Perretti Photography LLC Now On Workbook!

Excited to share I’am now apart of Workbook! It is the place to get your work seen by top agencies in the industry! I’m excited to share some of my latest work and projects here. The involvement of Workbook’s staff making sure I showcase the best work and projects shows how dedicated they are to their artist. I hope you will take some time to check it out. Let’s work together!

https://www.workbook.com/portfolios/perretti_photography

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

B.T.S. Photo Shoot Buona Vita (Safe Set Covid-19)

It was so fun to work with Buona Vita again, this time updating their photography for their meatball cookbook and other collateral! With the new photography they are relaunching a new website and logo. The creative look for these shots was clean, modern, and appetizing. We really wanted to highlight the great quality in the meatballs. Also showcasing all the amazing ways you can use their product. The meatball is so much more than just a topping for your pasta. Can’t wait to see these shots up on their new site. Make sure you check out their products at your local supermarket.

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

Melbourne's Yarra Valley

I haven’t had much time to share on here my photos from our trip to Australia. As you saw in my last blog post we came home and immediately had to self quarantine, then the country went into shut down mode. Nothing we could do! I did have time to work on my scrap book album with trip highlights but I want to share some of my favorite moments abroad.

As you know Joe and I are big fans of traveling to wineries and tasting locally made wine. Australia of course is home to one of the world’s most beautiful wine regions; Yarra Valley, about an hour outside of Melbourne. It DID NOT disappoint. We mapped out a few days to stay in the Yarra Valley going to various vineyards (14 total?) and see some of the most spectacular views.

If I had to pick our top three wineries we drank/ate/toured at it would be 1. Oakridge Wines 2. Tarrawarra Estate 3. Yering Station

Good resource here for the wineries: https://visityarravalley.com.au/

OAKRIDGE: The views were unmatched. The design of their winery was able to transport you into the vineyard as if you were walking through it. The large windows surrounding everything made that possible. We stayed for their pre-fix lunch and I had the best EMU. Business casual, but not stuffy at all, which I love about modern dining.

TARRAWARRA ESTATE: I don’t know if I really want to call them second, they were equally as good as Oakridge. The views were beautiful. Again the architecture (award winning!) was amazing to witness. The cellar door was really really cool! We also stayed for their lunch, I had the kangeroo, it was prepared like a sausage, really good.

YERING STATION: Entering their cellar door was breathtaking. They had up a sculpture art exhibit that made it feel like a museum walking through. Beside the overcast skies that day it was very cozy inside. Their wine selection was so good and you could tell they had a passion for their wines. This is a must stop!

A Few Others Highly Recommend:

-Coombe

-De Bortoli Yarra Valley Estate

-Domaine Chandon

-Punt Road

-Yarra Yering

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

Working Remotely

How are you doing?

Looking back at my February email to this months, wow, what a stark difference. End of February my husband and I left for a much needed vacation to the beautiful country of Australia. The brushfires were clearing up and the trip as a whole was fantastic. The food, views, and people were great; really a trip of a lifetime!

In those short 3 weeks away, we were leaving Australia on one of the last normally scheduled flights by Quantas to America. We landed in San Francisco to see the news coverage of the travel ban to Europe. The immediate following days everyone’s world turned upside down. Business came to a halt and an illness was creeping among us.

As I write this we are starting to adjust to the new normal. We are creating a virtual routine with friends, family, and co-workers. The same goes for me while running my business. I’ve reached out to several of my clients to see how they are doing and what I can do to help. When the time is right to get to the new normal of working I’m there for support. Like others adjusting and working from home, I have a home photo studio setup and working well. In addition to email, text, and phone, I have ZOOM the virtual platform where you can share screens live and I can mirror my tethered screen so you can see the images come through. If you have food or product that needs to be captured please know I’am here for you. COVID-19 might of removed me from my normal studio, but it certainly didn’t take my creativity.

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

B.T.S. Photo Shoot Fine Cooking Magazine

Connecticut is a beautiful state and I’m so lucky to work with my client Fine Cooking Magazine there! That is also the home of Taunton Press where beautiful food stories are published. The team I get to work with is very passionate about food and cooking which makes the photo shoots all the better. I don’t always get to see my work in print so these projects have been really special to me. Also it’s great to work with the talented food stylists Nicole Twohy and Heather Meldrom! Pick up the latest copy of Fine Cooking today!

