Ah Norway. Good times. I spent some time in Haugesund a couple of years ago, for work, and I will always remember the amazing Norwegian rice puddings I stuffed myself with nearly everyday.

When I first met Njål Solland and Arild Bringeland in January last year, their plans for sushi domination in Norway were still limited to studying packaging. They hail from a conurbation at the heart of the Norwegian oil capital – Stavanger and Sandnes – embedded within the southern most fjordes of Norway. They’d been conducting these extended sushi binge tours to European cities with ‘mature’ appetites for Japanese food, and as fate would have it, got in touch with me when they arrived in London. I soon discovered that we shared a fervent passion for raw seafood and vinegar-ed rice, and I was impressed with their enthusiasm of wanting to bring quality sushi to Norway.

They opened their first Sabi Sushi in April last year, primarily a takeaway, with their third partner and head chef Roger Joya. Unlike us lot, Stavangerians prefer to eat in the comfort of their home. Success followed and before long, they’d open their 2nd outlet in Forus, outside a gas station, this time with a seating area (decor not unlike a Little Chef) and dubbed it a Japanese diner. It’s the KISS philosophy, super-fresh fish in a minimalist environment.

To digress a little: In addition to the oil rush, this region of Norway has produced a legacy of Bocuse D’Or winners. Yes, the ‘Chef Olympics’ for aspiring young chefs (under 22) which takes place every other year in Lyon. Not quite the glamour of the annual World Best 50 back-slapping exercise that just received its 2012 update (which Noma still tops, but blasphemous that Sukiyabashi Jiro and The Sportsman didn’t even make Top 100) , but it is perhaps a more honest kind of gastronomical boast.

Njål had tried (and failed) to invite me to his last two openings, but with the 3rd one in Sandnes ready to rock, I thought I’d make a concerted effort to drop in. BMI flights were relatively cheap this time of year, it was the better half’s first time in Norway, so we booked our flights and off we went.

Our first lunch stop wasn’t for sushi, rather it was for a spot of traditional Norwegian grub at Lura Turistheim. Or as it was explained to me – Original Norwegian fast food. Pre-cooked, simmering in buffet vats, the Viking equivalent of the British chippy.

On the plate was kumle, or potata balls, with crackling chips, Norwegian sausage and salted pork ribs. I had a choice of either a butter sauce or fat. I chose the latter.

It’s almost like a sport for Norwegians to jest at foreigners attempting the ‘challenge’ of wolfing down the traditional dish. To Njål surprise, I actually quite enjoyed it, it wasn’t as stogy as it looked! Probably because it was redolent of some dim sum dishes I grew up with like lo mai gai (steamed & stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves) and pan-fried turnip cake. I suppose the other European cousin is the gnocchi.

I ate kumle with recommended lashings of syrup and with mustard. I washed everything down with a glass of soured milk called Tine Mjölk, like a very thin lassi. I know it all sounds odd, but oddly enough, this combo worked well together. I can almost glimpse a version of this dish being considered for re-invention as part of the New Nordic movement.

I’ve been to my fair share of launch parties, but this is the first one where I fulfilled my stereotype of the Chinese guy fresh off the boat, who didn’t speak the language. I laughed when the room laughed (presumably when Njål cracked a joke in his speech) and I raised mine when everybody else raise their glasses and belted ‘skål!’ – presumably to drink to the opening of the Sandnes branch of Sabi Sushi.

Norway is near enough an ideal location to start a sushi restaurant. Firstly, harnessing all that wonderfully fresh Norwegian seafood is almost a no-brainer. Then, there’s all the oil money Rogaland is awash with (lowest unemployment rate in the nation), and thirdly, there’s hardly any competition (yet) as the eating out culture is only just catching up to the economy boom in the area. The only unknown is whether raw fish will integrate into Norwegian palates as they have done over here in London.

Pan-fried Norwegian scallops, black tobiko on a salad of marinated crab and seaweed – North Sea on a plate, perhaps?

It may be a biased sample size – comprised mostly of local movers and shakers – but it did appear that Norwegians have a huge appetite for sushi. I didn’t meet any Stavanger food bloggers, though it was a pleasure to speak with one of the founders of Stavanger Expats.

Look at the colour of the tuna and salmon – striking yes?

This is what the missus and I managed to muster from the buffet. Considering it was a buffet, the food was pumped out to a high spec. Though I did feel that the rice while good was turning so cold that the inherent stickiness had the individual grains starting to agglomerate into a ball of glue (they did serve 2000 pieces of nigiri that night..). However it was accurately seasoned.

The fish were notably fresh, particularly the salmon. Really smooth, silky and fragrant, perhaps some of the best raw salmon ever to grace vinegared balls of rice. The hamachi, halibut (by Sterling) , scallop, seaweed were all bursting with sweetness. I also loved the over-sized shrimp tempura doused with a spicy cream sauce, not disimilar to Nobu’s signature (but tiny) rock shrimp tempura.

The Sabi owners have obviously capitalised on the fact that they have such easy access to the abundance of high quality fish which come to shore literally minutes away from their restaurants. Norway after all, is an early pioneer of aquaculture, and the quality of the industry’s handiwork is apparent.

I also tried whale sashimi for the first time. Pan-fried (I think) and marinated (with a sort of soy-based sauce) but served rare in the centre. It was incredibly tender, very similar to venison or even ostrich. Yes, my conscience does feel guilty (feel free to bash me with your comments) , but honestly, my curiosity compelled me to give it a try. I didn’t regret it and I won’t lie, I did enjoy it.

The evening ending with a curious comedian singing a bunch of cheesy american classics.

The next day, we went off to PastaPasta for some Italian pizza. This one made with pesto marinated scampi, onions, artichokes, mushrooms, parmesan and mozzarella was pretty incredible. I chatted with the owner, Ståle Johnsen, who was speaking about his admiration for Pizza East’s fabulously rustic decor (and Mozza-style pizzas, ohh that semolina base..). He was real stoked when I told him the warehouse-like building was once used by Lipton to process and package tea in the 30s.

Anyway, his pizzas use 00 flour, and are given ample time for the dough to rise. They spend about 4 minutes in the oven – a tad long but there’s no wood fire oven here. Not quite Franco Manca or Pizza East, but still the base was thin, crispy and pretty good. The scampi topping was amazingly good however. A little spicy too. It’s that Norwegian seafood again, simply awesome. He tells me that pizza in Norway is difficult to get off the ground, since all the Italian imports from the mozzarella to the salami have ridiculously high import taxes slapped across it. That translates to 169 NOK for this pizza. Roughly £18. Then again, the cost of living in Norway (and much of Scandinavia) is incredibly high relative to Britain anyway.

Norwegian ‘Gourmet’ pizza is probably still in the infant stages, but while we’re on the topic of rapidly gourmet-rised fast food, burger-fever does not appear to have penetrated this part of Europe yet.

In the evening, we headed back for round two at Sabi Sushi. Yup, clean Scandinavian furnishings in this diner. In fact, I met the carpenter who had put together most of the furniture for the restaurant – he’s very young, grew up in the area. The group’s head chef, Roger and the Sandnes general manager Ole had teamed up to create a one-off Japanese-Norwegian fusion dinner. A prototype for their future expansion plans. Suggestions of a small 20-cover ‘premium’ version of Sabi, not geared toward take-away.

Ain’t this cute? The menu was printed on a chopstick holder – 8 courses.

Amuse: Fried salmon skin, cucumber.

Oddly, this reminded me of the tempura shrimp amuse/non-starter at Le Chateaubriand.

Course 1: Sterling white halibut, lime, wasabi cream, black tobiko, bean sprouts.

Shredded from fresh wasabi too. Cutting acid of the lime, a cooling spiciness of the wasabi, along with ultra smooth halibut. Wow.

Course 2: Cold smoked Salmon (over apple wood), egg cream, asparagus, ponzu sauce.

Reminiscent of tsar-cut salmon – this is what edible silk tastes like. The gentle smoking gave it a very faint whiff of fruity wood. Powerful citrus from the ponzu and what appears to be a half-baked bearnaise. A wedge of asparagus for texture. If anything, this dish illustrated the sheer quality of Norwegian salmon. Aside from the liquorice salmon dish at Fat Duck, I don’t think I’ve quite eaten such amazing salmon.

Course 3: Seared scallops, oyster foam, broad beans, wasabi mayo, daikon.

Sensational salmon was followed by phenomenal scallops. So sweet, I could have eaten it raw. Some felt the wasabi mayonnaise was a little too much, but I quite liked it. It was spicy and really eggy.

Course 4: Norwegian Langoustines, wasabi butter sauce.

This was the OMG dish. I was told that they were caught in the mid afternoon and delivered to the restaurant at 5pm, just three hours before dinner. Served with a sort of clarified butter sauce made with something zesty and some wasabi. It looked like it was blanched to just the right side of cooked. The inherent sweetness was breathtaking, clearly these were the juiciest crustaceans to swim in Norwegian waters. I was told by neighboring guests that the key to the sweetness was the timing between cooking and being fished out of the water, before the death toxins take its toll on breaking down the muscles. Relatively cheap in Norway, readily available …I cried for one more, the missus cried for two more, but to no avail!

