I’ve been busy! And the next couple of weeks will be even busier! I’m so excited to tell you about an amazing opportunity that’s come up, I have been actually assisting with real food styling jobs. One of the recent jobs was for Food & Drink magazine assisting a prominent stylist; the next one will be on location somewhere up north for three days! The Food & Drink magazine is a gorgeous magazine produced by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (the single largest purchaser of alcohol in the world). They have a lofty budget to produce this gorgeous, glossy magazine; I’m also booked for about 4 additional days in December with a couple of other equally talented stylists so my life has become rather exciting. But because I’m away from my computer and not able to access my phone while on set I’m sorry if I miss a comment on your blog in the next while but I hope you’ll understand.
Let me tell you about my experience so far in assisting. Sometimes it means grocery shopping; I was fortunate enough to shadow a food stylist assistant as she shopped Toronto grocery stores for some rather unique ingredients. It starts with an email list and a call with the food stylist to chat about what is needed that day. Often the groceries are perishable so we buy only for what will be used that very day. After we clearly understand what each ingredient is for, we make lists and action plans. Remember my cottage lists? Let me say that my list-making abilities will come in very handy. We began our grocery journey at around 10am at the Maple Leaf Gardens Loblaw and were on the go until 3pm non-stop, visiting no less than 8 stores to pick up about $300 of various ingredients for recipe development. You may wonder what the most unique ingredient we sourced was? It was a mediterranean salt-cured fish which is also dried called Botargo (John – From the Bartolini Kitchens, please comment on what this might be used in). It was very expensive, clocking in at $79.99 for a piece that looked no more than 150 g or 5.5 oz! We also visited a very cool Asian grocer on Cherry Street called T&T where we bought fresh Galangal (Thai Ginger) and Chinese Chives (which are long, flat leaved, grass-like greens), but they had so much more. You just know I’ll be visiting that store again in the very near future. At the St. Lawrence Market we bought soft-shelled crabs, rabbit (did you know they leave the head on so you can be sure it’s not a cat?), Chorizo (raw and cured), farro and La Bomba rice (this is the same Paela rice I recently used here)! My imagination is going wild with the possibilities for these lovely ingredients. Our job is to buy the food ONLY. There is someone else called a Prop Stylist who is responsible to source all the cool props you may see included in a recipe photo.
But shopping is only half of it, the other half of assisting is advance preparation (which I haven’t done as yet) and on-site cooking where we are actually cooking the food for the camera. On my first shoot for F&D I had figured that I would be relegated to clean-up and general prep but I actually had the opportunity to cook for the actual shots — I made pesto, browned chicken, made savoury waffles to name a few! It was more than I dreamed it would be. The job is not for everyone, but I love being in the kitchen and I found it interesting and very satisfying. Working with the photographers, their assistants, the food stylist and prop stylist on-site is an amazing experience and I am excited and very grateful to be part of it. I think I’ve unexpectedly stumbled upon my dream job :-), which is pretty incredible because I thought I LOVED what I did before!
It’s definitely fall in Toronto, and while there are barely leaves clinging to the trees, while the colour of the sky has morphed into shades of grey (not fifty, let’s not go there), while the colour of the lake is more black than blue, our slow cookers are chugging away in our cozy kitchens up in Canada, brewing secret and not so secret recipes to fend away cold and flu season with the nutrition and comfort of soup. Take a look at any website, blog or even magazine and it’s about soup. I definitely have my favourites but I also like to switch it up a bit and so I’ve developed this tasty, all be it green, Broccoli Soup, without a spot of cream in it! Of course, you can add cream if you wish to your taste, but I’ll pass thank you very much.
Creamed Broccoli Soup
Ingredients:
- 1 good-sized head of local organic broccoli, cut into even florets, woody stems removed.
- 1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
- 1-2 medium-sized parsnips, cut into cubes
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- Water or stock to cover
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Sauté the onion until translucent, add the garlic and parsnip and sauté 5 minutes longer.
- Add the broccoli and cover with water. Cook until all vegetables are fork tender.
- Using an emersion blender, blend until smooth adding water or stock to desired consistency, salt and pepper to taste. Press through a fine sieve. Serve hot with Cheddar Polenta ‘Fries’
YUM! This looks fantastic!
