Dishes to please the eye and the palate
Maritimer Dennis Prescott takes mouth-watering photographs of his globally influenced comfort foods, Laura Brehaut writes.
Exuberant, bountiful, colourful and fresh — author and photographer Dennis Prescott has a distinct visual style. He creates vibrant feasts designed for sharing.
“I’m a huge believer in folks eating as a community and spending that time (together). It’s really important. And something I didn’t have access to as much as I would have liked to growing up,” the Moncton, N.B.-based cook says.
In his previous life, Prescott was a touring musician. He and his bandmates took a break from a decade on the road, landing in Nashville, Tenn., for several months. It was there — “at financial ground zero” — that he borrowed three Jamie Oliver cookbooks from the library and started to learn how to cook.
“The first time I cooked was for studiomates in Nashville and everyone had that ‘ahhhh’ moment where it was really quiet (as) everyone took their first bite,” he says. “It was like, ‘I want more of this kind of community.’”
Prescott moved home to New Brunswick and started documenting his dishes on Instagram. In April 2015, his following exploded after a mention by British food writer Nigella Lawson.
“One of my followers tipped me off about @dennistheprescott, a Canadian food blogger who posts food that makes my tummy rumble. I cannot see one of his pictures without wanting to eat whatever’s in it,” Lawson wrote.
Today, he has 379,000 Instagram followers and a debut cookbook. Eat Delicious, is filled with the “globally influenced comfort food dishes” he’s known for: burgers, pasta, pizza, family meals and seafood (“the key to a Maritimer’s heart”).
Given his start on Instagram, it’s only appropriate that Prescott dedicates a chapter to food photography. His tips cover why identifying your “hero” element is essential to composition and how to find inspiration in shooting something other than food.
“Sometimes food, food photography especially, is a little precious. It’s a little bit too perfect. It’s a little too staged and it doesn’t connect. People ask me all the time, ‘What’s the most important thing for you in food photography?’ It’s the connection. It’s creating that human element,” he says. “I give the analogy of the ice cream cone: You run after the drip. An ice cream cone in and of itself is not exciting but the drip coming down the side of the cone that’s just about to hit your hand … I think we all relate to that.” Recipes from Eat Delicious by Dennis Prescott. Reprinted by permission of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.