There's nothing like a Crisp, Sweet Pear! - also Eating Locally and in Season...

Apples often hog the autumn/winter spotlight when it comes to seasonal fruit, but they don't upstage pears when it comes to taste or nutritional value. Delicate and elegant, their buttery soft flesh and slim stem makes it worth the extra effort to enjoy them when they're perfectly ripe.  Another reason why eating locally and in season is so much fun..  

Pears are a plan-ahead fruit. They don't ripen well on the tree — becoming mealy and brown at the core. Instead, pears are best picked when they're mature, but still under-ripe, and allowed to ripen at the market or in the home. Look for fruits with smooth skin and an intact stem.

Ripen them at home at room temperature in a plastic bag poked with holes or in a loosely closed brown paper bag. Refrigerate them once they're ripe. Some markets will sell ready-to-eat pears, but before you buy these, make sure they're carefully, individually wrapped and aren't stacked up more than two levels high. The pressure from the other fruits will likely bruise the flesh of a ripe pear. For the same reason, when you pack them up to take home from the market, make sure they're on top of the bag.

Professional Food Stylist & Photographer - available to work with you now!

Recently I have been getting a lot of enquires about whether I would take on projects as a food stylist &/or photographer. Of course, I understand that when you want to incorporate photos into a cookbook, magazine, eBook or website you will require a professional and artistic feel to the images - which is best achieved through working with an experienced photographer and stylist who can work with you on your project brief and provide timeless, quality, high resolution images unique to your needs. After all, before reading the words on your page people first look at the images and the images are representative of what you have to offer … So, the answer is yes, I am now available to take on projects as a food stylist &/or photographer for your cookbook, magazine, eBook, website, blog or any other medium. Just drop me a line to discuss your project: omidjaffari@me.com

(Depending on the requirements of your project, I am available to work with you via the net wherever you are based in the world. For shoots requiring specific location shots, I am currently based in Melbourne, Australia, though would be open to travel where required.)

www.triedtastedserved.com  / www.shiitakeblog.com

Press & Media tts@triedtastedserved.com or omidjaffari@me.com

Mt Eliza Farmers' Market & more...

What I like about Botanical Cuisine philosophy (focused on all things artistic and heirloom - where organic, seasonal, rustic, simple, fresh produce is enough to please the eyes and the palate) is that it allows me to travel around the country and chase as many, Organic Seasonal Farmers Market as possible. What a pleasure, to wake up early hours of the morning and go through your morning routine while knowing in your mind the elation of your days schedule. This morning I am off to check out the Mornington Peninsulas picturesque village called Mt Eliza, ‘The Mt Eliza Farmers’ Market is going to be at precinct on the 4th Sunday of every month (except ANZAC Day – 25th April 2010).

“ Mt Eliza farmers’ market plays host to authentic growers and producers from the Mornington Peninsula and Regional Victoria alike. Come and meander through the picturesque village whilst being seduced by the sights, smells and flavors of our market atmosphere.”

Getting there was easy; I took the train from Flinders Station the Frankston line, which it took me about an hour to get to Frankston. Then the bus number 788 and got off at Mt Eliza village. I have to admit I did arrive a little late, but once I was there it was an immense bliss to be amongst so many dedicated farmers who share so much passion and devotion to their organic seasonal produce.

Amongst so many beautiful stalls at the market, there was one titled: “Mt Eliza Primary School, Kitchen Garden”, run by a lovely lady called Michelle. Her philosophy is to grow herbs in small-recycled boxes within 40-mile radius from the market. The children grow even some of the herbs, what an exquisite idea as an educational tool for the children. Wish I was thought how to grow herbs back at primary or even high school for that matter, and the great thing is that they have children’s activities which are the highlight of the morning and more information is listed on their website: www.mtelizafarmersmarket.com.au

Botanical Confidential

 English is my second language

…as raw food might be your second culinary language.

I don’t know if you have noticed, but most of the raw food chefs out there are people who started out doing something else as a career. Some were corporate business people others worked as managers or writers, and so on and so forth. I mean there is absolutely nothing wrong with that and I applaud any individual who gets inspired by the art of healthy living and changes their life around. Taking such a huge step is admirable and we sure need as much raw food goodness as we can get. I guess what I’m getting at is that, for me, my raw Cheffing career has taken an opposite turn.

Purely Delicious Spring Edition - The Begining of Botanical Cuisine

How delightful to see another fantastic Purely Delicious Magazine edition... and for Rebecca Carlson allowing me to be part of it. Most importantly, she has also allowed me to showcase my next raw food culinary movement: “Botanical Cuisine”.

Thank you Rebecca

The Methodology Behind Botanical Cuisine

Recently I announced my new raw food culinary vision - Botanical Cuisine -which seeks to use only seasonal, organic, fresh produce, almost no nuts and seeds, and no dehydrating techniques in order to create simple and artful raw dishes. This new philosophy is based on the idea that raw food cuisine should ideally be created using only raw food, instead of making raw food “copies” of cooked food recipes such as quiche, pizza, ice cream etc. In other words, if we still mimic our past habits with what we used to consider comfort food, then we are not truly embracing the raw food philosophy.

Happy 1st Birthday Shiitake - The Beginning of Botanical Cuisine

I am sitting here and writing this new post in an eco - friendly country farm house, eating stoneground coconut butter mixed in with Manuka honeycombe and I can't believe that it has already been a year of documenting my travels through the eyes of a food lover. I have been so fulfilled by the process of capturing those special moments and sharing them with you right here on Shiitake. 