Course 5: Nigiri of otoro, salmon, maguro.

At half-way point, we were treated to a selection of Sabi Sushi’s bread and butter dishes. Or nigiri and maki I should say. Tuna – maguro and toro – and salmon pre-slathered with soya sauce (so I didn’t have to, but could if I wanted to – a homage to a certain London sushi bar). The otoro was flab-tastic, cut up the day before from a 19kg tuna caught off the Sri Lankan coast. Like all good otoro, the experience was a mesmerizing mouthful of oozing buttery flavour – so good that it is this very sensation that is enough to threaten the very existence of the fish itself. The rice was warmer on the 2nd day, clearly more pampered than during the launch party, resulting in a loose texture and exhibiting the usual melt in the mouth textures I associate good sushi with.

Course 6: Maki of salmon toro, salmon with tempura and cucumber, soft shell crab with avocado.

I really enjoyed the salmon belly tartare – so well mashed and fatty, it was nearing the texture of a smoothie. Full of flavour. Tempura batter rolled into maki is always a genuinely addictive proposition.

Course 7: Ginger sorbet.

As opposed to pickled ginger. Interesting twist.

Course 8: Reduction of chicken jus, spring onion, carrot.

Not sure if this actually qualifies as a course per say, but it was eye-opening. A KO punch of chicken jus.

Course 9: Dutch Wagyu, foie gras, pastry of pickled oyster mushrooms with Sabi sauce, shiso leaf.

1st impression – Japanese Tournedos Rossini!

Dutch wagyu – this was a first for me. Sirloin was used, cooked to medium rare and sliced thinly like a carpaccio, unfortunately a little too thin for me to tell tell how tender it was. The teriyaki based sauce and the foie gras masked rather than enhanced the natural beef flavours completely, so I couldn’t really tell what it tasted like either. Personally, I would have preferred if it was served as a cube, or at least cut just a little thicker. Frankly though I really wished there was more of it. I think this could have worked better if it were served a little more rare (or even raw).

It was nice enough, but I felt it could have been better. I couldn’t help comparing it to the excellent Wolfgang Puck wagyu steak sashimi recipe. The oyster mushroom pastry/spring roll on the other hand was quite nice.

Course 10: Banana, chocolate ‘tray’ with melted chocolate, banana, passionfruit and coconut ice cream.

Aka: The Pacojet course. I was mocked for not knowing what this gizmo was! Heston has one in his kitchens. Basically a pacoject is a really powerful mixer, with a sharp blade that spins at 2000rpm. For making ice cream, this cuts up all the rough ice chips into a superiorly smooth frozen mouse.

Indeed, this was a superiorly silken coconut ice cream. No ice crystals as promised. The chocolate was made by a Chocolatier local to the area, but I failed to get the name. Both were very good. Fruit, chocolate and ice cream reminded me of Le Chateaubriand yet again. Personally, I would have preferred to see a slice of grilled banana instead of it being served with either a pastry or battered wrap – The smell of cooked bananas always makes for a thriller – , but otherwise it was a pleasant end to the lengthy meal.

Of course, this menu is still work in progress, but I think the restaurant certainly has got all the necessary building blocks to mold into something special. If anything, it’s certainly an interesting glimpse into the future of Stavanger’s fusion dining scene. For me, it was pleasant (if short) gastro-getaway to a region which is just developing a taste for quality international cuisines. A little surreal to see what was a conversational topic a year earlier now fully realised as a thriving group of restaurants. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next couple of years.

In some ways, the minimalist-high quality approach (See Wabi-Sabi for Japanese Aesthetic) is reminiscent of Tom Byng’s no-bullshit ethos in building his ever expanding Byron empire. I still tell people how I had once sampled their now defunct (but original) Byron sliders way back in ’08 (my writing was as cringe-worthy as it is today) when there were only 2 branches. Hard to imagine that back then, Byron came behind GBK and Hache. Now they’re up to 22 branches and still growing.

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So you’ve been to every one of the coolest ice cream parlours in town and you need an alternative scoop to Scoop. Well here’s one for your list. Chin Chin is London’s (and Europe) very first nitrogen ice cream parlour. Yes that’s right, instead of freezer-stored ice cream, these guys make theirs by cooling with nitrogen vapours instead. The best part is that it happens right in front of your eyes… while you wait!

I first read about it on gourmet traveller (which is an awesome blog) and thought this whimsy looked a worthy gimmick. It’s only £3.95 for a scoop afterall. And it is literally very cool. In fact so cool that safety glasses and gloves need be adorned by the ice cream makers to protect against cold burns, when they unload liquid nitrogen from the storage tank. This visually visceral concept is the brainchild of husband and wife team of Ahrash Akbari-Kalhur and wife Nyisha Weber, who have partly borrowed inspiration from the molecular journeymen of gastronomy in Adrià and Blumenthal. Actually it is worth reading this article by Victoria Maw about couple which appeared in the FT a couple of weeks ago.

So on to the wacky sciencety bits: Using nitrogen to make ice-cream is a much quicker route to freezing, since nitrogen boils off at a much lower temperature of -195.79 °C. Ahrash has theorised that in this short time, ice crystals are prevented from forming, and thus ensuring a smoother, denser, sexier resultant product, ergo happier customers. Q.E.D.

The shop looks like a mad scientists’ lair, bringing back memories of Bill Nye, TV’s preeminent science dude. I loved that show. Pyrex glass beakers, measuring cylinders (and maybe even pipettes!) to white lab coats are both decorative and practical; for a moment, I was zapped back into my uni lab making up another batch of anti-misting polymers, to splatter across the walls. As you’d expect, the ice cream is made to order, and part of the experience is watching the process occur right before your eyes.

That means snappy happy Kang, (if you don’t want spoilers, don’t scroll down!). There is something incredibly rewarding watching ice-cream being made in front of you. The stream of nitrogen fumes definitely adds a certain dramatic effect too.

Ok here goes…

First we choose from one of the three available ice-creams. Vanilla and chocolate are the main stays, the ‘special of the day’ on my visit was lychee. More flavours will become available in the future, Ahrash mumbled dehydrated peanut butter as he explained the concept to me.

Goggles on. That’s the liquid nitogen tank, note it is from CyroService, I wonder if Air Products sell them to ‘private’ citizens too..

And we’re off! Streaming liquid nitrogen…. the fumes – I assume – are of nitrogen boiling off, since -195.79 °C relative to 20 °C is alot warmer. It’s like pouring out water when the ambient temperature is above 100°C – it would start boiling off straight away…. I think I’m a Chemical Engineer.

In goes the nitrogen to the mixer and within seconds….

….we have nitro-ice cream!

That’s not where the magic ends however, we move on to the next counter to have our ice cream finished with various toppings. Each of the glass beakers holds something edible. There’s a variety of nuts, candied sugars and such.

Here, Nyisha is meticulously garnishing my vanilla ice cream with a few well-positioned honeycomb pieces.

Vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and honeycomb…. looks amazing right?

Lychee and rose water ice cream with rose crystals, toasted almonds and raspberry coulis. Check out the little translucent spoon!

This has got to be one of the most handsome ice creams in town no? Chilled art…

The futurist look about this place is so visually appealing. If you don’t fancy the ice cream, they also do cupcakes. I didn’t try one, but it looks great too.

So the five million pound question, is it smoother, denser and sexier? I think so. The better half and I enjoyed it immensely. Hey this place is alot of fun, and I think it is worth a go, especially when summer is still around. The owner has pretty interesting ideas in the works for his chin chin lab, for one, he told me that he is collabing with other like-minded creatives to craft a fuller experience, possibly special events as well. He explained some kind of multi course meal idea with nitro blasted consommé and such….but I shouldn’t fuel a rumour mill so we’ll just have to wait and see what appears in the horizon. In the meantime, the future of ice cream has landed in Camden.

See even more photographs on my flickr stream.

The Gist of It

The Chin Chin Laboratorist
Nitro Ice Cream Parlour, £3.95.
49-50 Camden Lock Place
Tube: Camden

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All text and photography on this blogpost is copyright and belongs to Kang Leong, LondonEater.com. If you repost this without my permission, bad things will happen. So please don’t do it.

28th July 2010 Update: I am indebted to Michele for this, if you want to visit Chin Chin Labs, you need to note their opening times: ” Just to save everyone else some trouble, I learned the hard way that Chin Chin is closed on Mondays! Unfortunately I couldn’t find details on their website or anywhere. Also I believe I saw that their shop closes on weekdays at 6pm. So I’ll probably be aiming for a journey back up over the weekend..
Also just a note on location – contrary to what Google Maps seems to show, the shop is not actually on the waterfront – it is just in that interior corridor, the one that starts at Gilgamesh and continues down alongside (but outside) the market area.”

