This Doesn't Look Like the Picture!

[Mytical]

Whatever food they are advertising does have to be real, but everything else..not so much. Take a hamburger. The hamburger patty has to be real, but I think that is about it. Take also the fact that they can take an hour to get the sandwich to look perfect (even if everything IS real), and of course it is going to look better then something thrown together as fast as possible. That is just common sense.

[Dadeo]

Whatever food they are advertising does have to be real, but everything else..not so much. Take a hamburger. The hamburger patty has to be real, but I think that is about it. Take also the fact that they can take an hour to get the sandwich to look perfect (even if everything IS real), and of course it is going to look better then something thrown together as fast as possible. That is just common sense.

Here, everything HAS to be real. The two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and the sesame seed bun - all real. Food stylists (yes, it's a real job) have all sorts of tricks to make the product look as good as possible. The only exception I know of is ice cubes used in drinks - because they melt and dilute the liquid. Though they'd probably have to use real ice cubes if that was what they were selling. I did a few commercials and Wifeo did packaging for years and went on many of the shoots. My favourite was the peanut butter ice cream shoot. She came home with four gallons of it.

[Not Lillith]

hahahah was thinking the same thing....the hamburger I get never looks like the picture on the menu....


Then, again, when I make food from a recipe book it NEVER looks as agood as the book...
Tasty, yes. but photo shopped...sadly, no.

[AccountingDrone]

Now I want Blood Oranges... 'kay thanks. Might try making a sangria with blood oranges, that would be awesome.

My response to color-picky people; "Who cares as long as it tastes good?"

Maltese Sauce - blood orange variant of Hollandaise Sauce.

And I agree, blood orange sangria sounds great.

[Merriweather]

Here, everything HAS to be real. The two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and the sesame seed bun - all real. Food stylists (yes, it's a real job) have all sorts of tricks to make the product look as good as possible. The only exception I know of is ice cubes used in drinks - because they melt and dilute the liquid. Though they'd probably have to use real ice cubes if that was what they were selling. I did a few commercials and Wifeo did packaging for years and went on many of the shoots. My favourite was the peanut butter ice cream shoot. She came home with four gallons of it.

I read somewhere that in most places, the "has to be real" applies to what is being sold - so if selling a hanburger, all parts would have to be real. An ad for a sundae would have to be all real - but an ad for chocolate syrup could use fake ice cream, and ad for ice cream could use fake chocolate syrup, etc.

And even the "real" stuff doesn't have to be edible. They brush on all sorts of non-edible things to make things shine or look browned, etc - but it's real food they brush it on.

[Dadeo]

And even the "real" stuff doesn't have to be edible. They brush on all sorts of non-edible things to make things shine or look browned, etc - but it's real food they brush it on.

You're correct about the tricks they use to make the product look as good as possible. As I said, I've done a few commercials and accompanied Wifeo on some shoots - it's "edible" but there's no way I'd eat any of it.

Here's a look at how it's done:

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shin...172345768.html

[Misty]

In Japan most restaurants have a window display with plastic models of everything on the menu, plus the name and price of each item. Not only do they look really cool, they paint a much more vivid picture of what the restaurant offers than just flipping through a menu would. Whenever I would stroll around a city wondering where to eat, those displays made looking for a restaurant more fun, and deciding where to eat so much easier. Check it out here:

http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/ja...-displays.html

Manufacturing fake food is an art form in Japan. The restaurant sends the fake food sculptors pictures of the dishes they want made (no word on whether the food in the picture has to be made with real ingredients, or if they used camera tricks to make it look better ).

[Food Lady]

I thought I detected a more bitter but less sour taste to blood oranges. I have an affinity for bittersweet, so they are one of the best things I have ever eaten. At Godiva, the blood orange bats at Halloween are my favorite thing. As far as photo shoots, I've heard of shortening being used in place of real ice cream and motor oil being brushed on hamburger patties. I also know that picture of the Whopper looks so good because all the toppings have been pushed forward toward the camera to make it look really full.