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Thank you Amber, I had a friend try the recipe and she enjoyed it a great deal.
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I made the broccoli soup on Sunday night and it was a hit! The taste is lovely and full, but delicate at the same time. I think it’s the combination of the broccoli and garlic, and then the parsnips must mellow it out a bit too. Thanks for another great recipe. And I love that it has so few ingredients and is so simple to make!
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Hi Michela, I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup — we just had it for lunch the other day (I froze an additional batch) and it was tastier than I recalled. I love how a simple soup comes together so quickly and easily, I’m very pleased it turned out to your liking.
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So excited for you! I know how fun this has to be and I couldn’t think of a better person for the job. 🙂 I have no doubt it’s keeping you busy too! Can’t wait to hear more. The shopping alone sounds like a ton of fun. I can just imagine all that you’re going to learn!
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Thanks so much Kristy, it’s so very exciting. I’m really fortunate to have so many people helping me out, it’s really an unbelievable industry.
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Congratulations, Eva! This sounds like an amazing opportunity to do something you really love – and get paid for it! Good for you! The soup looks awesome. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I make it this weekend!
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I loved reading about your experiences so far Eva – how much fun it sounds… especially the food shopping. I’d be in heaven and hell at the same time. Seeing and buying all that amazing stuff and not being able to use it myself!
I hope you will continue to find it great fun. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity. That fish… pricey stuff, but it sounds really nice!
Lovely looking soup too – I must say that I like to crumble in stilton or some other blue cheese to my broccoli soup. It makes a wonderful contrast in flavours.
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Hi Charles, thank you for your comment. I was on another shoot yesterday but this time it was ‘motion’ which just means it not still photography. There was a 7:30 call yum and we finished at 6:30! Long day. But it was really fun, picking and sorting cereal (I bet you didn’t know that there are ‘perfect’ granola clusters?), finding the perfect strawberries, blueberries and raspberries! It was fun though.
I love your idea of crumbled Stilton in the soup, I’m going to do it next time.
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Hi Eva, I made a comment congratulating you on getting your foot into the door of the food industry. It seems to have gone awol unfortunately. Anyway, it sounds like a great gig for you and I can’t wait to hear and see more about your foodie days out.
I love the soup too, especially those polenta chips to go with them. They deserve a blogpost of their own.
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Thank so much David, I’m not entirely sure why you comment went AWOL, I’ve had some do that too particularly when I’m commenting on another blog platform other than WordPress.
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How fun!! Congratulations on the great opportunity Eva and what a wonderful learning experience it will be… I can definitely attest to the popularity of the LCBO magazine — I’m always stuck with the French copy – LOL (pardon maman :o) – the English ones go like hot cakes! Largest purchaser of alcohol in the world you say? I guess that’s the paternalistic/monopolistic model in action for you ;-). Just the sound of this creamy soup is warming me up… looks like there’s some snow in Ontario this weekend! Brrr….
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Hi Kelly, thank you kindly for your lovely words, it’s also one of my favourite magazines. If they weren’t so darned heavy I’d offer to mail you copies as they arrive but I’m afraid it would be way too expensive. Apparently you can subscribe from abroad! I just checked and it’s $45 for one year, which considering the number of pages and the quality isn’t so bad. http://hellolcbo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/253/related/1
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Thanks for letting me know Eva… I will definitely look into it. Came back onto our site to search for your lovely apple cranberry cake…heading to the grocery store now 🙂
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Thank you Kelly, you made my day.
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Congratulations Eva! I am happy for you. 🙂
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Thank you kindly Zsuzsa!
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First and foremost, congratulations, Eva! This sounds like a great position and wonderful opportunity for you. Going to the best groceries to shop on someone else’s dime? I’d be in heaven! I wish you all the luck in the world! “Break a leg” is for the stage, so, how about, “Crack an egg’?
Thanks for the vote of confidence and shout out. I’ve not yet cooked with botarga but have watched it used by a few Italian chefs. I’ve seen them grate it over pasta that’s basically an aglio e olio, garlic and oil. It can also be sliced very thinly and used on crostini. Personally, I’ve some in my Amazon shopping cart and and have a dish in mind but I’m searching for another ingredient for the pasta. Once I get them, it’s off to Michigan to see what Zia thinks of the recipe. 🙂
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Thanks so much John I really appreciate your encouraging and kind words. Grocery shopping for specialty items is really fun, as you say on someone else’s dime!
Shaving over pasta sounds lovely. One of these days I hope to try it, but buying an ingredient for $80 sounds a little extravagant at this time. I’ll check out Amazon to see their pricing too.
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From what little I know, Eva, you can get botarga made from mullet and that’s produced in Sardinia. Botarga made from tuna is a Sicilian product. Now, in Florida, a company is making it from mullet captured in the Gulf of Mexico. Not having tried any — yet — I couldn’t tell you which is preferred. I need to do more research before I spend “my dime.” 🙂
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Thanks John, I think I’ll try it in a restaurant first to make sure I’ll enjoy it before mortgaging my house to buy it!
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What a fabulous opportunity Eva! That must be so exciting and a great learning experience! 😀
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Thanks so much Lorraine, who would have thought that something could come of it! But I’m sure glad it did.
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Congratultions, Eva! Some of my best jobs I stumbled upon by chance… Here is to wishing you a long and satisfying career in food styling!
p.s.: I’ll try you soup this weekend and let you know what my two tiny food critics said 😉
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Thank you so much Monika, I appreciate your lovely words of encouragement. Hope the kiddies like it.
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How wonderfully exciting! Congratulations!
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Thanks so much Chef Mimi.
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It must be fun and exciting to be the assistant of a food stylist…Congratulations, Eva.
The soup looks lovely!
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Thanks so much Angie, I’m really excited about it.
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Please tell me there aren’t people out there trying to pass off dead cats as edible rabbits. What a shocker. Congrats on your job. It sounds like you’re really loving it and you will learn so much. I’d love to follow around a food stylist for a while. Great looking soup and I’d love to try your polenta fries xx
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Hi Charlie, I’m not sure about that but that is the reason I was told for the rabbits. Thank you for your lovely words of encouragement, I’m rather excited about it. I was very fortunate to know many stylists already so the transition wasn’t too bad because they already knew my work ethic.
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That is indeed exciting news! I can hardly wait to hear more about it!
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Thanks Lizzy, I never really thought that my passion could turn into a vocation!
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I am so happy for your new job my friend, it is going to be awesome fun 😀
And I love your creamed broccoli soup, it looks warm and inviting!
Cheers
CCU
P.S I seem to have lost around 1000 subscribers on my blog and I don’t know how, so if you were subscribed, could you resubscribe please? it would really help me out!
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Hi CCU, thank you for your encouragement, I really appreciate it. I noticed that I was unsubscribed so I did resubscribe.
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Wow, so excited for you!
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Thanks so much Sue, who would have thought that starting out in graphic design, morphing to studio manager, client service manager, blogger would end up here! Exciting times indeed.
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Congratulations on the new job. I hope it works out and that you’ve found a future career that you’ll love.
Soup is wonderful any time of year but especially now with the cold and damp in the air. I just want a big bowl of your broccoli soup and then I think a nap is in order.
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Thank you so very much Maria, I’m rather excited about the coming months!
I’m going to have soup again for lunch.
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Congratulations, Eva! I wish you the best in this new adventure, with all my heart! All this sounds like an amazing experience. I wish I could have a food related job… I suppose you are making true a dream most food bloggers have. I hope you will tell us from time to time about your new occupation, but most of all have lots of fun!
The soup looks perfectly warming and seasonal. I am also in the “soup mood”. I keep on eating ramen every other day and somehow am not bored yet 😉
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Hi Sissi, thank you so very much for your generous words of encouragement, I really appreciate it. I am looking forward to this next stage in my life, I hadn’t thought that it would happen at this stage, which makes it even more exciting. I can’t help but have fun doing it.
I am in the mood for ramen today too, it’s not that cold but it’s dark and rainy and I have a headache to boot!
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Okay, will try this again. I just left a comment and it went away! So excited for you Eva, and what you’re doing is something I’ve looked into before, but around here there are very few opportunities. Mostly they want someone with prior experience. I happen to love grocery shopping, BTW. I know I’m weird! Love your broccoli soup…one of my faves. Best of luck and keep us posted on your new adventures…and have fun!
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Hi Betsy, sorry about the trouble with the comments, I find that happens to me from time to time, usually when I leave a REALLY, REALLY long comment.