Last weekend I went to a one-off special billed as a “an exciting walk-through dining experience and multi-course meal charting key revolutionary periods in food history.”. It was put together by Bompass and Parr, the pre-eminent purveyors of wobbly things, along with the help of certain talented peeps from food as well as from the creative fields including Alexis Gauthier, Saf restaurant (well…), Bistrotheque, Lounge Bohemia as well as Courvoisier’s ever present spirits, and their obvious bags of riches.

So the idea was to take people across the history of food, through four or five beautifully decorated, themed rooms in a five storey Georgian building in Belgravia, from the Medieval times to the Fifties to eating off the back of a very large Iguana (a prop, not a real one).

It was a little contrived, at times it was verging on the feeling as though I have just paid to experience an elaborate walk-through marketing campaign. There was Courvoisier on everything. The event culminated with a Courvoisier bar, that served Courvoisier cocktails with a 3DTV that showed looping Courvoisier adverts. Talk about brain washing eh.

Cognac aside, for the most part, the event was entertaining. However, I was expecting it to be more of an exhibition, with food trivia presented in crazily non-obvious ways, but alas, apart from the good Doctor opening promisingly by spinning about the archaic ‘science’ that humans were believed to be made from four types of liquids (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm), the theatre ended just as it begun really, style suffocating all manner of substance.

For £25 it was OK (plus £5 booking fee, yikes!), though not exactly a steal. Food was decidedly a limiting factor, it was more like half a course and three snacks as opposed to four courses. The various cocktails we had on the other hand, all made with Couvoisier, were all pretty good. I came out feeling indifferent, it wasn’t exactly a satisfying meal (which I would have preferred) nor was it an all out exhibition through the times of food, instead it fell in the chasm of being a little hollow in the centre. I didn’t learn about the origin or evolution of any kind of food in particular. Instead, I came away with new found knowledge of what Courvoirsier tastes like when paired with various fruits.

Can’t knock the event for looking the part, staff were welcoming people to snap away at the meticulously created artwork, elaborate sets and creations, and all of which were mightily impressive. At the end of the day, it was fun. By the time you read this, the event would have finished, but for what it’s worth, I thought you might enjoy the snapshots…

The Doctor ‘prescribing’ a concoction to re-balance our bodily fluids (or something to that effect).

Waiting to go into the Medieval Ship.

Crossing the wobbly gang plant, to the ship. It looks like the murky waters were actually wet.

The Medieval ship, operated by Saf, a vegan restaurant, and also where we took our ‘prescription’.

I said to the good Doctor that I felt ‘laid-back’, so he me a yellow sticker which allowed me to exchange for a white wine cocktail, plus a an artichoke canape.

Next we ‘travel through time’ via a service lift to the roof top to try Alexis Gauthier’s gorgeous contribution: foie gras, a port reduction, almonds and gold leaf, shaped like a certain very recognisable chocolate.

The genius mixologists from Lounge Bohemia.

This was lush – a ‘flat’ champagne cocktail, with the fizz bursting out from the grapes! I really enjoyed this one.

On to the Fifties now, and we are having a scratch and sniff TV dinner. Nothing edible here, just olfactory tickling at work. Minty chips…

I liked this room, surely good enough to merit its own exhibition in an art gallery of some kind. It was explained to us that fifty years ago, everybody sat in front of the tv during dinner time.

And then, into the belly of a bouncy beast! Created by Andy Best & Merja Puustinen. Boing Boing.

And finally dinner time, an Iguanodon dinner in a giant Iguana, like the one constructed by Waterhouse Hawkins in 1853

Eating duck confit, puy lentils, beetroot and black champagne sauce by Bistrotheque and drinking ‘Josephine’s Tea Garden’ punch with Courvoisier, green tea, apple juice and elderflower cordial by Ben Leggett.

Finally, Bompass and Parr jelly, candied orange, iris jellies and ambergris posset. Ambergris being whale regurgitations that tasted very much like condensed milk… usually found in perfume so I’ve read, and also an aphrodisiac.

More photographs on my flickr.

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…Tim, the editor, told me the Faller figurines were going to be 9mm high. I thought to myself that my macro lens was only 60mm and not really fast enough at f2.8. Thank god for high ISO. The brief allowed creative freedom, I was to take my little people to a nice restaurant somewhere in town and photograph them doing something to it, on it, whatever. It was partly a parody on the whole food blogging phenomenon of taking photographs inside restaurants, what with dramatic bokeh-heavy shots, a technique most prevalent to the point of abuse amongst digital photographers. Though it was also to highlight the surging quality of digital cameras, and the ease of creating publishable shots on the fly. Working with natural lighting is now very much a reality.

…look at the bokeh…

So I went to 32 Great Queen Street and the idea was to shoot a group of ramblers trekking up a hill of exquisite brown crabs on toast. It was a challenge trying to draw the inner selves of the faller figurines, I tell you. They were so plastic you know, stoic, they gave nothing away. They were German afterall.

Fire and Knives a quarterly food magazine, allows food writers to indulge in their articulation, it’s sexy, it’s alternative, it’s beautifully illustrated and it received two thumbs from magCulture. Just go out and get issue three. Page 39.

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All text and photography on this blogpost is copyright and belongs to Kang Leong, LondonEater.com. If you repost this without my permission, bad things will happen. So please don’t do it.

Long before supperclubs started popping up all over the capital, a certain door 83 had already been inviting strangers round for Sunday dinners, and the door has remained open for nearly three decades. Jim Haynes, 77 was born in Louisiana, relocated to Edinburgh where he opened a theatre, after which he moved south and swang it like the rest of us in London. For the last quarter of a century, he has been a Professor of Media Studies and Sexual Politics with the University of Paris, occasionally entertaining and elbow checking the odd guest at one of his Sunday dinners. To date, he estimates that roughly 130,000 people have joined his party over the years. You might have even seen him on TV recently in an after eight advert. One of the true pioneers in supperclub terms, I suppose he had long been part of social networking albeit the old fashion way rather than through the intertubes. Jim came to London for a one-night-only at one of the hottest tables in the supperclub circuit – Fernandez and Leluu and I was fortunate enough to get on the list to meet Jim, as well as Simon and Uyen – the brains behind F&L. I was really happy with it, met lots of people and perhaps ingested too much liquid courage. I have put together a photo essay to give you a flavour of the evening. Really hope you enjoy this one.

Events such as these give me the opportunity to practice and experiment. People are fairly comfortable around cameras during such events – even with my behemoth Nikon in their face – leaving me to be able to capture quite truthful circumstances, well relatively anyway. The interesting thing is of course, time and space to explore new techniques and processing methods – to do things I couldn’t do in food shoots or even by the restaurant table. In this set, I am trying to emulate the smooth tones and the delicate art of complimenting (rather than fighting) natural fill light with a single strobe. Mostly seen in Annie Leibovitz’s work and particularly her portraiture in the nineties with Kodak transparencies. I probably don’t quite have her imagination nor gift of drawing out the inner personality, then again, the setting is probably too far away from being intimate for people to drop their masks (or put on another one for that matter) en masse. But I try anyway, I like portraiture, it is something I aspire to do well in.

I have shunned the social limelight for a while now, nine months give or take, and I’m sure I’ve pissed off more than a few PR bods in the process, I pulled out of far too many. With events, it has always been about meeting people and more often than not, like-minded ones, in this case, food lovers and bloggers. I was so glad to see some faces I recognise Mark, Niamh, Euwen, Melanie, Rachelle, Emily, Kate and Billy. And then to finally to meet some of the cool creators behind some of the coolest London based blogs : Sian, Su-lin, Aaron, Tom & Jen, Denise and Luiz. At the risk of sounding like hero worship (oh hell it is), it was also a pleasure to have finally met Douglas (in real life) – I have always been an admirer and loyal subscriber of his work. At last after all these years.

And so it begins.

Warming up.

Introducing Jim.

Bubbles and conversations, Ian and Mark.

Pausing, with Aaron and Sulin.

Sharing a laugh ….this is my favourite capture of the night.

Luiz.

Billy. We caressed beef joints in a hot kitchen once. It was the best bloody piece of bovinity that had ever left a kitchen. Hah. Good times.

Got to respect the house. In the distance is what appears to be a slide viewer. Very cool. I also spotted a Canon AE-1 lying on the table somewhere. Cool too.

Douglas.

Liquid courage – You know, I forgot to get the name of our hard working cocktail conjurer. He made us all very happy.

Kate.

Spaces, Alex.

This is what happens when a camera shoots people, especially Euwen.

More spaces, from above.

All Qyped out. Sian, Rachelle and Emily.

Ahem. Intermission time. Simon breaks up the ice-breaking to bring out the food. Split-toned an accidental blur.

Ok, now for the money shots. Food was prepared by F&L, starters included spring rolls, summer rolls, prawn cocktail and a carrot & coriander salad.

And here is another angle. The dressing which came with the prawn cocktail was sublime, it was a garlic & white wine, with smoked salmon mayo. I’ll save myself from critiquing but on evidence, I can see why F&L have thus far been so well received.

And here are the mains : Fillet of Beef Carpaccio, mash in case with garlic glaze, shrooms in white wine and butter, lambs lettuce and garlic bread. Yummy as well, I wish I had more – beef was bloody, just the way I like it. I am definitely intrigued with a proper dinner, we’ll save that for another day I suppose.