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

On The Blog With Shutterstock- March New Content!

Shutterstock, “Each month we bring you the top inspirational images in Shutterstock’s collection. Explore new content and beautiful photographs in our March roundup.”

https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/march-fresh-new-content-love

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Felicia Perretti is a commercial food and beverage photographer and director based in New York City. She works nationally with food and beverage clients in advertising, packaging, editorial, and video. She has worked with food and drink in all shapes and knows how to craft the right team to get the job done! Her passion for food and beverage shine through on set as well as outside of work in her everyday life. Whether it’s trying new restaurants, traveling, or cooking with her husband Joe. Send her an email or give a call to discuss your next project, she would be more than happy to chat!

Photo Shoot Recap New Jersey Monthly: Osteria Radici

Any food that encompasses the style of Italian cuisine I’m all ears and appetite. It was great to work again with New Jersey Monthly on their July feature for Osteria Radici in Allentown, NJ. Owners Randy and Ally were great to work during the photo shoot. The dishes we got to photograph each had their own personality and flavor that was amazing to see. It was great to see their different plate ware and table dressings to incorporate into the photographs. Also the interior had a warm welcome. Check this place out!! You can read the article and see more of my photos here:

https://njmonthly.com/articles/restaurant-reviews/italy-roots-osteria-radici-allentown/

Photo Shoot Recap: La Mercerie for The Village Voice

It was so fun to work on this photo shoot for The Village Voice covering the new all-day cafe La Mercerie. You walk in and immediately feel a cool energy surrounded with clean design. Chef Marie-Aude Rose was great to work with. The dishes seamlessly were brought to us to photograph. Just getting back from France I felt like I was on my honeymoon again! All the food was delicious, fresh, and unique! I loved the cantabric anchovies with vanilla butter. The specialty butters were also amazing. What was unique about the location was it was connected to Roman and Williams Guild. Everything hand picked without any corners cut. It really helped set the tone of the restaurant. Read the whole article here: https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/06/29/gallic-grandeur-at-la-mercerie/

French Food and Tires

Michelin star restaurants. We’ve all heard this before and something else that might come to mind is tires. In the states we do have Michelin Tire company, but would you think tires and great food go together? That’s exactly where it all started. To our surprise a visit to Beaune, France some of the restaurants had Michelin star ratings accompanied by the tire character. Was this a joke on America? No. This was a successful marketing move.
Michelin Tire Company is actually a French tire company. In 1900 the company came out with the Michelin Guide. It was a guide designed for Michelin tire customers suggesting top lodging, and food destinations. The customers would follow the guides meaning more travel, and more use on the tires, in turn more sales! Today is has evolved into the highest rating for chefs all over the world. It has a star rating 1 to 3 star ratings.

Recipe: Roasted Chestnuts

Chestnuts roasting on a open fire might work for some but the oven works just as good. I’ll get into that in a minute but first want to talk about these unique treats. Weeks leading up to Thanksgiving the holidays start filling our heads and seasonal dishes filling our stomachs. A favorite past time treat are roasted chestnuts. To some this seems like a foreign food and only know of it by the famous Nat King Cole melody but chestnuts and the trees they come from date back to the 1900’s in the United States. The American Chestnut Foundation in the early 1980’s wanted to revive the nut in all its glory especially since a terrible fungus earlier destroyed a large amount of the forests containing these trees.
Around the holidays in the US you can find street vendors roasting the chestnuts and selling by the bag. This method of using chestnuts is also vastly popular in Europe!
How I roast chestnuts is I start with the flat side down on a cutting board and make an “X” slit through the skin of the nut. Then I briefly soak the nuts in hot water then drain and dry. Once they are dried I toss the nuts with melted butter, salt, pepper, and sage. I lay them out on a foil lined cookie sheet gathering the edges to create a large opening around the chestnuts. I roast in the oven at 425 degrees for 35 minutes. The skin where you made the “X” should be peeling back. Once removed from the oven let rest till you can touch them and peel back the skin. You want to eat the meaty, buttery inside of the nut.
These nuts can go bad so when shopping for them make sure the skin doesn’t have blemishes. An ideal nut is a vibrant chestnut color, and smooth.

