Adventures of Kevin the Carrot: Christmas meal inspiration

Pulling crackers, reading bad jokes and most importantly, eating: The Christmas traditions that will never get old. Styled by BOSS Creative Nick Walsh, in the next instalment from Aldi, Kevin the Carrot explores the table at Christmas lunch.

Let's Get Diwali Started! Olivia Gartley for ASDA

BOSS food stylist Olivia Gartley worked on this spicy ad for ASDA to celebrate the festival of Diwali. We love the close ups of crushed Cardamom seeds and colourful, crunchy chillies.

See all of our Manchester-based food stylists' profiles on our website.

Creating Kevin the Carrot

Kevin the carrot won our hearts this year in the battle of the Christmas ads. With the help of our food stylist Nick Walsh, Kevin comes to life to explore mountains of Aldi's traditional festive cakes and makes a snow angel in Icing sugar. We're not sure how we'll bring ourselves to tuck into a side of veg with our Christmas dinner this year!

#AldiEverydayAmazing

The Taste Kitchen: Make your veg amazing with Olivia Gartley and Aldi

They are the staple that hold your roast dinner together, but vegetables are often forgotten amongst pools of gravy and mountains of Yorkshire puddings. Our BOSS Food Stylist Olivia Gartley put together some videos with Aldi to help your veg take centre stage!

National Sandwich Day: Our Top Three Serving Suggestions

Did you know that in Britain we spend £7.5bn a year on sandwiches? It's National Sandwich Day and we've picked out top three serving suggestions from our talented food stylists at BOSS Creatives - they can make a humble bacon butty look fit for the Queen. See booking details on our website.

Styled by Nick Walsh

Styled by Olivia Gartley

Styled by Olivia Gartley

So simple but SO good - what's your favourite sandwich filling?

#BritishSausageWeek - Sausage Roll Goals from Kate Phillips

With mash, in a roll, slathered in brown sauce: It's time to celebrate the Great British sausage! Our talented Manchester-based Food Stylist Kate Phillips styled some delicious sausage rolls with a festive theme. We're drooling over her Cranberry and Stilton Luxury Rolls, Mulled Spice Rolls and Pork, Chutney and West Country Cheddar Garland!

See Kate's full profile and contact details on our website and have a look at our Pinterest board for some sausage-spiration.

A day in the life of...a Food Stylist

Nick Walsh, Food Stylist 

Visit our website for booking information. 

What I do… I’m basically responsible for preparing and displaying food for so it fulfils a brief. I normally get the brief from the client a week before the shoot so I know what’s going on depending on the job. For some jobs it’s literally styling a product that’s already there and made, for example tomorrow the client is bringing their product from their café, and then I’ve just got to style it. Other times I will have to prep the food as well. Food stylists arrange the food differently to the way a chef might do it. Quite often for the jobs the client will send over a moodboard or they give me a Pinterest link so I have an idea of what I’m working around.

When I wake up… I normally get up and my pet rabbit Boggle is waiting for me at the top of the stairs, so I feed him. I don’t normally have breakfast unless I’m on a shoot in the morning and they provide it. If I’m working on a TV commercial then call time is usually 7.30am so I have to set off quite early.  TV commercials usually run through until about 7 or 8pm at night so it can be a long day. 

If I’m on a job I normally get in my car and drive to the studio or location but I’ve got a decent sized kitchen at home so I can prep from there rather than from an office or a studio.  This week I’ve got 10 turkeys coming in for a shoot so I will probably prep them from a studio where they've got more fridge space! I think my wife would kill me if I tried to store 10 turkeys around the house. 

How I got where I am… I actually started being a chef just because my friend was a pot-washer in local pub where I’m from in Nottingham. I saw the chefs doing their thing and that’s the first time I ever really thought about it. It’s not a romantic tale: I just thought it looked really cool and I always enjoyed eating food. I always have liked trying different dishes – my favourite place to take girls on dates when I was like 15 was a Teppanyaki restaurant.

I was training Brazilian jujitsu with one of the casting bookers at BOSS and I mentioned to him that I was thinking about trying something different. He mentioned that BOSS represents food stylists in Manchester. I’d thought about food styling before but I didn’t know how to get into it and I didn’t know anyone in the business. Two weeks later I quit my job, handed in my notice and was like ‘Right, I’m a food stylist now,’ and that was it! I did a little bit of assisting but it’s been quite an easy transition for me. I’ve been doing food styling for just over a year now.

The challenges I face are…. I’ve learnt that you don’t have to season everything all the time now! I’ve gone from my whole adult life being screamed at to add more salt and more seasoning and now it doesn’t really matter. It is more about how it looks, but I do try to make it taste nice because we normally get to eat it afterwards.