After the food, the conversations resume (well they never stopped I suppose). Melanie, Denise, Niamh and Douglas.

Mark and Melanie. Mark is probably in half of all my people pictures. If he writes an autobiography someday…

Spaces – laughs, Denise.

Time for the gear to take a break.

And why is he eating alone?

Jen, Tom and Siany.

Jim with Aaron.

Jim with Simon….

…and Uyen.

Jim is ultimately quotable, and good vibes reverberate through him. I sat down with him and naively asked him if he was having a good time, to which he replied “Everyday. Otherwise, what’s the point.” Then we elbow bumped. This is reserved for the dudes, Jim only kisses the girls. In closing, Jim imparted some of his warm wisdom, and as for the reason he started his Sunday dinners:

“Thirty something years ago… wasn’t some insight or moment of incredible revelation. But I had a house guest, and her hobby was cooking… and she wanted to repay by cooking for me and my friends. So twenty came…” … and I guess the rest is history. You can watch the videos of his speech Part one and Part two, courtesy of Mark.

And some things he said which I remembered:

“After eight is abit snooty and poshy. But little did I know what I was getting into”

“It’s a long story. I got invited to be a professor…. they asked me what I want to teach and I said media studies and sexual politics.”

Pudding. Baked Croissants in White Chocolate, Whisky & Raisins with Summer Fruits.

Thanks to Jim, Sian, Simon, Uyen, Qype, After Eight and the lovely peeps whom I met on Tuesday night. It was fun, and we should do this again, and again.

And of course, thank you for being the ever patient reader, you’re the one I treasure the most, of course.

You can see the full set of photographs on my flickr account here.

PS: If you need me to take down any photos, let me know and I will do so.
PPS: Oh yes and let me know if you want to use any photos, I would feel honoured if you wanted to. All I ask is for a credit back and a link…thank you in advance.

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This is what food blogging looks like. Today, he is trying an experiment, by training his antiquated film camera on a plate of cheese and fruit all the while bobbing to tunes streamed from the internet to his touch sensitive media device that can also make calls, sometimes. Once he exhausts his roll of C41s, a 19th century design, he will digitise the developed negatives, ready then for digital publishing. Welcome to the 21st century. The freedom and availability of the world wide web has encouraged a whole generation to express themselves and it has given rise to the consummate amateur in a bid to announce his average punter’s opinion to the anyone who cares to listen to the broadcast. And boy, did he shout at the top of his lungs. With the advent of Web 2.0 architecture, it brought cheaper and sleeker tools to this very amateur publisher who sometimes thinks of himself as an independent voice, raging against the very system which had chewed him up for so long. The 21st century has also opened up the world of photography and decoupled the learning curve and the burden of developing costs to endow the end user with more image processing capabilities than ever before. Respect for good light is essentially a thing of the past now, as a sleuth of new cameras, equipped with highly capable digital sensors which can quite literally see in the dark. Now, everybody can be a photographer.

An Introduction

People often ask me what camera I use, often I will say that I shoot with a Nikon D700, but that does not really tell you much about my picture making abilities, because photography is much more than just a choice of camera. You’ve got to think about subject matter, framing, composition, quality of light, direction of light, post processing methods, lens choice, depth of field and so goes the list. All of these decisions impact one another when in pursuit of the perfect exposure. Even if you achieve personal perfection, it is a largely subjective state. A technically perfect image might not be an aesthetically pleasing picture, in which case, it just means it’s a bad photograph, or is it? Subject matter trumps technical quality. While it means that a superstar photog like say, Chase Jarvis will be able to grab startling results with his iPhone (good enough to publish as a photo book) it doesn’t mean that the iPhone is his camera of choice (various accounts suggest that he is also, very much a Nikon man). A camera is a tool which helps to get the job done. The better the tool, the easier and quicker the job can be done. But it is the photographer who makes the photograph, not the image making machine. Once you get your head around to that, you’ll realise that the best camera is actually the one you have on you right now.

Still, that’s the romantic way of looking at a craft, realistically, gear is just as important as skill when it comes to making photographs. If I had my way, I’d shoot with a Hassy 503CWD everyday. If I had my way. But the tension that photographers have with regards to gear/skill is a debate that rages on everyday. Would Dan Winters still be able to make his painterly portraits with a 35mm camera instead of his 8×10 setup? The best camera just simply isn’t good enough, if you have the thirst for achieving perfection in photographs, then it is only natural for your mind wonder about the latest technology floating about in the ether. Sometimes, I think of ‘upgrading’ as a way to buy into technical quality, but never asthetic quality.

And so I thought I would present a little guide to purchasing cameras, in case you ever wondered about the diverse range of products out there which a generation of bloggers might use to create their sumptuous photography. Whether you are a budding food blogger, or just someone wanting to learn abit more about cameras, this guide should prove to be a suitable introduction into the different types of formats available in most consumer driven economies. I’ll try to keep things fun too, let’s begin shall we.

Single Lens Reflex Cameras

Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras are by far the popular choice amongst food bloggers, if not professionals in general, not to mention the weekend Robert Frank wannabes. SLRs have a long history with photo enthusiasts throughout the ages, some of the world’s most well-known photographs have been made with classic SLRs of their time, namely the Nikon F. The way SLRs work are such that you see exactly what the lens sees. I know this seems like an intuitive and obvious design, but you would be surprised at the vast array of camera technologies out there which does not abide by this philosophy, some of which I will speak about later in this guide. In every SLR, lies a mirror box which deflects light from the lens into a glass penta-prism which then bounces the image the lens sees, to the viewfinder and then finally to your eye. From there, you are able to see what the final image looks like, then it is just a matter of framing and focusing before deciding to squeeze the shutter. When that happens, the mirror flips up to allow light to pass through to the shutter, which then opens to allow light to pass through to the film/sensor. When the photograph is exposed, the mirror flips down again. You can usually hear the ‘mirror-slap’ everytime you make an exposure… to some it’s music, to others (like myself) it’s equivalent to cow-fart, we gearheads prefer our cameras to be dead silent, so we can ‘blend-in’. Much of the bulk of an SLR camera is down to this inherent mirror-box/penta-prism design which takes up much of the space inside an SLR, see the large head on the camera? That’s where the penta-prism lives.

You will notice that I have not talked about digital SLRs yet because digital and film SLRs are essential the same design. The way you make the photograph is the same, it is simply that the recording medium, the film, has been interchanged with a digital sensor. SLR designs encompass a wide range of cameras designed to work with a wide range of film sizes, though let’s keep things simple and limit this part of the discussion to just the 35mm format. We’ll leave the larger formats to latter part of this guide. The 35mm format has a 3:2 ratio and it physically measures 36mm x 24mm. You’ll see why this dimension is important in a second.

Now, I assume you are mostly interested in digital rather than film, you want the beef on the latest digital stuff. There are several major brands out there including Pentax, Olympus and Sony who build great consumer SLRs, but most tend to fall in either the Nikon or Canon camp. Why you say? In the film days, the Nikon F was the professional’s choice primarily because of their sleuth of sharp and fast manual lenses. Nikon were also one of the first companies then to build very use-sable wide aperture, wide angle lenses such as the Nikkor 35mm f1.4 AIS for example – the photo-journalists choice. Eventually, Canon started building their EOS system and today their professional ‘L’ range of lenses have surpassed the Nikon cannon. It doesn’t stop me from buying Nikon though, more on lenses shortly.

In the digital world of SLRs, there are two terms you need to be familiar with : cropped sensors and full frame sensors. The latter is simple : a full frame sensor is equivalent in physical dimensions to a 35mm film negative. This is significant because it allows you to use the lenses as they were originally intended. The size of a film/sensor affects depth of field (how much in front/behind the focus point is in focus) and this is the key factor which compels users to buy into SLR systems : so that you can isolate subjects from the background, by blurring it out. Ironic don’t you think? The more money one spends, the blurrier the photo becomes… The larger the recording medium, the less the depth of field, the more accurate the focusing needs to be, to produce a good exposure. So in short, full frame cameras allow you to nail that striking look, with a higher degree of background blur using the equivalent lens/aperture compared to a cropped frame camera.

So what is the deal with cropped sensors then? Well, a cropped sensor basically means that it is smaller than a 35mm sensor/film. Usually about 1.5 times smaller, it is otherwise known as the APS-C format. The cropped sensor leads to a cropped field of view and changes the way your lens sees things. A 24mm lens is no longer 24mm on APS-C, it becomes a 36mm lens (1.5 x 24mm). The sensor only sees the centre cropped bit of the image projected by the lens and not the entire image which it is capable of projecting. While you lose out on perspective, what you gain is a cheaper camera. A full frame camera will set you back about at least £1800, very few companies make full frame SLRs, three to be exact : Sony, Nikon D700 and Canon. In the cropped sensor world, there is an abundance of choice and they start from as low as 300 quid. If you ask me, a Canon 400D will give you pictures equivalent to the 7D… 90% of the time. The only tangible differences are perhaps down to ruggedness in body construction, ie plastic body versus magnesium alloy.

