that I work with so much, they are all people that I look forward to working with. Maybe if you could get me on a beach, or if we could go to Italy and make pasta!

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

A:  I feel very fortunate and very blessed to have the job that I have. It allows me to be creative, travel and work with new people on set all the time and it’s not the same thing every single day. I am constantly being challenged to learn and grow and test my boundaries. What more could you ask for in a career!