In the end though, this is not about me, but about you- the love of you that makes me wanna continue on this wholesome path of a botanical way of life... when I look back, so much has been done during this past years' journey. After couple of weeks into Shiitake blog's posts, I started becoming Purely Delicious magazine's regular contributor. Then came the journey of going around North America and doing my Al Fresco Summer Raw Food Class Tour for almost 2 months... After that, I returned to Sydney to visit my father and I had the chance to meet up with the Raw Events Australia people (SmoothieGirl & CoconutGirl) in Melbourne.  With them, I again started doing my Al Fresco Summer Tour (gotta love those different hemispheres!).. During this tour, I have had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely, wonderful and exhilarating people who have touched my heart in so many ways, and have showed me the ways of pure, simple, organic, seasonal eating. So much so that now I have decided to change my food philosophy a little and push it further to work with almost no nuts & seeds and absolutely no dehydrated raw food cuisine. I'd like to introduce my readers to Botanical Cuisine where organic, simple, fresh produce is enough to please the eyes and the palate. 

I will use small amount of cold pressed extra virgin organic oils and lots of fresh herbs & spices to make sure that my future raw food recipes have been designed on the foundation of raw foodism, and I promise you that I will not replicate any type of cooked food... a new perspective of wholesome cuisine, that is then presented in small portions. I would like to adapt this tradition from Japanese simple, artful cuisine and Spanish tapas cuisine where dishes are fulfilling yet petite.

Once again, thank you Shiitake for being there for me so that I could be there for my wonderful readers, Happy 1st Birthday!!

Glo Health Project Photography - Melbourne Victoria

 

When I was first approached by Lucy Stegley (aka SmoothieGirl) from 

Raw Events Australia in Melbourne, Victoria about capturing the different essence of what Glo Health Cafe - Health Store is about, I was in two minds about whether I could carry out photographic assignment that wasn’t based on 100% non raw or vegan food let alone in a commercial setting. The thought of organic, some raw food & vegan food and the conscious, wholesome nest in Elsternwick Melbourne brought good positive feelings towards taking Glo Health project photography under my belt.

 

After talking to the owners Kate & Vicky about the areas that they would love me to work on, I took a small stroll to think about how or in what flavour I would capture different areas of Glo Health  Café.  I decided nothing could beat a mixture of black & white Italian rustic photography with somewhat fairy tale photography. The result, well, have a look at them yourself!!!

 

Beautiful day at a Mt Martha farm / Lucy's world

After two hours of pressing "snooze" on my IPhone, I finally realized I needed to get up, get going and find a nursery at which to buy an organic lemon tree.  I wanted to find this for Lucy Stegley (aka SmoothieGirl), who kindly invited me to lunch at her family farm in Mt Martha, Victoria.  After geting lost numerous times along the way and having to ask multiple strangers for directions, I finally made it!!  Albeit with potted carnations instead of the desired lemon tree, and with one last wrong turn where I got lost once more on her driveway - the farm is so big!!!   Ohh well, it could only go up from here! I was really looking forward to meeting Lucy.  I didn`t know that much about her, but the moment I got out of the car, I felt I had been at her place before -  the smell of the farm, the beautiful white clouds, the barn, the rustic fences and the smiling girl who came to meet me in a cute white apron with cherries on it!  So, I'd finally met Lucy and proceeded to have a wonderful day with her.

It went by so fast!  I met her vibrant friends, sipped on watermelon juice and had fantastic stimulating conversations.  I took myself outside with my camera and I had the pleasure of meeting Lucy`s mother Ann, who zipped in on her pistachio green Vespa piled high with last minute shopping. We introduced ourselves and it wasn`t long before I was chatting with a beautiful, articulate woman with whom every moment seemed filled with joy and compassion.  I think I deserved a day like this, a day in which I was surrounded by friends and their family, around a table full of simple, delicious farm food made with love and honesty.  I took pictures to capture all the exquisitely prepared dishes.  

Raw Fusion Canape / Food Styling & Photography

Food Styling & Photography

The art of bringing food styling and food photography into the life of a food blogger is challenging. It is not easy sharing your art with the virtual world… There are so many areas that needs to be covered for a Raw Food Stylist & Photographer Blogger to share his or her final work, we need to take into account and start with the following:

• Create a Raw Palatable Recipe
  
• Make Sure it Has the Right Color Balance According to the Season
  
• Choosing the right Prop
  
• Knowing what you Want: Elegant, Rustic or Resturanty Looks
  
• Buy the Ingredients a Day Before Hand & Prepare
  
• Style & Shot (the most frustrating part for me)
  
• A Small Editing on the Photoshop
  
• Hold Your Breath and Share it

But of course as is with anything, you need to have a passion for creativity. I became passionate about cheffing purely because every time I got an order, I put the docket in front of me, and the first thing that I would grab was the big white plates, because then I knew that it was completely up to me to choose how I want to mount (stack) the creation (food) on the plate. It was the same with taking photographs for me when I first started using a camera at the age of 21 traveling around Africa from Uganda to Cape Town. Looking through the lens and taking the shots felt like it was my new tool to release my emotional package… and after taking a class in Montreal for 3 months learning the basics of Black & White photography 6 years ago, and working in the dark room developing all the photographs that I took during my 9 month trip through South America I knew that one day I want to combine both of my passion, (food Styling and Photography) together… and so this dream started about 9 months ago with Shiitake Blog.