Photo Shoot Recap for The Village Voice: Mezcals Moment

Here’s a re-cap from my recent shoot at The Standard in the East Village. This bar was gorgeous and just steps from The Cooper Union, another site to see. It’s always great when working with The Village Voice because they really let you be creative with the subject matter for their stories. This was a fun shoot with bartender Natasha Sofia mixing the drink “No Problem” from the menu. I’m not a huge mixed cocktail drinker but if you can mask the taste of the alcohol i’m good to go! Also what I loved about this drink was the garnish. The vibrant slice of orange dipped in a red salt really completed this drink. Read the whole story here: http://www.villagevoice.com/2017/05/17/mezcals-moment/

Something New! The Pictured Kitchen

This idea between myself and fiance Joe has been tossed around for awhile; In what capacity can we work together? We are both commercial photographers specializing in different fields people automatically would assume, "You guys should combine forces and work together!" That is not something we wanted to do. I run my business and have my clients and so does Joe. Ignoring the fact though that we are together and in the same business wasn't going to work forever. We have been able to meet on this idea of working on a blog together! We both have passions for food, drink, and travel and both of us touch on this personally and professionally so it seemed to be a good platform to get started!

After a long couple days of brainstorming we were able to come up with the very creative and catchy blog The Pictured Kitchen

This has been live for about a week and we have a supporting Instagram handle @thepicturedkitchen which we are excited to populate with our personal journeys, recipes, drink tips and tricks! If you have anything you would like to contribute or comment on we would love to hear from you.

info@thepicturedkitchen.com

B.T.S. Features Gastropub In Sunny Florida!

Right after Easter weekend I was on a flight to sunny Tampa, Florida for a week shoot at the new Features Gastropub inside the Riverview movie theater apart of Goodrich Quality Theaters out of the midwest. I was recommend for this job by friend and celebrity chef Brian Duffy. I was so excited for this job, not just because it was in Florida but the concept of the restaurant by Brian had some delicious entrees and beers on tap to try. Something I’ve rarely seen before is they had wine on tap! What?!! I got to work with the local and talented Marlene Forand for the week on executing the dishes and really bringing the ingredients to life. We had fun incorporating the wall signage in the background and making the dishes feel heroic. One of the coolest offerings they had was their Feature Fry Tower. This was stacked high of fries, shaved ham, provolone cheese, bacon, mozzarella and side sauces, yum!! I hope to go back soon and catch a movie in the theater. If you find yourself in the area for vacation make sure and stop by.

Preparing A Perfect Poached Egg

I know poached eggs look difficult and have a delicate quality to them. If you follow some basic steps to making these you will have no problem whipping them up next time for a weekend brunch at home!

Use fresh cold eggs.
Use the right vessel to get the eggs to the pot such as a large spoon.
Use the right vessel to get the eggs out of the water such as a slotted spoon.

Recipe for making perfect poached eggs

- Fill your pot with water that comes up to the edge about 1-2inches.
- Add 1 tsp of salt and 2 tsps of white vinegar.
- Bring the water to a simmer
- Crack your very fresh and cold egg into large spoon.
**If doing 2-3 eggs swirling the water in the pot like a whirlpool then dropping the egg in the center helps keep the egg white together.
Patience: Once eggs are added to the pot turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Do Not Touch.
Remove egg with slotted spoon and serve!

IACP 2017 Winner Food Photography & Styling Awards

This was exciting news to find out I won The Culinary Trust Award for Food Photography That Makes a Difference for 2017! IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) is the food industry community you need to be apart of. First started by Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, and Anne Willan in the mid 70’s. This organization has evolved into bigger and better offerings with today including people in the food industry beyond chefs. The photography aspect of IACP is very important to me because it’s my specialty; food and beverage. The opportunities to network and get my work noticed like entering their contest is very valuable for me. My personal series I did on chicken processing was so unique I had to enter it in this years contest. It was exciting news when I heard I was a nominee for my category!

