Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
A lot of food styling is about composition and a lot of that comes from drawing and painting. Composition is everything.
Sizzling steaks. Juicy burgers. Crisp greens topped with onions, carrots and croutons. In this age of foodie Instagram, you’ve no doubt seen a photo that makes you salivate. How do they make it look so good?
That’s where professional food stylists like Laurie Leahy, BFA’86, come in.
“Food styling is basically the deconstruction and reconstruction of food,” Leahy says. “You have to pull apart all the different elements and then put them back together in a way that is beautiful.”
It’s kind of like old movie sets. Think of a Western, where the fronts of the buildings look amazing but there’s nothing through the doors — just well-made facades that look good for the camera. A food stylist does the same thing just with delicious ingredients.
“It’s hilarious,” Leahy says. “Because if you look at the back of the food, it’s a nightmare. Then you look at the front, and everything is perfect because you really only have to make one side look good most of the time.”
The tools of the food styling trade are varied. Toothpicks, cardboard, blow torches and makeup brushes are all part of the process.
Take a hamburger. Leahy carefully stacks the patty and ingredients, propping up the individual pieces so they play well for the camera. When she’s done, there’s a beautiful burger ready for its close up.
Cooking techniques that maximize the look of the recipe are also required. For example, making a steak look right means making sure it’s room temperature before you cook it.
“You don’t want that gray ring around the outside of your steak,” Leahy says. “To get the perfect look, you sear the steak and bake them. Never put them on the grill because you can’t control it.”
Leahy’s four-decade career in food styling is a great example of following your passion to build your vocation. She grew up in an Air Force family, transferring from location to location as duty required. Her constant was her mother, a devotee of Julia Childs who shared her love of good food with her family.
“I got my worldliness from her,” Leahy says. “She was ahead of her time.”
Leahy remembers her mother exploring stir fry in the ‘70s and doing a leg of lamb brine in their bathtub. Her mom inspired her to start cooking at the age of 15, adding yet another outlet for her to express her creative energies.
“I’ve always been a maker,” Leahy says. “I have been making my entire life. I ended up as a fine arts major because making and creating art is what I was meant to do in my life.”
Creighton gave Leahy the opportunity to explore multiple media and techniques, to hone her skills and feed her artistic passion. She recognizes the impact her instructors had on her development, remembering former faculty members Robert Bosco, John Thein and Fr. Jonathan Haschka, SJ, as being especially influential. Leahy recalls taking five semesters of life drawing and the profound effect it had on her career.
“A lot of food styling is about composition,” she says, “and a lot of that comes from drawing and painting. Composition is everything.”
It wasn’t just the courses that led to Leahy’s eventual career but her own entrepreneurial experience during her days as a student. Leahy, along with one of her friends, started a small catering business. They would work art shows, small parties and other get-togethers around Omaha.
While the catering business didn’t continue after graduation, the fusion of food and art did. It didn’t take long for Leahy to put her training to use. An Omaha-based photographer needed a food stylist and a friend recommended her. The photographer hired her on the spot and put her to work right away.
“I knew that very first time I touched the food and made it beautiful it was what I was meant to do,” Leahy says.
Her advice for students today: “Follow your passion. It’s simple but it’s true.”
During her nearly 40-year career, Leahy has worked with many clients and employers. Two of her earliest projects were for Runza and Omaha Steaks, some of Nebraska’s most well-known and loved food brands.
She now runs her own freelance business. In many ways, her career has come full circle, with her entrepreneurial spirit once again leading her to be her own boss. Just like her catering days at Creighton.
“I look back, and I think how lucky I am to have the education I do,” she says. “When you go to Creighton, you always have that connection.”
It’s the secret ingredient that holds the whole thing together.