Coming back to the mirror box conundrum again. The sheer size and noise an SLR camera makes is, in my opinion, it’s biggest problem. Sometimes, I feel like a pap on a dinner table. Try aiming a D3x attached with a 24-70 f.2.8 (plus hood) at someone, I guarantee that the first few seconds of facial expressions will be… interesting.

So here’s my recommendations if you want to buy an SLR system:

Budget You will hardly go wrong with the cheapest SLR choices from all the major manufacturers. There is currently no such thing as a ‘cheap’ full frame camera, so all budget choices are equipped with APS-C CMOS sensors. Sometimes you will find older bodies which utilise CCDs instead, such as the Nikon D40, go for it. The differences should be minor, but I personally prefer CCDs, they make cleaner, less plasticky pictures.

1. Nikon D3000 body only £339
2. Canon EOS 1000D body only £319
3. Sony Alpha A230 body only £329

Mid-range This is a contentious category, I debated as to whether I should include this because I feel that in the digital world, there is no such thing as mid-budget bodies. I have made photographs using a D40 (200quid) and D700 (1700quid) which are at times difficult to tell apart, and that’s comparing a cropped sensor versus a state of the art full frame one. Semi-pro bodies use ‘advanced’ cropped sensors, they build them with better viewfinders, and more rugged shutters as well as a much tougher body. But in terms of the picture making element, the sensor, the differences as I said are slight. Going from a cropped sensor to a full frame is another matter altogether because you gain benefits with regards to a change of perspective and so forth. But if it’s between a high end and low end cropped sensor body, I think it’s really a just matter of personal preference. Oh but they shoot video too…

1. Nikon D300s body only £1100
2. Sony Alpha A550 body only £700
3. Canon 7D body only £1250

Pro. Congratulations. You have money to spend, wow. The best digital 35mm full frame format SLRs money can buy as follows:

1. Nikon D3x 24 megapixels, body only. £4800
2. Canon EOS 5D Mk II 21.1 megapixels, body only. £1600
3. Sony A900 24.6 megapixels, body only. £1900

…. and I shoot with a Nikon D700, body only £1700. Take your pick, if you have 2k to splash, all cameras in this category are awesome. If you fail to make a good photograph, you can’t blame the machine.

You will have noticed that I have only recommended you buy a ‘body only‘ camera. What about the lens? Well first of all, forget about bundled zoom lenses – they suck. Don’t believe what the camera guy says, 18-55mm cheap zooms are just that cheap zooms. There is a reason why pro level £1200 24-70 f2.8 lenses exists, and also the reason why professionals use them. NOW, here’s where the real excitement begins…

The importance of LENSES

There is a rule of thumb when it comes to splurging on system cameras. Save as much as you can on the cheapest body but spend as much as your budget will allow on the lens. Think about it, the lens is the first bit of kit that comes in contact with light. It is also the only physical medium which light must travel through in order to reach the sensor/film. So therefore, the lens then represents the ultimate bottleneck in a picture making machine. Slap a poor lens on a sophisticated full frame camera and you will be depriving the benefits of that detail monster. You might as well buy a cheap cropped frame body. Hence the arguement, lenses : ultimate bottlenecks.

90% of my food photography is shot using just one focal length and one lens. The Nikkor 35mm f1.4 AIS, fully manual, 1960s design. Hard to believe? It’s true. None of my lenses are longer than 4 inches and long lens envy is a myth. Unless you are a sports photographer needing to nail a portrait shot of Becks from half a mile away, you will not need a 400mm. Traditionally, lenses were made in one focal length only. We call them prime lenses. Lenses which have the ability to change it’s own field of view are known as zooms. You can think of zoom lenses as a bunch of primes lenses in various focal lengths in one neat package. If zooms are so convenient, then why do primes still exist? Well prime lenses are much easier to design which means higher image quality that almost always trumps zooms (save for a few exceptions). And prime lenses have much larger apertures, much larger.

The lens aperture is denoted by it’s f number. The larger the aperture, the smaller the f number and the thinner the depth of field (when shooting at largeaperture/lowfnumber). This leads some photogs to use the expression ‘wide open’ when it comes to creating images with a shallow depth of field. Opening up the aperture, effectively allows you to blur the background out and isolate the subject from the background by keeping only the subject in focus. The quality of the blur is something photogs obsess over early in their hobby, the term which describes the unquantifiable quality of the blurry bits is called ‘Bokeh’. An example is the photograph above, just look at the bokeh (forgive the pun).

With the advent of cropped sensors, you will need to rethink your lens considerations as they will change the FOV of your lenses, reducing the effective FOV in most cases by the factor which I’ve used previously. Hence a 24mm becomes a 36mm and so forth. Let’s try to rationalise the numbers and see if we can categorise lens focal lenghts in 35mm format :

Wide Angle Lenses from 14mm to 35mm They have a wide field of view and they start from around 14mm which is equivalent to 114 degrees. Human vision is about 120 degrees. Normally, wide angles are used by photo-journalists who are close to the action and who want to capture as much information as possible. A 24mm is usually considered ‘wide’ and allows you to capture say the 3/4 of the subject matter standing 1m away from you, guesstimating anyway. A 35mm is ‘semi-wide’, if you shield off your temples with your hands, that’s roughly a 35mm, ok maybe a bit wider.

Lens suggestions
Full Frame : Nikkor 24mm f1.4G , Canon 24mm f1.4L , Nikkor 35mm f1.4 AIS, Zeiss ZF 35mm f2 Distagon T, Canon 35mm f1.4L, Sony 35mm f1.4G SAL-35F14G… and the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8G – stunner.
Cropped Frame … there’s no compelling primes to consider really.

Normal lenses 40mm- 60mm The ultimate normal lens is the classic 50mm. Some say it mimics human vision, and because it is so natural, others think it’s a weird focal length which is not wide enough, nor is it long enough. Either way, the 50mm is one of the least expensive routes into achieving striking bokeh isolating portraits.

Lens suggestions
Full Frame : Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AFD, Canon 50mm f1.2L, Zeiss ZF50mm f1.4 Planar
Cropped Frame: Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, Canon 35mm f2.0

Macro Lenses Ah yes, herein lies the true strength of the SLR system : Macro photography. It is one of the few systems which allow 1:1 reproduction and can reveal microscopic worlds. Macro lenses are specially designed for close-up photography, and particularly suited for food. They are extremely well corrected up-close and the closer you get, the more striking the portrait. So. The choices.

Nikkor 60mm f2.8ED , Nikkor 105 f2.8ED VR. -> The latter is superior.
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Makro Planar

Telephotos These long lenses are primarily used to shoot portraits, longer lenses tend to produce a compression effect which appears to make subjects look slimmer. Not always of course, but say 70% of the time, you’ll find that people look more ‘flattering’ when portraits are shot with telephotos. This is also the reason why wedding photogs lug around huge white lenses. That’s usually a 200 or a 300 f2.8L if I am not mistaken.

As I said before, I’m not a fan of telephotos, but if you are obsessed with bokeh, do yourself a favour and invest in either the Nikkor 85mm f1.4 AFD or AIS (the above photo is shot with this), Canon 85mm f1.2L, Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Planar. These are all awesome lenses.

The Rangefinder

Now that we are over the overly long discussion about SLR, lens designs and so forth, lets now move to the other camera systems on the market. Forgive me if I get abit melodramatic in this section, but to me, rangefinders inject magic into photography, these are not mere tools, these are the optical equivalent of wizard wands.

Rangefinders are archaic designs. Popular in the beginning days when 35mm was the then ‘compact camera format’, we’re talking 20′s, 30′s and 40′s folks. Now, only a handful of manufacturers make them, mostly for film only. If you ever shoot rangefinders, I guarantee you will fall in love with the freedom that 35mm brings to the picture making process. Rangefinder cameras are much, much smaller than SLRs mainly because they do not have mirror boxes or pentaprisms. This also means that the photographer does not see what the lens sees. Instead the photographer focuses the image through a ‘rangefinder/viewfinder’ which sits on top of the camera, decoupled from the lens. That is to say that the you would not see what the camera sees, instead the viewfinder is literally just a window through which the photographer sees the world. Bear with me as I try to explain this.

The viewfinder shows framelines for the different focal lengths of the different lenses you snap on. So in other words, you can see what’s coming in and out of the frame. This is useful since it allows the photographer to ‘see the world’ and then choose to cut away which ever detail as he sees fit. Now in the centre of the viewfinder is what is known as the rangefinder mask. This mask shows a split image. When you point the camera at the subject, you need to focus the lens until the two split images align. When they align, the subject is then in focus. That’s right, manual focus only. Rangefinders require a higher degree of commitment from the photographer, but the completely manual nature of the camera does mean that you think about every exposure more and nailing the shot is all the more rewarding. You’ll find that over time, your basic knowledge of photography basics improve with time. You’ll find yourself estimate the intensity of light and you’ll think in stops and handheld shutter speeds, you’ll also build up a mental focal scale as you become adept with estimating focus distance…is it a 1m or 1.3m and so on. You become a ‘better’ photographer. Overtime, you’ll become baffled with the automation of modern SLRs, adjusting aperture, shutter speed and focus manually would be second nature.