You can see the full series from this shoot on my past blog post here: http://www.perrettiphotography.com/perrettiphotography/2016/10/6/personal-series-from-the-farm-chicken-slaughter

See all nominees for categories here: http://www.iacp.com/awards/food-photography-awards/2017-food-photography-styling-finalists/

Travel Recap: Bermuda

    Bermuda as they would say was Bermudaful! Any vacation or excuse to get away and relax is a good one. When going into a foreign country I like to keep an open mind and open schedule and really just let the culture guide me. Bermuda is a British territory in the North Atlantic. There is a distinct blend of British and American culture. Everyone on the island is friendly, and everyone knows each other. There was no language barrier, and with everyone being helpful and kind it was a easy place to get around. What I was looking forward to other than the amazing views was the food. Fish is a big competent to the island which makes sense. It was only natural to have their amazing fish chowder. Another great fish dish I had was the local famous fish sandwich from Fish and Tings. Wow! I could not finish this. There were a handful of places on the island that did make this sandwich but I’m glad I went with Fish and Tings because they also had amazing jerk chicken. The fish sandwich traditionally is made with coco bread and filled to the gills (pun intended) with fried fresh fish. Also on the sandwich was lettuce, tomato, and tarter sauce. Yum!
    Overall the food and restaurants were great. I also had dinner at the Pickled Onion and Hog Penny. As far as I had British food I would have to say Hog Penny was the best. I had an amazing yorkshire pudding dinner which really hit the spot after all my rum drinking! haha. The local Gosling’s Rum was great in Eggnog and the signature rum swizzle. Another big drink on the island was the dark and stormy.
    There were plenty of places and food I did not get to try but you can only fit in so much when you do have the time. So I will certainly be planning a trip back and if you haven’t been I highly recommend it. Did I mention it’s only about a 2 hour flight?!

Brief History of Thanksgiving

How did Thanksgiving start? We gather each year with family and friends on this day sharing in big feasts but do we take the time to learn its roots?
    In 1620 the Mayflower, a ship from Plymouth, England went on a journey seeking a new home to practice their faith freely. After a long and treacherous journey it brought them to the New World and landed at Cape Cod. Their first winter there was very brutal and lives were lost. Once March approached the remaining ship crew; the pilgrims came ashore to settle. The Native Americans who lived there helped and taught the pilgrims how to cultivate corn, catch fish among other helpful survival tactics. The next year the pilgrim’s had their first successful corn harvest that called for a celebration! That celebratory feast was the first unofficial Thanksgiving that we know today. Source: History.com

Photo Shoot BTS: Shoo Fry

A lot of my work takes me to the studio photographing recipes, and advertising work. Sometimes however I get to work on location! There was a new restaurant opening; really the first of it’s kind I’ve seen in the U.S. specializing in poutine. This new concept was in need of some professional photography. The buzz about this restaurant opening was growing quickly and they needed photography for their menu, website, and PR releases. Their current images were snap shots from their phone and were not of great quality. The graphic designer of the restaurant found me and thought I would be a good fit. How could I say no to a fun place like this.

Not everyone is familiar with this amazing treat but poutine originates from Canada, actually where the owners found the idea in the first place. The basic recipe consists of fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. This restaurant has taken it to another level with several other combinations any late night go-er would want or even a lunch rush option. We used to day of shooting to capture their different varieties of poutine as well as a couple slider options they were offering. The franchisee that was there mentioned sliders weren’t as popular and were hoping to create a new need for them. They were simple but delicious and not your normal thing you could order. Also another unique and tasty item they offered were milkshakes! You cannot go wrong with a “Tommy Like Wingy” poutine with a Little Baby’s Ice Cream milkshake; heaven!

While we were there and with brown paper still on the facade people were still asking if we were open yet?? I think they will be very successful in their poutine business.

B.T.S. Sabra Hummus and Stacy's Pita Chips

What a fun project! Love Stacy's Pita Chips and Sabra Hummus! Sample below of one of the ads that ran.

Food Stylist: Liza Jernow

Prop Stylist: Deb Donahue

Dry Rub Ribs: Recipe

How was your Memorial Day weekend? What type of grilling did you tackle? For us we did a nice dry rub spare rib recipe. Color is always important and using the right amount of paprika really makes a difference. These were also on the spicy side, a nice change up from the usual BBQ sauce rub.

Ingredients:
-1/2 cup turbino sugar
-1/4 cup normal paprika
-1/4 cup smoked paprika
-1 tablespoon salt
-1 tablespoon pepper
-1 tablespoon onion powder
-1 tablespoon garlic powder
-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 teaspoon ground thyme heaping
-1/2 teaspoon ground bay leaves sparingly
-yellow mustard rubbed on base of meat (makes the seasoning stick!)

*Let it soak overnight in fridge

-Baked 300 degrees 3 hours cover in foil
- Uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes