When You See Food On TV, You're Actually Looking At Mirror Images
If you've ever attempted to follow a recipe along with a cooking show, you might have noticed that your culinary creation didn't come out looking quite the same as the perfectly manicured meal seen on screen. As defeating as this experience can be, it turns out there are actually a few show business secrets at play behind the scenes to ensure your favorite chef's meals always look delectable.
Making food look good on TV is big business, so much so that certain individuals in the entertainment industry make it their whole careers. Known as food stylists, these individuals are tasked with finding creative ways to make the food you see in TV, movies and even cooking shows look as mouth-watering as possible.
One sneaky way food stylists and camera people trick viewers into drooling over food is by actually staying away from it. The next time you see a chef cooking up a meal on live TV, there's a good chance what you see in the pan is a mirror image. In order to capture shots of food simmering in a pan, mirrors are positioned above the chef's cooking surface. Cameras are then used to film what appears in the mirror before the image is inverted, and this image is what you're actually seeing during the cooking segment on your favorite morning show.
Some of the food used by food stylists isn't actually what it seems
In addition, food stylists don't just have to deal with making food look delicious, they also have to make sure it lasts through long days of filming. For a scene in the movie "Midsommar" involving egg yolks, food stylist Zoe Hegedus created multiple fake egg yolks crafted from mango and orange that were capable of staying fresh throughout an entire 12-hour shoot, per Insider.
In addition to being able to manipulate food, food stylists are also required to be particularly skilled in the kitchen. For certain shoots, all of the food that is shown on the screen is actually carefully cooked and prepared by food stylists. Since filming a scene in a movie requires multiple takes, this means that food stylists may be required to prepare hundreds of plates of the same meal.
Food stylists make cooking a meal on live TV seem like an easy task. Even though most viewers will probably never know that the dish they see on their screens actually took many hands to create. With this in mind, hopefully, you will feel better the next time your dinner doesn't come out exactly the same as the one you saw prepared on TV.