Zeiss, Cosina Voigtlander and Leica currently still make film based rangefinders. In history, there has only been three digital models ever made: The Epson RD-1 (out of production) , the Leica M8 (phasing out) and the Leica M9 (the world’s first and only full frame digital rangefinder on the market). When one speaks about rangefinders, usually one is referring to Leica cameras. These legendary cameras are hand made out from their Solms factory in Germany, and the German engineering is so revered and precise that Leica cameras are said to be able to outlive their first owners. There is great mystique attached to Leicas primarily because they have been the camera of choice for so many of the worlds greatest photographers in history, particularly street photographers. Henri Cartier Bresson, William Klein, Robert Capa, Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, all Leica men. The romantic idea of roaming the urban jungle with a compact camera and capturing the decisive moment revolves around the Leica. Handling one of these cameras is much like handling a jewel. The smooth shutter release button trips a discreet sound, a barely audible click, the result of the cloth shutter exposing the film – no cowfart of a mirror slap here. The film advance lever is silky smooth, nothing on the market compares, and the bright viewfinder is just breathtaking. Leicas are a joy to use, but more so than anything, Leica lenses are perhaps the most prized of all man-made optical jewels.

Leica lenses are said to produce creamy smooth bokeh, have excellent colour rendition and that they draw images so beautifully, some claim there is an indescribable ‘glow’, an x-factor if you like. This indescribable x-factor comes at a price. As an example, a Leica 35mm f2.0 summicron ASPH will set you back 2000 pounds. That’s Great British Pounds.

The two photos in this section was shot with the Leica M8 mounted with a 35mm f2 ASPH lens. Note the superiorly smooth bokeh, and then look at the overall aesthetic of the picture and then to the colour fidelity – it just produces sharp photos no? Part of the reason is also due to sensor design. Leicas use CCD sensors which do not have anti-aliasing (AA) filters in front of the sensors. The AA filter is a sort of ‘blur filter’ which is designed to minimise what is known as ‘moire’ patterns, artifacts associated with repeated lines and so forth. An AA filter is usually present in digital SLR sensors. The lack of one leads to clearer shots. Couple an AA-less sensor design with the super high-resolution Leica lenses and you have an impressive compact image making machine.

So what’s the catch? Well, for one, Leicas are horribly expenses. A Leica M8 (1.3cropped sensor) costs £2500, the Leica M9 (full frame sensor) costs £4850, and the lenses start at around £1200. Plus, the nearest focusing distance for all Leica lenses is 70cm. My 60mm f2.8 focuses down to 18cm. The picture above is about as close as I can get to the sushi with a 35mm lens. Yes there are macro modifiers which you can fit on to a Leica camera, but even then, it doesnt give you 1:1 reproduction, closer to 0.3x magnification, and the CCD sensors are bad at low light, really bad. I don’t use rangefinders to shoot food, they just cannot get me close enough. In spite of this though, I love shooting with the Leicas, the romantic idea of capturing the streets is too addictive to put down. After all, it is the way I have come to understand the medium : the art of document life today. With Leicas, its all heart, logic goes down the drain, along with your bank balance.

Point and shoots

Compact, sleek, desirable and practical. In the digital world, everybody has a point and shoot. Point and shoots are like rangefinders, without the rangefinder. In the place of an optical viewfinder, the shutter simply keeps itself open so light passes from the lens straight through to the digital sensor. That’s how you get live view on the back of the LCD screen. Remember we spoke about cropped sensors? Well, digital compact sensors are typicaly 4 to 6 times smaller than full frame sensors. The significant reduction in sensor size means a significant reduction in cost and size of the lens, overall camera size and at the expense of also overall image quality. It’s basically taking a 35mm negative and cutting out 80% of the picture. Think about all that information you throw away! The smaller sensors mean higher depth of field for equivalent focal lengths, so shooting at say f2.0 on a point and shoot will give you an equivalent depth of field of say f8 on full frame.

Technology is rapidly catching up these days, and manufacturers are able to pull out even the tiniest detail from the compact sensors. So much so that many foodbloggers have created very accomplished photographs using point and shoot cameras. If I were to invest in a point and shoot, it would have to be the Leica Dlux-4, Titan edition. It features a 1/1.6 sensor, which is about a 4.3 crop and it’s twin brother the Panasonic Lumix LX3 is basically the same camera but without the hefty Leica price tag. £399 vs £500. The other contender is the Canon G11 with a 1/1.7 sensor, a 4.5 crop and retails for around £400. The little brother the Canon S90 is slightly cheaper and smaller, utilises the same sensor, but the former is built more robustly, has a fold-out LCD and has a more versatile lens which focuses down to 1cm compared to the 5cm of the S90. But as I said, if I had to choose, I would get the Dlux4. Helen the World Foodie Guide uses it, and it gives fantastic results.

Large sensored Point and Shoots and EVILs

After about a decade of digital sensor technology, pros lugging around heavy and over expensive gear, fear of being heckled as a pap, photographers are now uniformly crying out for large sensor technology to be squeezed into more compact packages. The premise is simple really, why can’t we make point and shoot cameras with large sensors? Well, we can now. Olympus and Panasonic are at the forefront of the large sensor, compact body philosophy. With the advent of a new sensor format known as micro 4/3, or a sensor with a 2x crop factor, this allows manufacturers to make cameras which rival digital SLRs in image quality. Professionals are already jumping on the bandwagon. Enter the Olympus EP-1 and the EP-2. They fall under the new moniker of ‘EVIL’ cameras or ‘Electronic Viewfinder with Interchangeable Lens’, that are much smaller than SLRs and comparable in size to digital compacts. Think point and shoot, no optical viewfinder and interchangeable lens ala an SLR. The premise is to put even more ‘professional’ imaging power in hands of the hobbyist. My dad’s friend who has been a photo journalist for about 25 years has thus far avoided going digital, until he saw the Olympus. His very first digital camera. And he isn’t alone. Thom Hogan has taken his EP-1 on his photographic journeys. The other player to embrace the m4/3 EVIL bandwagon is Panasonic with their GF-1. Same deal as the Oly EP-1 really, and both cameras are at the forefront of this brand new revolution which is taking the digital photography world by storm. Very soon, the idea of paps lugging overly large cameras will be a thing of the past. Sony and Nikon are both hard and work with their interpretation of EVIL cameras, though their output probably wont be ready till early 2011. There is another player in this large sensor, small body game though : Leica.

photo credit:leica camera

Pictured above is the Leica X1. It is the first point and shoot to utilise a APS-C sensor (in fact, some say the same Sony sensor as used in the Nikon D300). It has a Leica 24mm f2.8 elmarit lens (equivalent to 36mm FOV) and it is hand-built in Germany to a classic finish same as the flagship Leica M rangefinders. Leica lens quality, focuses down to 25cm (for macros), the shutter is completely silent, is great in low light. If I had £1400, this would be my food-blogging camera of choice. Discreet, sleek, unobtrusive and most of all excellent digital image quality. What more could you ask for? £1400 perhaps. There are whispers that other manufacturers are going down this path, so the next few months will be interesting to say the least. About the only other alternative to the X1 is the Sigma DP1 and DP2, but their FOVEON sensors aren’t exactly true 12mp sensors, it’s more like a very high quality 4mp. The future of foodblogging? You decide.

Medium Format

photo credit:hassleblad

So now that we have exhausted all the compact camera choices, what else is there? Well, a whole other level, that’s what else. In the grand scheme of things, the 35mm format is tiny. Think about it, it stretches only about 36mm on its longest end – that will never give you real detail and true description. What you need is to capture light on a much bigger canvas. Enter Medium format. Negatives measure to 60mm by 60mm and their digital equivalents are made to similar dimensions. If you want real detail, as I said, the key in is a big sensor. A much bigger one. As far as I know, pros use digital MF, albeit in a controlled studio enviroment to shoot magazine spreads, be it food or fashion. And as far as I know, billboards are mostly shot with digital MF cameras. Hassleblad is the leader of the pack, though there are alternatives such as Mamiya. Personally, this is next level stuff for me, I’ve never touched a MF camera before, but if I do decide, then I want a Hassy 503 CW. It is a true system camera which can be interchanged with a film back or a digital back. It shoots square images. Now if only I had another £10,000 lying around…

Film vs Digital

Beyond medium format, there are large format cameras, we would be stepping back in time to talk about them really, and they slow the photographic process down significantly, and it’s all film based. Real photography. Art photographers mostly use large format film cameras to make their pictures. Andreas Gursky with his grand pictures, repeating patterns, macro social landscape photographs comes to mind, and my personal favourite are Dan Winter’s editorial portraits. Painterly, truly next next level stuff. As good as digital is, I don’t believe film will ever die, and I hope it never dies out because film still has a quality and a character which digital doesn’t quite yet seem to have managed. I feel that film stock produces colours and tone which are smoother, and just more natural. My film of the moment is Kodak Portra 400NC – for neutral colour. Perhaps we need to wait for the ghost in the machine to manisfest. Film is slower than digital, usually daylight balanced and fail in artificial light, much harder to master, but when you nail the exposure on film, it’s special. Ok then a little test, film vs digital. One is shot with a Nikon FM2 with a 50mm f1.4 lens with Fuji 160 film ; the other is shot with a Nikon D90 with a 16-85mm zoom lens set at 36mm. Which is which? Which is better? Does it really matter?