The one thing that took a lot of getting used to is the waiting. My first shoot that I did on my own we took the first shot and then waiting two and half hours until it was approved and we couldn’t do anything else because the next shot was on the same background and we didn’t want to move anything or do anything in case we only needed a tiny little movement that was like a tomato up a centimetre – so we couldn’t do anything! I was freaking out because in a professional kitchen if you don’t do anything for two minutes you’re lazy so that took a lot of getting used to. But of course it’s part of the creative process and I’m getting used to it now. It feels slow to me but we always get the expected shot rate done.

Apparently I hear that a lot of chefs struggle transitioning from cooking food to styling it, especially if you’ve been a head chef somewhere and you could tell people what do and that your way is right. They might not be used to taking criticism. But for me most people that I deal with are more experienced and they’re the client so as much as sometimes I think it might not be the right way to do it I always trust their judgement.

What I love most about my job… I really love the creative side of being a food stylist. My favourite thing used to be playing with food, creating new dishes and finding new ways to present them. One of my favourite things as a chef was shopping for new plates, which is perfect for what I do now! My old boss always used to make fun of me because if I had a spare half a day I’d be out or on the internet looking at new plates we could order and how much we could get away with spending! But now my job is massively about that. The shoots that I work on all have different styles but they all want interesting crockery. I’ve been out buying roof tiles and I got a plank of wood this week to build up my own little stock. I really enjoy playing with backgrounds and sifting through antique shops.

What surprises people about my job…There’s a technique that happens with a lot of the birds like turkeys where they’re cooked at really low temperatures and then they are brushed to colour them. I’ve heard stories of people using varnish but I always try to use food products like the meat juices. The idea of doing that is to reduce the way the meat wrinkles when it is cooked properly. If you cook the bird super slow it stays in a nice shape. There’s also the use of dry ice for ice cream which obviously melts really fast normally, but if you put it in a box of dry ice for an hour it will stay frozen for quite a while, even under hot lights it will stay frozen.

When I get home... I used to be sick of cooking by the time I got home for dinner when I was a chef. I was a chef for 14/15 years before I became a food stylist. Back then I was cooking all day, every day whereas these days I’m much more open to cooking slightly more elaborate things at home. Now that I’ve got more time at the weekend my wife likes to book in friends to come round and have Sunday lunch – which is nice for them!

World Pasta Day

A whole day to celebrate our favourite carb-filled dish: World Pasta Day has to be a highlight of the calendar. Our BOSS Creatives style incredible food shots that make our stomachs rumble at BOSS HQ. For more information about our Manchester-based food stylists visit our website.

Styled by Olivia Gartley

Styled by Olivia Gartley

Styled by Olivia Gartley

Festive Food Inspiration from Kate Phillips

We hate to say it, but Christmas is quickly approaching. While September only seemed like yesterday, somehow, next week will bring us into November.

For those organised people out there, we have put together some festive food photos, expertly styled by BOSS Creative Kate Phillips. Whether you're starting to make Christmas lists or just need a little foospiration for this year's dinner, these ideas are a good place to start. 

So you want to be a food stylist? Q&A with Paul Dickson

After starting as a chef many years ago, BOSS Creative Paul Dickson moved into the world of food styling. In this post, he tells us his top tips for aspiring food stylists and reveals the highlight of his career so far.   

Did you always want to work with food?

I started as a chef many years ago and now my career has evolved into a nice mix of food styling, cooking and teaching.

How did you start out in food styling?

I have always naturally been drawn to great food images and I have a HUGE collection of cook books. My first food styling break was with Country Range.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a food stylist?

Start by snapping your own food and post it on Instagram, read cookbooks and if you can get the chance, shadow an experienced food stylist. Go for it!

What do you think would surprise people about food styling?

You never stop learning new techniques and the job is very varied. Things aren’t always as they seem in the final image!

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I like working with like minded creative people and the problem solving aspect of the job.

It’s national chocolate week! What is your favourite kind of chocolate and how do you like to eat it?

I love chocolate - particularly dark 85%. Luckily for me I’m the only one who likes chocolate in my house so I can eat just a few squares per night without the worry of people stealing the rest out of the fridge!

Are there any projects that have been a highlight of your career so far?

I loved working with Country Range on frozen fruit. We worked on a ‘5 Ways With Fruit’ shoot and I was given total freedom on both recipe development and images. I was really pleased with the summer pudding shot with a jug of cream that came out from the shoot – it’s so simple and the lighting works really well.

See more of Paul's work on our website