I was very fortunate that I had already known many food stylists and that I’ve been in the industry with my past job (Food Packaging Designers) and that they know my obsession with food! I love grocery shopping too, so I’m actually looking forward to that part of the job too. If you feel like a chat about my experiences in the new year (when I have a few more under my belt), I’d be happy to email you my phone number. It actually can be something you can get into being a freelancer you can work around food styling gigs!
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I’d love to chat about it sometime! Right now I’m on hold with a huge book job, that if it goes through will take up the first 6 months of the year for me, but I’ve toyed with the idea of wanting to explore some aspect of the food styling business for years, and honestly though this sounds weird, even food shopping for people because I like it so much! 🙂 Hope all goes well with your jobs during the next month and I look forward to hearing more about it. 🙂
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Congratulations on the book job Betsy, those can be very lucrative. Hope there are not too many edits! I have a friend who works with the Government a lot and their projects have A LOT of revisions so a few years ago he began using InDesign basic managed-file workflow, which in simple terms allows writers and editors make edits to the quark file so the designer only has to tweak the changes that affect the design. It saves an incredible amount of your time with the idiotic changes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth! If you don’t already use this feature, check it out: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/indesign/cs/using/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-7d51a.html#WSAE96746C-A394-472e-BB32-CAF82B3668A6a
The first one my friend convinced the Government to go in to the upgrade because in the long run it will actually save them money. PS. I didn’t mean to insult if you have already heard of this or are even using it. I really wish I could have convinced my magazine customer years ago to come on board, but sadly they were too cheap to try to justify the up front cost and instead had to pay extra for rounds over three, which on one publication exceeded 10! Better for us, but when the same page comes back the 10th time the production artists get a little crabby and I had to work with them!
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Thanks for the tip, Eva. At the moment we have a set round of revisions built into the proposed budget and copy will be approved prior to layout, so that should help but you never know! 🙂
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I am so excited for you Eva. Life is so full of surprises and wonders, one door closes and another opens. I remember when we met over the summer you did not know which direction life was going to take you, did you ever dreamt that it would lead you to you dream job?????
You are going to be so busy, but I hope we can still get together next time I am in Toronto. I shop at T&T when I am in Toronto as one is within walking distance from where I stay. By the way, Chinese chives is the same as garlic chives.
When I saw the title of your soup, I was thinking, hope she has parsnips in it. Glad to see it in the list of ingredients. Had a real killer frost last night so my parsnips in the garden should be plenty sweet. Too bad my broccoli all died, will have to buy.
Wishing you all the very best.
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Thanks so much Norma, I do appreciate your kind words of encouragement. I will never be too busy to make time to visit with my lovely master gardener blogging friend!
I added the parsnips to give the soup a bit of body because by itself it was a little watery. Plus I do love the way parsnips taste. Too bad about the frost, we have had some short frosts but nothing too major in the city.
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Wow! You certainly would be the perfect candidate for the job- and i am certain that you will enjoy every moment of it. It is so interesting to follow the details through your posts, and learn where to find some of the unique ingredients. Congratulations on your new endeavour Eva!
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Thank you so very much Laura, it’s lovely to hear from you. I think of you often as we pass by Belleville on our way to the cottage; if it weren’t such a long drive, we’d stop in for a coffee but as it is, we’re usually on the road for 3.5 – 4 hours and by the time we get there I’m usually pulling out my hair!
I’ll keep the stories coming although I won’t be able to blog about the recipe specifics. Once the photos I contributed to come out, I’ll post links too — but that likely won’t be for 6 months to a year!
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You lucky thing! They couldn’t have found anyone more competent to do this job. You’ll have so much fun. I’m really pleased for you. I have chinese chives in pots and we grow galangal easily here along with ordinary ginger but those other ingredients are very nifty!
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Thanks so much Maureen, I am indeed flattered you think so. I had never heard of the Chinese Chives but I will keep a lookout for recipes in the future, I’ll also lookout for potted versions next spring, they look heartier than normal chives.
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Wow, congratulations! This is a huge opportunity. Have fun and enjoy every minute of it! And I just need to add that I was looking for a broccoli soup, so yours arrives just in time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thanks so much Giovanna, I appreciate your kind words. Hope you enjoy the soup.
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