So there is it, a foodbloggers’ guide to cameras. Hopefully I will have piqued your interest in not just cameras, but also photography in general, subtle as it is, they are not the same thing. At the end of the day, having gone through several thousand pounds worth of camera and lenses, I feel that getting bogged down with camera choices did not instantly improve my photography. Everytime I changed systems, I learnt the strengths and weaknesses of the system and adapted to the camera to best draw out it’s potential. But the same problem always presented itself. Was the light good, how shall I compose the image? Is this a good subject to shoot? If so, will it make an enticing photograph? No camera has been able to to take away from the decision making process every time I make an exposure, and I wouldn’t want it to either. I make the photograph, not my camera.

About the Author Kang the photographer is in the business of occasionally creating mouth-watering images for his clients, mostly restaurants. His last commission involved lots of steaming pho and his next project involves shooting plates of fruit, health concious cou-cous and quinoa all to be bathed in a flood of sunshine. He loves food and cameras equally, and his growing photobook collection boasts a copy of “The Animals”. Visit his portfolio at kangphoto.com.

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On my extended absence from food writing, I have been beavering away at my latest online property and I’d like to formally introduce it to you guys now. It’s called Kang : Photographer at kangphoto.com. So what is kangphoto.com ? it’s my online portfolio, it’s a fullscreen website powered by wordpress, I’ve selected my best food shots over the years, in addition to restaurant shots, some street photography and of course, some of my black & white stuff too. Like all my work, it’s about as close and dear as it gets. I have poured my heart & soul into it, and I will continue to pour my all into my online projects.

Consider this a ‘soft launch’ of sorts, I’m still uploading new photos everyday, but enough is done that you can check it out now. I’ll of course appreciate any feedback to improve the site, and I do hope you’ll enjoy it.

Yup, I was there and it was brilliant. The first UK based food blogger connect conference saw 70 food lovin’ guests descend upon Levant restaurant right here in London, all of whom have a vested interest in the phenomenon that is food blogging. Most already have their own blogs, some were interested in starting up and many came from all over the world, some as far away as India, it truly transcended all kinds of boundaries and I was so glad I was there.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s all be witnesses.

28th November, 2009. This would be the first formal food blogging conference (of sorts) that I have attended, and boy was London on form – not only was it windy, it was wet and it was icy cold, Bri’ish weather innit. I got there early – 12pm – and it wasn’t until 1pm that people started flooding into the basement restaurant – Levant. I was really happy to see many faces in the community which I didn’t yet recognise. Not that I don’t enjoy hanging with the London crowd, but as a blogger, connecting with new faces has always been part of the agenda. The ice melted away swiftly, as we mingled and found common ground in food. From the outset, there was a good vibe.

We had a busy afternoon ahead of us and little time to spare. Bethany quickly gathered all the peeps when a sizeable crowd had arrived and kicked things off officially with a little speech about the afternoon. I don’t mean to turn into a sappy fool, but it was a little surreal, this blogging thing wasn’t just a solitary hobby anymore, here we were, like-minded individuals all passionate about the same thing and gathering to talk about it. Cameras and flashes everywhere, woo, historic. Right then, speech over – time to eat.

Let me introduce you to Chris – Beth’s husband – he was recording the entire event with his super swish video camera. I’m anxious to see what comes of it, I was sober throughout the entire event, but I just want to apply an advance disclaimer that there may be scenes of goofiness, and I may likely be involved.

Also the camera adds 20 pounds.

Ok guys, let’s now follow the camera and find out what went down at the first ever Food Blogger Connect.

People are only just starting to ooze into the buffet area, many are still chatting and connecting, here’s a shot of Mowie, one of the organisers mixing with the crowd. All of us had name tags, so it was ok for the boys to look below the neck when meeting someone new. Mark chose to position his nametag very south of his chest.

So here I am just joining the queue now for the buffet. In this shot, I was paying more attention to shooting the people than I was at food.

…And here’s one of the food, but nicely illuminated by the myriad of flash lights in the background. Also note the number of cameras around.

I didn’t get to talk to the chef about the spread of food, but I did catch him entertaining the crowd with his deep knowledge of Lebanese cuisine.

Naturally I was hovering where the sweets were. Dark chocolate and Baklava…

Bad boy Kang also took a sneak peek into the Goodie Bag holding area while everyone was busy filling their plates. While we’re on the topic, everybody got one and in it were an assortment of seeds by Linwoods, Unearthed pannatonne & olives, West Country Parkham mature cheddar cheese and a few boxes of Maldon salt & pepper.

And here she is, Bethany – one of the main thrusts behind FBC ’09 and here I’m just catching a shot of her running around. I’ve (virtually) known since my beginning days (that’s going back 1.5 years) but last Saturday was our first time meeting up, surreal.

Levant being in the basement meant colourful lights and a sort of darkly ambiance. Plush red silk (was it?) covered cushions everywhere, and here we just catch a shot of the bartender tending to his ladies. Among them, is Abi who runs the fantastic Rambling Restaurant, which I have put on my eat-list.

Now that everybody has found a table, the whole place was completely buzzing with chatter. I hovered around the girls (naturally), and they started pulling faces at me.

I did eventually get round to the food, and here is the obligatory shot in the dark. I really liked the breads and the hummus, but as I said earlier, it was all about the Baklava. I didn’t have much of an appetite for food though, I have to admit, my tummy was churning a little bit at the thought of my two speeches to follow after lunch. Gulp, I hope I don’t screw up.

Ahh – here we go a Kodak moment. Mint tea – warming and just a touch of sweet, just what I needed.

As we finish our meals, all of us shifted to the presentation area for the round of talks. There were four speakers for the afternoon, Jeanne & Jamie were to talk about finding your voice in blogging, Meeta was to talk about her food photography techniques, and I provided comic relief with a short presentation on how to take photos in darkness, before finishing off with a speech about social media. If you look at the top right of the picture, you can just about see Chris giving us the thumbs up!

Overall – I thought Meeta, Jamie & Jeanne really did a bang up job with their presentations. They chose to put together a content rich and comprehensive presentation of their subject material and I for one had picked up some great tips. For instance, I’ll be buying myself some white cards to bounce light off of my subjects when photographing, and I will dig abit deeper into my wardrobe to find the clothes to fit my blogging persona.

I leave you with this shot of Jeanne just starting the afternoon of talks with a description about the BloggerAid Cookbook – a cookbook put together by food bloggers from around the world and the funds of which will be donated to help the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

Oh just one more, shots of Lola’s Cupcakes, with some of the goodie bag items.

All in all – I was really happy to get involved with this, and it certainly was fun to be given the chance to talk about some of the things which occupy most of my free time. If you were there, I hope you really enjoyed the show we put on for you.

So what’s happening next? As I understand it, all the content from the afternoon will be slowly uploaded to the official FBC website in the coming weeks, and you’ll be able to download all the presentation material. Also there is also a plan in place to install some sort of forum/discussion facility on the official website, so I’ll keep you up to date as and when things go online.

It was nice meeting all the other fishes in this tank, and I never really knew there were so many out there who wanted to know abit about taking shots in the dark. Perhaps the major problem we had for the afternoon was that we were really pressed for time, and we ran out of it for questions and a forum – still not bad for the first time, and I’m sure all the feedback will be vital for the many FBCs to come in the near future. Here’s to another smashing one in 2010.

PS: More pictures of the event on my flickr page here. There’s a shot of Chris with the camera in there I really like, but chose not to use it in this one.

Links and Thanks:

Speakers : Jeanne, Jamie and Meeta
Organisers: Hilda, Mowie, Jamie and Bethany.

I met lots of foodbloggers, and have tried my best to put together a little list, but my memory ain’t what it’s suppose to be so where I have forgotten you, my sincerest apologies:

Davina, Michelle, Carla, Food Rambler, Jassy, Georgina, Deeba, Claire, Suyin, Kavey, Paul , The Daily Spud, Sarah , Sarah & Sarah, Greedy Diva, Sarka, Katrina , Ozoz, Kerrin and finally Mark and Catty.

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Links to other bloggers who have written up their FBC experience:

The Daily Spud
Cook Sister!
Get me cooking
The Sugar Bar
Maison Cupcake
Food For Think
Meals with Sarah
Kitchen Butterfly

Not everything gets publicised on the internet these days, especially the hyperlocal events, like this Taiwanese Food Festival which took place at Westminster Academy last weekend for example. I heard about it through my special Taiwanese counterpart. I love food fests, time for another photo essay me thinks.

