Food Floristry

Lynchpix

LYNCHPIX

Daniel Lynch Photography presents:

My favourite image shot over the past seven days.

This weeks’ fave frame is from a shoot with top chef Greg Malouf.

Our shoot was to take place at Petersham Nurseries, Mr. Malouf’s new home. It’s an expansive plant & flower specialist perched on the edge of the River Thames with an incorporated cafe/restaurant on the grounds. We were due to kick off at 10am, so I left myself a good hour-and-half to get from my native east London across town to the deepest darkest west London region of Richmond where the restaurant & nursery resides. Unfortunately on this particular day, traffic in town was very heavy & I was uncharacteristically late!

I’m a great believer in the philosiphy “Rather be an hour early than a minute late” & this was the first time in two years since my last tardy arrival. Nevertheless, i was hugely embarrased & apologetic to our subject. The typically laidback Ozzie was as gracious as could be & totally relaxed about it. He left me to set-up & have a recce around the grounds.

Still a little flustered, I had a wander & was completely blown away by the location. Literally every corner of the place would’ve made for a great backdrop. In the end we settled on two main locations; at the entry to the main greenhouse dining area & under the canopy of green on the edges of the glass structure.

The portraiture session didn’t take long at all. The venue was amazing & our man was a seasoned pro in front of the lens, so we moved inside to shoot a couple of accompanying dishes on offer for the piece.

His middle eastern roots are a huge influence on his style of cooking, which makes for very photogenic dishes.

On top of that, he now has the infinite larder of the nursery to dip into for inspiration. His dishes incorporating the floristry around us to great effect. Each plate of food I was introduced to was effortlessly pretty.