Here’s what I think the premise is, this Taiwanese Food Festival rounds up the Taiwanese societies from various Universities around the country to celebrate Taiwan’s greatest gastro treasures, but first we need to exchange cash for foodie vouchers.

It is my first time at Westminister Academy, the festival took place on the uppermost floor. On my way up, I spotted the kitchen whipping up the food. That’s where the smell came from. Yummy, my tummy is growling now.

We got there early-ish – 11.30am – to beat the queue, there was a healthy crowd slowly building up. At the entrance, we were greeted by a dude wiping lyrical about Taiwan and their gastronomical gems. I stood there to listen for a few minutes, before my attention was completely diverted toward the food, of course.

True to fairground fashion, tables made for food stalls and each stall specialised in something different. I caught a rare moment when a food stall was unmanned and empty.

Before long, life would take over the stalls.

I loved being around so many people, the noise was reminiscent of the chorus within a food hall somewhere in Asia, instead of London. The atmosphere was building… and people were beginning to eat.

I don’t realise the gravity of the occasion. I’m not sure if the parents were assisting the kids or bit of both, everything smells absolutely amazing though.

I’ll try to cover the bases and the different variety of foods on sale (but not everything). The photographer in me was a little obsessed with grabbing the fleeting moments. These folks were bemused with the hunk of metal I was pointing at them, they were prepping minced pork rice, and beer.

And here, the boys were creating the atmosphere.

OK, time for me to eat. So, my mandarin is poor (at best), I can kind of read chinese (he says), I was in doubt, so I followed my nose to the most popular stall. There was a long queue waiting on this lovely lass, I fell in line.

This was what she was making – Gua Bao or Pocket Bun.

A puffy white fluff filled with slitheringly juicy braised pork cubes. I remember having this at a Night Market in Taipei, and this tasted really good.

Not everything was in English, so I ended up pointing to the stuff I wanted to eat. A little unsuccessful at times.

Crapola – they saw me.

Ah, here’s a stall selling a Taiwanese treasure: Beef noodle soup.

I managed to stay away from too much cake, but these looked so tempting. I love, love, love egg steamed cake. Looking back I probably should have tried a couple of slices of the layer cake as well.

High Noon and we are in the midst of the greatest crowd ever assembled. It was as if the entire Taiwanese community in Britain had descended upon Westminster Academy. Love it.

She is preparing glutinious rice, as a customer readies her coupons to pay…

…and here’s the finished product. Glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves (I think) and otherwise known as ‘Jung Zi’. They usually come with a variety of stuffings ranging from powdered nuts, egg, braised chicken and so goes the list. This particular version had pork and chestnuts. A little bland, but with that magic chilli sauce dip it came with, it was quite delightful.

(I wear a Seiko Kinetic Artura which stopped working over the weekend, not happy, I need to mail it back to Seiko, but I don’t know if I can trust Royal Mail for that.)

I cannot help but be cheerful with this image. It is so humanistic, the boys work the floor selling their food. I wish I could read chinese but I’m sure one of you can help with the translation.

Another Taiwanese treasure – Egg infused with tea (via osmosis (I’d imagine)).

The third floor has an outside area. T’was a little gloomy, but it didn’t affect the families huddled around the tables chatting away over their food. I think the kids like the cupcakes.

Outside, there was also a stall selling Taiwanese style salt and pepper chicken. I gobble them up within seconds.

About 2pm, the crowd begins to thin and there are some warming moments for me and my camera. Oh and the dude’s white t-shirt, it reads ‘#@%$, I’m afraid of the wife’.

Let’s get a few more laughs in, it is monday afterall (at the time of writing).

And even the little guy is enjoying himself.

And so I leave you with an image which shows that the festival continues to roll along even as I leave them. Between the five of us, we tried quite alot of food. We were all alittle amazed at the quality of the food. Authenticity aside, most things were delicious and I was surprised that the organisers didn’t advertise this to a wider audience because it was a cracking event, for two hours last weekend, I believed I was in a night market in taiwan. I’ll be there again next year (the real thing and this one).

Well, I hope you enjoyed this. Photo essays are one of my favourite things to post. As you can probably tell, I love places with lots of people, especially when they are celebrating food. I think that is probably food’s most charming quality: it’s ability to bring people together. It’s times like this that I’m glad to be involved with food.

You can see the entire flickr photo gallery here.

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In between my kitchen waltz (see Part I), I was alternating with the parallel of events at the front of house, and of course, the two are completely different worlds altogether. I had arrived early at 5.30 pm when most of the staff were only just starting up. I stood at the front door, nervously waiting to be greeted by the owner. I hear the clacking of heavy leather shoes coming down the stairs behind me, before the man extends his hand.

“I’m Walter, welcome to Gazette.”

My immediate impression of this place is that of a charming neighbourhood brasserie. In fact, the restaurant is based on the ground floor of a block of connected purpose built flats. At 5.30pm, there are a few patrons in the restaurant tucking away swifties. The co-owner of the venture is Walter Lecocq who greets many of the patrons inside. As I arrived, he sat down for a quick chat to briefly talk about the restaurant and his background…

….while my eyes were drawn toward the cheese trolley…

Here we see Walter in a quiet moment before the evening service begins. He is mainly responsible for front of house, while Chef Pascal takes care of the Kitchen. Both men have good looking CVs, Pascal had previous been involved with Le Meridien and worked with Michel Rostang (2 Michelin Man), and Walter had spent a few years within Gordon Ramsay and Richard Corrigans’ respective empires. I have a brief but pleasant chat with Walter, and before long I got to work with the camera.

Here’s the restaurant manager who works in tandem with Walter to keep service flowing along. The control tower, the phone keeps going off. The books were looking good that night – A Saturday – completely packed out, those phoning in were put on a waiting list, in case anyone drops out. Looks like its going to be a busy night.

Just like the Kitchen, the staff at front of house had found my camera to be a light hearted presence, smiles all round.

I like this shot. Notice the accordian on the ceiling, I shot about 12 frames until got one of the movement which the waiters perform when they are on duty.

As the day slowly turned to night, so the staff started gathering themselves, to get ready for the evening ahead. Here we are just joining them for their team briefing.

The softly spoken restaurant manager becomes a calm force in the group, giving an inspirational mini speech to basically remind staff that its all about making sure that the customer feels 110% comfortable. Being among the numbers, I felt drawn into the spirit of the team – just being around these chaps, you could feel that they were commited to their job and they really wanted to give it their all. I enjoyed this moment.

I’ve always been curious about when staff break bread. I know some places (in fact I’ve worked in some places) where they don’t eat until 9pm when things die down. I also used to clean the bar and was taught how to make cocktails at midnight. Anyway, at Gazette, front of house and kitchen staff came together for their meal right after their team briefing. I didn’t want to interrupt their time, but it was really nice to see such a strong team spirit. They joked, they laughed and they probably thought I was odd. I work in teams myself and I can only appreciate when the spirit runs high, the sum of the parts when a team is functioning at peak, can really lead to something special.

Now is probably a good time to start wandering around and admire the decor. Spread over two floors, the centerpiece is this long family dining room tucked into the corner, sort of a semi-private room of sorts, its very cosy.

Night time is here! Time to light the candles and let the bokeh magic out of the bag….

It was amazing how quickly the restaurant filled up. At 7pm it was still relatively quiet, but half an hour later, we’re packed to the brim. The house is now jumping.

Of course, we have to sneak a cameo from the kitchen. The hazy ambiance outside, a total contrast to the engine room churning out the food. I had observed close cooperation between the waiters and the chefs.

Food is starting to fly out of the kitchen now, and it parallels the events which took place during part I. At this point in time, the restaurant was getting so busy, I felt it was the right time for me to slowly back away.

Remember that massive chunk of steak from Part I? Well, here we rejoin Walter serving it up to a couple. I like the fact that he is concentrated in his carving, but more importantly he looks happy with the bustle.

Walter tells me that Pascal and himself wanted to build a restaurant that was closely connected to its neighbourhood. It’s patrons were the the people who lived in the area, and having a close relationship with his customers was something he valued. I admire that, I think of my local and I love it because I feel right at home at The Prince Regent, and with Gazette, it certainly had a warm buzzy feeling. Walter also said that the restaurant is like a mechanism, and this mechanism needs to get into its rhythm in order for it to work. Sometimes, this mechanism gets thrown out of whack, and it gets a little chaotic, but it adjusts and when it does, the mechanism gets back into the rhythm again. I was so glad to have watched part of that mechanism at work, when the rhythm was in full swing, it was marvellous.

And so I think it’s appropriate for me to leave you with a photograph of the face of Gazette, more than anything this series is to highlight the men and women behind what keeps an establishment churning. I declined to eat anything for this personal project because I didn’t want to miss a beat with the photographs, I wanted to fully capture the essence of the restaurant and I hope that this snap-shot has done just that. As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed this photo-essay as much as I’ve had the pleasure of preparing it, and hopefully there will many more kitchen adventures like this to come in the future.

(Read Part I here)

Restaurant reviewing continues on Monday..

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